Rugby Season

While today is "Super" Tuesday Stateside (everything is "Super" stateside this weather - wasn't there a bowl or something on Sunday.) it is rugby season here with the start of the Six-Nations Championship last weekend. I was reminded of this this morning at 6 a.m. when I was warming up in town for my last session of hill repeats and a runner came against me clutching a rugby ball in his right hand - where he was going with a ball at that time of the morning I don't know. On the running front Monday was a welcome rest day. My 8.6 mile easy run on tuesday morning didn't feel as easy as it should - legacy of the crap feeling I had on Sundays long run - certainly my legs are the culprit as my HR was very confortable. So I headed into this mornings hill reps (5 x 2 mins - recovery week) with a sense of foreboding. I needed the alarm to rise at 0530 and felt like turning over and going back to sleep. However I dragged myself up and out the door for the short drive to the Lee Fields car park for the 2.2 mile warm-up to the chosen hill. As I knew I would reach the summit before 120 secs I decided to run the distance (0.25 miles or thereabouts) whatever time it took and off I went - 1:51 - 157 HR (161Max) 1:50 - 158 HR (164Max) 1:50 - 158 HR (164Max) 1:51 - 158 HR (165Max) 1:50 - 157 HR (166Max) 1:48 - 160 HR (168Max) - thrown in to compensate for shorter reps. Surprisingly my legs felt fresher when I finished and the times show that I did not suffer on the last reps. Although I will admit the pace was nowhere near the recommended 3k pace - closer to 42k pace (07:20) Looks like my dead legs have been resurrected - physio arranged for friday morning just in case. It's always good to get a rub down - I haven't had one in months (that fact and the recent hike in race participation could be the cause of the dead legs) Next week sees me swapping the hills for the track on tuesday evenings for 400 reps over the next month. Mon 4th Feb Rest day Tue 5th Feb 8.6 Miles in 01:09:03 (08:02 pace @ 131 HR) Wed 6th Feb 7.4 Miles in 01:03:56 (08:38 pace @ 137 HR) w/ 6 x 1:50 Hill Reps. 2.5 recovery Miles on the treadmill @ 11.5 kph (08:24 pace @ 130 HR)