47!

Once again I got reminded that I am getting dangerously close to being an old man, though the way I prefer to see it is that I celebrated my 25th birthday for the 23rd time. As Niamh keeps pointing out, that would still be way ahead of my mental age anyway,

That's a much better picture than one of me another year older

Old age didn't come as much of a shock, after all I had a year to prepare for it, What did shock me was the weighing scales the following day. Yes, I had 2 birthday cakes, one in the office (thanks Jacqo!) and one at home (thanks Niamh!) and I tucked in heartily at dinner at the restaurant, but come on, 5 extra pounds? It took me all of January to shed 2 pounds (I'm not dieting, they just happened to come off) and that may have been the heaviest since I started running many, many years ago. Thankfully most if it was already gone another day later. Phew!

The numbers are trending up again, following the usual pattern of plenty of ups and downs but gradually pointing upwards. The weather has been character building at times, though I have run through much worse and this winter has been one of the more benign ones.

I think I'm in a pretty good place right now. Obviously I'm not in race shape, having not run more than 8 miles in months, but I can feel things getting better and better. The best training often happens at times when it doesn't even feel like training.

27 Jan

7 miles, 55:20, 7:54, HR 151

28 Jan

7 miles, 55:51, 7:59, HR 147

29 Jan

8 miles, 1:02:42, 7:49, HR 151

Don't Panic

Niamh and Shea have recovered from their respective bouts of flu, feeling fully recovered by now. I guess I have indeed managed to dodge that bullet, which can only be a good thing.

On the other hand, I obviously jinxed myself in my last post when stating that the figures had improved because as soon as I had typed it they had started to tank again. Typical. I do have an alternative explanation for the raised HR on most runs (I kept think of an incident that made me angry on Tuesday, it was windy on Wednesday, it was very windy on Thursday) but, well, yes that's just a bunch of excuses.

I started introducing the occasional 8-mile run, so it's possible that the added load has something to do with it, though I'm inclined to dismiss that explanation as the additional distance is so small and I don't feel any different after one single extra mile. Anyway, I'll keep an eye on it. Today's numbers were a bit better again despite running through a yellow weather warning, so it may well have been just a temporary blip.

The weather had one side effect, namely that it knocked out our power. My habit of waking up early before the alarm clock goes off came in handy as my radio alarm wouldn't have been much use today. Getting ready with the help of a headlamp was a new experience as well. They took their time restoring power as well - it took until 4 o;clock in the evening!

I keep getting sporadic updates from my team mates about their preparations for the World Championships. They seem to fall into two very distinctive categories - either they're doing tons of miles and all is going well or they've been doing next to nothing for weeks or even months due to injury or illness and are slowly starting to panic. I'm definitely in the second group, except that I'm not panicking, at least not just yet.

23 Jan

7 miles, 57:50, 8:15 pace, HR 147

24 Jan

7 miles, 56:52, 8:07 pace, HR 150

25 Jan

8 miles, 1:03:46, 7:58 pace, HR 152

26 Jan

7 miles, 56:37, 8:05 pace, HR 148

Baby Steps To Continuous Improvement

That's a term I've come across at work, though it fits very well into my running life.

I've complained on many occasions that the numbers at the end of each run just did not look very good and that there was very little progress to be seen for quite some time. While the stated goal of the last few weeks was recovery from overtraining rather than building up new fitness, I found it a bit disheartening at times that the numbers were consistently poor and, more importantly, not showing much inclination to change.

I was in a much happier place the last few days and it looks like patience and determination are finally starting to reap some rewards, All of a sudden the line in my graph has started to turn upwards, and not just for the odd run only to drop back down again. Finally I can actually look at the number and see them going somewhere.

There's no need to get carried away just yet. They are still poor, and in fact they are still worse than during the autumn, so there is still a long, long way to go. But seeing the heart rate elevation in single digits for a change is definitely progress. Now don't mess it up (again)!

Shea is just getting over a flu that had him off school for much of last week and Niamh is just over the worst herself. I have been on tenterhooks for a while; sharing a bedroom with someone who keeps coughing all night does leave you exposed and the badly interrupted sleep doesn't help either. I did feel slightly off on a couple of mornings but so far so good. maybe I managed to dodge that one. That would be a good sign, if my immune system is good enough to fight off an infection that is doing the rounds amongst the family then at least something is working again - at the end of last year I could feel that something wasn't quite right in that regards either.

The pace seems to have shifted into sub-8 territory, for the same easy effort as before, though the heart rate is still a bit higher than I would like to see after a reasonably easy run. But recovery from day to day does soom to work just fine, which is the main concern right now.

