Plateau

In the early stages of the week I couldn't make up my mind if I was recovering properly from the mountain or not. The legs sure felt a lot better on Monday than they had on Sunday but for some reason the HR was a little bit higher even though the effort had felt easier. But the difference was so
small I didn't think any more about it - these things can be affected by all kinds of external factors and we're talking about very minor blips here.

Tuesday was similar, the legs felt pretty much fully recovered but the HR was just a tad higher than I would have wanted.

At that point I decided I was overthinking the whole thing. A HR difference of one single beat is nothing, that's a rounding error. I might have hit a bit of a plateau at the moment but this happens. I'm taking it a bit easier right now anyway.

I did feel up to another trip up the Windy Gap. I have a rather long run on schedule for Saturday, so one climb would have to do. The legs felt a bit funny starting out but once I hit the steep slopes I pushed the effort a bit and they responded immediately. The weather was quite nice again, I had a good view towards the Reeks and my new mate Carrauntoohil, and Windy Gap just being Gap, really.

And on Thursday it was back on the road again. There was no trace of fatigue in the legs but I made sure to take it very, very easy anyway, with my eyes firmly fixed on Saturday.

17 Apr

7 miles, 54:16, 7:45 pace, HR 144

18 Apr

7 miles, 54:10, 7:44 pace, HR 143

19 Apr

10.7 miles, 1:31:12, 8:31 pace, HR 148

   Windy Gap

20 Apr

7 miles, 54:55, 7:51 pace, HR 141

Carauntoohil

I shouldn't have said that the curve is always pointing upwards I guess, because it did get a kink on Friday. Looks like I jinxed myself. Not that 7 miles at 7:06 pace is a particularly bad workout but with the HR stuck at 159 it wasn't quite what I wanted to see.

It had all started so well with me ticking off 6:50 miles while feeling exceptionally relaxed, until I turned sharply left twice and now had that wind right in my face! To make matters worse, the way the loop was shaped meant I had the wind at my back for about 2 miles and against my face closer to 4, which didn't do the average much good. Once I turned into the wind I found it next to impossible to get the HR down. I felt like I was crawling and I still had the HR alarm beeping relentlessly. I was doing about 7:20, which wasn't all that slow into a headwind but after the 6:50 miles it felt like almost standing still.

Ah well, so the numbers are worse than last week. How much that is due to the wind and how much to latent fatigue from the weekend or the Windy Gap I'm not entirely sure. What I do know is that I did something COMPLETELY different on Saturday.

You see, I have been living here for 13 year and I can see Carauntoohil right from my front door. However, to my eternal shame, I have never climbed it. I must have said something to Niamh because she bought me a voucher for a guided tour, which meant now I had to quit talking about it and go and do it instead. I guess that was the main reason why I had never gone up there before: having grown up in the mountains (different mountains altogether) I have way too much respect for them to go up there on my own on a first attempt, so it was always going to be a guided tour and it took Niamh to break the inertia and just go ahead and book something.

Originally I was planning on going on Friday but one look at the weather forecast earlier this week made me change it to Saturday. That made it worse for Niamh as she had to taxi the kids on a busy day all on her own but it was definitely the right choice. Friday was a miserable wet day without any views and Saturday turned out much better than I could have hoped for. We had some non-athletes in our group, so we took our sweet time. It meant 7 hours on my legs, which should actually be surprisingly good ultra training - a way of training that is definitely under-utilised, not just by me but most runners. Last year I spent a weekend in Wicklow soaking up Barry Murray's wisdom and I know he would have enthusiastically recommended it. MC was all for it as well. Anyway, the clouds all lifted when we got to the top and the views are just to die for (Caher, btw, looking by far the best) and I even had a good view at our house but just couldn't see them waving back.

It's definitely something I can warmly recommend and going with an extremely knowledgeable tour guide was great too. Not only did he point out all kinds of landmarks that I would have missed otherwise, he also told us plenty of stories from the mountains and we got a lot of education about how to treat the mountain with respect and how to minimise our impact, all delivered by a man who lives and breaths the mountains.

Anyway, Sunday's easy run was rather mundane in comparison, yet another easy 7 miler like I have done so many times before. The legs were definitely feeling the mountain and I would have sworn I was plodding ahead at a very slow pace. The numbers on the watch did surprise me when I got back home.

13 Apr

7 miles, 55:52, 7:59 pace, HR 136

14 Apr

10 miles, 1:13:08, 7:18 pace, HR 154

   incl 7 @ 7:06 (HR 159)

15 Apr

Carauntoohil, 7:30, 9.5 miles

16 Apr

7 miles, 53:48, 7:41 pace, HR 143

Up

Ah well, I guess the form curve can't always point steeply upwards when you're in training ...

Actually, scratch that. Looks like it can.

Cian playing at a concert last Sunday

Alright, I've had a few days of rather heavy legs after the weekend but by now they have bounced back and the numbers are getting higher once again and so far there seems to be no ceiling in sight, unless I just jinxed myself with that last sentence.

It got a little bit better with every passing day, and after three easy days I felt sufficiently recovered to head back up Windy Gap once more this morning, this time carrying on over the pass itself and dropping down towards Glenbeigh before turning around for a second climb. It certainly lived up to its name today; the ascent from the Caragh lake side was one of my slowest and the one from Glenbeigh close to my personal best without even trying, but that one felt assisted by a magic hand relentlessly pushing me up. A little bit of wind is part of all the fun of course but I appreciated it being a dry morning. I bought new trail running shoes after my old ones had more or less fallen apart in Aherlow last September, a pair of Asics Tambora, the main draw being that they seem to be okay for both road and trail, but which probably comes with the drawback that they won't excel in slippery wet conditions. I guess I'll find out eventually.

