from Diary of a rubbish marathon runner were the words used by the weather forecast last night to describe the –6C degrees expected overnight. I did laugh at that, pointing out to Niamh that in countries where it actually does get cold, this would not qualify for the term bitterly. She agreed, but mentioned that it’s all relative, and for Ireland that’s a lot colder than usual. The weather has been good recently, and I did not have to run in rain for weeks. Since this caused my pneumonia a year ago, I’m rather grateful for the break. We did have some overnight rain on Monday, but luckily, and against the forecast, it had already cleared by the time I started my run.
With yet another race on the calendar for Sunday I decided to train through again but take the edge of some of the workouts to leave a semblance of life in the old legs. Accordingly I cut my long run from the originally planned 20 miles down to 18. Last Friday my legs had become progressively heavier over the Caragh Lake loop, but on Monday they felt so much better. I took a few sips of water after completing the 15 miles loop and then added another 3 miles. The pace on those dropped to 7:24, and I could have run faster. After feeling rather flat since basically the Dublin marathon I slowly notice some fizz returning. I’m nowhere near where I want to be yet, but I do notice an improvement.
The temperatures didn’t quite reach –6C here in Kerry, that was reserved for the midlands, but it was about –2C/28F both today and yesterday morning, and if you’re not used to that it does indeed feel very cold. Maybe the weather forecast on the telly had been right after all. Yesterday I was really slow, but the day after a long run I do not take much notice of the pace. It would have been interesting to get some HR data because I can usually tell from the HR on those runs where my fitness is heading, but I won’t be wearing the HR strap until the chafing on my left side has abated (next week, I suppose).
I was supposed to go faster today, as a fartlek was on program. Since I had so much fun last Sunday I decided to do that again rather than try to run mile repeats at some set pace. This didn’t quite go as planned; each time I tried to dip below 7:00 pace I ran into troubles, and I wasn’t too happy with that performance. I have two explanations for this. Either the unaccustomed temperatures are affecting my legs, or the fact that a very nasty work situation is very heavy on my mind is playing havoc with me. I’m very grateful to be a runner as it is the only release I have at the moment. I have never felt as low and depressed as I did on Tuesday, and the knowledge that things won’t improve in the near future doesn’t help.
5 Jan
18.1 miles, 2:23:59, 7:57 pace
6 Jan
12 miles, 1:41:30, 8:28 pace
7 Jan
12 miles fartlek, 1:32:08, 7:41 pace