Back on the road

For a change I ran 12km on the road this morning. The route through Totley and Dore used to be my regular winter Tuesday evening run but for some reason I stopped. I think I felt it was too long to run fast and too short to run slowly. Either way it's quite a challenging route as although it's tarmac the whole way the central 2.5km has 100m of gradual ascent. It doesn't sound much written down but it is quite an effort.

I was pleased to complete in a shave under an hour which is benchmark for having made an effort on the route. I once managed 56 minutes but that was a chance event!

I've used the timings to reset my pace analysis on Strava as today's pace was in VO₂ and anaerobic zones for an unfeasible time.

Back to old shoes

As last Saturday's run seemed to fatigue my peroneus muscles to the point of pain; I've decided that this week I shouldn't do a long run but aim to do equivalent distance over several runs. I've also been reading about the importance of tempo runs to develop VO₂max an thus work towards a faster pacing. Those things suggested that 7km around the woods would be a good idea the evening.

I've also been thinking that some of my ankle pain is due to shoes with low heel drop and so I rescued my Ultra290s  from the loft. My suspicion is that a year ago their claimed 8mm drop was to extreme for me on the Canalathon and initiated the problem. Then for the Peak District Ultra I trained in shoes with 6mm drop, as noted here, and that set things off more. I'm using those shoes now as my regular trail shoes. So, if I return to 8mm will I help recovery?

I don't know, but the Ultras certainly felt easy on my feet this evening. Importantly the heel counter didn't rub either. My legs had a number of tight spots that the roller helped and now I need to massage my ankle and then get some recovery done.

A hard rest week

Tuesday was a rest day but I was stuck on a train. Yesterday I had a swimming lesson and then circuits - never very much so today I felt like a decent run. I went out on the road for 11km and it felt fine although my legs were a bit stiff. Yesterday's squats had made their mark.

Looking back on my times for the Dore road loop I'm a lot slower than I was 2 years ago. I'd like to recover some of that pace but I'm acutely aware that injury came soon after the spell of best ever paces. I was instructed not to race every run! I'm using the HRM on every run now and it is clear that this run is at or above classic tempo run pace and  as such must be handled carefully.