Finishing it off or finishing myself off
...and the week continues.
Top of legs / hips feeling tired from intervals at the start of the week. Those 2 sessions are tough and take a lot out but the right things are being broken down and built.
Plan to hammer the rehab tonight and hope the legs feel good for 1k TT tomorrow but very likely to start it on heavy legs. Last time was pretty bad, just couldn't get going so hopefully tomorrow get out of the blocks faster.
Saturday - up and at 'em. Wake up early, lots of coffee. Breakfast, stretch and out the door. Jog up the hill. Left achillies a little sore. Warm up in the Peggy T's but take a rucksack to stash with the Next% in. Top of the hill at about 7:45/mm which is a little slow pre-effort for me. Legs feeling heavy and feeling generally tired but not always a bad sign. Change shoes and ready to go.
Start at the flyover on the down slope. Plan is to run 10-15 metres and hit lap as the Garmin always fucks up start and end of runs for pace. Over a short event it's every second counts!
Off we go, feel good but head hasn't worked out I'm trying to go 100% yet. Off the ramp, plan is to hit it hard at the start to wake everything up and set it up. Getting started is where I have struggled in the past. Around the bend and up and over the kerbs by the electric station and chance to check Garmin. Around 4:40 pace for about 250m. Next bit is a gentle up hill, work really hard and keep focus. In my head I'm thinking please be 2-300m to go at the top. Check Garmin and down to about 4:34/mm pace but we're at 0.38m so roughly 400m. Move onto the road as it's better surface but have to jump back on pavement as cars are coming. Legs did not like that and almost give way. 4:40 pace at 0.58 miles. Dig in, I'm slowing but it's agony. Even with a solid wind behind I've still got to run the fucker. One last check and 0.63m so stop and walk. 2.57 on the Garmin and upload later to see 1km in 2.53. Over the moon with that. Solo on tired legs that's an improvement regardless of the conditions.
Jog back to the rucksack, switch shoes and jog home. Shits down with rain and hail stones right in my face. Happy days.
I'll take all the positives from that. Clearly I took every advantage I could (as was pointed out to me) however on battered legs and solo on the road I could equal that rested up a track race fairly comfortably. Still ~8 seconds off where I need to get that to. Make no mistake, to me, the only thing that counts is what Power of 10 says, all the Strava TT's in the world don't mean shit.
Left achillies was better on the cool down in the Peggy Ts but very sore after the effort.
These Virtual TTs are amazing for me as they are enough to get my focus up. Next up is a 5k next month which is a nice target. Just keep getting the hard work done.
Sunday - wake up to heavy legs and very sore calfs. Nearly 4 miles combined of very hard effort this week (under 5/mm) is stretching things at this stage. On the coffee to get me motivated as I type. Not sure I'l get out at all but either way a true recovery / regeneration run is on the cards so a very slow 8 or so miles is what I am mentally preparing for. Could rest if needed as a precaution but want to try and keep that weekly routine going. Planned rest day is tomorrow and not ideal to start the week with a long run.
So got out. Decided to just run very easy. First 3 miles around the village average about 8.20 pace. Tired! Head out to Caxton and the Eltisley path. Start running sub 8's by the 6th mile and last 4 is much better. Had to stop a lot to stretch out aching achillies. Sub 7 last mile felt OK which is a surprise but downhill and out of that nasty wind. Finished with 10 miles @ 7:52/mm avge. Absolutely fucked so looking forward to a rest tomorrow.
So, the week -
39.6 miles. All TP stats pretty static - shows a plateau in numbers but definate increase on effort and feeling faster this week.
Miles breakdown -
Just under 4 miles @ sub 5 (V02 max)
+ 0 miles 5-6/mm (threshold)
+ 18 miles sub 7 (steady)
+ 18 miles 8+ (recovery)
No threshold miles this week. Very polarised training either flat out, steady or recovery!
Found this week hard work, noticeable improvement on pace and work load. Good to try and repeat this, just continue to bring on the paces bit by bit.
Next week Saturday will probably be the km hill session OR the threshold again - we shall see.
Injury watch - foot - much better. Sore directly under heel before Thursday's speed work but fine since then. Peggy T's pretty much the best shoe so far for that. Hip / glutes - really doing loads of work to stretch and roll them and paying off. Treadmill definitely helps for speed work. The Wednesday session I am not 100% sure did much. Tendons around hammys and hips tighter from the speed work but that should just be stretching out and hopefully as I recover that comes back stronger. Achillies ached pre 1k TT and first few miles Sunday but hopefully nothing to worry about. Will KTape if needed but one to keep an eye on.
This week I have had a good old Strava cull. Not sure why people follow, but never ever give any kudos or comment or anything. I guess it's the same from me. Whats the point in following people if you don't interact with them. It just becomes feed spam. So I've been watching whose getting involved and who isn't. Don't get me wrong, it annoys me that I get as much blind kudos for a warm up as I do a hard effort but surely the occasional click for something decent is warranted if you have gone to the trouble of following me??!! I've made a point of laying out a few kudos to people who I don't normally and see if they reciprocate. If not, they're getting fucked off haha Mind you, if anyone is properly quick then fairs fair who the fuck am I. I'm still watching and learning from their training. So click or you better be quick ;)
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