A Bit of a Non Runner

This week, the final week of hard(est) effort - the peak week with the toughest workouts has been a bit of a non-runner. Monday was fine - I got out for about 11.5 miles but the run felt stale with my left hamstring and glute achy and the perceived effort yielding a less than satisfactory pace. A 1km swim in the evening, on the other hand went quite well. As Tuesday progressed I felt a touch of a cold coming on with a general feeling of achyness and shivers all over, which, coupled with evening rain, was excuse enough for me to cancel the mixed intervals at the track. I kept this excuse for Wednesday also despite feeling much better. This morning however I broke the spell and got out for a tempo run of 2 x 3 Miles @ HM pace (the programme said 2 x 4.5 - but time was not on my side and that was all the excuse I needed). The outbound 3 miles went according to plan in 06:27, 06:29 @ 06:28 - but I was glad I was resting after the 3. During the half mile recovery I decided (quite rashly) that as I had cut the number of fast miles I would keep the sub-06:30 pace for the 3 home bound miles (It's great what you can plan from the relative comfort of a sub-145 HR) Unfortunately the 3 home bound miles went something like this:- 0 - 0.5 Miles @ 06:19 pace 0.75 miles - still at 06:20 pace - plunged into the darkness of the straight road - cars headlights coming against me on my side of the road - stepping onto the footpath - couldn't see a bloody thing until the car was near - had to slow right down until car had passed - nearly twisted my ankle on one occasion - difficult to get back on pace - repeat every 40 seconds. 1 mile in 06:35. Back to street lighting by 1.75 miles - mile pace @ 7:00 (felt like walking) finished mile 2 in 07:01. Mile 3 was somewhat better @ 06:45 to give 06:47 avg for the return leg. Overall 6 miles @ 06:38 pace, which looks better. On the plus side my left hamstring and glute felt much better although I did feel stiffness throughout the day. On reflecting on the elites marathon pace after last Sundays world record in Berlin I tried to put it into perspective - Mcmillan says I could run an 800m race (assuming proper training) in just a tad over 2:22 which is a second slower than what Mr Gebrselassie covered his 52.5 x 800m last Sunday. I.e. running flat out I would have kept with the leaders for less than half a mile before collapsing - that surely puts me in my box.

Mon 29th Sept 11.49 Miles in 01:31:11 (07:56 Pace @ 128 HR) Sleep 6.5hrs: 7/10 Legs: 6/10 Tue 30th Sept 2.5 Miles in 20;00 (08:00 Pace - Treadmill) Thur 1st Oct 10;02 Miles in 01:12:29 (07;14 Pace @ 151HR) with 2 x 3 Miles @ 06:28 & 06:47 Pace. Sleep - 6hrs: 7/10 Legs 7/10