Finding A New Routine

I actually thought I was doing an easy week. It sure started very easy with 5 and 4.5 miles on Monday/Tuesday. After that it got a bit more complicated because with work being very busy the easiest option by far was to run either in or out of work, and that's exactly what I did, which means about 10 miles a day. However, I felt pretty good, so I think my body is finally able to handle that kind of mileage again, building itself up while doing it rather than breaking down.

Saturday has become the day of a (modest) workout, and I have been alternating hills and faster stuff recently and saw no real reason to change things. Back to hill running it was, in my case a few repeats up and down Bray Head. It has become my "Windy Gap" replacement after my move from Kerry. It's not quite the same but not a bad option.

Last time round I was pretty shattered after 4 repeats and the quads were sore for at least 2 days, so I was rather pleased to be able to do 5 and go home with at least one more in me if I had to, and the quads were perfectly fine the next day. The one thing I remember most, however, was another hill runner doing almost the same route on one of my repeats. On the uphill we were doing a very similar pace but boy things changed on the downhill! He went down the hill so fast, and on the steep, stony part he just seemed to float over the trail while I awkwardly picked my steps. Great technique, awesome to watch!

Anyway, the fact that my quads were fine on Sunday meant this time I didn't have to bin the long run and I went along the coast to Dun Laoghaire. The 10 mile point was about a quarter along the pier, and there I turned around and ran the same way back home. I swear the damn wind must have turned right at the same time because I seemed to run into a headwind in both directions! The outward leg had passed so quickly I could barely believe I was already in Dun Laoghaire but the return journey was a bit more challenging. However I was still in reasonable shape when I got home, so all good.

I'm keeping a reasonably close eyes on my numbers and they have been steadily going upwards, which is great to see. Let's hope it will continue, and if it doesn't I will rethink my approach.

I did one other thing this week, namely a group ride with another dozen cyclists from work on Tuesday evening. We will be doing a charity ride in September, in Kerry, which I am really looking forward to, but I need a few hours in the saddle to get used to being on the bike for a few hours at a time. I won't have any issues with fitness - during the ride my average HR was 98, which is barely higher than most people have from standing still. I don't think I will get much training benefit from it, but it's definitely a good bit of fun.

Total mileage this week was just under 70 miles, which I expect will be fairly typical for the next few weeks.

Running Camp

I was basically forced to take a week's holiday. Well, not exactly forced as such, but still having some leftover days from last year's allocation it was either take them now or lose them entirely, and as much as I like my job I don't think my present employer is in much need of unnecessary gifts, so home I stayed for a week.

Not someone to sit around on the couch all day (and daytime television is a particularly savage version of hell) I did a bit of running while I had the time. Ok, so I did plenty of running. I was basically an attempt to overreach for a bit and then pull back and let the gains sink in. The overreaching bit definitely worked, I was knackered around Wednesday, let's see if the taking it easy bit works - never a strength of mine.

The weather was really nice for the first few days. Well, at least the sun was shining, though it was accompanied by a surprisingly cold wind but it was enough for me to get a bit of a tan, which is obviously what's supposed to happen in your holidays, though it generally doesn't happen when you spend your entire time in Bray.

I did 82 miles this week, with a couple of long-ish runs (not quite 17 on Wednesday, 18 on Sunday), and felt like hell on Wednesday but surprisingly good on Sunday. The fact that I was down to 140.6 pounds after Wednesday's run gives you a clue why I suffered - it was over 5 pounds less than on the day before and afterwards. Running for over 2 hours in the sun can severely dehydrate you, by the looks of it. I know, what amazing wisdom!

I did attempt some sort of workout on Friday. Since a HR of 160 turned out to be too much last time I tried, I went to 150-155, while doing repeats in Bray's Peoples Park, alternating one loop (pretty much 1k) at pace and half a loop for recovery. I had modest expectations but it was even worse than I imagined - on the plus side this time I didn't fell like keeling over, but I was toast after 3 repeats, and the pace was barely faster than 7-minute miles. Jesus Christ, only a few years ago I ran entire marathons half a minute per mile faster than that! Admittedly it was after a fairly tough week, but still.

So basically my endurance as such seems to be coming back nicely but as soon as the legs are turning over a bit faster I start to fall apart very quickly. The one thing I don't want to do now is force the issue and whip myself into shape with a set of brutal workouts - that doesn't work, I've learned as much. I need to try and nudge myself along gently - like I said already, never exactly a strength of mine.

Upwards and Onwards

The past week was the one where I finally felt some real progress had been made. The legs might not have felt perfect but all of a sudden my pace is dropping, the HR is somewhat stable (not entirely) and I'm starting to wonder if there might actually be some life left in the old dog.

