Winter 2024 - Week 2

Back home, nice to be back but still hanging out of my arse. Time to get serious again and start to increase things and get back on pace.

Monday

Morning weight - 68.8kg - ouch. Met Andy & Jake up track for speed work. Calfs tight but knocked out 2 x (40m/50m/60m off 3 mins) & 4 x 120m @ 400m pace. This session is key this winter.

Tuesday

Track, no Eddington yet as Marks group ironed someone out last year. 

1600m - 600m - 1200m - 600m - 1600m - 400m - 400m

off lap jog on longer reps and 200m float on shorter ones.

5.26 - 1.57 - 4.06 - 1.56 - 5.26 - 71 - 67

Nice session. Led all the longer efforts and felt good tonight like I could push onwards. Looking forward to cracking these out on the roads rather than track tbh.

Wednesday

Early run as out tonight at Bingo! 7.12 miles keeping HR bellow 140 bpm. Felt tight, hammys very tight but eased in. New session is taking it out of my whilst I adapt so need to stay off the lower legs and plyos until that settles down.

Thursday

Nothing in the morning, just eased the legs off. Very tired and heavy but expect to be in this hole. Rest day tomorrow to get things back to life.

After biblical rain all day, we hit the track for a session. Short one as it just wouldn't stop.

10 x 300 off 100 jog. Target was to alternate 3k and 1500 pace so 57 and 54 for me.

Felt absolutely knackered. Just too much fatigue from the last few days and hangover from being away last weekend.

Pretty much hit paces but just felt very, very tired and slow!

56, 55, 57, 54, 56, 54, 56, 53, 56, 53

Recoveries went from 39 up to 58 seconds. Said I was knackered lol.

To be fair, probably the best time to have a tired session as it was short and sweet and not particularly tough. Legs actually felt better afterwards it was just accumulation of fatigue.

Friday

Aaaaand rest. Wake up, legs feel much much better today. Bit of self care all day and get them pinging for the weekend.

Going to take time to adapt to a new training plan. Slowly build, slowly add strength and plyos and then slowly bring paces down.

I'm happy with where I am at. Keep training paces where they are for the next maybe 4/5 weeks - 

800m - 66

Mile - 71

3k - 76

5k - 79

10k - 82

HM - 88

Body slowly starting to come back to me after a few days of shittinf all over it. Diet is about 6/10 so needs slight improvement but not overly concerned just yet.

My winter plan looks something like this -

Spend 4/5 weeks just building back into the sessions and letting the body start to adapt. Idea is to come through at around 55 mpw feeling fresh. During this block I will add in strength - uppers fairly soon and legs mid way.

Once we get to November will start to focus in on 5k target pace - sub 16 mins. I'll hit that in training and work around the other paces so may need to back off. Either finish October or start November with a cutback week and push in towards Battersea. 

Lets go after it!

Saturday

Meet up with Andy, Tom & Kieron for a 10k HM pace tempo. 3 miles warm up straight into 10k at tempo. From the off I feel like the effort is too high. More 10k feel than HM. Target was 5.55/mm. Through 2 miles and into 3rd I already know I can't go all the way. Just too much fatigue still. End up stopping at 5k and then bringing HR down to 120 bpm. Restatrt and chase the group back. Pace is around 6.03/mm and feel much much more controlled.

Last half mile is tough but much better in 2nd half. Assume that lactate turn point was right about 5.59 pace.

Short cool down and 9.6 miles @ 6.40/mm.

Warm up was 7.56, 7.43, 7.24

3.16 miles @ 5.59/mm (163 bpm)

3 miles @ 6.04, 5.58, 5.58

Last bit was about 8.30/mm back to the cafe.

Disappointing to crash and burn but think the fatigue is just too high as I readjust to winter volume. HR was rising quickly on both tempo segments to 164 bpm which is a little out of my comfort zone. Is actually correct HM effort but just felt a little tough. Maxed out about 166 on both efforts. Was def easier on the 2nd as wind was helpful.

Decent session banked, just a struggle.

Sunday

Double early start (for me) at Wimpole with Dan. Nothing sexy, just 2 laps easy @ 7.53/mm progressive throughout. HR nice and low which is what I need right now and keep that on recovery mode and build some economy.

50 miles for the week. Started better but never really recovered after Tuesday. It's all good building blocks, just need to be sensible from here.

Still feel unfit but I think the main issue is staying with current paces and not pushing beyond that until I get on top of them.

Will def sack off the 800m on Thursday and focus on the 10k as I am just getting back to where I need to be.

50 miles is highest with quality probably since late May so I am on the right track.