Getting the right pair of shoes for trail running seems to be much trickier than for road running. I have worn dozens of different shoes from all kinds of brands on the road and was comfortable with almost all of them but neither of the 2 off-road shoes I've used so far (Inov-8 Talon and Inov-8 Terrafly) have been quite what I have been looking for. Let's see how the new ones work out, so far so good.

10 Apr

7 miles, 57:05, 8:09 pace, HR 135

11 Apr

7 miles, 55:34, 7:56 pace, HR 136

12 Apr

12+ miles, 1:50:07, 9:08 pace, HR 145

   Windy Gap

Finally A Long Run

The good news is that my back gradually got better with each passing day, to the extent that it is only just about noticeable by Sunday. That's definitely a big bonus - a painful back can be downright debilitating, even if it never stopped me from running (and, in fact, running seemed beneficial).

I also got some good training runs under the belt. Gradually this is starting to feel like actual training rather than just jogging around at easy effort.

Thursday was an easy run but very good in as far as the legs didn't feel any tiredness following the mountain run the previous day. I was also pleased by the fact that I ran at a very easy effort and still was well under 8-minute pace. A couple of months ago that pace would have felt like a tempo run, now it's a recovery effort.

Speaking of tempo runs, that was in store on  Fast Friday. Things have gone up a notch again, with 7 miles at the higher effort (not quite at what would usually be a regarded a tempo run, though). I checked the watch just once or twice at the start and then ran entirely by feel. What came out the end was 7:07 pace at HR 153 - very, very nice numbers. Not so long ago I did an evaluation where I ran 7:11 at HR 161, now I'm running faster than that at a substantially lower heart rate. I'm actually amazed at these numbers - I thought I'd never see the likes again! That's as good a set of numbers as I've ever seen, comparable to 4 years ago when I ran a 2:55 marathon on a very hilly course. And I'm getting closer and closer to 50 - maybe age really is just a number!

Saturday was a return to my old hunting grounds, a loop around Caragh lake. Despite the lake itself being as flat as any other accumulation of  water, this is a very hilly loop with over 500 feet climbing on one hill alone and over 1500 feet along the entire loop. To be honest, I wasn't exactly looking forward to it, not having done a long run for months, and with slightly pre-fatigued legs to boot. However the only way to do it is to - just go and do it. It actually went better than expected. The legs gradually got tired over the second half but were still in reasonably good shape by the time I got back home. I was rather tired for the rest of the day, though, and I could feel the legs all day.

Sunday was probably the most difficult run, this time really on tired legs. I took it as easy as I could and got it done. Running on tired legs is supposed to be good training for an ultra, so chalk up 7 miles on that particular board.

6 Apr

7 miles, 54:38, 7:48 pace, HR 138

7 Apr

10 miles, 1:13:48, 7:11 pace, HR 149

   incl. 7 miles @ 7:07, HR 153

8 Apr

17 miles, 2:13:05, 7:49 pace, HR 147

9 Apr

7 miles, 56:41, 7:05 pace, HR 138

And It's The Back Again

On Monday morning I got up at the usual time and got ready for my run. Things were progressing like they do every other morning, me mostly on autopilot, until the point where I put on my socks (which happens just before going out, I do potter around bare feet before that). Just as I was balancing on my left leg to put on my right sock, just like I have done hundreds of times before, I felt like being stabbed in my lower back and for an instant a massive pain wave shot through my body.

This has happened before. In fact, this one wasn't the worst. Once it had hurt so badly I basically blacked out from sheer pain for a split second, so this was a mild one in comparison. I still manged to somewhat bend over, carefully, and put the sock on, and managed the shoes as well.

Running doesn't aggravate my lower back, so I went out for the run just like normal. In fact, it helped. Once the endorphins kicked in, the back was much more bearable.

In the office later that day I was uncomfortable rather than in pain. I managed to go to Yoga as well, and apart from the back no feeling quiet right when attempting a handstand (against the wall, don't get excited!) it was just fine. It was a bit better on Tuesday and another bit better on Wednesday, so I guess this will go away once more soon enough, but I know that there is some weakness somewhere and it does manifest itself in my lower back far more often than I would like.

The view from Windy Gap - not today, though

Anyway, like I said, I kept on running as if nothing had happened. Easy runs on Monday and Tuesday felt good and the legs seem to have gotten over Saturday's overenthusiastic pace very quickly, so I dared to head for the trails on Wednesday morning and went up Windy Gap for the first time this year. I didn't push the effort and running up to the Gap itself was challenging enough but I got through it in once piece and was actually quite pleased by how well it had gone. The light was still quite low. the overcast sky not helping, in the so there was not much of a view to be had, but that's not why I had gone up there anyway.

Running mountain trails has proven to be a very effective training tool in the past, even when preparing for a totally flat race, so I'll keep doing that. The Gap hasn't seen the last of me.

3 Apr

7+ miles, 57:01, 8:05 pace, HR 138

4 Apr

7 miles, 54:26, 7:46 pace, HR 142

5 Apr

10.7 miles, 1:35:38, 8:56 pace, HR 145

   Windy Gap

Someone Else's Turn

There was another 5k on this weekend, even closer to home. It was also closer to my heart because this really was one for the local community. It also doesn't hurt that I won it a couple of years ago, which obviously provides lovely memories. However, I once more decided not to run the big boys' race; my training felt rather disrupted this week, having to recover from Sunday's race, and I did not want to disrupt it any further. As lovely as the Glounaguillagh race would have been, I decided to accompany my youngest daughter around the kids' course instead. This didn't provide much of a workout but it was great to see her having fun and enjoying herself so much. Good choice!

