Thursday, April 27, 2006

Flailing away on the antitaper

Trying to get back into a routine again. While many runners continue to train like maniacs, some are in taper mode, some are injured (amazing story here) from too much training or racing, and others like myself are in a so-called reverse taper attempting to build back up to where I was before the marathon. Which is now almost forgotten and so I'm able to begin the scheming and planning for the next one...
So far this week there have only been 2 short runs to test the legs and make sure all is a go for more running. It's remarkable how good everything is feeling only 10 days after Boston with no residual aches or pains, feet and toes are almost normal (won't loose any nails), and heartrate during runs is not elevated at moderate 8:00 pace or faster. The only difficulties has been a lingering headache, probably due to the continued work stresses and then today my dentist went at one of my molars and so that is a bit tender too. But at least a sore head and face doesn't affect the running, in fact it helped take my mind off it.

I'm also back to biking into work and with the return trip for lunch each day I'll end up with about 20 miles of commuting by the end of the week. This isn't usually counted as exercise because it's such a short trip (1 mile each way) and takes nothing out of my energy stores but I guess it does add up and let me have that extra beer and chocolate ice cream when I feel like it.

Getting back to today's little jaunt which was around the town including a compete circuit of our 5 mile road race loop which is scheduled here on Father's Day. There will be lots more to come on this race later as I'm co-race director for this little local run which usually attracts 100-150 runners on the Run NB race circuit. Anyway, I hit the lap button when starting the loop and it measured out to 4.99 miles with all the corners cut as in a race. That's fairly close and we don't guarantee the distance in any case but I'll check it again and be more careful in how the corners are taken. My legs were quite fresh and managed to easily do the 5 miles in 38:20 or a 7:42/mi pace at what felt like a pace only slightly faster than long run pace. A good sign but must be careful not to get over-enthusiastic this weekend on the longer run planned with the gang in Maine.

The Garmin plot is shown below for all you technophiles to enjoy (Luddites may avert their eyes now). Still slowly figuring it out but wish it had more options for the graph scales and now I'd also like to start my week on a different date besides Sunday. It keeps track of your weekly totals, averages etc which is a nice but dangerous feature for any obsessive runners. The green line is elevation and the blue is pace with an overlay of pace zones which rated today as a slow run (it didn't feel that slow).
Can't wait for the next run but tomorrow, Friday is a rest day....sticking to the anti-taper plan ;-)

4 comments:

Legs and Wings said...

Amazing to read that you've suffered no harsh ill effects from the effort in Boston. That's really good news...you must be hard-core Mike!

I have to admit that I like what the Garmin can do...pretty cool. Maybe I'll get one for Father's Day.

Thomas said...

That garmin is a nice toy. I keep getting tempted when reading all those blogs where people show off their graphs, but so far I've managed to resist - which is good, cause I'm broke.

Unknown said...

Keep up the antitaper plan. I cannot believe that gal who broke her hip. The hardest part of her comeback might be convincing those in her life that running is actually good for her. Have a good weekend.

Quilt Granny said...

I am so very jealous of you. I'd give my catto have a picture of me crossing the finish line in Boston. Maybe some day.

By the way, I enjoyed reading your posts and like the way you have your blog set up. So, whats next?