Training Log Entry 18: September 25 - October 1, 2023

Monday September 25

Off

Tuesday September 26

I started off this run not feeling that great. I was quite stiff and my effort level was getting a bit too high for early into the run.

At around the 3km mark, I took a break and started to feel a lot better when I started back up. I was able to maintain a smooth and short stride, which made the rest of the run extremely effortless.

I wanted to get at least 10km, but unfortunately, I was short on time and I only got 8.6km for the day.

Wednesday September 27

Continuing to build the volume in my Wednesday workouts, for this week I did 3x10’ at steady pace with 4’ rest. The idea was to have longer reps at a faster pace while taking extended rests to maintain an overall moderate intensity.

During the warm-up, I didn’t feel great. My pace was really slow and I even had a small breathing spasm, which made me uncertain about continuing with the workout.

Nevertheless, I still ended up doing the entire workout, although the splits were quite mediocre. In the first rep, I struggled to get up to pace and split 4:34/km. However, as the workout progressed, I began to feel better and hit splits of 4:18/km and 4:06/km. The effort level remained consistent throughout the workout, so I did a good job at pacing the workout given how my legs felt.

Including the warm-up and cool-down, the total volume for the day was 14.2km.

Thursdays September 28

Since I don’t plan on doing a hill workout this week, I decided to do an hilly easy run at the MARC on this day.

Overall, I didn’t feel very good aerobically during this run. The pace was very slow, and I had to take multiple breaks to ensure the effort level never got too high. Also, I had some irritation in my left calf, which made it difficult to stay relaxed.

Although I hoped to get more mileage, I finished the run at 8.3km with 190m of elevation gain.

Friday September 29

I had initially planned to do some faster intervals for this day’s workout. However, due to my iffy calf, I decided to go with a more controlled workout. The workout I settled on was 8x800m at threshold pace with 2’ rest

While I managed to get through this workout fairly well, the session was quite all over the place. The road that I had planned to use was a bit short and had too much of an incline that I was okay with. After the first two reps, I ended up using the trail instead, which was better but still not completely flat.

Due to some reps being uphill or downhill, the paces were all over the place with splits of 3:21, 3:09, 3:05, 3:02, 3:14, 3:07, 2:45^* and 2:58, averaging 3:08 per 800m. I had a small breathing spasm during the 7th rep, so I only did 700m for that rep. While I didn’t feel great at the beginning, the workout got easier as it went on, and I finished the workout still feeling pretty good.

In general, my stride wasn’t very smooth, which may have been due to me being cautious about my calf. Fortunately, I did not have any major issues with my calf throughout the session. My recovery was fairly good, although I did take some extra rest during some reps, mainly because I had to modify the route.

In the end, I am fairly satisfied with how comfortable the workout felt. Including the warm-up and cool-down, the total volume for the day was 14.2.km.

Saturday September 30

This was yet another easy 5km Saturday run. I felt pretty good after the previous day’s workout. However, my left calf was not feeling very good.

Sunday October 1

For this week, the plan was to do a fast long run. I decided to do the full point-to-point route from Bridgewater to Mahone Bay, which I hadn’t done in quite a while.

This run turn out to be decent. Aerobically, I felt a bit better than in past weeks, however, I still had to take a couple of breaks during the run. My calf was bothering me quite a bit, so I pulled back the pace and focused on striking the ball of my foot to avoid irritating it. When I did pick up the pace at the end, I didn’t experience any significant pain, so it doesn’t seem like my calf will be anything major.

The overall pace wasn’t as fast as I would’ve like, but I still managed to get 16.3km for the day. That brought the total mileage for the week to 66.6km with 500m of elevation gain.