The athlete with her prize

Anyway, after running no more than 5 miles at the start of last week and then feeling pretty much recovered, I thought it would be safe to run a bit longer on Saturday. That in itself might have been fine but somehow I got it into my head to push the effort a little bit. I'm not sure where that had come from, it certainly wasn't planned that way. It's not that I ran like a complete lunatic but I definitely ran a bit harder than would have been optimal. The legs started hurting after 10 miles but I kept going. The last few miles were dragging a bit but I got home before things fell apart. The numbers don't look too bad and an average heart rate of 147 doesn't seem all that excessive but the legs were a bit sore all day afterwards and they still didn't feel quite right the next day. My best guess is that plenty of  my muscle fibres were still in recovery and got overworked - I'd better take it easy again for a bit.

I thought I'd taken it easy on Sunday morning, especially with the blustery wind, but was rather surprised to see 7:44 pace on the watch. I could have sworn I had run much slower than that! Maybe the sunshine had provided some extra energy? It's rare enough round here.

31 Mar

7 miles, 54:26, 7:46 pace, HR 144

1 Apr

14 miles, 1:47:11, 7:39 pace, HR 147

2 Apr

7 miles, 54:12, 7:44 pace, HR 143

Rest And Recovery

Maybe it’s crazy, or maybe it’s just a sign how old and boring I have become the last few years, but I was actually much more excited by seeing my HR/pace data on Monday’s recovery run than I was about anything related to Sunday’s race.

TRAPPIST-1 according to Lola

Still, running almost a minute a mile faster for the same HR than I did last October, when I should have been in top form before the European champs, was quite something. Also, remember how I mentioned my VDOT increase in February and how that would make me world class in a few months if it kept climbing at the same rate? Of course I was kidding but the steep rate of improvement actually kept going all the way through March, which puts me into a very nice position with 3 months still to go until Belfast.

I know I have yet to add some long runs, so obviously the hard work still remains to be done but right now things are better than I could have hoped. Late last year I had some serious doubts if I’d ever get back into some decent sort of shape, and now I have started believing again. I’m actually really looking forward to Belfast instead of being worried.

By Wednesday I felt pretty much fully recovered from the race so I went back to 7 miles on Thursday morning. Training has taken a backseat this week, being trumped by recovery, and all workouts have been put on ice until next week, so my return to the Windy Gap has had to wait – not that the weather would have made that run particularly inviting. The joke around here is that we’ve had a lovely summer, hope you enjoyed it. Let’s see how long the rainy season lasts – hopefully not until September again!

27 Mar

5+ miles, 42:01, 8:19 pace, HR 136

28 Mar

5+ miles, 41:08, 8:09 pace, HR 140

29 Mar

5+ miles, 39:17, 7:47 pace, HR 142

30 Mar

7 miles, 55:09, 7:53 pace, HR 141

Road Racing Fun

"Do the race", he said. "It's going to be fun!" he said.

As I've said a few times, training has been going really well the last couple of months. However, that was with a long ultra race as target in mind - something that doesn't really translate to a 5k race. As such, expectations for today's race were rather low. It was the Kerry road racing championships and the club had asked me to participate with an eye on the masters team standings; however, not for the first time, out fastest runner was required elsewhere . It didn't help that it was Mother's Day, I suppose, though Niamh had voiced no objections (maybe her idea of a relaxing day is getting me out of the house).

The Star of the Laune team

Anyway, apart from not being trained to race a 5k, I had clearly forgotten how to do them. My last 5k race had been - the Kerry championships exactly one year ago! I felt rather sluggish during the warm up and doubts crept in already. However, once the gun sounded I let muscle memory take over and just carry me along.

Apparently my muscles did remember how to race a 5k. Unfortunately, they must have remembered what it was like to race a 5k in under 18 minutes, because that's what the first mile indicated. Since I'm not trained to run at that pace (the fastest workout having been at 7:12 pace), I was completely and utterly cooked after a 5:40 starting mile, even if it may have been slightly net downhill and with the wind on my back. Obviously that meant running the next mile against the wind and uphill, and boy was I in pain already. For a minute or two I had even thought I'd leave John Barrett in my wake, which very quickly turned out to be a very, very stupid idea and I could only watch him pass me and pull away while I was sucking air through a thin straw with someone using a blowtorch on my legs.

For all of the final 4k I continuously expected runners to catch up with me and pull away but while I kept hearing footsteps behind me they always seemed to fall away again. There was a steep hill after about 3.5k which I probably would barely have noticed on an early morning jog but which I thought would kill me off completely but somehow I managed to get over it. Then it was a matter of suffering with each step until I would somehow be taken out of my misery.

Bling!

"Do the race", he said. "It's going to be fun!" he said.

If he had been there I would have given him an earful! There were still about 2 minutes of torture left when I turned the last corner and climbed yet another hill. Once again I heard footsteps and for a second was prepared to throw in the towel and just let them pass me when the racing instincts kicked in once more and pushed me on, screaming legs be damned. Somehow I managed to keep running until the final line where the timer had just gone past 19 minutes. Blimey, so much torture for such a modest time!

It took me ages to recover until I was finally able to breathe again, just being grateful that I had somehow survived. The average HR hadn't even been that high at 173; I would expect to average close to 180 in a 5k race and yet I could have sworn I had never tortured myself so hard. A few weeks of speedwork would have taken care of that and I'm sure I could take at least a minute off that time, becoming much more efficient at that pace and my brain letting me push the body harder, but I'm not training for a 5k so that's not going to happen.

I, rather unexpectedly, even got some bling out of that torture session, coming second in the M45 category; at least I had something to show for it.

"It's going to be fun!" he said. I'm not sure when I want to have so much fun again.

