Monday Blues

Just a recovery run today.  Legs still heavy from yesterday.

8.59 miles in 1 hour with Lins and Ben

Recovery Run

A nice easy recovery run with Ben at lunchtime.  Felt even easier when we saw the usual crowd running reps around Kelvingrove.

8.52miles in 1:00:52 @ 7:08 /mi

Legs a bit stiff but nothing too bad.  My back is a bit sore from yesterday and I have felt very hungry all day.

It is now exactly 200 days until the race.  Not that long. :-)

Rapid Recovery

Two days off and Debbie's legs were itching to get running again.   I on the other hand don't have that motivation that she is blessed or perhaps cursed with.  Debbie gets up at 6am I would rather sleep until 8.  But the one thing that I am blessed or cursed with is that I am way too competitive for my own good.  And so because Debbie was going running I had to follow suit and also go.

To be fair though I could do with getting out as my legs are feeling great but I had the beginnings of a sore head and so was a bit wary.

So off I went on the normal Balloch recovery route and my normal non-recovery pace.  Felt fantastic for the first half but soon started to struggle on the last mile.

4.27mi in 28:11 @ 6:36 / mi

6:40, 6:38, 6:38, 6:17, 7:17

Running in the Buff

Went out for what was meant to be an easy 4 miler before tomorrows half marathon.  It ended up as 7 miles although the pace was relaxed.  I had arranged to meet Paul (who is running the London Marathon and the Scottish islands peaks with me) and his pal Arun (who is also running the London Marathon).  It was all just a nice relaxed run plenty of chatting and a chance to try out my WHW buff.  I have to admit that the buff is excellent and will now be part of my running gear. It may look ridiculous but it does the job.  We all received a WHW Buff as part of our goody bag and mine came with a useless skip bit on the front.  10 minutes with a pair of scissors soon sorted it out.  I ran most of the run with it tied around my wrist but then we decided to go around Milngavie reservoir  and the wind and rain could have cut you in two.  Immediately after putting it on I was instantly warmer with it easily protecting my ears.  A great piece of multi functional gear.  On a more sour note Paul hurt his Achilles again and will be out for another week.  I am worried but not that he won't get to the London Marathon.  I am worried about his recovery from that before the Scottish Islands race.  The recovery time from your first or any marathon is long and doing the Scottish Islands race was always going to be a hard one but if he is also carrying an injury it may be impossible.  I hope that it all gets better cause I am really looking forward to running this with him.

WEST HIGHLAND WAY BUFF

Blow away those cobwebs

Just a little short run to blow away the cobwebs before the Garscube Committee meeting.  Not feeling any issues from the run on Saturday so I ended up pushing it a bit towards the end.

5miles in 33:31 @ 6:42/mi

7:00, 7:05, 6:41, 6:20, 6:23.

Recovery Racing

My quads have been hurting since our wee West Highland Way 30 mile jaunt on Saturday so I wasn't looking forward to running today.  As inspiration I thought it was time for some new shoes.  Out came the Run-4-It vouchers and after testing 3 pairs of shoes with Matt I was the proud owner of a new pair of Asics DS-Trainer 13's.  When Debbie saw them though she said they looked like special needs slippers.  I have been messing about with the idea of buying these shoes for my marathon in April.  I race 10k's and halves in DS-Racers which I think are excellent but I just don't think that I am light enough or fast enough to run a marathon in them and so I went for the slightly heavier (260g) trainers.

Back home I decided to run the 4 mile recovery route from Alexandria to Balloch and then back over the Bonhill bridge.  Yeah recovery my a$$ though.  I ran the 4 mile route in 25 mins at 6:17 / mile.  The problem is the new shoes just feel too light and so even although my quads were tight and my bones creaking I felt that I just had to pick up the speed and run fast.  Probably didn't aid my recovery one bit but did help me mentally and I feel much better for it.  Well until I try to get off this seat.

I see from John's blog that he also bought new shoes today.  His old shoes had holes big enough for his toes to stick out.  Mine on the other hand are a bit dirty.  I see he also has sore quads.  I wonder if everyone else out on Saturday does as well.  Debbie was feeling it in her quads too and is a hoot coming down the stairs.

PS Debbie informs me that the title is an oxymoron.  I wonder if that is beef or vegetable.