Training Log Entry 1: May 29 - June 4, 2023

This is the first entry of my personal running training log. The idea of this is for me to reflect on my past week of training and be honest regarding all of the good and bad things while also talking about any interesting routes that I discover. My goal is to continue this as long as possible and make an update everyday (that I run), even if it only ends up being a sentence or two.

Recent Training

Since the beginning of 2023, I have been plagued by countless minor injuries which has made it difficult to build up any sort of fitness. This has been disheartening because from May 2022 to January 2023 I went completely injury (which was the longest I have gone since my university track days) and built up to my highest mileage ever at 80k/week. Luckily, I am fairly close to being pain free and have started to build up decently but still have to be cautious with the sort of runs I do (fast downhills, too much pavement, etc).

I currently have no planned races but I do have a few goals runs for this year such as a fast Bull Run Trail FKT attempt (~25k), completing a LaHave River loop (30k+) and finishing a 50k (race or solo). I also want to get my mileage up to 100k however that might be difficult with the injury setbacks.

With all that said, lets begin the first week of the training log.

Monday May 29

Off

Tuesday May 30

The goal for this week was to build aerobic fitness, therefore, I decided to not do any workouts and just focus on getting some slow and easy mileage. I’m particularly focusing on the “slow” part since lately I’ve been struggling hold back the pace during easy days causing me take brakes during my runs which I hate doing.

This first run was a good start to the goal. My planned route was ~8.5k but I felt very relaxed and smooth so I tagged on bit more to get to 10k. I did walk once at this very steep hill but I planned to do that from the start since it is an easy day.

Wednesday May 31

The most effective way to slow down my pace is to go off trail and do what I call exploration runs. For this run, I went around the wooded area between King St and Upper Branch Rd. This area has no marked trails or roads but when looking at satellite images I could tell that there were some paths and a large clearing for electrical lines. I was surprised to find that many old trails exist in this area. Some were along the electrical lines as I expected, but many were in the wooded areas with most of them being very wide and runnable (even though I could tell hardly anyone uses these paths). The pictures below show both types of trails.

The way I got into the area by Logan Rd wasn’t great, since some flooding force me to do a bit of bushwhacking. But off Lower Branch Rd there is an easily accessible entrance which takes you right up to the electrical lines which plan to use in the future. As for the run, plenty of stopping and hiking happen, which is to be expected for my first time exploring the area, but I definitely think some nice runnable loops could be routed out for slower more technical days. Unfortunately my watch died about 3k in, but I estimated that I did about 12k in total.

Thursday June 1

Since the run the day before was quite slow, I wanted to pick up the pace a bit closer to my regular easy days. Was feeling really good until right at the turn around point I had a breathing spasm. This has been a sporadic issue for the past few years which I think may stem from a combination of allergies and stress causing diaphragm spasms. I’ve figured out that the fastest way to get my breathing back under control is to lie down and do breathing exercises. After doing that I am generally breathing normally again. I managed to finish the run after that but never got my rhythm back so the second half felt pretty hard.

Friday June 2

The mileage the past few days definitely caught up to me this day. Legs felt heavy from the start but wanted to get 12k even if the pace was slow. Had another breathing spasm 3k in. After stopping for a bit I was able to continue on and get through the rest of the run. Never really loosened up at any point but was still a bit surprised with how slow the pace ended up being.

Saturday June 4

Short and easy this day. Started with a loop around Hebbs Farm which has a lot of tree roots, jagged rocks and narrow paths which forces you to go easy. Ended with a couple faster k’s on the main trail to finish with a little less than 5k. Still felt sluggish similar to the day before.

Sunday June 4

Went to bed later than normal the night before, yet somehow slept in quite a bit getting up after 8 which never happens. Since I was feeling good I decided to do a faster point-to-point long run to Mahone Bay.

Felt amazing from the start. Since it’s been raining these past few days, there are virtually no allergens in the air and my legs had some good pop to them. I was a little cautious at the start since my foot arch has been a bit sore lately but taped it up before the run and it never ended up being an issue.

Thing though didn’t go completely smoothly. At a bit over 7k in, some guy stops me and starts warning me that the trails have been closed since Thursday because of wild fires and that I would be fined if I got caught being on them. Even though I had been running on the trails every day this week and have already passed by a few people this run, I just listen to the guy for the time being and went on to a random dirt road off the trail. This road led me to the side of the highway and after going along it for a bit, I was able to find another path that got me back onto the trail which I continued to use for the rest of the run.

This while thing forced me to stop for a while, which was really frustrating since I was feeling so good, but I quickly got back into a rhythm and closed the rest of the run really fast. At the end of the day, it was a really good long run and a perfect rebound from the past few days.

This ended the week at 62k which was a large jump from last week’s 49k but definitely needed.