I do like a blank piece of paper, some coloured pencils & a pen. I find it really helps with drawing up an overall vision or map to then move through / change as time sees fit.
With over half a year until London Marathon (assuming my good for age time is fast enough) and Cross Country about to start I’ve got a nice long block of time to prepare and build strength before knuckling down to some hard marathon sessions. It’s been brilliant to be relatively fitter than I have regarding running for the last 3 years. I want to take advantage of this and build off where I am.
With that in mind I’m going to use Cross Country as a nice stimulus for the next couple of months. With a race every other week until early November, then a little break until Jan / Feb this seems an ideal corner stone to base my current training on.
I’ve been playing about with what to do – my main goal is to get strong, running strong, remain fit and healthy without overdoing anyone particular thing. Part of this has been an internal discussion around how to balance my day and where meditation fits in. I really enjoy waking, cold shower, meditate and start my day. This being the case makes it incompatible to do any form of movement first thing, especially if teaching. Recently I’ve been considering how meditating first thing may not be quite as key – I’m fully rested and mind at peace, so it may in fact work better to use meditation as a break to reset during the day.
Taking this into account I’ve settled on the following rhythm, to see how this works for the next 8 weeks:
Weds – AM easy run / PM easy run with week by week alternate 10 x 10s hill sprints or 4 x (4 x 40sec @ 5k effort)
Thurs – AM – easy run / PM Heavy weights
Friday – AM – Easy run / PM – Easy run
Sat – Alternate XC race @ marathon to threshold effort with a long run @ 80% of marathon pace
Sun – AM Medium long run up to 2 hours / PM 4 rounds of hyper-ventilation & holds for 20mins nervous system reset.
Mon – AM Zwift cycling sweet spot threshold session / PM Heavy Weights
Tues – Off
My reasoning for this is based on the last month and playing around with things:
2 x 3 day blocks – First block: Easy & speed, easy & lift, Easy
Second block – Race or long steady, Med & nervous system reset, Zwift & Lift
I get space between each harder effort run/bike. Not leaving more than 2 days between runs or trying to do light doubles to speed just doesn’t work. My body complains as needs healing / repair time. Whilst mobility work is key, it won’t allow me to do too much too close together.
Lifting heavy weights isn’t compromised by the running/biking and vice versa due to the space between them and the intensity/volume expected from them. Strength gets the chance to be built with lifting heavy weights. One thing I learnt here was using rep max calculators resulted in too big a jump in weights lifted, the result was compromised form and aggressive DOMS. I did an assessment coming back from holiday, then adjusted what I was lifting – some was pretty spot on, some well out. It was good to learn the lesson and tune into the right amount of weight that challenged, but didn’t compromise either form on the day or anything the next few days.
Mobility twice a week, specifically around feet, hips & back as lifting warm ups works. Daily interventions aren’t necessary – good from a mental & time perspective
Sunday PM nervous system reset works well at helping me feel really physiologically recovered from the Saturday, allowing (hopefully) better sleep on Sunday night and a good Monday before resting on a Tuesday.
Long steady runs to build resilience up for harder long stuff to come. I’ve got to my sweet spot of 30k, which seems absolutely fine now. Tweaking this with starting slower and ramping up to a steady pace perfect for building this resilience.
Alternating speed work in hills / 40s efforts to prevent boredom in pure hills and allow that running sensation of running relaxed and fast.
Zwift – I do really enjoy getting into a slightly harder bike ride. I know from previous experience this makes me feel really fit, just lacks the time on feet that a marathon requires.
Suunto’s new Zonesense software, paired with their heart rate belt will be really interesting to watch how my body adapts, my aerobic / anaerobic zones shift over the next few weeks. Combining HRV & HR they claim to have a more accurate understanding of where you are each day. I’m curious, looking post training – but want to wait for some time, at least until post Xmas to think about adjusting sessions during work outs.
All easy runs nasal, post steady runs using cadence breathing as a calming tool. I found in the Boston build that hyper-ventialtion was a better way to shift state (thus on a Sunday here) and cadence breathing more subtle.
Hopefully this works well for the next 7-8 weeks before shifting to a new phase, stronger, fitter and healthier.
BreatheToMove 