Week 3 - Trimming the Fat

Continuing the theme of a training diary ...

Monday - rest. Really need it, this schedule is fairly punishing and feels like I am sailing really close to the edge.

Tuesday - speed work. 8 x 60 / 60 this time at 21 kmph. Really hard session, not sure I'd say I was in control of this one. It's 3 weeks of progress and I think I may actually not do this one next week and repeat on week 5. Starting to get the leg speed where it needs to be. This is bordering on lower than 800m pace. If I can control this pace then I think Thursday sessions will become a piece of piss.

Wednesday - coke club plus a bit extra. Tired this week, ended up with 9.6 miles @ 7.27/mm which is fine but more concerned with how battered I felt after yesterday.

Checking Stryd, power was really high for yesterdays session from previous hence the fucked legs !!

Thursday - economy reps. Laughable title at the minute but the aim is to start relaxing on this session. This week 3 x 4 mins @ 5/mm on the treddy. Was really not up for this but session went well. Tired in the last few mins but starting to get on top. Once this session starts relaxing I will be hitting serious form but right now it's a stretch session. Feels like I could do with a rest tomorrow so will see if I repeat the recovery run or just put my feet up for Saturday.

Friday - feeling the fatigue so took an extra rest day. Hopefully the legs are prepped for tomorrow.

Saturday - Huntingdon Parkrun. 17.51. Bleugh, did it as a tempo but the course is tough and my legs just aren't strong at the minute. It's not a terrible effort to be honest but just not great. Feeling similar to couple of weeks ago. Ended up doing an easy double which would have been Fridays run just to get the miles in.

Sunday - all morning driving and walking around town to support Mrs P in the Cambridge Half. Really tired today - actually felt worse than I do after I've run a half !! So - ended up running BUT was brutally tired. Actually felt worse than if I had run the half. Started out with Jake on his run but extended to the 6.5ish loop I use and actually felt OK once I got moving. No Garmin which is perfect when feeling this way.

This week is the third on the new plan. Next week I will cut back the intensity some and add some tempo work into the mix. Trimming the fat this week refers to the fact that I can't really get away with extra recovery runs, strength work and extended warm ups and cool downs.  The mileage is high % quality and the recovery needs to be the same.

I know the paces I am working at are way quicker than my fitness level but the aim is to make these feel relaxed so the fitness follows suit. I can't imagine any coach would advise any of their athletes to do this but I'm a walking experiment on myself!

It's kind of like going from 20 to 80 miles per week off the bat and hoping everything catches up. The steaks are high in terms of injury risk and I'm feeling a bit 'gluty' if I am honest. However, last weeks Parkrun test went in the right direction and I'm seeing green shots of starting to relax at the right paces.

The plan will be to develop that longer rep session over winter, the others are all helping with that. I really want to build that to 4 x (just over) mile at some stage off low recovery. The Parkrun gives me feed back on progress. I've kept relaxed at 5.3x pace, the next step is staying relaxed at 5.2x pace and try not to get involved making it a 100% race effort.

So the review of this week is I'm tired and slightly over trained. Just never got over Tuesdays session - it was just too much taken out of the bank. That is the end of this block now (well, for that session anyhow) so going forward I will most likely do this session at a more controlled pace with less recovery and more reps.

I'm sitting here on Sunday afternoon having not run yet so it'll be interesting to see how that goes (I've have written after the event above) BUT I am kinda debating a rest day still.