Back? Almost!

The €30 red racers I bought in Barcelona served me well in Connemara - not a blister or black toe nail in sight. My first "recovery" run in them consisted of 2.1 miles around the block after a 2 hour cycle on Sunday. Unlike the equivalent run a week after Barcelona it went off without a hitch at a tad under 7:30 pace.

I returned to the track on Tuesday where 5 x 1k was on the cards. I ran with a group targeting 96 second laps in lane 3 (4:00 for 1,040m - about 3:51 per km). The first rep felt good but the 4:08 time explained that. The next few were on target at 3:58/58/59 and while I had to concentrate on keeping pace the effort was manageable. A sprint over the last 200m of the final rep brought me home in 3:46 - closer to the 3:50 target time of the faster pacing group - although I remember targeting 3:43 when these sessions started a few weeks ago.

My next run was in the park on Thursday with 3 sub-7 minute miles (6:54/46/43) sandwiched between a warmup and warmdown mile (overall avg 7:03 pace). Again my legs felt fine with no residual issues apart from some tightness in my calves this evening during a 21 mile bike ride.

A long run (well 11 miles) tomorrow with Eagle should complete my return to normal training. Next race will still be a few weeks off though.

Finally, the best of luck to Rick who is targeting 2:45 in the London Marathon on Sunday, Mike in the Big Sur marathon also on Sunday and John who is running the 53 mile Highland Fling tomorrow between Milngavie and Tyndrum on the West Highland Way in Scotland. If you think that's long he'll be running the full length of the West Highland Way to Fort William (95 miles in all) in June.

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