Daily Sunrise Fix

It wasn’t the easiest to get out for a run in the morning. I suppose that is the consequence of my recent increase in duration. However it has become a reflex by now and so there is no question if I do or not. Unless I am feeling tired or something is hurting I put on my clothes and go run.

I’m starting to notice, especially in the beginning of my runs, it is much harder to reach the 144 heartrate, at least on the beach. I feel super comfy for at least the first 5-15 minutes to just run around 139.

Of course it was a perfect start … to the end of the beach with the sunrise and spectacular clouds and I had planned to take it super easy today …

… then at the end of the beach there are the stairs of hell and I found myself climbing up and to the top of the hill …

Halfway point

Well that’s that for the low heartrate … so the story of today’s run ends with me running around the hill, catching breath to check that Dublin is still there in the far distance and running downhill (my favourite part). Only down-hills I run like a Kenyan – 180 step rate, lightning fast (in my head). (Don’t try this if you haven’t trained this for a long time, it will trash your quads, ankles and whatever else you’ve never used before).

After 70 minutes I was back to where I started and since I had completely messed up the heartrate I decided it was enough and headed home. Still I did average an HR of 144 … I did walk the hills and stairs … oh and I didn’t reach the “red zone of death” on my Garmin … that should all count for something.

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Unspectacular

Today was quite unspectacular. It was neither a bad run nor a particularly good one.

I had no plan and went down the beach. I had the bright idea to test different surfaces and check my pace for each at my 144 heart rate.

Including the stairs of hell:

I was pleased to see my soft sand pace is now 9 minutes/km and it is one minute faster on pavement.

I even have to start running up smaller inclines I used to have to walk to keep my low heart rate.

I noticed it got a bit harder to keep the heart rate up at least while on the beach/street.

I also did the ice cold sea bath for my feet/ankles and calves afterwards which is such a treat!

 

Another nice day for mizzle slopping

1 hour and 10 minutes done … went by too fast … heartrate went to a new max high, because I couldn’t resist the hill …

I can just say that this goes into my 20% budget for higher zones or forget it and be good tomorrrow.

I had a blast though 😀

To the hill be it sun or hail

… or actually both! Today had it all. All kinds of weather- think 4 seasons in a run including hail, rain and sun. There was the beach, stairs of hell and hills, as well as way too many tourists! Today is a bank holiday and so I took a day off and waited till the tide was out – clever me … or so I thought. Same idea as dozens of other folks had …

Anyhow … I feel I am not getting faster hiking up the hill so I am curious how this will feel after a rest week.

1 hour and 10 minutes done, all around an average heartrate of 141.

To the hills

I tried to uncover new evidence about the seal I think I saw, but the beach was unrunable! Took to the hills which are much more sheltered. Nice 30 minutes … don’t want to mention heartrate though.

Hills are my new friends here’s why

I went back to the hills and it works beautifully. I finally found a way to stay sane with the low heatrate training … at least I think so. I have to hike/walk if it is too steep, but at least I get to keep a low heartrate and get fitter and it does not feel as stupid as walking on the beach. Hiking between tree roots and slippery stones is also much more entertaining for the mind. The big bonus it to get to run with really fast pace downhills! After nearly a year of pebble hopping and hills in neutral shoes I can do this without any issues, my feet seem to be super strong. This is sooo much fun! Also … the views are just a treat.

All in all including warmup and cool down I played for 2 hours. I am thinking about increasing time next week … the sun is up much earlier these days and it would be nice to catch the sunrise on top of the hill …

What adventures are you up to this weekend?

Get up and run!

I woke up today and wanted to get on top of a hill … I know running does crazy things to you.

Fortunately for me a hill is just around the corner. I didn’t even wait for sunrise and just headed to the beach.

Today wasn’t a double sock day, but the wind was making a bit of a wave. Nothing like the gale force stuff I had got used to over the winter so happy times! You can see the hill and the obelisk on top. Getting there does involve  a bit of climbing.

Now if the hike didn’t kill your breath the views will – sun is optional!

You can see Dublin waking up in the distance.

Check out the beach below where I started. Looks like the tide is still out so more playtime!

And that’s what I did, inventing some sort of new  slow running reverse hill training. While I couldn’t discipline myself enough to hike up steep hilly parts at a low heartrate I kept it down while running. I was surprised how much of it I could actually run and what joy it was! Checkout the pics … only a runner can understand how those surfaces bring happiness to feet!

I ended up climbing up another hill and snag a pic while the heartrate cooled down.

All in all a perfect experience that ended with me falling into a bowl of baba ganoush I had from yesterday.