Hill reps

Tonight's club training session consisted of 12 long(ish) shallow hill reps, maybe 300m or so with a dip in the middle and a steeper climb towards the end. Recovery was a jog back down to the start. I was back to full fitness, more or less, so I ran the first few reps at an ambitious pace and probably slowed down a little as the session wore on. Somebody tried to make a race of the last rep (after apparently not having tried too hard on the others) but I dug deep and managed to break clear after about 200m.

4 miles moderate

I toyed with the idea of making Monday my day off this week as I was still suffering from Saturday's race, but I opted for an easy day instead and ran the new 4 mile route around the West End before dinner. Finishing time was 27:06 although I was in no way running against the clock. Felt quite light-headed at points, probably due to hunger, but my legs seem to have loosened up a bit.

7 miles moderate

I had a vague plan to run a bit further than the usual 7-mile route of Maryhill Road - Science Park - Anniesland - Great Western Road, but I found it hard enough after the first mile or so and couldn't really lift myself much above 7-minute miles at best. Obviously not recovered sufficiently from yesterday's race. I arrive back home in about 51:20 with the knee problem starting to play up slightly. There's nothing on my race calendar until April so I may as well try to push on for the next couple of weeks and not take more than one day off unless absolutely necessary.

Dunky Wright 5K

I felt quite heavy on the morning of this race and wondered if two days off (or three excluding football on Wednesday) was slightly too much, but I decided to stick to my plan of trying to run 3:15 per kilometre, which I didn't expect to maintain for very long, but my goal was to finish inside 17 minutes and in any case there was almost no danger of failing to beat last year's time of 17:35. I made it to the 1K mark in exactly 3:15, and on the second lap of the business park the leaders were still in sight although my time at 2K was 6:37. I was making up a few places on the fast starters, although my pace was still slipping - 10:05 or so at the 3K mark. After we turned onto the canal towpath, with the footsteps behind me getting closer, the next kilometre was even more of a struggle and I had to fight for air coming up to the 4K mark. I went through it in something like 13:35 which gave me an excellent chance of beating 17 minutes. In the home stretch I didn't have much left for any kind of kick but crossed the line in 23rd place in 16:58, one second faster than my time from 2004. My PB of 16:06 was set in this race in 2003 and it's encouraging to be back in the same minute. (I notice the results from 2002 have me as DNF but that certainly didn't happen.) My time works out at 5:27 per mile. Might have done slightly better if I hadn't set out quite so fast.

After the race I jogged round most of the course again with Lindsay for a warm-down.

Fartlek

Did nothing at all on Monday other than some stretching to try and sort out the knee problem. It was still sore at lunchtime and much better by the evening but I gave it another 24 hours just to be on the safe side. Under normal circumstances I might have gone to the gym, but when I popped my head round the door after football last Wednesday it had looked exactly the same. I may casually enquire tomorrow about the projected reopening date as it was only supposed to be closed for two weeks.

I made it to Tuesday night training on time for once although still half-expected to drop out of the scheduled fartlek session early if the injury resurfaced. The group was much broader than normal and several of the faster runners were absent. We ran a 5.5-mile route around Knightswood and Jordanhill at a leisurely pace. I took the first couple of fast sections comparatively easy and still felt absolutely fine, so I pushed a lot harder on the rest. This is actually quite a useful session as I can practise my blast-and-hang middle distance technique without risking anything.

4 miles slow, 7 miles moderate

Having missed a day, Natasha wasn't against the idea of a slightly longer run so I extended our usual route via Cleveden Drive and Cleveden Road. (I have a vague recollection that the Glasgow Marathon went that way the year it was a full marathon.) I had started off with very stiff legs but was recovering quite well towards the end. In the afternoon I set out to do decreasing loops at a moderate pace: first loop is up Maryhill Road, over Cleveden Road, back along Great Western Road, then up North Woodside to Maryhill Road again; second loop is via Garrioch Road instead of Cleveden; and third loop is via Queen Margaret Drive. The outside of my right knee began to hurt inside the first mile and didn't get any better, so when I reached Queen's Cross on the second loop I decided it would have to be the final one instead. I would just have given up and gone back home except I was reasonably sure I can take care of the injury with a bit of stretching - it's bothered me a few times recently and been fine the next day.