23 Mar

7 miles, 54:12, 7:44 pace, HR 143

24 Mar

7 miles, 54:24, 7:46 pace, HR 140

25 Mar

12 miles, 1:32:02, 7:40 pace, HR 144

26 Mar

6+ miles

   Kerry County Road racing Champs

   5k, 19:03, 6:12 pace, HR 173, 2^nd M45

Bumpy Heads And Irritating Pets

Yesterday, I walked into a door frame.

I've been living in that house for 13 years and you would think by now I know my way around it with my eyes closed. Well, I thought the doorway was here when in fact it was 10 inches over there and now I have a cut at the top of my right side which might leave a scar; having said that, after seeing the blood I initially thought it might be worse, never mind that it also hurt like hell.

Oh, and I refute all those nasty rumours that it had been Niamh with a rolling pin. Or the frying pan.

Monday and Tuesday were easy 7 milers, which I have done dozens of times this year. There is nothing remarkable about that - except that I posted "better than baseline" HR data for the first time since 22 June 2016 - exactly 9 months ago! That's how long it took me to recover from the 2 24 hour races I did, plus the overtraining that went with it. The numbers have been improving significantly since January and I've got 3 more months to improve them even further - that's an excellent place to be in at the moment.

However, after that bang to the head I was a bit worried about concussion, not least because it would require some time off. But after a good night's sleep I felt perfectly fine on Wednesday morning so I went ahead with my workout: hills once more.

Two weeks ago I had done 4 climbs in Treanmanagh, last week it was 5, so today there were 6 on the program. The first thing I noticed once I hit the steepest part of the first incline was how easy it felt! That often misleading feeling lasted surprisingly long. It wasn't until the third and final loop that I finally felt like working fairly hard but even then I was still pleased how well this was going.

Not the guilty cat

I think I'll head towards Windy Gap next week, as long as it will be bright enough. The clocks are going back on Sunday after all. By some quirky fate, I might be the one person in the entire country who is looking forward to the time changing the most. The reason is one of our damn cats, which starts meowing very loudly right outside our window at 5 o'clock. Almost! Every!! Damn!!! Morning!!!! I don't know how many hours of sleep I've missed due to that creature, enough to put a serious strain on our once beloved relationship (not that the cat cares). However, with the clocks going forward next week I'm reasonably hopeful that she'll start meowing at 6 o'clock instead - which is when I get up anyway.

20 Mar

7 miles, 54:41, 7:49 pace, HR 141

21 Mar

7 miles, 54:38, 7:48 pace, HR 141

22 Mar

11.5 miles, 1:32:38, 8:03 pace, HR 146

   hill workout

Workouts

After all those months of nothing but easy running I am actually relishing running a few workouts, even though (or maybe because) this is all still rather mellow and never to the limit. Having said that, the heavy legs from the last 2 days are clearly showing that while the individual workouts themselves aren't that tough, the overall load on the system is pushing it.

I was pleasantly surprised that there was no noticeable DOMS after Wednesday's hills workout. I certainly expected at least some extra discomfort. Is it really feasible that my legs have adapted to hill running so quickly? I know I'm not exactly training on flat roads throughout the year but those hill workouts are definitely on a different scale.

"Cat ate my homework" - for real!

Anyway, the legs felt just a tad heavy on Thursday but certainly a lot better than expected. They felt perfectly fine again on Friday for my Fast Friday workout, with the "fast" bit being rather relative. This time I was back home in Kerry and the wind was howling, so the conditions were a bit more challenging than last week but once you get going you barely notice it. I started off a little bit too fast and it took a while to adjust and slow down but once I got into the zone I really got into the zone. I was so tuned in that I didn't even notice that the 6 miles had already passed and kept going for another 2 or 3 minutes when it finally clicked that I was supposed to be in the cool-down mile already. Overall it was a bit quicker as well as longer than planned but once I tuned into the effort it just seemed to feel right.

For the first time in years we missed the local St. Patrick's Parade. Maia had an altercation with a boy in school the day before and seemed rather reluctant as a result, and when the weather was so miserable on the day itself I wasn't trying too hard to persuade her otherwise. We'll try again next year.

I did pay a price for my slight exuberance during Friday's run in the form of fairly heavy legs on Saturday, which is what happens on back-to-back days when you're getting a bit ahead of yourself on the first day. Mind, it wasn't that bad, I've certainly felt worse. It was just a case of putting one foot in front of the other until it was all done. The legs didn't seem to get any worse during the run though they didn't get better either.

It was still much of the same on Sunday, except for a few miles less. If those gale force winds keep going for much longer I think I'll go nuts, though.

16 Mar

7 miles, 54:53, 7:50 pace, HR 146

17 Mar

9+ miles, 1:08:04, 7:21 pace, HR 151

   incl 6+ miles @ 7:11 pace (HR 157)

18 Mar

11+ miles, 1:25:33, 7:44 pace, HR 147

19 Mar

7+ miles, 53:52, 7:38 pace, HR 146

Run To The Hills

Ed Whitlock RIP. The legend will be missed.

The weather gods seem to be taking turns at the moment. Saturday morning nice. Sunday morning not nice. Monday morning nice. Tuesday morning not nice. Let's see which deity eventually gets on top of it all (this being Kerry I suspect it's going to be the rain god again). But the temperatures have definitely gone up and it's about time to ditch the gloves again.

The body continues to improve. It basically took me about 3 month to recover from Albi (plus the overtraining that had preceded it) but now things are improving fairly rapidly. There were times when I did wonder if I'd ever be able to run without heavy legs again but that has thankfully been answered by now. Not every day, mind. Tuesday's Yoga legs seem to have become a permanent fixture.

