A testing couple of weeks

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of a struggle training wise with a couple of niggles and ankle problems. Had hoped to up the training and miles but haven't been able. Below are details of what I have been at:

Tuesday 16th April

5.8 miles in total which included our weekly club speed session. This consisted of 15 seconds hard running, 30 seconds jog, 30 seconds hard running, 30 seconds jog with the hard running increasing by 15 seconds each time all the way up to 2 minutes and then back down again. The aim here was to run each interval quicker than 5K pace which if I remember I think I did.

Wednesday 17th April

6.87 miles @ 8:47 pace. This was run in hurricane conditions around the Balscadden loop as we call it. Left Calf was at me towards the end and I eased up the effort towards the end to save it.

Thursday 18th April

1.92 miles. Managed a loop around Gormanston but knew needed to get Calf worked on. Would have stopped sooner if I could have.

Sunday 21st April

9.8 miles @ 9:06 pace. Having been away for the weekend the Calf got a bit of rest so knew I would manage a longish run. Ran with Mo & Kate from the college and around the hills and finished with a loop of the college. Only managed 24 miles for the week.

Monday 22nd April

3.51 miles @ 9:18 pace. Recovery run around the college before a session with Mark to get Calf worked on. Eased out a few knots and there was no pain when he stretched it different ways indicating it was just pure tightness.

Tuesday 23rd April

6.32 miles @ 9:17 pace. Just an easy run mostly on grass. Still in pain and a lot of wondering about should I be running or not. Envious of the others doing some 1K reps. Interesting that my ankle seemed to be troubling me now :-(

Thursday 25th April

3.76 miles @ 9:29 pace. Couple of recovery paced loops around Gormanston followed by another visit to physio. Lots of movement checks and no muscle issues. Pain just above ankle on inside leading Mark to believe I may have twisted my ankle without feeling it at the time. Lots of icing and he strapped it up with some Kinetica tape as well to give some support.

Friday 26th April

Speed session with Gary which turned out to be a silent killer. Sounded easy enough when he described it 3 sets of 3x200m w/45 second recovery with 600 metre recovery between each set. Really happy with how this went and times were very consistent mostly coming in at 37 seconds and one at 38 I think.

11.83K in total. Legs were swimming in lactic during the cool down.

Sunday 28th April

12.94K @ 5.39 per K pace.

Have changed to metric measurement to facilitate most of my races this year being measure in K. Headed from the house in the evening over to Barnageera & back. Pain in ankle means no run is really enjoyable now. Had wind behind me on the way there and a pretty strong headwind on the way back. Happy enough as seemed to maintain the same pace on the way back without any real extra effort.

Clocked up 29 miles for the week which I was surprised enough with so maybe not that big a disaster after all?

Summary: Had been hoping to do the Boyne 10K race next Sunday but not so sure now. No point in really racing if I can't train properly but I'll see later in the week. Main aim at the moment is to try and get running pain free again. Should have my plans for up to the Berlin Marathon finalised this week.