20 Jan

7 miles, 55:20, 7:54, HR 149

21 Jan

6 miles, 47:38, 7:56, HR 149

22 Jan

8 miles, 1:02:23, 7:47 pace, HR 152

Take Heart

Usually whenever I mention heart rate someone states their surprise that I even have a heart. Even my HRM seems to agree with that at times but a battery change (for the HRM, not my heart!) generally takes care of that attitude. So let's get this out of the way first - apparently I am not quite as heartless as some might think.

Anyway, since acquiring my new toy a couple of weeks ago I have been measuring my resting HR much more frequently than before. It did throw up a few unexpected results. First of all, resting HR dropped very quickly once I had recovered from my cold and went from about 50 all the way down to 43 a few days ago. I always associated such a low resting HR with being very fit, which clearly is not the case at the moment. My best guess is that my cardiovascular system is getting into pretty good shape already but my leg muscles and especially my endocrine system are lagging behind.

The other unexpected discovery was that there seems to be surprisingly little correlation between my resting HR when waking up and the HR at the subsequent run less than half an hour later. That day I measured 43? I ended up running slower than usual without a corresponding dip in HR. This morning, on the other hand, I awoke with a (very slight) headache and the resting HR was raised by a couple of beats yet the numbers during the run were the best yet since I started running again.

Anyway, as long as I can avoid getting sick again (my eldest son is off school with a flu right now and Niamh has started coughing again), things are definitely progressing, albeit slowly. I suppose running just under 50 easy miles a week doesn't fully build up my fitness, but the hope is that it will fully build up my recovery capacity, which had been completely wiped out by my overtraining last year and is the main focus right now.

The temperatures dropped again last night, which caught me by surprise (a long sleeved top would have been the better choice!), but as long as the roads remain ice free I love it just like that!

16 Jan

7 miles, 57:01, 8:08 pace, HR 148

17 Jan

7 miles, 57:07, 8:09 pace, HR 149

18 Jan

7 miles, 56:48, 8:06 pace, HR 149

19 Jan

7 miles, 55:54, 7:59 pace, HR 149

Early Zen

When I woke on Friday, for the third time this week my first thought was "at least it's Friday". On the plus side I was right for a change; on the minus side, it was 5:30 in the morning, I'm not sure why Lola's school left so early for Dublin but one thing was clear from the start: it was my job to get up and drive her to school. Niamh just doesn't do 5:30 and since I used to get up at that hour dozens of times voluntarily just to go running I'm not in a strong negotiation position to argue otherwise.

Actually, the timing worked out pretty well in as much as it was just time to go for my usual 7 mile run when I got back home. The roads were clear of ice, which was another plus, so all in all I can't complain too much.

As a matter of fact I had a really nice run. For the first time since I started running again I averaged just below 8-minute miles. It might be an arbitrary number but I was happy nevertheless. Saturday was a little bit different. Unfortunately, nobody had told our dog that it was the weekend and she was up at the usual time of 6:30, looking for breakfast. After that there was no more sleep to be had.

In numbers, Saturday's run was very similar to the day before, even if the HR was a smidgen higher. But in actual fact the legs didn't feel anywhere near as sprightly and I was really surprised when I saw afterwards that I had run virtually the same pace as the day before.

Sunday was almost groundhog day, this time it was the cat that demanded early breakfast. I used to think that I might get a lie-in once in a while when the kids were past a certain age but then made the crucial mistake of not vetoing an ever increasing number of animals (not that I would have stood a chance anyway) and guess who's the only one feeding them early morning. Anyway, the subsequent run was very similar to Saturday as the legs didn't show much love but the pace was still very similar. One thing I noticed was that miles 3-6 basically passed while my consciousness was somewhere in cloud cuckoo land, Being able to completely tune out and reach a Zen state of mind is a very good sign. The rest will follow.

13 Jan

7 miles, 55:36, 7:56 pace, HR 151

14 Jan

7 miles, 55:37, 7:56 pace, HR 153

15 Jan

7 miles, 56:11, 8:01 pace, HR 153

Snow News

I woke up the other day and the very first thought that went through my head was "at least it's Friday", the second one being "oh no, it's Tuesday" (expletives deleted). I woke up the following day and the very first thought that went through my head was "at least it's Friday", the second one being "oh no, it's Wednesday" (expletives deleted). Twice in a row, that's a new one.

