Monday, July 23, 2012

The Long Road To Recovery

Silly me. I should have know better. When the weather finally turned on Friday and we had two beautiful sunny days, I really thought that was it and we were going to have a summer for the first time in three years. Ok, so I'm an idiot, but I had plenty of time to contemplate that during today's 5 miles of rain.

Bangor is still only 16 days is the past, but as someone just pointed out to me, within 3 weeks I will be tapering for Dingle; I guess I'll stand on that particular startline without any real training done, working on a mixture of optimism and stupidity, a traditional and proven formula for success in ultra running.

For the first time since Bangor I did more than 5 miles on Saturday during our group run. Thanks to the relaxed pace that was fine. I felt good all the way through, which is why I found the confidence to return to my usual Caragh lake route on Sunday. I still restrained myself to 8 miles. For some reason I cannot quite explain, my knee was fine but my ankles and Achilles were really stiff, on both legs. I could not flex my feet much in either direction. I presume it is somehow connected to the long miles in Bangor, but have no idea on what is really going on. I therefore did only 5 miles this morning and everything feels better again. In short, I take each day as it comes, try to react to what my body is telling me and just take it easy. I'd love to do a few miles on the Kerry Way, but at the moment I'm a bit nervous about all the climbing and descending that would entail.

I must have inspired at least some people in Bangor, because on Saturday there was a (very low key) 5k and 10k in Cromane, right next door, and wouldn't you believe it, Niamh and the twins all decided to do it. They even decided to do the 10k. In a complete reversal of the usual protocol, I was minding the younger kids while Niamh went round the course. The twins especially were very proud of themselves. Before you send any hate mails about pressuring my children, I do need to point out that it was entirely their own idea and that they ended up walking rather than running for most of it.

As for me, I don't think I'll be doing any races any time soon. The legs are still fairly stiff. My easy pace has been coming down gradually but is still on the wrong side of 8-minute-miles and I expect it to remain there for a while longer. Patience, Thomas, patience. If I followed the rule of one day of recovery for each mile raced, I'd be back in business by November 10th. I think I'll cut that short a bit.
21 Jul
9 miles, 1:15:15, 8:21 pace, HR 141
22 Jul
8 miles, 1:04:45, 8:05 pace, HR 142
23 Jul
5 miles, 40:24, 8:04 pace, HR 143

4 comments:

  1. It seems your recovery is going well even though it will take time. After a run like you had it is amazing that you are already running like you are. Great to see the family running! I always try my best to encourage and motivate mine.

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  2. Well done Thomas! I'm not sure if I congratulated you already or not. It doesn't matter anyway. It was such an amazing victory, it deserves lots of congratulations! Well done! I love to read of the family out running ... funny how we can influence people unintentionally. Best of luck with the recovery. It sounds a bit painful.

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  3. Take it easy as you are doing Thomas and it'll all come back soon enough. November is it? Nice to see the family at it too.

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  4. Haha, don't worry about it too much. I did the trailtrekker 100km last year and it took the guts of a month to get back into it. Then I was setting new PB's!

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