Oct 29th- Nov 4th
Sun: 80 min. COVID, didn’t run.
Mon: 40 min easy Complete.8.45km.https://www.strava.com/activities/10129366065
Tue: 15 min WU, 2k @ 4:10k pace (400m jog) 10 x 400 @ 88 (45), 15 min CD
Complete. Treadmill. Reps controlled. 13km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/10137461167
Wed: 40 min easy Complete. 8.31km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/10143420282
Thur: 15 min WU, 3 x 9 min @ 4:05 km pace (60), 15 min CD Complete. Reps at 4:00, 3:59 and 3:59. 13.16km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/10149037202
Fri: off
Sat: 15 min WU, 8 x 30 sec hills (easy jog back), 15 min CD Complete. Reps on Khyber. Session done on Thursday due to Jay’s wedding. 9.24km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/10152452009
Weekly total – 52.16km.
There is always a next week and that next week was this week. After a pretty shite bout of COVID, and an amazing result for Emma in her first marathon where we celebrated with an insane amount of pizza, the health turned a corner at the weekend since COVID left me. I waited until the Monday to run again and didn’t feel too many ill effects of the virus. I was, however, full of Dominoes. My resting heart rate is a little higher than it was and my breathing is not 100% yet but making tracks in the right direction.
I resumed training properly this week and I’m really happy with how it went, all things considered. The Tuesday session was on the treadmill again which I find has really helped me in controlling the 400m reps. I’ve sped the treadmill up a tad to account for zero wind resistance but always remaining at the comfortable effort. Thursday’s session was in the Phoenix Park and I really enjoyed this one. It was dark, I had no glasses and I had no head torch, so I was hyperaware of every step I was taking to avoid crashing into something or someone. This meant I didn’t focus too much on the watch but still ran within the prescribed paces. I felt great after finishing it too and I am partly putting that down to the three Billy Idol tunes that finished out the playlist (White Wedding, Rebel Yell and Eyes Without A Face if you’re wondering. Eyes Without A Face does not get the recognition it deserves. It’s a synth driven melody and a complete departure from the more guitar based rock of the other two more famous songs, but still contains a bridge that is mainly guitar. Although the song is from the Rebel Yell album, it contains few similarities to the other tracks. It’s a masterpiece).
I moved the Saturday hill session to Friday due to the wedding of two dear friends, Jay and Svenja. Although it isn’t ideal to have two hard efforts back to back, the hills are short and I am not going all out. I did them on Khyber on Friday morning and it was nice and quiet. My legs felt pretty good after it – it’s basically free S&C. I’ve been incorporating Khyber into most of my runs in the Park to get an even bigger pay off from the free S&C, none more so than on Sunday. 80 minutes with Barry and he threw a curveball of doing the river run in Memorial Park, including that bastard hill, and then on the way back into the Park, hung a left and went up the back of the Magazine Fort. If that wasn’t enough, Captain Whelan had us turn right and up the hill from the S Bends to the 15 Acres AND THEN a 3km pickup to finish off. I’m not sure what the definition of cruel and unusual punishment is, but putting an anemic man recovering from the death virus through that suffering surely qualifies.
Thankfully I came through this paddling from Barry, and the week of training from Seán, in good health and even better spirits to keep on building. Next week is similar sessions and intensity with the volume starting to slightly increase. Jingle Bells 5k in 4 weeks.
Buckets of Rain 