I did a couple of runs that felt as easy as the other ones but the pace was below 8-minute miles, and it's been quite some time that I have been able to write such a sentence. While an 8-minute mile is just as arbitrary as any other pace it feels like a bit of a threshold and it happened to be my easy run pace for many years. I do want to point out, though, that I never paced myself deliberately to run a certain pace - on my easy runs I just run the pace that comes naturally and an 8-minute mile was generally the outcome.

I'm sure the recent improvement in form is related to a bit of faster running I did recently, and it's quite amazing just how much effect just a little workout can have in that regard and how quickly it starts to work. All the same, I have to be careful - my history of overtraining is directly related to running too many fast miles, and they don't even have to be particularly fast. Just a bit too fast and things can crumble.

My one workout this week was a little bit different. Instead of running intervals or a tempo run I headed to Bray Head and ran up that little mountain. The original plan had been to go up and down two or three times but the lower third of that climb, the one inside the wood, was very muddy and I was slipping all over the place so on subsequent attempts I ran back down only to that point where the mud started before turning around, and I did that smaller section three times in addition to the full climb at the beginning. All in all it added up to a bit over 9 miles of running and 1650 feet / 500 meters of elevation change, and I got home feeling I had done just the right amount of work.

Well, looks like my quads disagreed and on Sunday morning they were distinctly sore. I had forgotten how tough a few steep downhill miles are on unaccustomed legs. As a result I postponed the long run I had planned for that day and just did a bog-standard 10 miler instead, which went surprisingly well, even on less than perfect legs.

I'm up to about 60 miles a week, give or take a little, which is a lot less than I used to do but my legs seem to be okay with that kind of mileage at the moment. I'm actually off work this week, staying at home, and the weather is gorgeous, so I guess I'll take advantage of that fact and do a bit more. I'll keep an eye on the recovery - or at least I'll try to, restraint has not exactly been my strong point in the past.

We Need To Talk About Kevin

A few days ago I realised that I was not signed up for any race at the moment. I don't know the last time that was the case, it might have been about 10 years ago! That doesn't stop me from running, of course, but it means I am not focused on anything right now. In all honesty, I think that's a good thing right now. Too often I have focused too much on the next event and over-exerted myself in training, and not only did it come back to bight me a few times, eventually it all proved too much and my body stopped cooperating properly, overtrained.

While the time off earlier this year was very frustrating, I can sense that it actually did me some good and allowed some things that were out of whack to get back into balance. The challenge is now to keep it that way, something I am not particularly good at but the lack of focus might help in that matter.

I ran a few more miles than the previous week, and the mileage got to about 100k, give or take a bit. That might sound an awful lot to the average runner but it just kinda crept up on me, without trying to hit a certain mileage. The legs are definitely starting to feel much better again, after Connemara, and things are definitely improving.

My easy pace is somewhere around 8:30 these days, which isn't fast by any means. I used to run a minute faster on my easy days. But that's fine. If the pace comes down with training then that's great, and if it doesn't then I will just keep running in my post-competitive stage.

At some point I will need to decide what I'm going to do next. I can definitely rule out a long ultra this year, I have already decided that. I guess I will run a race in the autumn, but which one remains to be seen. If they re-open entries for Dublin then I might try and sign up, otherwise I might look at one of the hillier options around here - there's plenty of those around.

And for next year? Who knows! Niamh keeps telling me at every possible opportunity that 24-hour races are off the agenda, but that may or may not be the case. As for my cheeky suggestion of a 48 hour race instead - I can't tell you her response, this is a family-friendly blog (well, sometimes). Maybe focusing on some shorter distances might have some merit, I know at least a couple of guys roughly my age who did very well in that, but shorter distances were never really my thing and I don't think I'll get the taste for it now.

Anyway, I did an attempt at a workout on Saturday but got the effort wrong, too high. I thought aiming for a HR of 160 was reasonable enough, after all that used to be my evaluation effort, but it was too hard and after 1.5 miles I had to pull the plugged, totally cooked already. The strong wind at Bray promenade sure didn't help but I guess I'll have to dial it down a bit. On the plus side I did a loop around Peoples Park in Bray, along the Dargle river, and liked what I saw. I don't know why it took me over a year to check it out but it might be a really good venue for those kind of workouts in future.

I also did the Cliff Walk (well, Run) again, and wouldn't you know it, taking it easy on the way to Greystones means the return leg will feel much more doable! Who'd have thunk it! I also broke a long standing habit of mine and actually has some bites to eat before heading out for my long run instead of running it in a fasted state. I wanted the final 2 miles, uphill, to be less of a suffer fest and lo and behold, it worked. Eating breakfast and waiting for close to two hours before running isn't practicable on most  days, and running in a fasted state does bring its own benefits, but in that case it was definitely the right choice.

Oh, and Niamh got to talk to her uncle Kevin on Saturday. He is in his eighties now but he still walks for half an hour every day, and does up to 25 km on the weekends. (!!!!) He looks at least 20 years younger. When I grow up, I want to be Uncle Kevin!