July 22nd – July 28th
Mon: 35 min easy + 5 x 15 sec strides + 5 min.
Complete. 10.37km (49 mins total).
https://www.strava.com/activities/11951213573
Tue: 15 min WU, 5 x 400 @ 90 (30/90) 6-7 x 1k @ 3:35 (60), 15 min CD. Complete on track. 80, 82, 80, 79, 78 + 3:29, 3:26, 3:28, 3:27, 3:27, 3:27, 3:22. 16.56km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11957777069
Wed: 60 min easy.
Complete. 12.67km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11970908724
Thur: 15 min WU, 14km (1k @ 3:45, 1k @ 4:05) 15 min CD.
Complete. Hard, tired, windy and warm. 23.8km total.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11979914737
Fri: off
Sat: 30 min easy.
Complete on Friday. 6.38km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/11987492452
July 28th-Aug 3rd Sun: 105 min (steady from 50 min-80 min).
Complete. Steady pace around 3:50. 25km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/12000378824
The main thing I wanted out of this week was to have not pain in the toe and no pain in the arse. The toe pain isn’t something I can really do too much about (save for a trip to the podiatrist (coming soon)) but I put a focus on performing the exercises that the physio set out to give my glute every change of recovering. It may come as no surprise to most people but when a physiotherapist diagnoses an issue and prescribes specific exercises to remediate the issue, you can actually resolve the problem. It seems as the issue is now at bay but I will not count the chickens just yet; I will keep up the exercises and insert some additional hip opening work to hopefully prevent recurrence.
I had planned to take Friday off work, which ended up not happening, so I moved my schedule around and was to be at home on Tuesday so could do my session on the track. I set out early and was warming up by 7am. Depending on which route you go, he track is either a kilometre or a mile jog from my house so it is ideal to get the warm up done. I had a rice heavy dinner the evening before and woke up feeling still full. I opted to not eat anything before I started running and instead just had some water and coffee. This was ultimately a good decision as I didn’t bonk and didn’t ever feel close to it as I was running but there was a lot of neurosis as I set out the door wondering if I was under fuelled. The session went well and was basically a repeat of last week only a touch faster and with one extra kilometre rep. When I do these on the track, I can feel the tangible benefits of fitness as they are becoming ever so easier and less taxing, all while the pace slowly creeps up. Important to note that the paces aren’t too spicy at all, especially the 400’s, but it is great for the confidence when the workouts are… working.
What didn’t work, however, was my session Thursday. I ran easy on Wednesday around Lucan and felt good for Thursday. The session was 14km of alternating paces and a decent marathon volume session. I was in the office in work and ended up having lunch early and not eating an adequate enough snack before heading out the door. The entirety of the warm up I was bargaining with myself to just not run today and to run tomorrow but ultimately talked myself off the ledge and went for it. From the first kilometre, I felt like ass. Legs were heavy, breathing laboured, sweating profusely; this run had it all. The off kilometres (around 4:00 each) did not feel like any type of recovery and I basically found myself running too slow and then surging up to 4:00 pace or running to quick and drastically slowing down to get to 4:00. In short, I couldn’t find any rhythm at all. The faster kilometres felt better because the legs felt better turning over but I was still working way harder than I would have liked. I also fucked up the route and ended up finishing with the last fast kilometre going down hill (oh cool) but the last recovery kilometre going up Khyber Hill (oh no!). Not wanting to alter the pace for the hill, my ego kicked in and I kept the 4:00 pace up Khyber and slowly, but surely, put myself in a giant hole as I finished up at the car. I did the route on the Acres for the warm down, my brain in the same dark place as the warm up only now I was chastising myself for doing the session. I won’t make the mistake again of under fuelling for these marathon sessions and will adjust the day I do them so as to not be in the office and allow myself prep better.
I moved Saturday’s jog to Friday and did 30 minutes around Turret Road – more on this destination later. The Sunday long run was next up with a 30 minute steady section in the 105 minute run. Barry joined for the first 50 minutes and I was lucky to have Adam throughout on the bike, doing The Lord’s work. Myself and Barry ran easy down to the river and looped back up to outside the park. We ambled towards Stoneybatter and this was when the 50 minutes were up and the steady section began. I left Barry at the corner of Oxmanstown Road and picked up the pace to about 3:57ish. I wasn’t paying too much attention to the watch for this section and was just gauging off effort. Surprisingly, the paces didn’t fluctuate too much and the route took me back into the park, up to the Castleknock roundabout and back to the Acres for a rendezvous with Barry to round out the rest of the run. I’m glad I didn’t look at the watch too much, specifically the HR, as it was much higher than I thought for all sections of the run. My HR was up in the high 170’s for parts of it but it just didn’t feel like that at all. It was quite warm so maybe it was an effect of the heat but I would be confident enough that the sketchy definition of “steady running” can be applied here.
Next week is largely more of the same, but please do tune in.
Buckets of Rain 