The other thing both mornings had in common was that the legs felt a bit achy, though I attribute that more to Monday night's yoga class rather than running, especially so as this had been the first yoga class after a month-long Christmas break and we had been doing a lot of leg work in that class.

I took it very easy on Tuesday and ran a tad faster on Wednesday but the numbers didn't look great on either occasion. Wednesday especially wasn't helped by some very windy conditions; running being an outdoors sport, that comes as part of the parcel.

Thursday morning I felt so much better! I had a spring in my step that had been missing for a long while. In addition to that, the morning resting heart rate had come in at 45, a good improvement, so combine the two factors and I really expected a good run. Well, the run was good, I felt good all the way, but when I looked at the cold, subjective numbers afterwards I was a bit disappointed. You could not have told it had been a good run from that (though, admittedly, they were better than the previous couple of days). Ah well. I take feeling good over producing good numbers any time.

It's been snowing today! I'm sure the kids are delighted (at least the younger ones). Me, I'm merely hoping the roads won't be icy.

9 Jan

7 miles, 57:46, 8:15 pace, HR 150

10 Jan

7 miles, 1:01:15, 8:45 pace, HR 144

11 Jan

7 miles, 57:45, 8:15 pace, HR 154

12 Jan

7 miles, 57:12, 8:10 pace, HR 151

Heart Rate

I have known for a long time that heart rate always lags behind but I always took that to mean that it takes a few seconds for it to pick up when you increase effort. I have never heard of a delay of a whole day!

But that seems to be what was happening during my last cold. I already had a sore throat and a slight headache on the first morning but the HR was still fine for one more day. The same then happened in reverse. On Friday I felt pretty much fully recovered but the HR was still elevated when I was running that morning. It took another full day for the changes to show up on the HR chart on Saturday morning, when I finally posted some decent figures (mind, they're still 10 beat higher then where they should be once I reach proper fitness). There is no need to get carried away, though - the HR was higher again this morning, despite me running the same route in pretty much the same conditions and at the same subjective effort level - sometimes I really don't know how this works on a physiological level.

But the cold (or even colds) is finally behind me and I can breathe easily again, literally. Now I'm looking forward to the numbers to improve, though that will require some patience.

Oh, and I bought a new toy. Measuring resting HR in the morning is something I don't do very often, mostly because putting on the chest strap and then setting up the watch is a bit of a pain first thing in the morning. So I bought a little contraption that can measure HR right at your finger tip. Much easier! I could follow the progress of my recent cold that way, with the resting HR at about 55 when it was at its strongest and now back to 49 on Saturday and 48 on Sunday - the level I would expect when not fully fit. Of course it's not medical grade but it suits my needs and for £12 it was very reasonably I thought.

So, right now I'm running 7 miles each morning, which takes me just under an hour, and I'll probably stay at that for a bit now. It should hopefully be enough to build up my fitness to the next level but there is still a long way to go before I get back to where I used to be,

5 Jan

7 miles, 59:10, 8:27 pace, HR 153

6 Jan

7 miles, 57:37, 8:13 pace, HR 154

7 Jan

7 miles, 56:40, 8:05 pace, HR 149

8 Jan

7 miles, 56:52, 8:07 pace, HR 154

Happy New Year!

Since I started running again at Christmas, every day my chest felt a little bit better than the day before, though my breathing was always a bit laboured. However, I could feel it gradually, if very slowly, clearing up. Eventually the cold symptoms became almost unnoticeable during normal life but running was still affected, the most obvious effect being a sky-high HR. However, that came down gradually as well, which was reassuring, even if the number were still pretty bad; they were still over 10 beats higher than what I regards as my baseline when fit, though since that had come down from 20 beats it was actually decent progress. However, the most important feedback was always how I felt during and straight after a run, which was always pretty good. The deep fatigue that had been sitting in my legs for months seems to finally have lifted.

Yesterday, Tuesday, I awoke with a slightly sore throat, a slight headache and a stuffy nose. It feels different to the cold I had been nursing for the last 2 weeks, so I think I acquired a new cold on top of the already existing one. That sucks, but at the same time my chest seems to have fully cleared up the very same morning, which may be coincidence or it may not.

Since Christmas I had slowly upped the daily mileage, from 4 to 5 to 6 miles, and maybe this morning wasn't the best to up it again to 7 miles with that annoying head cold but what's done is done.

For easy recovery runs, there is one very simple rule. Every time you finish the run, if somebody told you to go out and do it again, you have to be in a position to do so without problems. I can honestly say that this has been the case for every single run recently - and that's why I don't think running through a head cold is a problem, not even when recovering from overtraining / overracing.

