I ventured back out on the streets of the Northside for my first regular training run in almost four weeks. Back into training mode again with the new focus on the Lanzarote marathon on December 6th. I booked a holiday to the island before I knew this was on but once I realised well there was no way I could refuse the temptation really! So, 5 weeks til race day and I hope I don’t lose any of the current fitness and aim to step it up a little bit before a 2 week taper.
This being my first run back I decided to take it handy and so it was a gentle, recovery-paced run. I allowed myself the shorter loop of just 6.5km as well and thankfully all vital signs are good. A few slight niggles but I think that’s more from lying around for the past week than anything to do with running!
Tuesday, 5th November, 2013 - 11.9km MP Run (4:46/km)
Again I was intending to do nothing too fast but after my first km registered sub 5:00 I decided to push on as I was feeling good. Ended up settling into slightly less than MP pace, but my effort showed an elevated HR so I was happy enough with the output. Surprised to have hit a faster run so soon but gotta take advantage of these types of opportunities when they arise!
Wednesday, 6th November, 2013 - 7.4km Recovery Run (5:24/km)
Just another Recovery paced run this evening. The legs appreciated the relaxed effort and I kept it to the shorter 7.4km loop to ensure I maximised the recovery aspect.
Thursday, 7th November, 2013 - 7.4km Recovery Run (5:36/km)
Another recovery run as the legs were still a bit non-responsive after Tuesday. More a maintenance run with a long one to come tomorrow.
Friday, 8th November, 2013 - 31.0km LSR (5:41/km)
Seeing as I felt my lack of LSRs let me down a bit in Chicago I want to make sure I do 3 sufficiently long runs before Lanzarote (the plan is for the other two to be approx 35km with some MP thrown in). The MP miles earlier in the week though had left me reeling for longer than expected so I had no intentions of including any faster stuff in this LSR. I decided on an out & back route, with the turnaround to be approx 15-16km into the run.
The first quarter to the Clontarf seafront was relaxed yet when I got to the wind monument things got even easier again as the view over Dublin Bay made things go quicker. By the time I reached the halfway point in Sutton though things were feeling real again and when I turned around the cold breeze was in my face. This woke me up for a while but before long the legs started to sag a little.
By the time I was back at the monument I was really plodding along and for the final 7km it was a real struggle. Thankfully it never got to a case of where I considered walking but I was definitely happy to be finished this run. I could feel my calves being really tight and did a mini-stretch afterwards. However, when in the shower I was having to do a bit of a jig in order to relieve the calf soreness. First time I had this in a long time so I can only presume that its all the after effects of the past month combined with doing the MP run a little too soon.
Saturday, 9th November, 2013 - Rest Day.
My plan was to run the St. Anne’s Parkrun this morning but I was knackered so decided to have a lie-in instead. Even when getting out of bed I could feel the aches and stiffness so I gave up on the idea of running today.
Sunday, 10th November, 2013 - 8.1km Easy Run (5:11/km)
I went out for what had planned to be a 13km run to bring me over the 80km mark but after a while I knew I should really take it easy. I ran two slow kms before pushing on a little bit on the downhill past DCU. This didn’t feel too easy though so when the downhill finished at the Swords Road/Griffith Avenue junction I eased back to a plod to get home. Surprisingly though when I finished the run I noticed the pace wasn’t that bad overall.
Week 45 Summary:
RTW: 6 from 7 days
DTW: 74.4 km
DTY: 3,463.8 km
So, a decent week’s mileage on my return but if I’m honest I think I should have given myself a much easier week instead. Think I will try and be more focused in my running next week and take a couple of recovery days as rest days instead. The Stook 10 miler is on Sunday and I think I will run that at MP pace with a few kms beforehand and afterwards. So, the goal time will be 75mins.
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