First secret time trial

My bum appears to be letting go.

Er...that is, the pain in my butt is easing off.

Which is surprising, considering the last three days of training. But I think I finally found a Pilates move that is helping my muscles settle down. Funnily enough, it's not a piriformis stretch, nor a hip flexor move, but a side lying over a barrel type thing.

I really thought I had screwed things up good and proper with the Bolder Boulder on Monday, but actually I'd just forgotten that when you are a highly-trained, finely-tuned runner (ahem)...walking is not that great for you. I can't remember the last time I WALKED six miles. It really tightens the legs up. Besides which I'd completely forgotten about how I was supposed to get home. Having wandered off to watch the elite races and chat to friends, it turned out easier to walk home than walk to a bus. So that was 10 miles walking for the day, and a fast two-mile run that morning to get to the start line.

Tuesday, tight bum notwithstanding, I was inspired by the weather to run the first of my top secret time trials. The weather: pouring rain - marvellous! The tt: a device to enable me to keep track of how I am progressing without anyone else knowing. I took myself off to the Dash&Dine course at the Boulder Res, which was completely deserted and reminded me of many lonely, wet runs in the damp greenness of England. In the right weather, running at the Res has the feel of running at an out-of-season English seaside resort. It was one of those days.

So considering I was wearing rain gear over my normal running clothes, plus hat and gloves, and that the going was soft underfoot... the 23:45 was OK. Don't tell anyone though, because I want to keep these time trials a secret.

Which brings us to Wednesday, Day 10 of the Restart Phase. No Drills with Bobby this morning because most people are recovering from Bolder Boulder. I needed a substitute. Right on cue, Dr Owen Anderson announced the latest issue of Running Research News was available. I downloaded it and found two great articles to get me going.

First - "Building an endurance base with sprint training". Apparently there's yet more new research showing how much more effective mixed pace and/or faster running is compared to longer, moderate-paced runs -- even and especially when doing "base" training.

Second, "The 30-30 workout - involving 30-second surges at faster than one-mile race pace alternating with 30-second recoveries - is an important tool in every endurance-runner's workout 'bag'. Conducting the workout properly ensures that a runner will soar above 90% of VO2max during a significant fraction of the session." Speed, speed endurance and running economy can all improve significantly.

What I did was run one mile steady out to the Wonderland Lake trail to warm up, then set my Garmin to beep at me every 30 seconds. I then alternated jogging 30 and "surging" 30 until I had covered two miles, then jogged one mile to finish. The 30-seconds "on" bursts are supposed to be FAST. I took it a litle steadier, but even so on one of the bursts hit 4:54 pace (probably for all of 20 metres!)... it was hard, but also refreshing, and six hours later I was still fresh, reporting for duty at Pilates.

So far, so good. It's coming together.