Nogress

Tuesday

Today's session was a repeat of last Tuesday. 8 x 3 off 60 jog at threshold pace (more like 10k pace so little quicker).

Outcome - same sort of paces for the effort - 6/mm flat. Faster on the jog between. Felt better - took about 6 reps before lack of conditioning kicked in. HR was overall lower BUT much higher in the easy section.

Take away is that this is progress of sorts - but not enough to persevere. It was naturally landing at around 325w again for 6 flat pace.

Obviously the short recovery keeps the pressure up and makes the session better than it looks on paper. HR never went to anerobic at any stage which is good BUT I need to be cruising at 5.45 ish pace by now.

I'm definitely fitter than last week but this session will be too slow going to achieve what it needs to. I will 100% return as I think there's a big place for higher volume threshold but for now I need paces to drop dramatically. 

Next week I think I'll take volume down and recovery up - possibly 4 x 3.30 off 2.30 and push the intensity up a fair bit just to see whats under the hood. I'll try maybe 2 weeks of that sort of session and then return to this.

Strange too that day after rest and massage I felt pretty tired and bleugh. 

Last week I managed 5 @ 9s on the Wednesday so hopefully if I am progressing I'll be much stronger tomorrow. Also planning to increase Thursday treadmill session so lets see how things are going. 

Big picture it feels like progress but I really need to see much quicker paces by now.

Wednesday

Longer run today, no chance to get one in at the weekend. Was a risk after session yesterday but jog up to Ian's, 8 mile with Mark & Ian and jog back from that cafe was 13.4 miles @ around 7.50/mm nice and relaxed. Last week I could barely manage 5 @ 8.56 pace so I'd definitely say that's a step up.

Big concern now is huge fatigue BUT if I want to break through I need to break out. Really tired tonight but hopefully get a strong speed session in tomorrow and then back right off until Saturday.

Thursday

Thus concludes the micro block !! Good recovery after last couple of days of solid work & miles. 10 x 60/30 starting at 18.5 and ramping 0.1 to 19.5 (with a jump 0.2 after 4). Felt relaxed, tough session but under control. Definitely better than last week all around. Now need to chill and recover for a hit out on Saturday.

This session is absolutely critical in my return. As it develops it will hopefully eventually move to the track and be sub 70 secs for 400s feeling 'cruisy'. Developing that lactate buffer at that pace is key to me moving forwards. 10 x 400 in 68 avge feeling strong and not going too deep is the A target. I'd struggle to hit one at that pace right now but hopefully as things progress it will get there.

Fatigue is still the big worry now BUT I am not in A or B race territory, Saturday is squarely training target. Obvioudsly I've said I want to run low 17s but I have honestly no idea where it will be. In my mind I think starting at 330w and assessing things is a sensible plan. Worst case that will be about 5.45 pace but ideally anything in the 5.3x range is where I would like it to be.

Right now, I am starting to move well again. Paces feel under control and much closer to target than they were. Decent progress made last couple of weeks. Lacking leg turnover - need to do some speed work and something closer to mile pace soon. LT is not where it needs to be, longer, harder intervals just over LT are needed there top bring that down. Not a million miles of where it needs to be but very much work in progress. Good to get a marker in this weekend to get a rough idea where I am and make adjustments from that.