Training Log Entry 20: October 16 - 22, 2023

Monday October 16

Off

Tuesday October 17

This first run of the week didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. While my legs and overall energy level felt good, my breathing was a bit off. After taking a couple breaks early in the run, my breathing improved, but I never felt like I could relax as much as I wanted.

My watch died on me early into the run, but I estimate that the run, including the 4x100m strides I did afterwards, totaled 9.5km for the day.

Wednesday October 18

The workout for this day consisted of 5km at threshold pace, followed by 5x200m with 1-minute rest. The purpose of this workout was to get more comfortable running longer reps at a fast pace, as I’ve been struggling with endurance and breathing issues during longer tempo runs. The 200s at the end were added simulate pushing hard with tired legs.

Overall, the session went relatively well. I got through the full 5km without any major issues, although it wasn’t as comfortable as I would’ve liked. I struggled to find a smooth rhythm during the tempo, which made the whole thing feel longer and more difficult. My kilometer splits were 3:56, 4:06, 4:11, 4:09 and 4:05, averaging 4:05/km.

As for the 200s, I split times of 36, 36, 34, 37 and 36, averaging 36 per 200m. I felt strong running at these paces and managed to stick to the 1-minute rest. However, I was very exhausted after each rep.

Reflecting on this workout, I believe that shortening my stride and increasing my cadence could help make the tempo feel more comfortable. My average cadence was only 166, so next time I would like to aim for at least 170.

Including the warm-up and cool-down, the total mileage for the session was 13km.

Thursday October 19

I had planned on doing a easy hilly run at the MARC this day, but I instead ended up doing some exploring on the roads surround the park. A significant portion of the run was on Bolivar Road, a nice dirt road that primary consists of rolling hills. I took a side path off the road, which led me to a residential street that took me back to the main road leading to my starting point. After completing the loop, I continued in the main park for another few kilometers to finish off the run.

Since my legs were very sore from the previous day’s workout, I kept the pace very easy throughout the run.

The total mileage for the run was 9.8km with 190m of elevation gain.

Friday October 20

Since my legs were still tired from the previous workout, I wanted to limit the amount of impact, while still getting in a solid strength workout. The workout chose to do consisted of 1km, 8x300m hills, 1km. The goal was to do the 1km reps at threshold pace and run the hills feeling controlled.

Despite my sore legs, I managed to get through the workout relatively well. The first 1km wasn’t particular smooth, but I eventually found my rhythm and finished with a 3:52. For the hills, I focused on maintaining a smooth stride and arm swing, and keeping the pace consistent throughout each rep and the entire workout. This strategy was effective, and I felt strong throughout most of the workout. However, my hips started to get tired in the final stretch of the last few reps. The recovery between the hills was good and I felt like I did a good job at pacing. For the final 1km, I split 3:39, which was definitely a bit too fast for what I had planned.

Including the warm-up and cool-down, the total volume for the session was 12.3km with 160m of elevation gain.

Saturday October 21

Going into this run, my legs were completely drained and were the worst they’ve felt the entire week. I was able to get 5.3km in for the day. However, it was nowhere near as effortless as last week.

Sunday October 22

Going into this week’s long run, my legs were still really fatigued from the previous workouts, so I decided to do flat out-and-back route.

At the start, my legs legs didn’t feel too terrible, but I was struggling to get my breathing to relax. After looking at my splits later, I realized that I increased my pace pretty aggressively at the start, which likely made this issue worse.

Luckily, after taking a few early breaks, my breathing started to improve and I felt a lot more comfortable. However, my tired legs began to catch up to me, which made the second half of the run not as smooth as I had hoped.

Nonetheless, I managed to finish the run after 16.4km. This brought the weekly mileage to 66km with 500m of elevation gain.

While my legs were an issue for much of the week, I’m not very worried about them in the long term. I did some hard workouts this week and I believe that my legs will adapt and recover quickly if I continue on with this higher intensity.