Seven Squared

Not a great week, running-wise, I'm afraid. Whatever the problem was I had with my adductor, apparently, moved around slightly and now shows up as a very stiff hip on the right side. It's not hurting, not at all, but I can't stride out properly and whatever it is, it doesn't seem to be in a hurry to go away.

Every run starts with me hobbling one-sided down the road, which I'm sure isn't a great sight. It takes absolutely ages for the hip to loosen up, 5 miles usually, and then I can finally run properly. Like I said, there is no pain, but something is clearly not right. The biggest worry from my point of view is that it doesn't seem to be getting better - it feels exactly the same as it did at the beginning of the week.

So, true to my usual MO, I did my best to ignore the damn hip and kept on running. Since almost all of my running these days is either running from or to work, it doesn't leave much option as far as distance or route choice is concerned. They are all a bit hilly, and they are all 10 miles long. Maybe a short run would be better but then I'd have to get up almost an hour earlier to run before my commute, and that really doesn't appeal to me, so for the time being I'll hobble along, hoping for the thing to work itself out eventually.

Also, because I can't seem to generate a lot of power with my jammy hip I've slowed right down again. This, looked at in isolation, is not a bad thing, actually. I do have a tendency of running my easy runs just a tad faster than I probably should, so an enforced slowdown might actually be good for me.

Oh, and I'm yet another year older. Still not enough for a new age group, though.

21 Jan

10.25 miles, 1:24:38, 8:15 pace, HR 138

22 Jan

10.2 miles, 1:30:56, 8:54 pace, HR 139

2.12 miles, 17:37, 8:18 pace, HR 128

23 Jan

10.2 miles, 1:29:16, 8:45 pace, HR 139

24 Jan

10.25 miles, 1:26:56, 8:28 pace, HR 138

25 Jan

10.25 miles, 1:33:47, 9:08 pace, HR 138

26 Jan

7.22 miles, 59:34, 8:14 pace, HR 141

27 Jan

11 miles, 1:37:00, 8:49 pace, HR 137

It's Hip To Be Square

The week started off pretty well. The tired legs from Sunday seemed to have completely recovered overnight and I felt really good on Monday - though the extra long rest may have had something to do with it as I only ran in the evening, home from work. That left me with the usual dead legs on Tuesday morning, because a morning run straight after an evening run the day before is always tough.

However, worse was to come. On Wednesday I felt a pain in my left side. I wasn't quite sure where exactly it came from, somewhere around the groin area. It left me hobbling a bit first thing in the morning and also for the first mile or two into my run, though once I was warmed up and the muscles had loosened up I felt a lot better and continued my commute run into work (the only other option, namely taking the bus for the rest of the journey into work in my sweaty workout gear really did not appeal, and the other bus passengers would have liked it even less, I'm sure).

That issue pretty much defined the rest of the week. I know the general wisdom is to take a rest when you've got a pain but after almost 15 years of experience I very firmly believe that general wisdom is wrong and you're actually better off to keep running, as long as the pain doesn't get any worse, obviously. That worked for all my niggles over the years, with one exception in 2015 when I eventually required rest and a physio.

For the rest of the week all my runs followed the same pattern, a very slow first mile or two and then a "normal" run for the rest of it. Having said that, apart from the pain in my hip I am actually feeling good, as silly as that may sound. It even got so far that on Friday morning the legs felt perfectly fine, even though I had run the night before, which is pretty much a first. having said that, the HR/pace numbers don't entirely support that subjective feeling, the HR was rather high for such a slow run.

I tried to find less-hilly-than-usual routes over the weekend in an attempt to protect my problem area (which I know think is the adductor muscle), which in the end meant running a few loops, never my favourite kind of run. I don't mind loops at all during a race because then I have enough other things on my mind, but in training I find it absolutely mind-numbing).

Since I didn't want to overdo it, hobbling as I was, I decided to keep Sunday's long run reasonably short and first headed towards the promenade for a few flat miles and then towards Shanganagh Park for a few more. After 10-or-so miles I had a little dip in my energy levels but then I suddenly started to feel really good, a kind of runners' high that I don't usually get, and did an extra loop when originally I was supposed to head for home, and then another one, and then a third one, before reluctantly deciding that I had probably chanced my luck enough already and headed for home. It still wasn't a particularly long run, mind, just longer than I had anticipated.

The niggle is definitely getting better, even if I can't really tell the difference when running. How I know? Well, usually when I get dressed I balance on one leg to put on my socks, and on and Thursday and Friday I instinctively felt too unstable to even try that and had to sit down. By Saturday I could do that again without an issue, that's how I know. By the way, if you have to sit down to get dressed you might want to work on your balance and/or core strength (take that as a free bonus tip from me).

14 Jan

10.26 miles, 1:22:25, 8:01 pace, HR 142

15 Jan

10.2 miles, 1:28:00, 8:37 pace, HR 142

16 Jan

10.21 miles, 1:25:14, 8:20 pace, HR 144

17 Jan

10.26 miles, 1:21:57, 7:59 pace, HR 142

18 Jan

10.21 miles, 1:28:24, 8:39 pace, HR 142

19 Jan

10.4 miles, 1:25:34, 8:13 pace, HR 139

20 Jan

17.36 miles, 2:22:45, 8:13 pace, HR 142

Mixed Signals

The training has been ramping up recently and I’m seeing finally seeing some results, though it’s not all rosy skies.

