W4D7&W5D1-4 Slow to post, but still running

Busy little bee, and slow to post, so apologies, but I have been out there running. With a mild exception at the end of last week. I actually am carrying an injury of sorts. It started last Saturday, after my canal run. I went up North to cut grass at the Banbridge house, and my right heel was really sore when I arrived. Not sure what the definition of the injury is, maybe a Heel Spur, but it was sore to walk, so I passed on Sunday, so leaving my weekly mileage at 20.5 miles last week.

It was easier, but still sore on Monday, so I erred on the side of prudence, and rested it again, which seemed to do the business and Tuesday I was able to run the 4.75 miles along the canal, with absolutely no problem from the heel, and although running easily, I was almost 10 seconds a mile quicker than on Saturday on the same route. Again, I would stress, I don't time every run to see if I am running quicker, but I always record my times so I can gauge the pace of my training. This rounded of July with 64.5 miles in the bank for the month. I do appreciate that this mileage is ridiculously low by certain standards (Thomas, are you reading?), but I am still building up gradually, slowly and steadily, trying to avoid the pitfalls of the last few years in jumping in far too quickly and ending up injuring myself.

Yesterday, August commenced (where is the year going?), and I tried something new, with a series of laps of 1 mile around the Canal Basin. Each lap was progressively faster, starting with a 7:57, then 7:43 and finally 7:31, at long last times that felt like I was actually "running", rather than ticking along.

So tonight, it was time to meet Karolina, my new Polish running buddy, and as last week, her programme called for intervals, but this time it was 800m intervals, and tonight I was able to keep up with her. She had already completed 2x800 when I joined her, but we then ran 4x800 under 3:30 each time, with a recovery jog of 400 each time. I was really pleased with these runs, my first real attempts at speed work this summer, and given that last week she blew me away, I was very happy to be able to work with her at her pace. We then had a nice warm down run, which I added another mile to, with another lap around the Canal Basin when I got home, so giving me a great workout.

So, I am feeling happy with my progress so far. I've come a fair bit in recent weeks, and hope that it can continue through August. The weight is now down to 191lbs, which is obviously helping my "speed", and next weeks Streets of Galway 8K will be a good indicator of progress.