Oh, and Happy New Year! Thankfully the road isn't as busy as the gym right now.

1 Jan

5 miles, 40:13, 8:02 pace, HR 155

2 Jan

6 miles, 48:43, 8:07 pace, HR 154

3 Jan

6 miles, 50:17, 8:22 pace, HR 148

4 Jan

7 miles, 59:06, 8:26 pace, HR 151

All That's Left

This is the time when people usually look back at the year that was. As much as I'm usually  a non-conformist, this time round my view seems to be in tune with the general vibe - 2016 was one shite year!

That's certainly true as far as running is concerned; I had 3 targets for the year and missed them all. The one I got closest to was the sub-3 marathon in Manchester but I missed that by a minute. I'm pretty sure I would have gotten it had I not run the Tralee marathon a month before, but then again that would have meant not getting an age group win in my local marathon, which almost made up for it.

My main target was the 24 hours, however, and my 2 races were disappointing (Belfast) and abysmal (Albi). There's just no other way of looking at it. Right now that has me at 186th in the world rankings (with possibly one or two more results to be added, so that could drop further), which is my lowest ranking in a while.

The third goal was the Spartathlon, which I ended up not even doing because of Albi,

Good riddance, 2016. Seriously,

I'd love to say good riddance to that cold I've been nursing as well, though that might take a bit longer. I've reached the state where I don't feel it at all any more in normal circumstances but it's still noticeable when I'm running, mostly because it's causing my HR to go sky high. I started to ignore the HRM completely - it shows in the data! But my legs are perfectly fine and I have no issues recovering from those runs. I do wish I could go out and start proper training but right now I'm grateful I'm able to run at all - the rest will follow, eventually.

29 Dec

4 miles, 33:29, 8:22 pace, HR 158

30 Dec

5+ miles, 41:38, 8:14 pace, HR 155

31 Dec

5+ miles, 41:21, 8:11 pace, HR 156

In Sickness And In Health

So, I took 5 days off entirely. The only time I felt rotten was Monday evening, and that was most likely because I was exhausted from the long journey back to Kerry. Following that I felt better with each day but I had a pretty bad cough and there was some pressure in the middle of my chest, so that violated the "neck rule" and I did not run.

I was back on the road on the 24th, but that was just a 2 mile test run to see how that would go. The answer was that the legs and lungs felt perfectly fine but the HR was very high, though then again that would always be high after 5 days of no running. I didn't run on Christmas Day because it was Christmas Day and because the weather was lousy and because you don't have to force yourself outside when the weather is lousy and you are still nursing a cold and you would rather spend some time with your wife and kids.

Thankfully the weather had improved significantly by St. Stephen's Day, though obviously I skipped the race in Farranfore as well as the Goal Mile. Instead I jogged for 4 miles; the legs felt good once more but the HR was alarmingly high, though that was in no way a reflection of the easy effort. I tried the same again on Tuesday, giving myself the option of 5 miles but with the HR again so high I kept it at 4 miles.

It was groundhog day on Wednesday because, you guessed it, the effort was easy but the HR was really high. I decided to completely ignore the HR and just run at whatever effort seemed right and natural.

I have been told by someone who knows this a lot better then than I do that the way you recover from a workout tells you a lot more about your fitness than the workout itself. That's how I look at the last few runs, I have no problems recovering. I don't feel tired at all and the legs don't even notice that I have just been out for a run, and if I had to do the same run again straight away I wouldn't even bat an eyelid at the thought.

The cold is still with me, still getting better a bit every day but still with a cough and with some restriction in my chest, though that isn't really noticeable any more during the day, By this stage is merely an annoyance than a hindrance. Then again, who knows - the fact that it kept me off my feet a bit longer might be a benefit regarding my overtraining.

24 Dec

2 miles, 17:28. 8:39 pace, HR 147

26 Dec

4 miles, 34:50. 8:42 pace, HR 153

27 Dec

4 miles, 34:14. 8:33 pace, HR 156

28 Dec

4 miles, 33:39. 8:22 pace, HR 157

Vienna Calling

 As you might know, I'm running international championships for Austria, the reason being that they're the ones who issued my passport. However, I've been living in Ireland for longer than I can remember and the other thing you might know is that Ireland is quite a way away from Austria. The long distance between myself and the rest of the team isn't exactly ideal. Outside of races I have very little contact with the other runners or the team manager, so I do try to make it to the occasional team meeting. One such meeting was on this weekend, and consequently I made my way across the continent (getting dead cheap flight tickets helped).