It’s not that I had been too lazy to train properly in recent months, it was always a question of my recovery abilities being significantly compromised ever since the 24 hours race in June, and it basically took half a year to get over most of that hump.

So, the training had been fairly low-key, at least by my usual standards, and as a result the numbers I kept churning out were rather unimpressive and I wasn’t very happy about it.

In retrospect it’s fairly clear that I didn’t help myself by agreeing to run a number of 5k races with work colleagues when running at race effort was the last thing I should have done, and it definitely had a bad impact on me. I THINK that I’ve learned that lesson but that doesn’t mean I’m over doing stupid things – more of that later.

Anyway, last week I finally saw some numbers that looked much better and it looks like I’m finally making the kind of progress I have been waiting for for months. The heart rate is lower for the same effort. The pace is faster for the same effort. In fact, I finally posted an easy run at sub-8 minutes pace, which was kind of a watershed moment because that hasn’t happened for a very long time.

However, not everything is great. I started an evaluation workout on Friday, at lunchtime. I didn’t have much time so warm up was only just over a mile, and then I got into the effort. The evaluation has always been a rather moderate workout; you certainly feel the effort but it’s never too hard and I never had any problems finishing it. This time, however, after 2.5 miles, I pulled the plug. I felt like toast and running further would have meant my form was completely falling apart and the pace/effort ratio was tanking, so pulling the plug was definitely the right call.

That’s a bit worrying, because I really should not have a problem finishing an evaluation. It clearly shows that my recovery is still not back to normal and I have to be really, really careful. That lesson was reinforced on Sunday. I really thought I was being sensible and cut the long run back from last week’s 20 miles to maybe 16 or 18, but it was over a hilly section over to Greystones and back via the Cliff Walk trail, but by the time I started on the Cliff Walk I was already pretty much toast and just tried to survive the homewards journey. I opted for the short way home but the last few miles particularly were really tough, uphill and against a fairly strong headwind and I was struggling to keep going.

I was utterly baffled when I uploaded said run into Strava and saw an entire string of new segment PRs. I’ve only run that course about 4 or 5 times, and never when even remotely on form, so my segment times are very soft but still, I was really tired and trying to take it easy and just survive, so apart from Strava messing up the data I’m not sure how to explain that.

As for the stupid stuff mentioned earlier? Months ago I signed up for the annual pilgrimage to Donadea for the 50k in February . I'm still planning to run that, though I have promised myself to take it really easy, and run at least 20 15 minutes slower than my previous slowest time, in order to keep the recovery requirements to a minimum. It will require a serious amount of willpower to keep the ego in check and I have a tendency of losing it whenever I pin a number onto my chest, but for once I really need to be sensible (as sensible as you can be while running a 50k, that is).

7 Jan

10.25 miles, 1:22:37, 8:03 pace, HR 139

8 Jan

10.18 miles, 1:27:25, 8:35 pace, HR 139

9 Jan

10.26 miles, 1:25:50, 8:21 pace, HR 139

10 Jan

10.26 miles, 1:25:14, 8:18 pace, HR 141

11 Jan

4.96 miles, 36:53, 7:26 pace, HR 151

   2.5 miles @ 6:49, HR 161

12 Jan

7.24 miles, 57:43, 7:58 pace, HR 143

13 Jan

14.54 miles, 2:03:26, 8:29 pace, HR 148

Happy New Year

Can you believe it, the first week of 2019 is already behind us. At that  rate it will be 2020 if you blink - then again, that's probably more a reflection of my own increasingly advanced age, time didn't pass as quickly when I was younger.

Anyway, I had a decent enough week. Tuesday was the first day for many months when the pace was close to 8-minute miles on an easy run, which was nice to see, even if it still wasn't quite there yet - it probably would have been on a flatter course.

Then the watch crapped out on me on Wednesday when it refused to turn the GPS on, claiming "only" 23% of battery power, which would easily have been enough for the run, but it just would not cooperate. Maybe it's time for a new one - the charging cable is rather worn by now, after over 4 years of constant use, and I'd definitely prefer one that connects wirelessly. I'll think about it some more, unless I see a really good deal in the sales. One of my show-stopper requirements is a battery time of close to 24 hours, which immediately rules out the vast majority of watches, though.

Anyway, I also had one bad run, which wasn't a complete surprise as I tend to feel tired if I run in the morning following an evening run. 12 hours is just not enough for the legs to recover fully at the present rate, and that's what happens when I run home from work one evening and back into work the next morning.

My long run on Sunday went pretty well for most of it, until the long final climb home started, which is the last 2 miles. Until then the legs had worked very well over the hilly course via Kilternan, but then I seemed to hit a limit and the last 2 miles were a bit of a slog. Never mind, all in all still a very good week, and I can finally see some progress being made.

31 Dec

6.72 miles, 56:12, 8:21 pace, HR 143

1 Jan

10 miles, 1:20:59, 8:04 pace, HR 145

2 Jan

10.2 miles, 1:24:00, 8:14 pace, no watch

3 Jan

10.25 miles, 1:24:33, 8:14 pace, HR 141

4 Jan

10.25 miles, 1:29:54, 8:46 pace, HR 143

5 Jan

6.72 miles, 55:22, 8:14 pace, HR 142

6 Jan

20 miles, 2:47:59, 8:23 pace, HR 141