Sunday, March 31, 2013

And So It Starts Again

I have been there quite a few times by now, when you're back in training after a marathon everything is a bit out and it takes a while to get in sync again.

My calf healed amazingly quickly. After 10 days of rest had achieved nothing I expected to be sore for a bit longer but after only 2 days of easy running the discomfort was 95% gone, there was just a trace left on Thursday and by now I cannot feel a thing. That's always a relief of course, but I certainly did expect it to go away, but maybe not quite so quickly.

What's mostly out of whack right now is not my body but my mind (no smart comments, please. That's Niamh's job). My pacing gauge seems to be completely misaligned at the moment, I had plenty of moments in the last few days where I could have sworn that I was running relaxed and easy 7:30 pace and then a look at the Garmin gave me everything down to 6:45 pace instead. I kept slowing down dozens of times, basically each time after glancing at the watch, but today I finally tired of this and let the body dictate its own natural pace. It's definitely faster than what I would advice a runner in the same situation to run, but then again I reckon that running entirely on feel cannot be all that bad.

The weather has been reasonably okay, it was freezing cold but dry until yesterday, and now it's rather windy but so far I haven't had to run in the rain yet. Obviously that's going to change sooner rather than later but right now I'm happy enough with the conditions.

Connemara is only a week away and I try not to think too much about it. It's not a race but a training run and I can slow down as much as I need without sacrificing a time goal. Of course I haven't done a lot of miles since Tralee, but I have been doing this ultra running before and I think I'll be ok.

The Easter egg hunt was a great success, we were down in Valentia and had 4 content children of our won plus two happy nieces. The Easter bunny has done his job for another year.

28 Mar
8 miles, 59:48, 7:29 pace, HR 149
29 Mar
8 miles, 58:39, 7:20 pace, HR 156
30 Mar
5 miles, 36:35, 7:17 pace, HR 149
31 Mar
10 miles, 1:11:18, 7:08 pace, HR 157

3 comments:

  1. Lydiard always said to run on how you feel instead of forcing the body to a certain pace.

    Look forward to seeing what other training run events you have lined up.

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  2. Gee she's got a tough job! Agree with the running by feel recovery method - I'm sure you're not pushing too hard at all on those runs. Good news that the calf has come to its senses.

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  3. Pretty good fitness after a marathon! Make sure to take care.

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