I arrived there on Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning made my way across town to the meeting. The first item on the agenda was a lactate test. I wasn't sure if there was much point in doing one, seeing as I was still in my regeneration phase rather than in training, but the team physio disagreed. The next worry was that running faster than 8-minute miles would be challenging. I would then have to speed up even more for the last lap, but that fear proved to be groundless. The test had us run 2 laps around the park for just over one mile, then have our ears pricked, and then run again but faster, for a total of 5 goes. The last mile was at sub-7 pace, which I thought would be really hard but in actual fact felt really good - I was tempted to add a sixth lap just for the hell of it but thought the better of it, and the physio agreed.

After lunch we sat down for a talk about training for the world championships in Belfast, which I partook in a slightly detached mode as I really don't think I'll be able to start "proper" training in a week. We never really talked about the disappointing performance in Albi, where only one of us had a decent race; I guess we all knew it wasn't good enough.

Then we headed out for an evening run, When the question came up if we should go for a 10 or 12k loop I immediately went for 10 because of coach's orders, though since this was the second run of the day I knew I was taking liberties as it was. Ah well. At least I felt really good during the run.

Sunday was another team run, and while everyone joined up for a 2-2,5 hours jog I announced that I was going to turn around after 5k because my coach had forbidden me from running more than 10. I deflected the question why I was so worried to defy an absent coach with the observation that there are 2 people in my life I have learned never to contradict, and MC was the other one. Simple fact is, every time I thought I knew better I learned sooner or later that I don't, and overstepping the mark 2 days in a row was unlikely to be a good idea.

I was actually surprised by how easy that rather talented group of runners took it during those runs. I have run with some of them before, and on that occasion supposed 8:30 pace had quickly turned into 7:30, but not so this time.

However, despite the (relative) restraint I awoke in the middle of the following night with a splitting headache, a sore throat and a stuffed nose, and sleep for the rest of the night was fitful. I felt a little better the next morning, which was good because I had the long journey back home on the program. I managed that reasonably well but once I was home I had spent all my energy and more or less collapsed on the bed, feeling absolutely rotten.

Maybe it was indeed the extra run, maybe it was the fact that I could not get changed after Sunday's run for half an hour in the freezing cold, maybe I had already brought a cold with me, maybe it was the shock of significantly lower temperatures in Vienna, or maybe it was a combination of all that. Anyway, I'm actually better already, just one day later, so this is going to pass quickly. I'll start running again whenever it feels right. Not tomorrow, though.

14 Dec

6 miles, 53:38, 8:54 pace, HR 140

15 Dec

5 miles, 40:03, 8:01 pace, HR 153

17 Dec

am: 5+ miles, 43:59, 8:07 pace, HR 150, lactate test

pm: 6+ miles, 57:32, 8:35 pace, HR 145

18 Dec

6+ miles, 56:28, 9:10 pace, HR 148

Up And Down

Our Labrador, Millie, wants to be learn all about the others pets in the house

Well, I guess some things are never going to progress in a perfectly smooth line, and training is one of them. The last few days are completely my own fault. Up to last weekend I had been very disciplined about turning off the screens at 10 o'clock and going to bed not much later. Recently I've let things slide and now I'm feeling a bit tired and a lot less recovered all of a sudden. Sleep is so important for an athlete, and while I might have gotten away with things when I was younger that's clearly no longer the case. It does show in the numbers.

On Saturday morning my HRM stopped working after a mile, which is a bit of a shame because I'm pretty sure I would have posted my best numbers since my comeback - not that it matters, the training effect is the only thing that matters, but I'm a numbers geek and a nice figure in my spreadsheets would have been nice.

I felt a bit tired on Sunday (see first paragraph) and made sure to take it very easy, and I kept it to 4 miles. I felt a lot better on Monday morning. In fact, I was marvelling how well and effortlessly I was moving all of a sudden and how well that recovery program is kicking in. I was in high spirits, until I reached the 3 mile mark and turned around and realised that the return journey would be against the wind. Damn! I felt a lot slower on the way home.

Tuesday morning I was tired, again (see first paragraph, again) and once more kept it short and easy. This time I also resolved to get bedtime under control again. I'll need someone to send me to bed, I think. Jesus, I've mentally regressed back to childhood already (that said, Niamh insists I never left that stage in the first place).

