Ideally this would have been a week off training but the
Seville Marathon is only just around the corner…
The first obstacle to overcome was to recover from the 10K
race I did on Monday evening. For some reason I had more DOMS (Delayed Onset
Muscle Soreness) than I am used to in such a short race – perhaps the Half
Marathon is the easiest distance to recover from because you neither go at full
belt nor do you end up completely exhausting your muscle fibers.
The second “obstacle” was that I had agreed to go skiing in
San Isidro for most of the week between New Year’s Eve and Reyes (Epiphany). My
experience with skiing ranges all the way from absolutely hating it to finding
the enjoyment of it slightly outweighed by the inconvenience, discomfort and
cost of it all. This time was no exception: the first day was such awful
weather that it was impossible to see where I was going and, more importantly,
to be able to judge the steepness and direction of the slope – not ideal
conditions for someone who has managed to avoid skiing for over 10 years. My
aching legs did not help skiing let alone having to hobble about with bent
knees in ski boots. By the afternoon I had decided that I would never ski
again. One aspect of my character is that, no sooner do I feel like giving up
than a resolve not to let something get the better of me kicks in. Luckily the
next day was beautiful and I at least managed to finish on a good note.
Between the race, the long car journey and the snow, I
didn’t run for 3 days straight which is probably the longest I have gone
without running consecutively for years. I suppose the skiing counts as some
sort of exercise, not that it matters much. I decided to do my three days of
quality training on Friday, Saturday and Sunday – a slightly risky decision
given that my muscles were still tender from the race and, presumably, the
skiing.
On Friday I did two threshold runs of 15 minutes – as it was
impossible to find a long flat course, the first 15 minutes were at a pace of
3:32 but the second (up hill) was much slower, at 4:17. On Saturday, now in
Asturias, I went down to the gym in Villaviciosa to do 8 lots of 1,000m at 16.5
kph followed by 4 lots of 200m at 19 kph. I got there so early that the gym
hadn’t yet opened and I was the first through the door which meant that I had
to figure out how to turn on the machines. The workout was much easier than it
should have been (my pulse only got as high as 168 bpm during the 1,000m sets and bear in mind that lately I have been doing 1km intervals at 17.5 kph)
but I decided not to push my luck too much – it was still a good workout and I
had a longish run planned for the next day. On the Sunday I ran 25km starting
from up in the mountains around Villaviciosa which meant that I had to run the
last 3 km or so up quite a steep gradient. I consciously ran at what felt like
a very easy pace as this was supposed to be a “depletion run”, designed to
improve my fat burning capabilities. I did the run on an empty stomach so you
can understand why I was dreaming about turrón
over those last few kilometers. I think the relatively intense three days
served their objective of thoroughly tiring me out without injuring myself – in
fact my legs are less achey now as I write this on Sunday evening than they
were before the run. Now I feel all set to start another cycle of training for
the Seville Marathon (not forgetting the Getafe Half Marathon in which I will
have to get a good time if I want to qualify again for New York this year).
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