After taking it easy for a few days in a row I headed towards the hills again on Wednesday early morning. Last week I definitely noticed that much of my leg strength had gone missing but today I was very positively surprised how much easier those steep climbs felt already. It was almost back to cruising them on autopilot. I even had an audience when I passed a local farmer looking after his sheep several times on three separate occasions, and he actually gave me some encouragement (well received, I can assure you!). I did 5 climbs this morning, one more than last week, and I'm considering of heading towards Windy Gap next week on the Kerry Way trail. I'll decide later on.

On even more positive news, my car was unexpectedly less damaged than expected and is back at home, ready to be driven again. Oh, and the problem was not Niamh's fault at all (unless she got the mechanic to cover for her). Saves me spending a few thousand Euro I don't have on a replacement!

13 Mar

7 miles, 55:03, 7:51 pace, HR 143

14 Mar

7 miles, 55:20, 7:54 pace, HR 144

15 Mar

11+ miles, 1:29:11, 8:04 pace, HR 151

   hills!

Gasket Blown

On Friday it actually happened. Niamh well and truly blew a gasket, with steam coming out everywhere and she looked like she was going to explode. Thankfully in that case it was literal - the car's gasket! Then again - it was actually my car's gasket! Getting an emergency phone call from your wife when you're still almost an hour away isn't that great a situation. I had to go to Dublin for Friday and we swapped cars for the day because I had to transport a sofa and a few boxes that would not have fit into my tiny Ford. I had driven that thing for well over a year and just crossed the 100000k mark on the odometer. You give it to your wife for one single day ...

Ah well. Repair bills (or replacements) do happen. Oh, and the weird thing was, when she phoned the AA for help it happened to be her brother-in-law on the other end of the line. I'm not sure what the odds are in that helpline centre but they cannot be big. Maybe we should have played the lottery that day.

Anyway, the one thing I had been worried about all that driving this week wasn't the fact that Niamh might destroy my car but that the additional stress might have an impact on my training, especially since we have stepped up this week. I had a bit of DOMS on Thursday, which was no surprise after my first hill session of the season but the next day that seemed to almost completely gone already, so I went ahead with Friday's planned workout while in Dublin.

We're doing back-to-back workouts now, though quite different to the long back-to-back runs that would usually be associated with ultra training. Instead I'm doing a few faster miles on Friday (long term readers might remember the "Fast Fridays" from years ago) and a longer run on Saturday, though since we're cranking things up very gradually this was still rather subdued training. The plan for Friday was 5 miles at 7:20 pace with a predicted HR of 155. and I ran 7:15 with a HR of 156. I just got into the zone and hardly ever bothered to check the watch, which felt just right.

Back home again on Saturday (now car-less) I awoke to some unexpected nice weather, a beautiful sunny morning and no wind whatsoever, which was just perfect for a longer run (I can't bring myself to call 13 miles a long run). The legs seemed surprisingly fresh considering Friday's workout and the long hours in the car, and the miles just flew by. I got to mile 12 when I finally started to feel tired, but by that time I could smell the barn. In fact, the last mile was the fastest of the day, which was not intended and came as a bit of a surprise. I guess I really wanted to get home.

Seven miles on Sunday rounded out the week, with the legs a little bit tired from the increased training this week but actually better than I would have expected, even with the blustery wind not exactly helping. Did Saturday's lovely weather really have to disappear quite so soon?

9 Mar

7 miles, 54:41, 7:48 pace, HR 145

10 Mar

8 miles, 1:00:43, 7:35 pace, HR 150

   incl. 5 miles @ 7:16 (HR 156)

11 Mar

13 miles, 1:42:01, 7:50 pace, HR 146

12 Mar

7 miles, 54:32, 7:47 pace, HR 146

Happy Woman's Day!

Ada Lovelace, the world's first computer programmer.

Like I said on Sunday, this week marks the start of a more focused training phase following months and months of easy running. This early in, I haven't done much yet but so far I'm feeling great.

Sunday's extra miles didn't seem to leave any fatigue in the legs, which confirms my impression right after that run that I had plenty more left in the tank. The most challenging aspects were the outside conditions with a seemingly never-ending gale force wind ably abetted by the occasional heavy rain shower, not exactly my most favourite running weather. The effort level of my easy runs has definitively decreased slightly since I started the occasional workout but the pace continues to stabilise while the HR is dropping - always a good thing.

I started a new kind of workout on Wednesday, namely hill running. I'm not going straight up the Windy Gap yet but picked the hilliest road within 2 miles of home I could think of, which happens to be on the same mountain as Windy Gap, albeit on its other side. What was clear from the first time I hit a gradient was that my leg strength isn't quite what it used to be. Obviously that didn't come as a surprise. I went over the hill twice in each direction, on one side it was an at times very steep climb of half a mile for about 200 feet elevation, on the other side it was a more gradual but longer climb of 300 feet elevation over a mile. Initially I was ambitious enough to try a strong steady pace for a minute or two going right over the top but on the second half I was content just to make it over the hill without a major crisis.

I did have a bit over a mile to spare for today's planned distance which I could have used for one extra climb on the steep side but decided that I had probably pushed my luck already for a first hill outing and headed for home and added a much flatter out-and-back instead.

Let's see how the legs will like this tomorrow and Friday!

6 Mar

7 miles, 57:09, 8:10 pace, HR 142

7 Mar

7 miles, 55:32, 7:55 pace, HR 145

8 Mar

10 miles, 1:24:06, 8:24 pace, HR 149

   hill run

And So It Begins

Belfast is 17 weeks from now. After a few months of slowly, slowly rebuilding after it all had come crushing down in Albi, I am now moving into the next training phase. I was really pleased with my progress in February and now we're pushing it to the next level. As always, this will require to have an eye on recovery - if I cannot recover from my training it won't do any good (something I definitely saw last year).