10 Dec

6 miles, 50:12, 8:22 pace

11 Dec

4+ miles, 35:18, 8:43 pace, HR 141

12 Dec

6 miles, 50:43, 8:27 pace, HR 150

13 Dec

4 miles, 35:20, 8:50 pace, HR 143

Runners' OCD

I've always been an OCD kind of person, always following certains pattern and always a bit slow to adapt to changed surroundings. That has advantages and disadvantages; if you needed a creative person on your team I was unlikely to fill that role but if you needed someone who just got on with things I was bound to shine.

Running suited me down to the ground as a sport. I might not have the fast twitch fibres to make it as a sprinter, or even to be able to outsprint a rival on the line, but the training day in day out just came to me naturally. Get up in the morning, every morning, no matter the weather, no problem. Come up with a plan on how to handle distance running and still be able to get to work every time, no problem.

Stick to it - absolutely no problem. I've read, several times, that the average person can hold their interest in a particular subject for 6 months. That's fine if you want to tick running a marathon off your bucket list but if you want to get good at running, really good, you better be prepared to spend the next 10 years of your life making this a priority.

I was made for that kind of stuff.

In the same vein as I have followed my path to international standard I am now following the same pattern when recovering from overtraining, Run 3/4/5 miles or 35/45 minutes a day, okay, no problem. I just get on with it.

From today on I can push it a bit further, to 6 miles. I immediately got a bit carried away and ran a bit too fast, but as long as I can recover from day to day I'm good. Since I'm feeling pretty good these days I think I got away with it. If I'm a good boy, Santa will bring me an extra mile for Christmas. Woohoo!

6 Dec

4 miles, 34:44, 8:39 pace, HR 149

7 Dec

4.1 miles, 35:50, 8:43 pace, HR 146

8 Dec

6.1 miles, 50:00, 8:15 pace, HR 150

Peanut Bliss Balls

100g flaked almonds
50g Brazil nuts
50g cashew nuts
3 tbsp pumpkin seeds
50g dried berries
4 tbsp coconut oil
4 tbsp honey
4 tbsp peanut butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

1. Blend all dry ingredients in a food processor
2. Melt coconut oil, honey, peanut butter and vanilla and mix in the dry ingredients
3. Put in fridge for 1-2 hours
4. roll into shape, about a dozen balls
5. back in fridge for 1 hour

They're dead easy to make and only require a couple of minutes' work. I have used those as nutrition in Belfast and Albi, and will most likely use them again. They taste very nice and go down well even late in a race. Since there are no perishable ingredients they can be kept outside the fridge for the duration of even a very long race, though they soften when not cooled. Recipe by Aoife Tanner via Cian Bubendorfer.

"Training" is going reasonably well. Running 4 or 5 miles is short enough for my still compromised system to handle and I am finishing each and every run in the knowledge that I could turn around and do the same run again immediately if someone told me to. And I'm prepared to be patient.

3 Dec

4 miles, 33:25, 8:20 pace, HR 149

4 Dec

4 miles, 34:48, 8:39 pace, HR 145

5 Dec

5+ miles, 43:47, 8:39 pace, HR 147

Level Up

I started creating a post about how I had gotten myself into an overtrained state but now I'm not sure if I even want to finish writing it; I'd much rather concentrate on the present rather than dwell too much in the past. I pretty much know where I have gone wrong (hint: it wasn't just one thing in isolation, it was a range of factors working together and an inadequate response from my side), I think I have an idea on how to correct it and I'll keep monitoring the situation, this time with a much more fine-tuned sensor on stress and recovery.

I've now been back running for two weeks. Very limited running that is, my weekly total was just 23 miles in the first 7 days (including one off day), so I do hope that this is easy enough not to overwork my compromised system.

Honestly, I think the signs are good. The numbers are going up, and on Wednesday they jumped up an entire level. They're still worlds below what I like to think of as "normal" but nevertheless that's definite progress. More importantly, I do enjoy every single step. That's definitely a plus. However, there is also a potential problem: I've always been told that not wanting to train would be big red flag with regards to overtraining and since that flag never showed up I ended up underestimating how serious this problem had become.


Anyway, I'm running with a bit more effort the last couple of days, upgrading from "recovery" to "easy" runs, which really is my natural state - this is the effort I would be running almost every day if I didn't follow a training program and would just do whatever I felt like. I like that effort level - not so slow as to get frustrating and not so fast as to get exhausting.

This is the first month in the entire year that my VDOT graph is clearly pointing upwards (May had been okay as well, all other months are either jumping up and down or just gradually sliding down). Admittedly, I was coming from such a low starting point after my break that up was the only real way to go.

Still, so far so good.

