Once, Twice, Three Times A Lady aka Oops I Did It Again (reprise)

If you read my blog about last week you’ll realise why I had no energy to run on Monday afternoon by the time I was back from court.  I was still pretty wiped out on Tuesday, but plodded a steady 10 miles.  On Wednesday morning I ran 5 miles steady and – for some reason – realised that it was the final Weston Prom Run of the 2018/2019 series the following day.  Now that I wasn’t going to be in court all day every day this week, I might actually make it!

And so it came to pass that on Thursday I was racing for the second time this year.  I felt rubbish warming up: legs like lead and the wind (frequently not great on the Weston-Super-Mare shoreline) was pretty frisky.  Even when I’d changed into racing shoes and done some strides and a few plyometrics, I still felt pretty apprehensive.  I knew I’d managed around 6.25m/m the previous week for just over 3 miles on an undulating course, so I figured that a fairly similar sort of pace would be a sensible target.  The gun went and I settled into a fairly comfortable rhythm.  First mile: 6.24 or thereabouts.  Second mile: 6.24 or thereabouts.  Third mile: 6.27.  By the third mile I’d slightly surprised myself by overtaking most of the ladies, and I could see the first and second placed ladies something like 20 metres ahead.  Fourth mile: 6.27.  The final turn is 1 mile from the finish, and the three of us were still within spitting distance of each other, as I had reeled the other two in.  There was everything to play for, ignoring the fact that the prize of a bottle of wine is the same for each of the top three, and so it was only whatever bragging rights your local 5 mile race gives you!  Fifth mile: 6.29.  Although my breathing was fairly comfortable, I didn’t have another gear when I needed it, so although I finished fairly close to the other two ladies, there was no way my current fitness would have enabled me to catch them as they put in strong closing miles.  (All of my splits were using Garmin autolap as there aren’t mile marks on the course, and I know my Garmin slightly under-measured, as it reckoned I ran 5.02 miles rather than 5 dead, hence my finishing time of 32.18 is slightly ‘out’ relative to the sum of my splits!).  But it was really fun to race again, and although my finishing time is a good 2 minutes shy of my PB, it’s a good starting point on this road back to full fitness.  Plus there were free chips at the end 🙂  And more seriously, tempo runs are great fitness builders, so give it another month or so and I’ll hopefully reap the benefits.

I had an early start for a hearing in Gloucester on Friday, so ran a steady 6 miles that evening.  I could definitely feel the race in my legs, and pace was gentle.  Saturday morning’s 6 miler was also pretty gentle as if anything the DOMS in my legs was worse.  Who knew 5 miles at what was once marathon pace could leave such a mark!  I spent some quality time with my foam roller on Saturday evening to smooth out some of the sore points on my legs.

I rounded my week off with 13 miles, mostly off road and with some decent climbs thrown in.  A steady 8.12m/m.  That makes 50 miles for the week, which feels like a significant milestone.  I’m still not throwing caution to the wind and building rapidly, but I’m getting there.

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Cutbacks and Comebacks

Last week was mostly spent working.  I was due to start a big trial this week, albeit by the end of the week it looked unlikely we would start (as has proved to be the case, hence I’m blogging on a Tuesday afternoon), so there was a lot of reading to be done.  That, coupled with the fact I’d done 6 consecutive weeks of increased mileage, meant I was due a cut back week.  So after a rest day on Monday, I only did runs of 5 or 6 miles Tuesday-Friday, although I did a few strides on Thursday just to turn the legs over.

The final reason for the reduced mileage was to try and let my legs freshen up ahead of my return to racing: the British Masters Athletics Federation Road Relays (basically, a race for over 35s only.  Be gone, youngsters!).  For my age group (35-44), it was a team of 4 of us, and I was running leg 3.  We were in Sutton Park, which is fairly described as undulating: there are no huge hills, but there’s rarely a decent flat stretch where you can get into a rhythm, particularly as the course is a bit twisty/turny.  But I’ve a lot of happy memories racing in Sutton Park (the Midlands and National Road Relays are also held there, so if, like me, you are a veteran/masters athlete running for a Midlands affiliated club, you get to run there something like 6 times a year, if you’d like).  The course was just over 5km and so I figured something around 20 minutes would be reasonable given my (lack of) fitness.  I was lucky enough to have a fair few people to chase down ahead of me, especially as we were racing at the same time as the 45-54 ladies (don’t underestimate them and think that made catching them easy: there are some very, very fast 45-54 year old runners out there!), and made up 4 places for our team, taking over in 12th place and finishing in 8th.  Although we weren’t able to leap into the medals on the closing leg, it was still lovely to see team-mates again and to blow those racing cobwebs away.  Oh, and my prediction was pretty much spot on: 20.02!  Thanks as always to Bryan Dale for the excellent (and free!) race photos:

I finished the week with 10 miles easy ahead of a long day in chambers.  38 miles for the week.  Ready for a few more this week!

