The nolongerdrunksobacktoreality post

Mon: 8 miles, 55:04
Tue: 10 miles, 65:38
Wed: 5 miles, 36:30 + Gym
Thu: 11.3 miles total (72:53); 6.15 mile tempo in 35.28

Spent the first couple of days of this week getting over the weekends festivities. Came back to Dublin on Tuesday after dropping the newlyweds at the airport. Was only out on the run about 5 mins when I ran into Mary Cullen who's working her way back after injury, although you wouldn't know it given the pace she was running. Ran with Mary for about 3 miles before continuing on at a similar pace, although faster than normal. The Monday & Tuesday runs were slightly longer than was scheduled, and just did a few junk miles on Wed to make up for the weekend off instead of the usual day off.
Had the physio work me over Wed night and apparently my IT bands are like bricks and need some serious work over the next couple of weeks to prevent anything developing. Fun.
Last night hit the Phoenix Park for my tempo. The previous time out I'd run 35:45 but had run harder than I should have for a tempo. Brought the HR monitor along this time to keep the effort more under control. Passed through the mile in 5:45 before hitting the uphill 2 miles, which were run in 11:48, before the last 3 and change in 17:56. Was happy with the run as I was in much more control of myself than last time out although the equivalent tempo last year was run slightly faster (35:15) which I was hoping to match.
The HR is causing me some concern due to the effect the meds for the CML are having. One of the side effects of the meds is a slowing of the QT interval of the heartbeat. The result is that my resting BP has dropped from 120/75 to 120/65. I'm not sure what's happening to the BP during the run, but the drop in the diastolic BP means less tension in the arteries which is resulting in the heart beating more frequently to ensure blood flow through the body. My average HR during the tempo was 189bpm, varying between 184-193, compared to 177-189 last year. What surprised me wasn't how high the HR was as I was expecting that, but how little it varied especially on the downhills/uphills section. Usually the HR profile during the run would match the terrain, but not with this one. It wasn't really coming down on the downhills, and I wasn't seeing the usual spike on the uphill. The pretty shitty graph below shows the HR from start to finish.

One of the cooler aspects of the run was the w/u and c/d. It's fawning season for the deer in the park, and the herds (?) were packed together. Grabbed the iphone for the cooldown and took a few pics which aren't all that clear since I can't zoom on the iphone.