28 Nov

3.8 miles, 35:05, 9:13 pace, HR 143

29 Nov

4.5+ miles, 40:00, 8:48 pace, HR 148

30 Nov

4.1 miles, 35:01, 8:32 pace, HR 145

1 Dec

5.2 miles, 45:11, 8:41 pace, HR 147

Limited Progress Is Still Progress

Well, he said it would take about 10 days to see some progress but maybe I'm still a fast responder because it didn't take quite as long. Good thing too, because I might have started panicking after a week otherwise. There is clearly still a long way to go, and in fact my numbers are still pretty awful, just not as awful as a week ago.

The last couple of runs have been a fair bit faster than last week, though partially at the expense of a higher HR. This isn't particularly alarming. I looked back in my training logs at what I did after my comeback from pneumonia and was really surprised how high the HR was for each run - all at least in the 150s, some even in the 160s. There is no way a coach would let me do this now, so at least I know that I am somewhat restrained.

The HR has crept higher the last few days, though not really deliberately. I did become aware a couple of times this morning that I was putting more effort in and pulled the brakes but the legs seemed intent to start turning quicker again as soon as my concentration waned.

I only did 23 miles last week, in 6 runs. I can crank that a little bit higher now, but not much. Blimey, I don't know how often I ran further than that in one day in training alone, never mind races, but it does show how badly I managed to dig myself into a hole.

24 Nov

4.9 miles, 44:51, 9:09 pace, HR 145

26 Nov

4.46 miles, 40:00, 8:58 pace, HR 145

27 Nov

4.59 miles, 40:01, 8:43 pace, HR 148

The Near Future

I didn’t come up with that plan myself, so I’m neither taking credit nor blame. But a plan was clearly needed after it had become perfectly clear that somehow I had managed to get myself into an overtrained state.

I had gotten plenty of advise after the abject race that had been Albi, ranging from "run Dublin, you'll be fine" to "take 3 months completely off", and, as much as it pained me, it was pretty clear that the latter advise was a lot more advisable than the former.

MC did chime in, and that helped a lot. In the end I ended taking 4 weeks off completely, which was painful, and now I'm at least back running. However, I am limited to 2-5 miles max for the rest of the year at least. The idea is to work on the lower set of muscle fibres and get them conditioned. What MC didn't say but merely implied was that this means the higher set of muscle fibres are still being unused (because the runs are so short that they never get used), meaning they get at least 10 weeks of rest, which comes pretty close to that most conservative advice mentioned earlier.

Just to point out how much of a painful adaptation this is, 4 weeks off is the longest break I've ever had since I started running. Even when I had pneumonia in 2008 I was only off for 3 weeks! And then I did not have to be so restrained for weeks and months either. The way I see it, this is the universe's punishment for being an idiot.

I've now done 5 runs, all about 35 minutes in length. I just run one way and when 17-18 minutes are up I turn around and run back. The effort is very easy. The HR is higher than I'd like but I have been told to expect changes after about 10 days.

21 Nov

3.7 miles, 35:01, 9:23 pace, HR 144

22 Nov

3.8 miles, 36:00, 9:26 pace, HR 147

23 Nov

3.75 miles, 35:25, 9:26 pace, HR 142

I'm Back!

I'm Back Baby!

I'm slow as hell and until a few months ago I would not even have considered going for such a short run but it sure beats sitting at home looking wistfully out of the window. Niamh is also pleased that I'm out running, it saves her the job of kicking me out when I'm unbearable.

Saturday morning was the big day, 4 weeks after Albi. Since back then I still had been running on Sunday it was a day early, really, but a nice dry crisp weekend morning was too good to waste. The one thing I had done over my long break was to turn off the HR alarm on my watch, and, to nobody's surprise, my HR was way high. I'm not at all concerned, I have been there often enough by now. When I start running after a break the HR is always sky high but it comes down quickly enough. When I finally approach something resembling fitness it actually comes down into MAF territory, though I am approaching that from the upper side, so I'm definitely not claiming I'm doing MAF training (which I've tried twice, both to unsatisfactory outcomes).

Anyway, the first thing I noticed on Saturday was that it was freezing cold, which was fine, and the second thing was that my knee still felt funny, which was not. However, five minutes into my run neither was noticeable, so the rest of the run I just trotted along. The legs weren't used to that kind of exercise any longer and I felt uncoordinated and awkward but truth to be told it was better than expected.

I ran for close to 18 minutes into one direction and then turned around, for a total of 35 minutes, which turned out to be 3.65 miles, only just faster than 10-minute pace. That's the way it is right now.

