Doris And Ewen

Even though I'm running the risk of jinxing myself here, I have to say that February has been a great month. After months of rather limited progress the numbers are pointing upwards in a much steeper curve; my VDOT numbers went up by almost 3 points (I'd be world class by autumn if that kept going) and I'm generally feeling a lot better. While I had at least one family member feeling sick at any one time, my own immune system seems to have reached the stage where it can fight off those kind of infections without me even noticing.

"No more animals" I said. "No more stupid names" I said.
"Welcome Noodle" they said.

The evaluation on Wednesday wasn't great; how much of that was down to the wind and the slightly undulating road is open to question but I could tell straight away that the legs weren't quite right, so it definitely wasn't just down to external circumstances. On the plus side, and that's a big plus, this time there did not seem to be any soreness after that workout. I know the evaluation is a rather moderate workout (in fact, that's the very reason why I'm doing it weekly - I could not cope with strenuous workouts yet) but the previous 2 weeks I could definitely feel it in the legs subsequently. Not so this time, which I take as another great sign - my recovery is definitely improving.

On Saturday I ran the fastest "easy" run in a very long time. Thing is, I could have sworn I ran about 8-minute pace. Last Sunday I had run a bit fast but kind of knew that I was putting in a tad too much effort at times. Not so yesterday - this was a genuine easy effort all the way,

Ireland was visited by storm Doris on Thursday (the very reason why I had moved the evaluation to Wednesday), but that had mostly by-passed Kerry and what was visiting us was mostly gone already by the time I got up. It was a bit different on Sunday when storm Ewen made its way across the island, and this time I took the "gone old and soft" option and ran 9 miles on the treadmill instead. I think that was my longest treadmill run ever, though I can't be bothered to check back. And I managed to catch up on my downloaded episodes at the same time,

Anyway, the legs are definitely feeling good.

23 Feb

7 miles, 56:02, 8:00 pace, HR 147

24 Feb

8 miles, 1;03:46, 7:58 pace, HR 145

25 Feb

7 miles, 53:28, 7:38 pace, HR 151

26 Feb

9 miles, 1:12:30, 8:03 pace, HR 145

   treadmill

Too Much Too Soon?

I guess this is a post just for the sake of providing an update - I don't actually have an awful lot of things to say.

This is a graph of my VDOT values during the month of April. It's a very simple graph, taking into account pace and HR, ignoring things like weather conditions, course elevation or even distance covered, all of which do have an effect on HR but are ignored for the sake of simplicity.

The first 2 dots are before Turin (and actually quite low - when I'm in super top shape the numbers easily exceed 60), the drop off a cliff is obviously due to me running for 134 miles. As you can see, the graph then climbs up steadily, if not evenly, after literally being off the scale at first. I can expect further improvements all throughout May and beyond, plotting my gradual recovery from that effort. It also shows just how much there is still yo do. My VDOT at the moment is about 50. It will take some time and work to get back to 60!

The drop off after previous 24 hour races was never anywhere near as bad, btw. 49 or 50 was as bad as it ever got, up to now. I really must have pushed myself exceptionally hard in Turin. I'm not sure if that should be a reason to be proud or if it should start sounding some alarm bells.

I finally managed to run sub-8 pace on Wednesday and Thursday, though at the expense of a rather high HR. I did do a double take both times when I saw the HR numbers; on both occasions I had thought I had run at a rather easy effort, just running at the pace that came naturally without pushing it. Thing is, if it's just the watch reporting a high effort then I dismiss it, putting it down as one of those funny things that happen shortly after a major race. But on Friday my legs told me the same message, they were heavy and unwilling and every single step was a mini-struggle. Later that day in the office they were clearly tired and even hurting a bit - I need to be more careful. Even though I could have sworn I had been running easily every morning, I can now tell that things aren't quite so.

I guess most of all I need to be patient. Very patient.

28 Apr

8 miles, 1:04:04, 8:00 pace, HR 150

29 Apr

8 miles, 1:03:04, 7:53 pace, HR 150

30 Apr

8 miles, 1:03:33, 7:57 pace, HR 151

1 May

8 miles, 1:04:50, 8:06 pace, HR 147

Healing And Recovering

Andrew, me, Don and Liam after lap 1
Photo by Paul Kiely.

Jeez, I really am getting old confused. I was convinced today was Wednesday until about a minute ago when I accidentally checked my calendar and realised I was living in the past. I didn't know my senility was that advanced already - but then again, that's the nature of that beast.

By far the best news is that my legs are feeling really good. I was never sore at all after the 50k, walking down staircases didn't elicit any response at all, in fact it took me two days to even realise how well they had taken the load, simply because of the complete absence of any soreness.

I did feel a bit stiff on Sunday morning for my easy 5 mile recovery run, but by Monday I was already cruising along nicely, if still a little bit slow. The pace has increased a bit every day without any increase in effort, and yesterday I decided to increase the length of my morning runs from 5 to 8 miles simply because the legs felt so well that running so short did not seem justified.

On Wednesday the legs felt a bit heavy, very much as if I had done a workout the day before. This morning even that was gone and I felt just normal. I might have run a few minutes slower than expected on Saturday but I think from a training point of view I got it spot on. Now if I can do the same again in the Tralee marathon I'll give myself a good pat on the shoulder.

Half a second earlier I had been well airborne
doing an Eamonn across the finish line. Honestly!
Photo by Sportsmassage Ireland

There is still some discomfort coming from the right hip, but it's no worse when running than during the normal working day. In fact, the only time it could be called slightly painful is when getting up after sitting down for an hour or two. I could feel the hip at times during the 50k on Saturday but it never bothered me and it never got any worse. But I decided to take some remedial action - my usual response to a niggle is to throw out my older pair of shoes. And indeed, my Kinvaras had almost 1000 miles on them, so were due for a one-way ticket to the bin anyway. I compared the wear of the old pair to a brand new pair of the same kind (bought cheaply together in bulk a few months ago) and could see that while the wear on the heel wasn't too bad, the bumps beneath the balls of the feet had been completely worn away, a difference of several millimetres. Since changing shoes always seems to magically heal any issues I have I am highly optimistic for the same again; no need for a physio.

The HR has come down remarkably since Saturday; my VDOT values seem to have jumped from 55 to 60. I have seen it all before numerous times, it's no reason to get too excited. I'm still in recovery, after all I did run an ultra distance race 5 days ago. Any chances of doing well in Ballycotton are, well, remote, and the slower I run Tralee the better. I want to do well in Connemara, but the big goal is still 5 months away.

17 Feb

5 miles, 40:08, 8:02 pace, HR 132

18 Feb

5 miles, 39:59, 8:00 pace, HR 136

19 Feb

8 miles, 1:02:32, 7:48 pace, HR 136

20 Feb

8 miles, 1:01:28, 7:41 pace, HR 137