Relaxing, Labrador style

I took it easy after Wednesday's evaluation and the legs soon felt recovered but my back was a bit stiff on Thursday. While I did wonder what was going on I did not take too much notice. It was still the same on Friday morning but it got really bad during the office day and at times I did grimace when getting out of my chair when the muscle seemed to go into spasms. I also slept very badly that night because every time I moved the back would spasm and invariably wake me up. The problem area is on the left side of my back at the lower end of the rib cage. Putting some warm pad on the area seems to provide some temporary relief but overall this is a bit troubling.

I'm pretty sure this isn't running related. Running does not aggravate it, though I do feel it at times. The coach suspects the yoga, I suspect carrying a 10kg bag of dog food as the culprit. Niamh wants me to have it seen but, being an idiot (as in "male"), I'm inclined to give it a few days to see if it improves all on its own first. Sitting in the car for a few hours yesterday was unlikely to have helped, though.

Anyway, I awoke on Sunday morning to rather wild and unwelcoming conditions. Checking the forecast seemed to indicate that the rain might lessen in a few hours but the wind would pick up, which made this a tricky choice. I really did not fancy 90 minutes on the treadmill so I waited a bit for the worst of the rain to subside and headed out. I got about 200 metres down from our driveway when encountering a massive fallen tree across the road but managed to climb over it. Looks like it really had been windy through the night! The rest of the road was clear, thankfully, and I went to my usual bad-weather option on the Ard-na-Sidhe road. Running the same stretch of road forwards and back isn't all that stimulating but I got into autopilot mode and just cruised through it. I was surprised how easy it felt, even after 11 miles, my longest run in ages, I had plenty left in the tank despite the wind and rain making things interesting at times.

And so it begins.

2 Mar

7 miles, 55:58, 8:00 pace, HR 144

3 Mar

8 miles, 1:04:52, 8:06 pace, HR 142

4 Mar

7 miles, 54:28, 7:46 pace, HR 150

5 Mar

11 miles, 1:27:20, 7:56 pace, HR 149

The Flow

Another week, another evaluation. Is it just my advanced age or is time really flying?

Following the twin storms last week the temperatures tumbled, just when I thought I was more or less done with winter. It's now bright enough in the mornings to leave the headlamp behind but it was cold enough the freeze the fingers inside my thin gloves on Monday.

Never mind, I like it cold. I just don't like cold rain showers - which, of course, were in store a couple of times as well.

I think 9 miles on the treadmill were slightly easier on the body than 9 miles on the road because the legs and the numbers were both surprisingly good on Monday. Tuesday was different, though at least the legs weren't quite as sore as the shoulders after the yoga teacher had let her sadistic streak shine through. It was a bit surreal, though - on the way to class I was listening to Queens Of The Stone Age's Go With the Flow, only for the teacher to announce that today we were going to try out "flow yoga". I'm not normally subjected to premonitions. Anyway, Tuesday's run was almost exactly the same pace as Monday's but with the HR 4 beats higher. I reckon the yoga had added 2 beats and the biting wind another 2 but that's just a wild guess.

And then it was evaluation day again. Early in the warm up I saw the HR in the 130, which I had not seen in a very long time, but of course I then had to raise it for the eval itself.

       
        Mile 1    6:58   HR 161
        Mile 2    7:06   HR 161
        Mile 3    7:12   HR 161
        Mile 4    7:06   HR 161
        Recovery to HR 130: 46 seconds

I'm getting a bit quicker and the 4th mile looks pretty good, though I can't quite explain why the 3rd one was so much slower. Actually, the pace during the 4th mile came as a major surprise because I had definitely started to feel the effort by then, something that's not usually the case during an eval. The recovery time to 130 was rather slow, probably reflecting the same issue. But, all in all, this is pointing towards improvement.

I think I'll move the evaluation back to Thursday in the coming weeks. The legs weren't quite there yet and I'm sure they would have been perfectly fine had I waited until tomorrow.

27 Feb

7 miles, 55:20, 7:54 pace, HR 144

28 Feb

7 miles, 55:25, 7:55 pace, HR 148

1 Mar

8 miles, 1:01:28, 7:40 pace, HR 152

   incl. 4 mile eval: 6:58, 7:06, 7:12, 7:06; 46 sec recovery

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

Aguero Scores Again

As soon as I finished Sunday's run and saw the pace on the watch I knew there would have to be some payback. As much as I wish for it, my recovery still isn't anywhere near where it used to be and, sadly, 9 miles at 7:42 pace isn't something I just recover from overnight yet.

Monday was still somewhat ok but I could definitely feel the effects on Tuesday. Mind, it wasn't only Sunday's run, I also had Tuesday's customary post-yoga legs, and the fact that I was fighting gale force winds didn't exactly help.

In light of that it probably wasn't the best week to move the evaluation to Wednesday but there is a storm warning for Thursday, and one of the lessons from the past I actually remember is that there is no point to an evaluation when you're almost blown off the road with each step.

I knew straight away that the legs weren't at their best and it didn't come as a surprise that the numbers were a bit worse than last week. It wasn't exactly the calm before the storm either; in fact it was windy enough to make me move the evaluation to a different section of road. It was a bit more sheltered there and the wind came mostly from the side but it wasn't as flat as I would have liked. Ah well, running is an outdoors sport and dealing with the weather conditions is part of the game.

I had one more slight handicap. Last night I was watching the Champions League match at the Etihad, which was a good move, really, as it was the most exciting match in the history of the competition, but I paid for it by banging my knee against the coffee table when Aguero scored. I was afraid it would swell up but thankfully that didn't happen. It still felt stiff the next morning (in fact, it still does now) but out on the road I didn't even notice it.

