Sunday, January 26, 2014

Mileage

The legs felt distinctly heavy during the first mile of Thursday's run, a sign that the fartlek workout had left its mark. However they loosened up quickly and once I was warmed up I just ran on autopilot without issues. During these runs I never check the Garmin or worry about pace or HR, I just run at whatever effort comes naturally.

Friday was another easy run but with a couple of extra miles. I'm still trying to gauge if these additional miles are beneficial or not. Right now I'm still adapting to the slightly higher mileage and the legs do feel a bit tired. If that keeps on being the case I'll dial it down again, if they can take the extra miles then great.

The wind was quite brutal on Saturday, which is why I decided to change my usual schedule from 8 slightly faster miles on the (exposed) Killorglin road to 3 x 2 mile cruise repeats. To get a bit of shelter I ran on the Ard-na-Sidhe road, but while it may be a bit out of the wind, the road surface is just shocking with one pothole after the other, though so far I've always managed to avoid going over my ankle. The repeats themselves went surprisingly well; I lost concentration during the first one and put the boosters on during the last half mile to make up for it but the other two were fine. I was pleased that I got a little bit faster on each repeat, even if it was at a higher heart rate, though the effort was the same every time.

I would have liked to join the club run on Sunday, but that did not start until 10:30 and the weather forecast made me change my mind. I preferred to run earlier to ensure I'd be back home by the time the storm front struck. Once again the legs were very heavy early on and I just cruised along at a comfortable pace. The wind was rather fierce on the hills, though I have run in worse. By the time I reached halfway I felt a lot better and subsequently ran the second half about a minute per mile faster than the first one, though the fact that the wind was now on my back clearly had some impact on that as well, of course.

That left me with 84 miles for the week. Going on past experience that is pretty much the maximum I can do in single runs; if I wanted to boost my mileage further I would have to run twice a day on occasions, otherwise I can't recover from it. However, family life usually stops me from doing so – Niamh is extremely supportive of my running but I'd rather not test her patience by disappearing most evening, leaving her alone with 4 unruly children. For the time being, and for the foreseeable future, mileage in the mid-80 is all I can do unless I get a brain wave.

23 Jan
10 miles, 1:18:47, 7:52 pace, HR 139
24 Jan
12 miles, 1:35:12, 7:56 pace, HR 136
25 Jan
10 miles, 1:11:27, 7:07 pace, HR 154
   incl. 3 x 2 miles @ 6:35 (158), 6:29 (165), 6:27 (166)
26 Jan
20 miles, 2:38:21, 7:55 pace, HR 146

4 comments:

  1. what time do you reckon you'll decide to run in donadea?

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    1. Not sure. Last time I ran the first half in 2 hrs and the second one in 1:50; I might do something similar again.

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  2. That's good mileage in singles. My friend does 3 or 4 double for 90-100 miles a week. She runs well off that though, so it'd be hard to talk her into doing less.

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  3. You are topping out at double my current mileage, pretty impressive for just running singles.

    Is there anyway you could tie in a run to work/run back? Or a run at lunchtime?

    The other way might be to run walk your daily runs so you get more recovery time within the session itself. It would mean being out for longer though. Having to get up earlier would be the biggest problem, as it's the sleep that is doing all the repair work on your body.

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