Mountains, Moving and Teenage Birthday Twins

So there was something funny happening with my HR during the recovery period after Rathdrum. Initially my HR was elevated, as would be expected straight after a marathon, especially a hilly one like that. Then I started to notice something curious: my resting HR, read straight after getting up first thing in the morning, had returned to its normal levels (about 42, give or take a beat or 2) but my running HR remained elevated. It did improve a bit, but at a much slower rate. I can't remember this happening before. I'm not worried, just curious. It is improving and will eventually return to its pre-race level.

VDOT chart fro April

Also, as can be seen in the VDOT chart, I did recovery very quickly from the Spartan Way 100k at the start of April but it took (takes) significantly longer to recover from the Rathdrum marathon, despite that being lass then half the distance, and despite the initial dip in numbers having been MUCH greater after the 100k (the pre-100k race levels had been about60). I guess that happens when you run a race before being recovered from the previous one, the recovery needs suddenly shoot up exponentially. There's a very important lesson here, one that I learned the hard way 2 years ago. At least I hope I've learned it - that graph clearly shows that I'm still vulnerable to the same thing happening again.

I took it rather easy at the start of the week but have started cranking up the mileage a little bit the last few days. I'm going to introduce a bit of faster running as well again but will monitor the numbers closely. I know from past experience that I can handle high mileage without problems but speedwork is much harder to handle and I need to be extra careful, which is why I always stop it for a few weeks after a race (which also means I don't do much of it).

The weekend was particularly stressful with us moving again, first taking our stuff from Cherrywood and moving it to our new house in Bray, and then driving to Kerry and taking more stuff from there, though the other family members will still be here for another couple of months. Oh, and the twins had their 17th birthday.

Not quite as cute as they used to be 17 years ago, though the cat makes up for that

Just how old does that make me feel?

Anyway, I made best use of the Kerry mountains nearby by running across the Windy Gap not just once but twice, on both days. I did take it easy - but that's a rather relative thing when running up a mountain.

I have always found that mountain running doesn't require much subsequent recovery, assuming you're fit enough to start with so that the downhills don't trash your quads. That makes it well suited for runs when you're still recovering from a previous run but still want to do some work on the legs. Oh, and I do love the mere fact that I am able to run up a mountain. I kinda sounds cool.

24 Apr

9.55 miles, 1:16:18, 7:59 pace, HR 140

25 Apr

am: 6.82 miles, 55:02, 8:04 pace, HR 144, very hilly

pm: 7.1 miles, 54:20, 7:39 pace, HR 140

26 Apr

10.5 miles, 1:19:47, 7:35 pace, HR 142

27 Apr

10.15 miles, 1:23:24, 8:13 pace, HR 144, with a few faster miles in the middle

28 Apr

12.15 miles, 1:57:54, 9:42 pace, HR 136, Windy Gap x 2

29 Apr

12.15 miles, 1:58:54, 9:47 pace, HR 138, Windy Gap x 2