       
        Mile 1    7:04   HR 161
        Mile 2    7:10   HR 162
        Mile 3    7:17   HR 161
        Mile 4    7:21   HR 161
        Recovery to HR 130: 45 seconds

That's worse than last week but, as mentioned, entirely expected. We'll see how it progresses. If I could change one thing about my training last week I'd slow down on Sunday. Overall, though, that's not that big a deal.

20 Feb

7 miles, 56:31, 8:04 pace, HR 142

21 Feb

7 miles, 56:03, 8:00 pace, HR 149

22 Feb

8 miles, 1:01:26, 7:40 pace, HR 154

   incl. 4 mile eval: 7:04, 7:10, 7:17, 7:21; 45 sec recovery

Progress Is Good

I think I've been on a bit of a high this weeks because after months and months of rather limited progress my fitness finally seems to be taking off. Not only did I post some impressive improvements in Thursday's evaluation, every run now is faster than a week or two ago with a lower HR and also a slightly lower effort.

The Oscar for cutest kitten goes to ...

I'll try and not get carried away just yet. I still haven't run double digits miles and just this morning (Sunday) I ran a bit faster than I should have. The fresh legs as well as the wind and rain made me do it (ok, that really is a lousy excuse). I got a bit of a reminder yesterday that recovery still isn't back to where it used to be when for the first 20 minutes of my run I kept wondering why there was no zip in the legs, until I remembered that evaluation on Thursday and this was obviously payback time. Having said that, it was a lot better than the week before and the legs came round during the run.

Maia is just about recovered from a cold. She had a temperature and missed three days of school. The impact on me was that she insisted on sleeping in mommy's bed, which meant I was exiled to the sofa. What I did not expect was sleeping incredibly well on that sofa, so much so that I would almost be tempted to make it my regular sleeping habit - alas, that wouldn't go down well with Niamh, so better not. Then Lola invited an entire pack of friends for a sleepover, and all the good sleep was wiped out in one go. Seven teenagers in one spot really do make a lot of noise until very, very late. Ah, the joys of parenting.

You know what? I can't wait until my next run. This stuff is great!

17 Feb

7 miles, 55:30, 7:55 pace, HR 143

18 Feb

7 miles, 54:43, 7:49 pace, HR 146

19 Feb

9 miles, 1:09:21, 7:42 pace, HR 151

Evaluating Progress

Usually I would be doing an evaluation every fortnight but for now we decided to go for a weekly session. The purpose is not so much to evaluate my form more often but to provide a moderate stimulus after all the easy running I've been doing, while still keeping an eye on my recovery and capacity for recovery.

Last week I did have some sore legs after the evaluation, so there is a definite need to be careful. On the other hand I managed to bounce back very well, so thing s are definitely improving. For the first few days of the week I seem to have settled into a slightly lower effort level with the HR distinctly lower than previously but somehow I'm still running 8-minute miles. Keep in mind that I'm not using my watch to guide the effort - I always run at whatever level comes naturally and only ever check the watch after arriving back home.

I had considered moving the evaluation to Wednesday but had my usual post-yoga legs on Tuesday and first wanted to make sure I had recovered and left it for Thursday.

Again, I used my old Garmin 310 for the evaluation. The Suunto seems to have issues with recognising u-turns and tends to cut off a few seconds each time. That's not a problem when running 7 miles with one u-turn in the middle but when you're doing an evaluation that consists of running half a mile each way four times then 2 u-turns per mile do add up and the Suunto data just doesn't seem to be very accurate in that respect.

Anyway, the Garmin's numbers came up as:

       
        Mile 1    7:03   HR 162
        Mile 2    7:13   HR 162
        Mile 3    7:10   HR 162
        Mile 4    7:11   HR 162
        Recovery to HR 130: 39 seconds

I had to promise not to focus too much on the numbers but they did make me happy nevertheless as they are so much better than last week it's hard to believe that there are only 7 days between the 2 workouts - faster, much more even and with a significantly faster recovery time. Now, if I had learned to run by just 1 single heart beat per minute less it would have been almost perfect.

13 Feb

7 miles, 56:44, 8:06 pace, HR 144

14 Feb

7 miles, 56:21, 8:03 pace, HR 145

15 Feb

7 miles, 55:58, 7:59 pace, HR 144

16 Feb

8 miles, 1:00:58, 7:37 pace, HR 156

   incl. 4 mile eval: 7:03, 7:13, 7:10, 7:11; 39 sec recovery

Slowly, Slowly

Having come back slowly from my overtraining, I had forgotten what it feels like to run on sore legs. I did get a reminder after Thursday's workout, moderate as it had been. Friday was still okay, just a little bit of heaviness in the legs but that's okay.

I made the error on Saturday of starting too fast. Granted, a 7:35 mile isn't exactly devastating pace but I always use the first mile as my warm up and it tends to be the slowest mile of the day, but for some reason my effort gauge was off that day. That's alway a potential problem when you run by feel without consulting the watch, I guess. By mile 2 I already started to feel the effort and dialled it back a bit but by the time I hit the turnaround point and now felt the icy northeasterly wind in my face I wished I had taken it a bit easier to start with.

I was only 3.5 miles from home so obviously I made it back without any real problems, but it did serve as a reminder of what the legs can feel like when you're in training.

By Sunday all was fine again and I did extend the run by another mile to 9. Woohoo. I battled the same conditions as on Saturday with an icy cold wind from Scandinavia making things a bit more interesting but as long as it remains dry it can stay like that as far as I'm concerned. Extending the run also gave me an extra decent sized hill, which is definitely a good thing.

Slowly, slowly, we're turning up the training load. It's 4 and a half months until Belfast, still plenty of time to get some endurance back into the old body.

