You don't know what a long distance run can take out of you. Especially when you've gone further than ever before. In my last post I talk about recovery and my week last week was very light. It's only when you go for another meaty distance a week later that it sinks in what you've put your body through. My recovery week comprised of an 8km recovery walk, then a little 3km jog and then felt pretty good by the weekend and my planned 20km...
...Or so I thought.
I was using this run to test my body out again. Having got through a midweek light run with no issues I thought I'd be pretty much back to normal. On that basis I decided to pull the distance back to a simple trail 20km to be kind to myself, and to test that things were in good shape.
It turns out that things were not quite as I first thought.
The run took 3 and a half hours. Not too slow given the trail route I use, and I went easy. I also took my (bonkers) dog - Rae for company. Who duly put me to shame, as she never stops running. The first few KMs were easy enough but when I started to hit a few hills, it quickly dawned on me that my legs were still a bit fried from the previous 52Km they were subjected to seven days earlier.
At around halfway and 10k in, my hamstring started to tighten up (the one that was a problem last week) so did the sensible thing and eased up the last 6 or 7 k into a hike. I noticed some bruising across my toes (something I'll address for the main event) as well as blisters that hadn't healed as well.
The biggest thing was noticing that my energy dipped quickly. I hadn't kicked back in to my fat adapting fully after coming out of ketosis the previous weekend so it felt my energy systems hadn't properly switched over yet. I could feel that in my legs for sure. Heavy and sluggish.
I'm ok with this as I'm getting a better sense of what is going on and have no problems. I'm aggressively de-carbing now as I gained a couple of Kilo's in weight which I'm certain is all water retention from inflammation as well as the carbs I'd be eating last weekend. Already, writing this my energy levels have returned and I'm aiming for a 30km at the weekend which will be a good test. I've also worked on loosening the hamstring/adductor area that has been giving me some problems and it's feeling better. I'm now on my final 4 week training run in to the main event so it's important I keep that 50 in my legs and not let up. I'm pushing the frequency back up and the distances now and will post separately about my plans running up to the event. Thanks for reading!
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