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Training Log Entry 25: November 20 - 26, 2023

As this was an easy recovery week capping off my 6-week training cycle, I decided to focus on keeping the easy days truly relaxed. I’d been pushing a bit too hard on some recovery days recently, so I wanted to get use to dialing it back, so that I will be able to handle future mileage increases.

Monday November 20

Off

Tuesday November 21

The first run of this recovery week went exactly as planned. I was surprisingly fresh going into the run and felt smooth the entire time. Although I picked up the pace towards the end, I kept the intensity level low and finished feeling strong.

The total distance of this run was 8km.

Wednesday November 22

I started off this run feeling just as fresh as I had the previous day. While my hips did feel a tad tight at certain points, I generally felt quite comfortable throughout most of the run. For the final ~2km, I picked up the pace a bit, however, this did not feel very comfortable and my legs lacked any pop.

I unfortunately forgot to start my watch at the beginning, but the route should’ve been around 10km.

Thursday November 23

A combination of multiple unfavorable circumstances made this run less than ideal. Specifically, I had to do this run much later in the day than usual, and the route included far more hills than I would’ve liked for an easy run.

My legs were already slightly exhausted beforehand, and the constant pace changes from the ups and downs left me uncomfortable for most of the run. Even though I partially walked the steeper inclines, the overall intensity level was still too high for a recovery run.

In the end, I covered 8.2km with 140m of elevation gain.

Friday November 24

For my sole workout of this recovery week, I opted for a fartlek of 6x(2’ on, 2’ float). My goal was to stay controlled and gradually increase the pace over the course of the session.

At the start of the fartlek, I didn’t feel particularly strong and struggled to find a comfortable rhythm. Both my breathing and leg were working harder than expected, relative to the paces I was hitting. This trend persisted during the floats, where I was unable to relax and fully recovery during them.

My paces for the intervals were:

This made the averages for the ons and floats 4:12/km and 4:42/km, respectively. Although the paces for both the ons and floats were close to my targets, the intensity level of the workout considerably higher than I would’ve liked.

Including the warm-up and cool-down, the total volume of the session was 11.2km.

Saturday November 25

I felt pretty good on this easy 5km run. After a sluggish start, I eventually warmed-up and started to feel good. I finished it off with 5x100m strides, bringing the total mileage to 5.6km.

Sunday November 26

To wrap up this recovery week, I did an easy long run on the Glen Allen loop route.

I felt decent as I started the run at a conservative pace. However, despite the low volume leading up to this long run, my legs felt more sluggish compared to recent weeks.

The route featured several sizeable hills, which I partially walked to keep the intensity level moderate. Nevertheless, the constant ups and downs made it difficult to find any rhythm, and even during the flat sections, my legs lacked any pop.

Ultimately, I finished the route feeling alright, covering 14.1km with 180m of elevation gain. This brought the total distance for the recovery week to 57 kilometers with 390m of elevation gain.

Next - Training Log Entry 26
Prev - Training Log Entry 24

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