Good run, ankle getting better – great to get out for a long run

 Yesterday I did a bit of stretching, but had a day off otherwise!

Today I completed a 4 mile easy recovery run with the objective to keep my pulse between 125 and 135 BPM

I did the race yesterday, finishing the 5 miles in 34:01, in 12th Position.

It was a very warm windy day and over all I was happy with the race. At times I felt my pace was slow with the 3rd mile being slower than 7 min/mile pace (it was very hilly and very windy)

I was 14 seconds slower this year than last year https://keithnolan.com/2013/08/18/567/ and that was a bit disappointing, but I put it down to the Course for the first 6 months of the year and that I reduced the training volume I was doing.

I believe my ankle is getting slowly better and while I don’t think it made any different to the race yesterday it made its presence felt!

I did just over ½ a mile as a warm up and nearly a mile as a cooldown after the race, after the cooldown I stretched and went for a walk on the beach (in the sea) to help my ankle/legs recover. I also drank a protein shake.

Conditions: Avg Temperature: 22.9 °C, good day – we went to the beech!

Distance: 6 miles
Time: 50 min
Average Pace: 8:20 min/mile

Remarks: Good run, I think today was the best day yet for my ankle! I woke this morning and it wasn’t sore! however after the walk to the GAA pitch it was at me a bit, and remained in my mind for the entire 6 miles.

During the day my ankle was fairly ok, and while it made its presence felt every now and then it was good for most of the day.

For the run, I also felt I was nearly able to get into it, before slowing down due to my heart rate – it was a good run, even if it was just under 24 laps of the GAA pitch

I found it really difficult to get my heart rate down for the first mile, as you can see by the graph below it got high very fast and I nearly needed to stop to get it to drop.

Conditions: Warm Avg Temperature: 22.2 °C & very windy

Remarks: This was very hard. I couldn’t get my pace to the levels I wanted, I’m wondering if I’ve been running too slow by keeping my heart rate low and has this impacted my pace – the other possibility is the 3 drinks I had last night and the wind was the problem.

In addition to putting Fastum gel on 2 or 3 times a day, I’ve started to ware compression socks to try and fix my right ankle.

Conditions: Warm & windy

Remarks: Getting feed up running in circles – ankle still at me.

Distance: 10.01 miles

Time: 1 hour 31 min

Average pace: 9:08

Heart Rate
Avg HR: 125 bpm
Max HR: 137 bpm
Training Effect : 2.5

Running Dynamics
Avg Run Cadence: 174 spm
Max Run Cadence: 192 spm
Avg Vertical Oscillation: 9.4 cm
Avg Ground Contact Time: 257 ms
Avg Stride Length: 1.01 m