Here is how my last three days post Boro have gone... Have I....?
A. Not run a single step...drunk a bottle of wine a night and eaten so many biscuits, crisps and sweets that I feel like I have doubled my body weight!
or
B. Got stuck into some post race training that have blown the cobwebs away and made me feel really positive that I am going to move on and get closer to those elusive 2011 targets (these being a Sub 34 10km and a Sub 16:30 5km)....
And the answer is....
B.
Monday - Ran a 4.6 mile loop before work averaging a cool 6-23 per mile...no post race 8 minute miling shuffle for me...I meant business! Followed this up with a steady four miler later in the day not as quick but still not slouching at 6-40 miling.
Tuesday - hit by the DOMS a bit (delayed onset muscle soreness!) so the morning run was a bit of a seven minute mile easy run...apparently Jon Brown used to swear by lots of recovery running at 7 min miling! Calves a bit tight and generally tired but not too bad. I had arranged to do an 800m session with one of the athletes I coach to kick start his training after his recent break due to an all you can eat honeymoon! So we hit our usual Saltburn Victoria Terrace 800m loop with the intention of doing a short set of 5 or 6 x 800m with target times of under 3 minutes being the order of the day.
A good session all round with my set of 6 looking like : 2-42, 2-41, 2-41, 2-41, 2-37, 2-39 and Phil getting all his five reps well under target with plenty to spare.
I had booked a post Middlesbrough 10k rewarding massage on Tuesday so the 800m session was a bit of a squeeze before I rushed off to the Physio....Have you been doing the stretches...oh yes definitely.....have you been doing much running....oh yes about 50 mile per week....you been out tonight....oh er only a light session knowing I was coming here ha ha!!!. 45 minutes later and I crawled off the massage table somewhat worse for wear and wondering why anyone would pay to have such pain inflicted....it is all part of the bigger picture! To be honest the pain was all coming from my left calf which was severely knotted and going into spasm apparently! So much so that a respite from the normal massage techniques were required and an acupuncture needle was inserted into my calf...aaargh that was a relief! One topic of conversation focussed on my extremely tight calf muscles and how this doesn't usually affect me like this. Dehydration was offered by the physio as a possible reason for the tightness....given that the 10km was quite hot in the end and I quite possibly could be feeling a bit dehydrated I wondered if that theory held some truth....A quick search on the internet and I found that there are several articles and research studies that have found that dehrydration can indeed increase the chances and intensity of DOMS. Might be worth remembering that extra bottle of water or electrolyte post race to ward off DOMS!
Today I woke up with only a slight stiffness in my calves and feeling relatively pain free (except for sore fingers presumably from gripping the massage table so hard!). After an easy run this morning I opted for a steady 5 miler tonight where after a steady start I averaged around 6-08 for the five.
I was tempted to do the Coast Road 5km but having raced on Sunday, the sessions I have done since and the wind I decided against it. One of the things I am trying to do is to structure my training around A, B and C races where A is a race that I really want to do well in, B races are a build up race where I do not taper or anything and use as a decent training session. C races are well just something a bit different and could be a bit of fun or something a bit different.
Middlesbrough 10km was always going to be an A race so racing a few days later was not going to be anything other than a B race. My next A race will be the Sheffield 10km in October which gives me a good block of training to get some decent sessions under my belt. Lets hope I hold it together from 9km out this time - I am working on my 53 second lap just to make sure!
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