Week 3 – A 7.5/10 that went down to a 1/10.
Right achilles heel insertion begun to improve, running begun to feel easier – then going back into school & being exposed to children’s germs struck. Post Wednesday’s harder session (and there was clearly some tiredness there as I napped after my breakfast) I felt more fatigued than was normal. Weds PM throat began to hurt, pretty poor sleep Weds night. Then it started, head cold, aching face, lots of snot, until by 7 I went from beign happy to eat, to going to bed. No sleep on Thursday night – finally managing to rest and sleep from 10-3 on Friday day time. This felt great, but unsurprisingly knocked the running back.
Monday 25/9: Early morning run, 7.93km 42m. Out at 6:23 as the sky was turning a great purple grey towards Margate. Warm and the tide on its’ way in. Headphones left at home as I tuned into the lapping waves. Started really gently and let the run come to me. All nasal
Strength in the PM
Warm up: Core – 24 x each of Marching plank / wipers / Russian Twists / Standing trunk rotation / Donkey Toes 120 in total ISO holds – Wall sit 2mins
Main: Front squat / Deadlift / Bulgarian Split Squat / Kettlebell swing / Medball rainbow slam 3 x 20 reps lifting off 60 secs rest. 90 secs b/n exercises
Farmers carry – 3 x once round house either arm (takes me around 6o secs and up / down some stairs) / 60 secs rest
3 x 12 soleus single leg lift
3 x 20 Bird dog single arm row 60 secs rest. 90 secs
3 x 18 press ups.
3 mins cadence breathing cool down.
“Arms utterly done by the end – reminded me of how hard I first found lifting heavy.” How I noted last weeks – same again this week. 1h 9m
Tues 26/9 (A) Easy running, all nasal and pushed pace a little, within the realm of focusing on breathing and being relaxed. Ending with 6 x 30m flys. 13k / 1h 4mins
Weds 20/9 (A) Woo’hooo. Good session. 6 x 6mins focus on 2mins build lactate / 3 mins use / 1min push, so LT / marathon / 5k efforts. Cross wind slightly against me on reps 2/4/6. Nice straight round edge of Minis bay to end, then rest and back the other way. 1st felt good, 3rd really relaxed. Harder from then on.
Warm up – 2km easy, then 500m 5 step breath holds / 500m 10 step breath holds / 5 x breath holds walk, jog, run, stride x5 sharp breaths 30 secs rec.
Main set – Pace boundaries, 2mins from 3’43 to 3’50. 3mins from 3’56 – 3’58, most consistent which is good. 1min from 3’29 to 3’38.
Easy jog for 3km to cool down. 16.01km / 1h 22m. Sore right achilles insertion at heel and slight stiff left calf. As last week.
Thurs & Fri awful cold takes hold
Sat 30/9: (A)
Went out to test any sort of running. Intended to run 14k if possible. Got to 4k and knew that 8k was the right thing for my chest & head cold, so turned round and ran home. Felt about 50% of full capacity. Pleased with this decision. Pondering new goal for Valencia to negative split, as opposed to time.
8km 41m all nasal
Sun 1/10: (A) Easy 18k – as with Saturday letting my body dictate how far to run. Took water & fuel for up to 2 hour run. 25/30 mins in knew that 45 mins turnaround and back was the right choice. Stopped at 5k for water and 9k / halfway for a gel and drink. Bumped into Jen on the way back. Was possibly 10 minutes running over what I was ready for and body around 70% of full fitness. Ran in new Nike Trail Ultraflys. Good stability as could test them on the scrubby trail path down below the sea wall. All nasal and keeping relaxed and easy.
18km 1h33m
Positives – By Weds was feeling progress beginning to happen. Listened to body post cold.
To learn – Speed (5k work) post threshold runs / start a lot slower on easy runs
Time for week: 6h49m
Distance: 63km
Split Over / under pace of 4:22/km 85% / 15%
Long run = 29% of distance
Total stress points – (which for me is rate of perceived effort X time as a simplistic metric to look at) 1728. Cold leading to drop off
BreatheToMove 