Niggles

I'm not sure if it’s time to get worried about my shin/foot problem or if I should just ignore it. For a while I thought it might be shin splint which I haven’t had in 6 years, but I think the sore area is too close to the foot for that to be the case. The affected area is right at the front of my shin, about 1 - 2 inches above ankle height. Yesterday, Tuesday, it was really sore but today I'm already feeling better. The plan right now is to take it easy tomorrow and Friday, which was always the idea because of Saturday’s half marathon, get through that race in one piece and then pick up the pieces.

It’s funny, in 4 weeks I’m going to pace the 3:30 group in Dublin. That’s my fourth time as a pacer and I had some fairly serious trouble before each and every one of them. Then again, I got through all of the previous attempts perfectly fine and expect the same outcome again. I know Niamh wouldn’t be too happy if I had to bail out on Dublin. That stay in a 5-star hotel before the race was one of the main reasons why she thinks having a runner in the house is a good thing.

It’s rather telling that the one run I did not feel any pain was on Sunday on the trail. I did notice some discomfort on the 2 miles back home, running on road. There are two problems with trails though. One, I need to run a couple of miles each way on the road to get to them, which makes them a rather pointless option for anything but the long run. Two, I cannot run on those trails in the dark; it would not be safe, especially on my own. I can still get onto the trail over the weekend on occasions, but realistically the majority of my miles will always be on the road.

Hurting shin or not, I took it reasonably easy on Monday and Tuesday. I can still tune out completely, which means the problem can’t be THAT bad (at least that’s my theory). I added two faster segments to today’s run. The original idea was to run 4 miles at close to half-marathon effort, but then switched that to 1 + 2 miles at tempo effort with an easy mile in the middle. I just wanted to get a feel for the pace without tiring myself out. Just like last Wednesday, the 20mph wind had an impact, though it didn’t feel as strong as last week (the weather site says otherwise, though. Maybe Caragh Lake is more sheltered than the road to Killorglin). I averaged 6:33 pace into the wind and 6:24 with the wind, which has me reasonably hopeful that I can go under 6:30 on Saturday, maybe even on a tough course like Valentia which starts with a murderous 3 mile climb. I guess I’ll find out.

26 Sep

8 miles, 1:02:49, 7:51 pace, HR 142

27 Sep

10 miles, 1:17:54, 7:47 pace, HR 146

28 Sep

8 miles, 56:35, 7:041 pace, HR 156
   incl. 1 mile @ 6:33 (HR 164), 2 miles @ 6:24 (HR 166)

Back to School

Niamh is a relieved woman, the kids are back in school. Lola and Shea are in first class, Cian is in preschool. She might actually be able to get some rest in the mornings, which would be welcome at week 31 of pregnancy, I guess.

I neglected to update you on my shin splints (yeah I know, as if you really wanted the details). I’ve been icing them several times a day last week, and I noted a definite improvement. Then I got lazy/I forgot, and they got more noticeable again, so I started icing again, noticed some further improvement, got lazy again and paid the price again. In short, it’s been a bit up and down, but that’s down to me being sloppy. On the whole I’m definitely on top of the issue and it will affect neither my race on Sunday nor the marathon four weeks later.

I took it easy again on Monday after Sunday’s faster workout, but the legs felt pretty fresh anyway. I was fighting the temptation to pick up the pace for the entire 10 miles and was a good boy for about 8 of them. Then I spotted another runner about a minute ahead of me (I even timed that on my watch), and most of the resolve went out of the window. I didn’t quite speed up as much as I could have, but went below 8:00 pace, which is definitely not recovery pace for me. I went past him on the last climb before home, and after exchanging a short greeting he was behind me. Maybe one day, when I’ve grown up, I might be able to hold myself back sufficiently, but clearly not yet. The HR was a bit higher than it would have been without that little private race, but it was still pretty low.

The main reason why I wanted to take it so easy on Monday despite feeling rather fresh was the fact that I’m planning another double-header for Tuesday/Wednesday. The first part of that consists of 10 miles, with 3 miles as a warm-up and 7 at marathon pace. I’ve run nearly all of the previous runs of that kind on the flat Ard-na-Sidhe road, but today the legs opted for the hillier and more scenic Caragh Lake route. I was already half a mile down the road before I realised that I was going into that direction, and I wasn’t going to turn around by then. It meant a few hills on the way during the marathon segment, but since the marathon itself won’t be flat either I reasoned that it would be a better choice anyway. I gradually increased the pace during the first 3 miles, and then went into MP mode. I actually surprised myself this time, because all of the miles splits were basically within 5 seconds of the target. Accurate pacing was always a weak spot of mine, but I guess I’m slowly able to tune into that effort, which bodes well for the marathon. I’m not quite there yet, though; I still have to concentrate to keep 7:15 pace going. As soon as the mind starts wandering, the legs will slow down. I’m hoping there will be others around me in Loch Ness going at my pace. That has never been a concern before, but as I’m slowly moving up the field, the numbers around me are thinning out. Looking at last year’s result, there was only 1 runner at 3:09, 4 at 3:10 and 5 at 3:11. I guess that should be sufficient to keep some company, assuming of course that that’s indeed the pace I can hold for 26 miles.

3 Sep

10 miles, 1:24:07, 8:24 pace, avg. HR 134

4 Sep

10 miles, 1:14:53, 7:29 pace, avg. HR 151
last 7 in 50:33 (7:13 pace)