Training Log Entry 17: September 18 - 24, 2023

Monday September 18

Off

Tuesday September 19

I began this week with a pretty good run. I followed my usual Monday route and felt better aerobically than in the past few weeks. I probably picked up the pace a bit too quickly and took an extra break (outside of the big hill). However, I kept a consistent pace throughout and it overall felt smooth.

In total, the run covered 9.5km.

Wednesday September 20

For this workout, I built onto last week and did a fartlek of 6x(3’ on, 2’ float). This was a sizeable volume jump from last weeks 6x(2’ on, 2’ float), so I went in prepared to scale back the workout if necessary.

Fortunately, I managed to get through the entire workout fairly well. I didn’t feel as smooth as I did last week, however, however, the trail I was on was not as flat and had quite a few potholes in some sections. After the 4th rep, I took a short break, however, this ended up ruining my momentum and led to another break after the 5th rep and slowing down the remaining floats.

The splits for the fast reps were all good, hitting 4:09/km, 4:16/km, 4:13/km, 4:02/km, 4:09/km and 3:41/km, averaging 4:05/km. The floats, on the other hand, were not as good, with splits of 4:44/km, 4:42/km, 4:59/km, 5:07/km, 5:07/km and 4:37/km, averaging 4:52/km. This was a stark contrast to last week’s session where my floats averaged 4:32/km.

In the end, I am quite satisfied with many aspects of this workout and excited that I’m starting to be able to get through longer fartlets. Including the warm-up and cool-down, the volume for the day was 13km.

Thursday September 21

I started off this run not feeling that good. I had to take a few early stops, but then I started to feel better and got through the rest of the run fairly smoothly. In total, the run covered 8.9km.

Friday September 22

This Friday workout was another long hill session at the MARC. Building on the last hill workout, the plan was to do 7 hill reps.

Going into the run, I didn’t feel amazing aerobically, However, it turned out to be an amazing workout. One of my goals going in was to complete 4 reps continuously, which would’ve been a personally best. Surprisingly, I was able to crush the goal and got through 5 reps relatively easily. My legs felt amazing during the uphills, and though my breathing wasn’t perfect, I was recovering well during the downhills. I did take breaks after the 5th and 6th reps, but I definitely could’ve completed the entire workout without any breaks if I wanted to push it a bit more.

I was also surprised to see that each reps got progressively faster, with splits of 5:16, 5:07, 5:04, 5:04, 4:59, 4:55 and 4:52. It didn’t feel like I was going particularly fast during the workout, so seeing these splits afterwards was incredibly encouraging.

With the warm-up and cool-down, the total volume for the workout was 15km with 350m of elevation gain.

Saturday September 23

Overall, I was quite tired after the previous day’s workout, but I still managed to get through this day’s run. While I didn’t feel aerobically that good, my legs still had some pop in them.

In the end, the run covered 5.2km.

Sunday September 24

I wanted to increase the elevation gain for this week, so I decided for a somewhat hilly route for this long run.

Similar to last week, my breathing didn’t feel great at the start, but I really focused on relaxing and getting into a comfortable rhythm. As the run went on, I started to feel better. My legs felt strong on the uphills, but I didn’t pick up the pace and kept the overall effort level controlled.

The run ended up covering 16.1km with 140m of elevation gain. This brought the total mileage for the week 68km with 690m of elevation gain.