Training Log Entry 24: November 13 - 19, 2023
Monday November 13
Off
Tuesday November 14
After last week’s jump in volume, I began this week with my legs still feeling very exhausted. I hoped that I would start to feel better once I got into the run, but that did not happen, and the entire run was a slog. Nonetheless, I did managed to cover 11.7km on this day.
Wednesday November 15
My plan for this workout was to get a fast time on the Naugler Road 4km route. The entire workout consisted of the hilly 4km followed by a fast 1.5km.
During the warm-up, I was already concerned about how my legs were feeling. They were better than the previous day, but not as good as I had hoped for this workout.
Undeterred, I began the 4km and felt good initially. I took out the opening uphill 1km faster than usual, confident that I would recover during the long downhill. However, at 1.6km in, I experienced a brief breathing issue and had to stop the rep.
After quickly catching my breath, I found myself uncertain about how to continue. Given that my breathing had fully recovered and the strong desire to complete the 4km, I decided to jog back to the start and try again.
For the second attempt, I set my expectations lower and started off conservatively. Despite my legs being even more worn out, I managed to complete the 4km this time with a respectable time. My splits for the effort rep were 4:09, 4:11, 4:08 and 3:56, averaging 4:07/km. Although my target was closer to 4:00/km, I am satisfied with this result given the circumstances.
As I had reached the planned volume with the failed first attempt, I called the workout at this point.
Including the warm-up and cool-down, the total volume for the day was 13.3km with 160m of elevation gain.
Thursday November 16
I felt extremely exhausted from the previous day’s workout during this run. Despite my legs feeling relatively good, I struggled to settle into a comfortable rhythm and found myself pushing harder than I would’ve liked. My original plan was to cover 10km, but I ultimately only managed to complete 8.2km in this run.
Friday November 17
For this Friday’s workout, I once again tackled another long hill session. The plan was to set a new record of 8 hill reps, amounting to 12km in volume.
Despite how I felt during the previous few days, I started off the workout quite strongly. Aerobically, I felt really good, and although my legs lacked some pop, they were moving well. However, after completely the first 3 reps, my hips began to tighten-up. Since I wanted to complete 5 reps before taking a break, I opted to adding some power hiking to help get through the following uphills. By doing this, I successfully finished 5 reps before taking my first break.
The remainder of the workout proved to be quite challenging. After running entirety of the 6th rep, I took a another brief rest. Then, I completed the final two reps with some power hiking mixed in to finish off the workout.
Upon concluding this long workout, my legs were utterly exhausted. While I am satisfied with the result, it’s clear that that I need to improve my hip strength, given their discomfort during this day’s workout and the previous long run.
Including the warm-up and cool-down, the total volume for the day was 15.9km with 430m of elevation gain.
Saturday November 18
This was the most physically tired I’ve felt in a while. My legs could barely move, and I felt like I was just shuffling for most of the run. I did manage to cover 5km, but I skipped the strides at the end.
Sunday November 19
Originally, I had planned to do another 20km long run, but considering how my body felt after two very hard workouts this week, I decided to scale the distance back to 18km. I also decided to keep the run flat, and went with a point-to-point route to Mahone Bay on the trails.
My body felt a lot better going into this run compared to the previous day, but I was still concerned about how my hips would handle this volume. Because of this, I started off very conservatively and focused on keeping my stride compact.
After I warmed-up over the first few kilometers, I surprisingly felt amazing. My pace naturally increased throughout the run, while maintaining a steady effort level and never feeling like I was overexerting. I didn’t stop once during the entire run, making this the longest continuous effort I’ve completed in nearly a year.
All things considered, this was probably my quickest long run since college. Excluding the easy start, the final 15km of this 18.4km run was at 4:35/km pace and the final 5km was at 4:18/km pace.
This session wrapped up the week with a total mileage of 72.5km with 850m of elevation gain.