Sunday was very similar, except that there was not even a beep from the knee. Instead the hamstrings in their entirety felt tired, obviously feeling the strain from yesterday. That, too, went away after a couple of minutes and the rest was more or less the same as yesterday, a tad faster but also with a higher HR. I'm not aiming at any kind of pace, just run whatever feels easy and natural, and I know this will come down significantly over the next few weeks.

Baby, I'm Back!

19 Nov

3.65 miles, 35:32, 9:43 pace, HR 142

20 Nov

3.7 miles, 34:57, 9:26 pace, HR 146

The Knee

I never told you the full story about my knee!

As you might know, if you read this blog regularly that is, my right knee felt very stiff and rather uncomfortable after the run in Tralee, 4 weeks before Albi. I didn't really hurt but knee issues are not to be ignored and it never got 100% better.

The day before the race in Albi I asked our team physio for help. She very quickly diagnosed it as a muscle problem, not an actual knee problem (much to my relief) (proving my yoga teacher right - how could I ever have doubted her!) and then proceeded to torture me mercilessly for the next half hour, somehow tearing apart whatever was wrong.

Once she stopped torturing me (f*ck, that REALLY hurt!) the knee felt like new again! While I was still a little bit worried, it was not a factor at all in Albi and I got through 117 miles seemingly unscathed. However, the next day it felt stiff again, probably after sitting for so long in cramped conditions on the journey back, and of course by then I no longer had access to my own dedicated physio. However, it did improve gradually over the next couple of weeks. If the full rest was beneficial or not or if it made any difference at all, I cannot tell. I did work on it a bit, some light yoga stuff, and if I work myself into position slowly enough I can get it to do whatever is required. By now it's 98% clear. I can bend it fully again, though at full flex it still feels a tiny bit stiff. Sometimes I make a clumsy move and a bit of pain shoots through my knee, so I still need to be careful, but in the grand scheme of things it is a minor issue now.

You know what's really weird about not running for 4 weeks? At times my legs hurt just as they do after a long run. I'm not sure how that works. Actually, scrap that, I have no idea what's going on here. I'm sure MC or anyone else with sufficient knowledge and experience can explain that but to me that's just baffling.

Since it's not been 4 weeks yet I still have not done any running, but I started doing half an hour of cycling (indoors, on the trainer). Me being me, I'm doing it every single morning. I make sure to keep the effort very easy but I am pleased nonetheless that there is no negative reaction at all.

I have been sleeping very well since I started going to bed much earlier, with the exception of last night. I have this weird thing that almost every Full Moon I have one night where I simply cannot fall asleep. It's ALWAYS within a day or two either side of a Full Moon. It has nothing to do with the bedroom being too bright because we have perfectly well working curtains and the room is completely dark, yet somehow I just lie there and sleep won't come. It happens so often I am used to it, and since it's only once a month it doesn't have any lasting effects, but it's still annoying as hell every time it happens. Maybe my great-grandmother was a werewolf or something.

I can't wait until the weekend. Then I'll be a runner again. The fact that I am so looking forward to it is definitely a good sign, but the real test is yet to come of course.

Tentative

Well, after 3 weeks of total rest when I did not even dare to do a cycle or strength training because I could sense how deep the fatigue had gone, I have taken the first step and started back on my journey towards fitness. On Saturday morning I went up into the attic and dug out my little old cycle trainer that had been gathering dust for the last 5 years and gave it an unexpected comeback.

I started out easy, just 20 minutes on the bike, and easy ones at that. There was no reaction and I upped it to 30 minutes on Sunday, Listening to podcasts is very handy at those times, it makes time pass pretty quickly. I vaguely remember that 30 minutes on the trainer were related to Chinese water torture and of course the same applies to the treadmill, but if you can get your mind off things by listening to something reasonably intelligent and interesting that makes a real difference,

I also decided to finally clean up my act. The tablet/phone/computer screens go off at 10 o'clock the very latest and I'm in bed not much later, That's something I have known for ages but - like most of you - never bothered to actually put int practise. It's amazing how well I have been sleeping the last few nights, despite the best effort of out damn nocturnal cats, and wouldn't you believe it, if you sleep better it makes you feel better,

You can get away with lots of things when you're 20 but when you're closer to 50 than 40 you need to pay more attention to those kind of things, no matter how much you keep telling yourself that you're nowhere near old just yet.

I'm still not running but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and at least I get the feeling that I'm finally doing "something". I try not to make too many plans as I'm not sure if I can get back to where I have been, but the World Championship in Belfast is my definite target.