Increase the Pressure

Very slowly starting to feel like the fitness is coming back. Not just paces and runs but that feeling inside that I'm getting stronger. It's been a while !!

Monday I decided to do an active recovery run as last week I felt awful on Tuesday after a rest day. 5 miles @ 9.17/mm and that was pretty tiring but wanted to see how the legs responded on Tuesday.

Tuesday session I decided on 10 x 75/45 at 19 kmph. No ramp up and longer intervals. It's a step up in time (25%) at last weeks average pace basically.

Legs did feel a lot better in the morning so worth noting that going forwards. I'm not a big fan of run streaking BUT I am looking at what brings out progress in me! Possibly running some rest days incredibly slow may build conditioning and strength but I need to monitor fitness and freshness on TP.

The session felt pretty tough at the start. Power and pace wise that's very low 5s so somewhere between 1500m and 3k effort in theory. After about 8 reps I felt a lot stronger for some reason and last couple were much better than expected.

Obviously slightly lower power than the last few efforts last week BUT it was more time at pace so that's the adaption phase I'm looking for right there.

Feel pretty good post session. Big decision not to double with a shake out (yet) or do weights - I'll save that for easy days.

What's missing right now is raw speed. Shorter speed work at 800m - 1500m pace and I'll do something to tickle that on Thursday.

Everything else is right where it needs to be right now. Next week I'll do traditional km reps plus 5k speed work development.

Saturdays race I don't see any point laying too far back off of it. I'm not anywhere near enough OAPB shape to make it worth it. I'll ease up a little by doing Friday active recovery again but it's more like a training race just to see if there's been much progress since last week.

Will go slightly longer for tomorrows easy mid week (not as far as last week) just a nice time on feet run keeping it comfortable over the trails.

Wednesday run was planned easy with mind of doing 10 @ 7.30s feeling like nothing. Outcome was very much bleugh. Never got going, felt under fueled and tired. Def feeling a long drag of negative TSB dragging me down. That balance is settling over time but fatigue creeps up on me like today. Last night I felt bang on but it's hit me on today's one.

Tomorrow I will play be ear, ideally do speed work BUT if I'm not 100% I will rest up rather than risk anything. Rest, easy, race, long isn't worst plan in the world for the remainder of the week.

Looking at today's run for positives, it's nearly 7 miles at long run pace with a low HR. Just felt like a 90 year old was only complaint lol Shows conditioning is improving and that's all I want right now.

Need for speed and recovery so tomorrow I won't kit up unless I am confident I'm better than today.

Thursday up and rested well but decided on a rest day today. Just need to get that fatigue under control and I'll be good to push onward.

Did calf set late afternoon - need to mix calf and hip work now for the next month. Improving these areas could be huge gains for me as they are what have been missing.

Def feel like I am recovering through the day today. Will do an easy shake out tomorrow and some strides / drills. Hopefully legs start coming in for Saturday's run out.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. When you are older, if you can get on that  wheel of racing at least once per week - even hard tempo efforts - it settles you down and gives you more opportunities to run hard. Once you stop racing it's so difficult to start again. I always start slow and get quick fast once I race. If for any reason I couldn't get to Lee Valley on Saturday I would Park Run, just need to get racing. It also really relaxes you when you do get to A & B races.

Any other time I would see Saturday as B race but I'm just not fit enough to give that enough of a shot. In my head I know I'll give it 100% but I'm clearly not sharp enough.

Key for my build is to get running low 5's for sessions and start to relax and then build duration.

Strength work should build in resilience and extra mileage overall should built conditioning. It's a decent plan I just need enough time being healthy to execute !!

Friday an easy run but on the steady route. 6.5 miles @ 6.56 avge for 146 bpm HR feeling really easy. Another step up in fitness today, was down to 6.40 for a couple and HR was really good. If I can keep this up I will be in serious shape soon hopefully.

This week has been more of a consolidation so far, a good race tomorrow and a solid long easy run on Sunday would really lift things. I'm starting to move really well, ache less and improve that's all I can ask for at this stage.

As is tradition, pre race thoughts for tomorrow. It's not going to be easy as I haven't done enough longer stuff like KM reps at pace. 5k at 3.30 per km says 3k at 3.20 per km should be very achievable. How far under that I am not sure. 9.45 is dream target but very unlikely (that's probably where I'll start). 9.55 ish is ball park where I have been 2 of last 3 seasons and equates to 17 flat 5k which sounds about right now. Not knowing what competition is like (it's an old farts race) means I'm blind on that front and not sure what it'll go off like. I'll try and run it solid first km and see what happens. It's a lot of laps so that's going to be fun keeping count lol !!  Pretty excited to get racing again and happy I can get a streak of races going now. Cobwebs still need blowing away and that's what this is all about.

Saturday 2 miles easy shake out in the morning. Race outcome - long story short 9.50.25 in the end in a progressive fashion. 3.18, 3.17.3.15 splits. It felt far too hard from the start but I hung in to Rich Berry and had nothing when he kicked with 600m to go. Could over analyse this but very big step up from last week (17.02 equivalent) and still need to work on speed work ! 3.15 pace is my target to cruise.

Sunday long run with Rich & Wayne to finish the week. 12 miles @ 7.53 pace feeling easy but a little hungover. Def tired from last night lol. 

42 miles for the week. CTL up, ATL down and TSB coming back to reasonable level. Starting to feel fitter and recover better.

Not a bad week. Decent race result for where I am at, fairly happy with that. Solid run on Friday, really nice step up. Tired start of the week but should have rested Monday. Disappointing long run - didn't do extra 3/4 miles as was hungover.

Next week progress is 2 sessions with improved LT pace and mile pace. Hopefully a Parkrun improvement and add a little extra to the cool downs. Long run will be interesting on Sunday as first solo one for a long time.