Oct 2nd- 7th
Mon: 35 min easy
Tue: 10 min WU, 8 x 400 @ 90 (45), 10 min CD
Wed: 35 min easy
Thur: 10 min WU, 3 x 5 min @ 4:05 km pace (60), 10 min CD Complete. Reps a little faster but always comfortable. 11.03km total.
Fri: off Complete (Sat 35 mins). Treadmill. 10 mins at 4:15. 10 mins at 4:00
Sat: 35 min (Friday off). 4km headspace.
Weekly total – 44.35km.
Oct 8th- 14th
Sun: 70 min Complete. 16.11km (4:21).
Mon: 35 min easy Complete. Treadmill. 7.6km.
Tue: 15 min WU, 10 x 400 @ 90 (45), 15 min CD Complete. 84, 80, 79, 80, 83, 86, 86, 80, 80, 78. Ran to threshold. 9.84km total.
Wed: 35 min easy Complete. Treadmill. 7.6km
Thur: 15 min WU, 3 x 6 min @ 4:05 km pace (60), 15 min CD Complete. Treadmill. Reps at 3:43 pace. Felt good. 11.4km total.
Fri: off
Sat: 40 min Complete. Two reps up Khyber. 9.33km.
Weekly total – 61.88km.
Oct 15th-21st
Sun: 75 min Complete. Trails and grass. 16.03km.
Mon: 35 min easy Complete. 7.48km.
Tue: 15 min WU, 2k @ 4:10k pace (400m jog) 8 x 400 @ 88 (45), 15 min CD Complete. Treadmill. Scaled up as inside and felt good. 2k @ 3:52. 9 x 400m off 45 secs (80 per 400m) 13.2km total.
Wed: 35 min easy Complete. 7.42km.
Thur: 15 min WU, 3 x 7 min @ 4:05 km pace (60), 15 min CD Complete. Reps 3:50ish. 12.08km total.
Fri: off headspace. 4.01km.
Sat: 45 min Complete. 9.47km
Weekly total – 69.69 km
The beginning of all rebuilding phases starts with one thing – pints. Not too many that you lose all semblance of fitness and routine and put on 10kgs, but enough to give you a few decent nights out with hangovers that make you remember, in case you forgot, how truly awful the DTs are.
One thing that is worse than the DT’s – COVID. What is something I now also have? Yes – COVID. I’ve been stricken down by the new iteration of the dystopian virus that seized control of the world in 2020. I’ve got all the familiar aches and pains, the cough and the overall feeling that the number 16 bus has clocked me on the Drumcondra Road. No matter though, COVID will wear off in a week or so and I’ll be able to begin resuming training again.
The most annoying thing is that I can really start to see the training taking shape in the last few weeks. The volume is much less and the intensity is far lower but at least I am starting to feel somewhat near normal. As well as the paces being kind, I am also being kind by using the treadmill for some of the workouts. It’s been great for managing the effort and allows me to increase the paces slightly over and above what Seán has prescribed while maintaining the desired effort.
When starting again after a hard effort, or an illness or injury, I have found that surrendering yourself and being honest to where your fitness and body is can be a hard one to take. At all times, I am not walking around in 5k, 10k, half marathon or marathon PB shape, but it’s also easy to begin to identify your running and fitness with those times. It’s safe to say that doing 400m reps on a treadmill in 80 seconds is a great way to make yourself honest.
There has been a noticeable shift in the weather recently, too. Outside of all the storms and insane weather, the temperature has dropped and it seems to be consistently windier than it has been in the recent months. As well as that, we are on the cusp of the clocks changing and the short, dark evenings being upon us so it’s high time I dig out my head torch for mega cool safety points when I’m running in the Phoenix Park in the dark. Before the weather had totally turned cat, I was making use of some of the trails in the Phoenix Park, something I absent mindedly neglect during most of the spring and summer months and then rue not using them enough. Maybe next year!
As for now, as I am in the midst of a COVID fever dream and all of my joints are aching, I wish only that symptoms from this damned virus would relent and allow me to start being a really slow runner again. There is always next week.
Buckets of Rain 