10 Feb

7 miles, 56:23, 8:03 pace, HR 146

11 Feb

7 miles, 54:33, 7:47 pace, HR 151

12 Feb

9 miles, 1:11:51, 7:59 pace, HR 148

Analyse This

I don't think anyone can accuse me of being impatient during the present training cycle. After taking a month off late in October I started back on 19 November and for almost 3 months I have done nothing but easy running, the lactate test with the team being the one exception, and I wouldn't have done that one if left to my own devices.

This morning, after almost 3 months of jogging it felt pretty good to do a workout for once. A modest one of course. The evaluation workout is MC's preferred method to test training progress, and apart from providing a baseline of my present state of fitness it also should have provided me with a modest stimulus that will hopefully be felt in the near future.

The last month had been going very well and the numbers had finally shown signs of going noticeably upwards, despite me being hampered by a succession of mild colds. It therefore seemed safe enough to crank up the dial, if only very slightly.

The evaluation workout consists of a warm up and then 4 miles of holding the heart rate as steady as possible at 161 (that's for me, with a max HR of about 190). Then you come to a complete stop and measure how long it takes for the HR to recover to 130.

Because my Suunto Ambit 2, while being a very fine running watch in almost every other aspect, isn't particularly good with workouts, I dug out my battered old Garmin 310 for the morning (in fact, I wore both). I had two sources of slight stress: one, to remember to press the correct buttons on the Garmin at the appropriate times, which I just about managed with a few minor hickups along the way, and two, not to go into complete meltdown when analysing the numbers and comparing them to what they used to be like when I was in good shape (and younger).

Well, it ended up as follows:

       
        Mile 1    7:06   HR 161
        Mile 2    7:16   HR 162
        Mile 3    7:18   HR 162
        Mile 4    7:28   HR 162
        Recovery to HR 130: 53 seconds

Actually, considering the last few months that could have been worse. It was not the slowest evaluation I have ever done (close), it wasn't the biggest difference between the first and the last mile (close), but it was indeed the longest recovery time since records began (close). The idea now is to repeat the process and see the numbers improve as training progresses. If they don't then I'll have to change things, obviously. That's why you evaluate stuff, for objective feedback. It's preferable to guessing.

One quirky note: my fastest mile of the day was actually the second "warm up" mile because I had to work to get my HR up to 161. Usually I would have done 4 miles of warming up to enable me to gradually increase the HR but that would have resulted in too long a run. I'll have to tweak that format.

6 Feb

7 miles, 55:32, 7:55 pace, HR 151

   Super Bowl induced sleep deprivation

7 Feb

7 miles, 58:59, 8:25 pace, HR 144

   Feeling a bit under the weather

8 Feb

7 miles, 55:24, 7:54 pace, HR 147

9 Feb

7 miles, 53:52, 7:38 pace, HR 156

   incl. 4 mile eval: 7:06, 7:16, 7:18, 7:28; 53 sec recovery

Some People

World Record holder

Did you know there are world records for running long distances in full fireman gear? I happen to know the guy who owns the world record for running a marathon in full gear. Incidentally, I was running the same marathon at the time and remember passing him at mile 17. Even more incidentally, I also know the guy who held the record before Alex broke it.

And if that's not mad enough, as of yesterday I also know the guy who has the world record for running 100k in full fireman gear, which now stands at 15:10. If you think that's a bit slow, he took over 7 hours off the previous record. And if you think those are meaningless gimmicks, well, I know where you're coming from but I can assure you that both world record holders are serious runners at international level. Anyway, Congratulations, Andi!

My own running isn't quite at record level right now but it is clearly improving, despite being slightly hampered by yet another annoying cold. Niamh had it a few days ago and now it's my turn. I had a sore throat during the week which was barely noticeable but now I can feel a slight restriction in my chest and my energy levels aren't quite there, though my resting HR is fine and my running HR is actually improving, so it can't be that bad.

The temperatures have dropped towards zero again but I can handle that pretty well (better than my car by the looks of it). It's only when it's mixed with icy cold rain and wind that I don't like it, not that it stops me from running.

My sleep pattern has slipped again; after being quite disciplined at going to bed early for a few weeks my resolve has started to slide again and I can feel the difference straight away. That needs to be sorted out asap, the effect of too little sleep is real and it's not small either. You can forget about marginal gains when you're still yet to get the basics right,

2 Feb

8 miles, 1:03:42, 7:57 pace, HR 153

3 Feb

7 miles, 56:52, 8:07 pace, HR 146

4 Feb

7 miles, 54:15, 7:45 pace, HR 150

5 Feb

8 miles, 1:01:58, 7:44 pace, HR 149

Consistency

On Monday morning, my legs felt heavy.

Last year that would not have been unusual. My legs felt heavy basically all the way from July to September (not that I admitted it, even to myself at the time).

But this year has been different. Apart from a few post-yoga Tuesdays I have felt pretty good on most of my runs, so this was notable. I presume it had something to do with running 8 miles instead of 7 twice that week but that was such a small increase in load that I would not have expected a noticeable impact. I sure never felt tired after any run and an 8 mile run felt exactly the same as a 7 mile run.

Things were still a little bit off on Tuesday, though this could have been the yoga again. But it was enough to keep the mileage at 7 on Wednesday instead of the 8 I had originally planned.

Crikey, is one single extra mile really worth all that naval gazing? Probably not, so let's move on quickly.

I'm not entirely sure if my throat is slightly sore or if I'm merely imagining it. Either case it's unlikely to be serious and I guess I'll know in a couple of days. The numbers have dipped again, though that's perfectly in line with the usual up-and-down pattern.

Just carry on as usual. That's what makes a runner. Consistency. It's not flashy. But it works.

30 Jan

7 miles, 57:25, 8:12 pace, HR 144

31 Jan

7 miles, 57:17, 8:11 pace, HR 148

1 Feb

7 miles, 56:41, 8:05 pace, HR 149

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