Run, Koper, run

Great week. Now time for some rest. It didn't start too great. Tuesday morning I did a gentle morning run and then went for the evening intervals with AV'23. First some drills and then we were doing short 400m intervals. Unfortunately my right hamstring completely gave up on me after the second one and I had to turn this nice training into easy jogging. Was it that I was too enthusiastic in the drill sprints? Maybe. But it's also very probable that I was trying to increase the intensity too fast after the injury (I heard through the grapevine that this is what Jan thinks, though he never had the courage to tell it to me face to face :P). Anyhow, on Thursday I again started with an easy run in the afternoon and then faced a dilemma. My legs were kinda heavy so should I do a heavy evening training as planned or go easy instead? Yeah. Right. Big dilemma it was. 8K at an average 5:10min/km, including 2K at a marathon pace (4:38 min/km) made for a fairly nice run. On Saturday...

Running-wise an even better week than planned On Tuesday 800m intervals with AV'23 at 3:58 min/km and boy, was that tough! On Wednesday the usual weekly run with Sportsworld, but since it was only Thyra, Michal, Jan & me we made it fairly long and clocked 20K. Then on Friday I started very early with an easy run and followed in the afternoon with some hills training (fast skips up the bridge); I was planning to increase them from 7 to 10 this week, but my legs totally gave up on me and had to stop after 8. Was even afraid that I got myself another injury but gladly that was not the case. The week ended on a high note as I was spending the weekend in Huizen and decided to run back, which resulted in a really cool 32K long run. In the end 90+km this week and although my legs occasionally complain the injury does not seem to be fully coming back so I'm optimistic. Next week I'm hoping to hit the 100K mark and then the week after that will be time to get some rest. Also ...

My running seems to be getting back on track. Not much non-running activity this week but at least the running looks as it should with solid 74K total. On Tuesday I did intervals with AV'23 running group, which only confirmed that I'll have to work hard to re-gain my form -- I did them at a moderate pace (for intervals; 4:17) but my heart-rate was sky-rocketing. I followed that with an easy run on Wednesday and on Friday first some hill exercises and then I was planning an easy run, but was late for dinner so had to go a bit faster than I normally would, making it a steady run. Finally on Sunday 25K long run. You'll notice that my weekly summary has changed completely. That's because instead of generating it by hand I'm not pulling the data from a service that I'm working on 8^). The nice thing about that is that: a) the process is finally automated and b) as I make improvements to the service those tables on the blog will improve as well. Btw. I'm aware ...

Slowly back to regular training. Ok, seem to be (finally!) turning for the better. I did decent 4 runs this week, progressively increasing the intensity and ending up with 60K -- not too bad. As for my legs; well, the injury sometimes gently reminds of itself and I almost constantly have muscle pain in my left hamstring (after-effects of an injury many years ago; though before it would only manifest itself due to serious over-training). Next week I'm planning to do 5 trainings and something around 80K. If that goes fine I should be back in full swing for Paris preparations. Just in time too as I only have 10 weeks of preparations, as of today; not much by any measure.