Week 4 – A 7.5/10 that went down to a 1/10.
Injury comes back to plague my treacherous body. I wonder if the cold I suffered last week did enough to tweak muscles & create an environment for my left calf to pull / tear / strain as it did mid June. Regardless it happened, I got hurt so the coming week is back on the bike and lifting to help strengthen and heal. My usual mid marathon build injury
Monday 2/10: Early morning run, 10.01km 51m. Felt about 80% as recovering form head cold. Kept relaxed and easy the whole way. Inspired by music last week this weeks sunrise MOnday run was to NIls Frahm. All nasal
PM – High tide, weather still great, body recovering so skipped strength and went for a swim with Jen.
Tues 3/10 (A) Supposed to be easy and flys. Running into the wind off the back of a double espresso adn I felt good. Relaxed, happy. Planned to run 12k and got to 6k and wanted to run further, so headed onto 6.5 and turned around – can’t remember that feeling happening for some time. Had wind on way back, relaxed, nasal and let legs go. Felt great, focused on relaxed, relaxed, relaxed. 13km 1h 2m
Weds 4/10: Threshold session. Went really well. Tired post teaching – was dehydrated as drunk no water throughout the day (which I suspect was the trigger for the calf going on Saturday). Usual warm up of 500m 5 step / 10 step holds then 5 x go exercises.
Main set – 3 x (2 x 3mins @ threshold / 3 mins @ marathon) off 4 min walk. First one into wind. Second split half and half, last with wind.
Was intending to do 4 x 60 secs @ 5k and legs / calves / heels sore. Precurser to what was to come.
Decent times:
- 3’50/4’01/3’50/4’01
- 3’45/4’00/3’47/3’58
- 3’46/3’58/3’42/3’54
Total 16k in 1h 17m
Thurs 5/10: Easy nasal running to Nirvana MTV Unplugged album. Enjoyed run but left calf tight – not any worrying pain at this point. Frist 6 day consecutive run for a long time. 12km 1h 1m
Fri 6/10: Rest
Sat 30/9: (A) Got up to run at 7:30am and planned 3k/4k/5k @ marathon effort off 5k easy run. Into wind for first half. Got first 3k set done, calf a little aggravated. Second half of 4k rep and just got progressively worse. Stopped at 3.5k to stretch / supinate foot. Finished rep and tried to run on a little. Was around 11k from home, which filled me with frustration and annoyance at having to walk back for nearly 2 hours. So walked for around 5 mins or so and managed to run at around 5:20/km without too much discomfort. Got 5k form home, walked for another 5 mins or so and then ran the rest of the way.
Got a decent amount of time on feet, but worrying that 2 harder runs in the week too much. Concluded that one harder run every 6-7 days all that I can safely manage now. So taking a week off feet running wise to let calf heal. Back on bike / double lifting days together (Mon/Tues, Thurs / Fri). Going back over old diaries/ plans this has worked when a larger base behind me. It also reinforces that running purely for pleasure as opposed to looking to chase times a reality I need and want to embrace. I’d far rather be able to train, day in, day out, with the odd day running comfortably fast than what I’m currently suffering.
Sun 8/10: (P) Back on Zwift. FTP test to see where i am to help manage the load when I cycle next week. FTP hasn’t changed. Which I am surprised at (and happy about). 23m on the bike, utterly spent by the end.
Positives – Running free on Tuesday was amazing.
To learn – Only 1 harder run a week / every 6 days
Time for week: 7h22m
Distance: 77km
Split Over / under pace of 4:22/km 75% / 25%
Long run = 34% of distance
Total stress points – (which for me is rate of perceived effort X time as a simplistic metric to look at) 1811. Cold leading to drop off
