Recovery week

Another satisfying week:) I was a bit unsure about how I was going to approach this microcycle. After two weeks of hard training, I was probably due for a cutback microcycle, but at the same time, I knew I only had two weeks until I'd start tapering for the Run Melbourne Half, so it was tempting to just train through it. In the end, I decided to take it by feel and have a recovery week if I felt like I needed one.

After Monday's workout, I was convinced that I'd be able to keep training hard. Not only was I not sore from the 7 hours of exercise on Sunday, I actually ran a PB for my magneto loop, cruising round at 4:31 pace including a big push down the back stretch where I hit 3:50 pace. So I was feeling pretty good after that, but the feeling sure didn't last!

The next day I was feeling pretty tired, struggling to stay awake at work, and when I went out to do my hill run, I realised how completely flattened I was. After only six reps (I was aiming for 13), I was done and dusted. My muscles were quivering and the 100m walk home seemed to last an eternity. Managed to make up the difference on the cross trainer, but I was still feeling pretty toasted.

I tried to do a morning run after getting a decent amount's sleep, but again, my legs seemed to have no strength in them at all and I called it quits after a quarter of an hour. Felt a lot better that night. Even though the pace was dismal, it felt quite comfortable and I felt like I was recovering. By this stage, I had decided to make it a recovery week and do a bit of a taper for an 8k time trial on Saturday.

So I took Thursday and Friday fairly easily, only doing half an hour both days but still not feeling 100% in spite of this.

Getting up early on Saturday morning was just dreadful! My alarm went off at 6 and I was so close to just going back to sleep, but somehow managed to drag myself out after lying there for a few minutes. Riding to the tan, I felt strangely unco-ordinated and despite knowing that I'd need to ride pretty fast to get there on time, I couldn't really seem to summon the effort. The race was due to start at 7:30 and I got there at just after 20 past, scurried around to work out how exactly things worked with regards to getting a handicap and then started off on a quick two minute jog, which was all the time I thought I had. I needn't have worried. Things didn't really kick off until 10 minutes later and then I still had 14 minutes to wait thanks to my handicap. I told the guy I'd run it in 30 minutes because I figured that's the best I could do if I were feeling great, and maybe, just maybe, if there was someone to pull me along, I might be able to get there. I was feeling pretty apprehensive, calculating the odds on coming dead, flat last, but ended up thinking "Screw it! I'll just go out and try to enjoy it. If I can't hold on, I can't hold on."

There were four other guys going off at 14:00. I kind of like the concept. It's always very motivating chasing people down and I liked the fact that anyone could win if they ran a PB. 13:59 ticked over, and we were off! It felt absolutely fine, not a trace of soreness despite the bike ride and the warning signs yesterday. It always amazes me how 3:40 pace could feel so effortless when I never run anywhere near that fast in training:) I didn't really know what to expect for this time trial, because I knew if it was just me, I wouldn't pace myself well and would either underperform, because I wouldn't have anyone to pull me along, or I'd go out too fast and die a long death. It ended up being the latter, but it didn't feel too bad:)

We paced off this guy in his thirties for about the first km, and when we hit it in 3:41 and started up Anderson St, I let go of the rope and so did the other guys. "That was way too fast", I said, surprisingly breathfully. "Yeah, and you know, he's just getting warmed up." was the reply. "He'll break 27 today, mark my words". Uh oh, good thing I let him go, haha.

Anderson St did nothing to me, and I capitalised on the downhill, catching a few lower handicapped runners on the way and dropped the other two guys in the process. Felt great up until 3km, when I started feeling the strain. Went through 4k in 15:00, right where I wanted to be, but I could feel myself slowing down, and sure enough, the next km was only 4:00/k. Anderson St hit me pretty bad the second time round - 6k was a 4:19 split. I was putting myself down for a 31:00 if I was lucky at that point. But I got it together after that, with all the uphills taken care of (except for the little one in the dogleg that makes up the extra 112m for the 4k loop), and pushed hard to 7k, getting there right on 27:00 - 3:46 split. I was hurting by then, but kept on pushing and was amazed to see the clock reading 30:28 from 50m out! So I ended up doing 30:34 and I was bloody happy with that:D Big PB for me (prev best was 32 flat):) Had a chat with a few guys after as I lined up to get my time recorded with my legs feeling like jelly, but with a grin on my face to compensate:) One guy said he recognised me (or rather my 'distinctive' vegan runners' singlet) from Sandown - he'd tried to pace off me in the 10k but I dropped him on the second lap hehe. The 27:00 minute guy turned out to be a 28:59 guy but he was really happy with that too as that was a PB for him.

It was definitely one of my most enjoyable races. The grass roots nature of it was fantastic. I only want competition for these small races, not showbags or medals or any of that jazz and it was definitely worth paying $4 (optional) for that. Even though there weren't that many fast runners (I think I probably got the second fastest time), just having so many people in front of you was a great motivation to not slow down. Telling yourself to 'just pass this guy, and then this guy and then this guy' is a lot easier than telling yourself to 'just run 3:49 pace'. The brain is conditioned for hunting things down, not doing mathematics!

I felt pretty good afterwards too once the jelly legs had receded (60 seconds). I didn't experience the usual 'lactate headache', that usually lasts a couple of hours for me. Maybe I'm building up some better fatigue/metabolic byproduct buffers:) The ride home was fine, I wasn't sore at all.

It's a really promising performance:). It translates to a 38:43 10k and considering my 39:59 at Sandown was more like a 40:30 (due to the 150m mismeasurement), that's a massive improvement in a very short time! I was starting to think all my training had been in vain and I just wasn't cut out for running, but I'm feeling extremely optimistic now:) In 15 days I'll do the Run Melbourne Half, and based on this performance, sub 90 will be incredibly easy, and 1:25:43ish is probable. I'm even thinking I might be able to break the 4:00/k barrier and do it in 1:24:24! Is it too much to expect a 1 minute improvement over 21.1k in two weeks given how quickly I'm improving? That will be my stretch goal I think.

I got a solid 12 hours sleep that night, but was feeling so lethargic that I had written off doing a morning run and was about to go downstairs and have breakfast when dad asked me if I wanted to go to Jell's Park with him. Having a companion always makes it much easier to get started I find, and after doing a very easy 50 minutes with him at 6:00/k, I left him to drive home and kept running. Had a bit of an explore of the trails east of Jells Park (at least I think it's east, my internal compass only understands left and right:P), enduring the stench of the garbage dump and the drone of the dirt bikers for a while for the sake of the forgiving terrain and then headed home. I was still feeling allright after almost 2 hours, so I decided to keep going round Damper Creek. There was a kid running hard along the track and after doing a lap and turning back round to see him still there 100m ahead of me, I put on the afterburners and cruised past him at 3:50 pace, holding my breath:P Ostensibly, it was to teach him to slow down and run under control, but really it was just my competitive instinct kicking in:P The last twenty minutes were fairly tough. I wasn't tired, and my legs weren't sore, but my shoulders and core were feeling the strain. It was good to get the run in, and it taught me a valuable lesson that even if I'm not feeling good at the start, there's still hope that I'll feel better after a while.

Totals for the week:
141.62km (86.12km running)
13:32:07 (7:27 running)
5:12 average running pace