Short reps and recovery

Still suffering a bit after Tuesday's session so I decided to try the same thing again, 20x80m with 1m turnaround, except this time in the industrial estate across the road. There's not much of a hill at all (at least not on the straight section I was using) but I had to deal with a stiff headwind on the odd-numbered reps and a corresponding tailwind on the even-numbered ones so it probably worked out the same. It was really tough on specific muscles. I suppose once I get used to this session I can start increasing the distance and the 1m turnaround should still be fine. Later on I went out again for a moderately-paced 2.5 miles or so in the hope that I might not be too incapacitated tomorrow.

9K fast

Tonight's club training run was supposed to be 5 miles - the shortest Thursday run we ever do - so I planned to try to keep up with the leaders as long as possible, at race pace if necessary. As it turned out, though, the fast pack was fairly depleted. I was still determined to put in a proper effort, and in any case we were maintaining a brisk pace up Milngavie Road and caught the next pack relatively quickly. I took it on as we headed up Mosshead Road and had opened up a fair gap by the time I reached Stockiemuir Road. After battling a strong headwind on the way down Drymen Road, the long, flat stretch to the finish seemed to go on for ever and I couldn't muster much of a kick, but I was fastest finisher (possibly for the first time in years) in 35:05. Debs's GPS doofer measured the course at 5.59 miles, another estimate was 9.2K.

Short reps

All signs of injury had disappeared by the evening so I ran my own short rep session, 20x80m up and down a small hill, with 1m turnaround. It was quite tough on the quads. The turnaround was just long enough to prevent me from packing it in on several occasions.

3 miles recovery

Legs were still a bit sore so I went round the West End with Natasha just to stretch them a bit. I had been looking forward all day to a run in the snow but it had gone off by the time I got home. Outside of the right knee hurts a bit, calves are tight, Achilles tendon seems to be fine.

14.5 miles steady

I tried to rack up a few extra miles today to compensate for recent inactivity. The route was along Great Western Road, up Kilbowie Road, along Duntocher Road to Bearsden and back home down Maryhill Road. Finished in 1:48:08. I had made it to the Drumry Road roundabout in 40 minutes which was probably slightly too fast, and as my legs tightened up towards the end I slowed down a bit - 23 minutes for the last 5K.

3 miles slow and hills

Went out in the morning with Natasha for a slow 3 miles round the West End. In the evening I finally managed to drag myself back out to Cleveden Road for some hill reps. It was about 33-34 seconds to the top of the hill so I thought a 1m45s turnaround might be OK but after the fourth rep I had to revise this to a 2m turnaround, and after the sixth I was feeling decidedly nauseous so jogged around the block and drove back home.

6+ miles moderate

After making it through football on Wednesday relatively unscathed, I went along to train with the club, prepared to have to run close to race pace in order to try to keep up. However my Achilles tendon felt a bit doubtful as I warmed up in the car park so I thought it was more likely that I would have to pull out after a mile or so. As it turned out, the fast pack was severely depleted - there were only two of us. We weren't sure of the route, which was supposed to be 7 miles, so we took our best guess and did actually manage to meet another pack after 4 miles or so, although by the end we were almost a mile short so there was probably a wrong turn in there somewhere. Didn't really push it but only got dropped during the last half mile.

No gym

Leg was a bit better today. I traced the problem down to a tight calf muscle and remembered it had cramped up while playing football on Wednesday, so I did some stretching during the day. Decided against going out for a run in the evening and went to the gym instead, bringing Natasha along for once, only to find it had closed today for refurbishment.