Ups and Downs

I started this week with very tired legs: it’s amazing what a tough parkrun followed by 11 miles the next day can do to muscles which just aren’t used to working that hard any more!  On a more practical level, I also did a 5 mile recovery run on Monday.  On Tuesday I made the most of being in court in the afternoon to do my 10 mile run in the morning.  My legs still felt a bit tired, but not as stiff and achy as they had on Monday.

Wednesday morning was miserable: wet and gloomy.  I was quite pleased it was time for a rest day.  Wednesday afternoon was wonderful, because T came home after just over a week away 🙂

On Thursday morning I did 6 miles with 12 sets of strides and then on Friday morning a steady 5 miles.  This was to let the legs freshen up ahead of Saturday’s Return To Speedwork: 10 miles including 4 x 1 mile (well, 1,600m rather than 1,609 on the basis there’s a marked 2km point and a marked 400m point on the Portway) fast with 2 minutes of jogging between each mile.  The first one was a bit cautious: 6.32, to see how it felt.  I was braver in the second: 6.17.  And pretty much matched that in the third: 6.18.  I slowed a fraction in the fourth: 6.21.  But overall, for a first workout after about 3 months when all I’d done of late other than steady running was strides once or twice a week, that was pretty ok.

That just left today.  It was a gorgeous morning and I couldn’t quite face a sensible flat route (they are few and far between in Bristol and so I know my local flat routes rather too well after all these injuries), so I headed off into the surrounding countryside for some trails and hills.  It wasn’t super fast, but it was great fun!  Here’s what my Garmin reckons the elevation profile was (with the caveat that Garmins aren’t always quite right…):

Putting My Toes Into The Water

This week I was not working: it was originally going to be my Post Marathon Week of Sloth, but clearly I couldn’t justify one, as the essential prerequisite is to run a marathon.  However, I thought I did need a Week of Sloth, so kept the week booked out in my diary.  Hurrah!  On Monday I did 6 miles steady and on Tuesday 10 miles ahead of a sports massage.  I can’t quite remember when I last had one, but it had been ages.  The general verdict was my legs were ok, a few uneven tight spots (left quad and right hamstring are tighter than their opposite numbers) but not too bad.

I took Wednesday as a rest day: partly because I’d had a massage the day before, but also because I was off to London for the day.  Partly to see a fabric conservator about some lace (beats seeing a man about a dog) and also to catch up with a friend I hadn’t seen in ages.  It was a long-ish day, and the cats were certainly waiting impatiently for their dinner when I returned!

On Thursday I ran 5 miles with some strides, and my legs felt lovely and springy, having had their kinks smoothed out on Tuesday and then rested the day before.  I ran 5 miles steady on Friday, because I wanted to find out what sort of shape I’m currently in by doing Ashton Court parkrun on Saturday.  The answer was ‘not too bad’: 20.38 for 5km.  Now, you have to remember that AC is the course which contains the Hill of Difficulty (my Garmin reckons that whilst I gained 94m of elevation, I only lost 90m.  The mind boggles!) and so my splits were beautifully uneven: 7.29, 6.48, 5.44, 35s.  Allowing for the climbing I reckon that puts me in about 20-dead shape on the flat.  Far from great, and a long way from where I was, but a benchmark to check against.

I look pretty serious, but I did enjoy parkrun, I promise!

This morning my quads let me know that I had hammered down the Hill of Difficulty the day before.  Ooof!  Still, they co-operated with my 11 mile run at a reasonable pace to bring up 46 miles for the week.  I had a fairly quick turnaround at home before heading out to support my friends and clubmates doing the Bristol 10k.  A pleasant end to a Week of Sloth.  Although cycling back up Bridge Valley Road post-race supporting was not Slothful!