Time to Break Out

Decent week bagged last week but I'm still carrying that build forwards - i.e. my CTL is rising and my TSB is staying negative (and dropping).

Right now, I am looking at two things are happening. 

1 - no pain no gain, train hard, race easy, what doesn't kill you can only make you stronger etc, etc...

Am I doing the right thing - is working hard making me faster and tiredness and fatigue just an off set of that? It's certainly my younger days experience. I kinda feel that I am addressing all the correct areas that I need to but the underlying concern is I am doing too much too soon and I need to ...

2 - ease up, let the fitness come to me and don't stress the body. 

Do I need a couple of weeks just to dial everything back, recover, get fresh and let the speed come to my legs.

I'm ideally going to just keep pushing BUT if this s=Saturday doesn't go well I will certainly change things. I really should be in that 16.4x park Run bracket by now off my training.

Monday - rest. Well needed and carried lots of fatigue over from Sunday.

Tuesday - session. Bare with me. Plan was 6 x km increasing pace on treadmill BUT I couldn't run the really hard ones at the correct pace so split the efforts out.

Warm up as usual then 3.30 @ 16.8 kmph. 60 rest. 3.35 @ 17.6 kmph. 90 rest. 3.15 @ 18.5 kmph. 1.45 rest. 1 min @ 19 kmph. 2 mins rest. 2 min @ 19 kmph. 2 mins rest. 3 min @ 19 kmph. 2 mins rest. 2 min @ 19 kmph. 1 mins rest. 75 secs @ 19.3 kmph.

3 miles cool down outside.

Tough session. Legs were heavy and unresponsive. Really didn't think I would manage 3 mins at 19 if I am honest. Possibly worked too hard but ideally looking to make a break through this week in fitness.

Session was kms at 10k pace, 5k pace, 5k goal pace and then 3k target. 19:30 of running at faster than 5k pace.

Legs felt that, had a massage with Jenny later in the afternoon.

Really looking at this session and this feels a stretch. In my head I am desperate to run low 5 min pace feeling relaxed but I'm still nowhere near comfortable. I know I'll get there at some stage but just need to get the sessions done. If I do back off then I'll dial back this session to peak at 18.5 kmph as I am close to relaxing there and put some volume in at LT around those blocks. Again, it'll all depend on how I go on Saturday.

Wednesday - ached like fuck this morning. Really sore. Plan is a recovery run. Ended up hooking up with Bear & T dog for an easy slow lap of Cambourne. 7 miles @ 8.20 pace (ish) felt really good afterwards. Pretty sure I will do very similar tomorrow just to get my legs back to me. Just feeling a little bit of over doing things creeping in so maybe do some 30 secs strides at the end but either way it would be good to level out this fatigue.

Thursday - the nuclear option. An extra rest day !!! Still aching all over and my upper back and left glute were really tight when I went to bed. I need to be in this game for a long time not a quick one so taking a full rest day from running and hopefully tomorrow I'll wake up fresh.

Maybe I'm being lazy but my body is telling me things are hard going right now. Last time I did this (3 weeks ago) I actually raced better at the weekend.

This is constantly on my mind - balancing progress with recovery. I could run 7 easy today but what's the benefit - maybe 1 or 2 %. I could do the intervals but the risk reward is huge. Bank the rest day and hopefully feel fresh and strong tomorrow.

I will do my strength set - calfs and glutes but that won't kill me plus a load of stretching and rolling.

I have banked about 9 weeks of solid and consistent running now with 6 or so with sessions so I can afford to dial back to recover. That base is pretty strong. If anything I could do with getting a cut back into a target race fairly soon rather than running on tired legs every week!

I have around 2 weeks now until a block of fast race opportunities. The plan will be to run hard this Saturday. Following week will be a full week of training hitting correct paces in sessions. I will dial back the Park Run and probably run either tempo effort or a speed session on the Sunday before easing in to race 1.

Key now is starting to get my legs and freshness back to me rather than continue to build fitness week on week.

Friday - rest day yesterday. Still feeling achey and bleugh this morning. Frustrating. Decided to isolate my hamstrings and stretch the arse out of those. I'll get a lot more focussed on my body this week. I'm going for strength work purely on core and conditioning focussing on loosening hammys.

Bit bleugh but once I got started stretching starting to feel more alive. 

Run was actually better than expected. Still a little achy but started moving well. 5.4 miles with 4 x 30 ish sec strides quick. 7.09/mm off 138 bpm. Will continue to stretch out hammys and back today and hopefully wake up tomorrow 100% as I'll need it !!

Tomorrows estimation - ahh, should really be sub 17 whatever the weather but I'm feeling its going to drop back to 17.15-17.20 again. Just not moving so well this week. Everything a little heavy and slow. I'll try and run with some bounce. Just need a break through right now, just to jump on to the next level and start closing in on 16.30.

Occurred to me on run today that basically I have completely fucked up my training week and stitched myself up. After a hard 5k on Sat, I ran too far and too hard on Sunday. Rested Monday but wasn't recovered enough but still did a very hard (too hard) session. Ran easy Wednesday but the hole I had dug was too deep. Thursday rested so a missed session and still not quite recovered enough. Friday easy went well enough but I am still aching far too much. I think I have answered my own questions this week about am I pushing too hard. I am being too impatient and I need to manage paces and load better. I get what I deserve tomorrow pass or fail.

Saturday - up. Ahhh, hammys are tight and don't feel great at all. Lots of coffee and ibro and stretching and rolling later and - hammys are still fucked but I feel OK !! Grab Turner, hit the parl and ride and warm up. DC, Monkey, Briggsy, Ty & Nic all there today so at least it's a good craic.

Get off at the start and as usual it's too hard before backing off. Feel pretty OK for the first mile. Again, way long on Garmin (5.32) so know I am in OK shape. By half way Ty passes and I am working to hold on. I actually feel really good I just don't have the legs.

Not getting a power reading so switch to time. Pace doesn't look great. Don't get a split for miles 2 or 3 but I am just working hard as I can with the legs but they just do not have it today. 

Ty puts 10 secs or so in to me so I'm just trying to keep that gap respectible.

Finish up with 17.14. 346w (that recorded) 163 bpm avg HR and 171 max.

Stats show that this was below last few efforts which is positive. It was bloody windy today and my legs didn't show up so in theory there is a lot left out on the course.

4 mile cool down with the gang for decent morning effort. Really nice to see loads of people today.

Splits today were 5.31, 5.36, 5.37 so again consistent and missing legs were the difference. Actually pretty confident next week will be quick if I am sensible in the training lead up.

Sunday - ouch my hamstrings are proper tight this morning. Meet DC 8.30 for a couple to loosen up and then 13.5 with Rich, Dan & Monkey. Really nice social. Still acclimatising to the miles and found it fairly tough but a solid long run banked. 15.3 miles @ 7.43/mm avge so happy with that. 138 bpm although lot of drift in the last few miles with lack of conditioning.

Totally messed myself up early in the week but you live and learn. Next week the focus is on getting good legs back to me for Saturday. Nice Parkrun before a race block would really go down well. 

43.8 miles for the week, nice and consistent range and only ran for 5 days so happy with that.

Next week I will really be looking for that 16.xx at Storys Field. I'll only get that if I train clever in the week and recover hard.