Ankle!

My legs have felt tired today after yesterday evening's interval runs. To make matters worse I've managed to tweak my 'delicate' right ankle whilst watering hanging baskets in the garden. I hope it settles quickly and is barely a sprain. I've got ice on it.

April 2016 Week 9 Session 2

Again there's a change of routine with the new session requiring 4 fast lengths after 8 slow. This is both a longer duration of effort and an increased ratio of fast to slow. The data show that I didn't do well and achieved 2:00min/100m or better pace on just two lengths.

Perhaps I worked too hard on the warm-up in which I broke my 5:00min threshold (4:56.3). Hooray! My best kicking pace is now similar to my lazy pace with the pull buoy.

April 2016 Week 9 Session 1

The warm-up went well and, once again, I feel I could have beaten the 5:00 threshold if I'd not got behind some one slower. Oh well, it's supposed to be a warm-up!

This is the start of a new block and so that gives me a new challenge. The long swim has now gone to 3 sets of 1000m which automatically reduces the rests. At the beginning I thought that I could do the 100 lengths non-stop and wondered why I had to bother with sets but by the end of the first one I was pleased to take a few seconds breather.

I took each set fairly gently but tried to keep focus on length and power as I tired. Even so there was a loss of pace. Even though I slowed my strokes per length only increased a little which as supportive of maintaining good form.

One thing I'm very pleased to see is that my early lengths with trailing, sinky legs can be at a pace close to that with the pull buoy. Of course I found the pace a lot harder with my legs working as an anchor but 4 of my 6 lengths were faster than 2:30min/100m.

Wet on Blacka Moor

The weather forecast was indifferent when I set off on my Blacka Moor loop and for the first 40 minutes or so a T-shirt was fine. As I came out of the trees rain started which became progressively heavier as I approached the summit of the moor. It was clear that I'd have to put on a jacket if I wasn't going to become cold.

On Houndkirk Road the rain was at least on my back but the wind had got up and I couldn't face doing the short exposed section to Oxstones. Dropping through the plantation the ground was wet and slippery and I half wished I'd chosen shoes with a bit more tread.

My right ankle/calf coped until after 19km, so perhaps the slightly greater drop of the Ultra 290s is important? My left knee was fine although I set off with a little shin tenderness (where did that come from) and now it's a bit more noticable.

April 2016 Week 8 Sessions 2 and 3

I've been away from hone for a few days and that as slightly messed up both running and swimming routines. The hotel had a 12m pool so over 2 days I did the Spike Set without a pull buoy. Basically it totalled over an hour of swimming with some intense intervals; that'll do.

After finishing my key job for today I went over to Goodwin to catch up on Session 2.

For the second block I managed very clear distinction between 7 easy lengths and 3 fast ones. This was my fastest block in this session so I can't have been too lazy on the slow lengths. The fast ones were just below the 2:00min/100m pace, so this is still being a barrier.

April 2016 Week 8 Session 1 and fatigue

This morning my resting heart rate was raised by 10% and I did feel fairly tired. I committed to a swim and luckily on my programme I was timetabled for my steady endurance swim with no intense lengths at all. The warm-up 200m was the slowest I've done for many weeks (although still within 5:30min) and as I started the first of four 800m sets I wondered if I would finish.

Of course I did see it through although my average pace was slow. Naturally I fatigued during the session and the current in the pool is evident in the castellations of the charts. My weakening strokes are clear but actually at the beginning my stroke count per length was pretty good; I was making an effort to push off!

I'm sure that I'm just generally tired due to the longest running week I've had for around 10 months. Interestingly in Week 4  I did a similar swim after a long run and performed better than I did today, but I didn't have as much tiredness accrued from the week's activity.

It now seems important to start next week with a rest.

A tiring week - too much rain too!

I've been on leave from work for the last week. The plan was to start the week with jobs and finish with a camping trip. In the end though  the weather as too grim to bother going to a wet field and the jobs, in this case a DIY project, progressed more slowly than hoped.

Even so I have done some runs and a swim inbetween things. I've felt tired for much of this activity which I put down to being busy! The spike set swim was a little slower than last week and felt tough. I put some effort in for the circuit class and that maybe made me tired for Thursday's run. I only did one swim during the week as I didn't want to spend the time travelling to and from the pool.

Today's long run was planned to be 20km as that's the point at which my right ankle has started niggling over the last few weeks. Today it started at around 12km which I'm putting down to cumulative distance during the week (or the lower drop shoes, there's a quandary). On the way home I skipped Oxstones as it had started to rain and so took some tracks through the plantation.

These were a combination of forestry tracks and the track of a gas pipeline. After a km or so they returned me onto the main track for the final stretch home.