Training Log Entry 30: December 25 - 31, 2023

Monday December 25

Off

Tuesday December 26

After the hard long run on Sunday, I was still feeling the effects during this first run of the week. Despite trying to stay relax and getting into a comfortable rhythm, I found myself struggling and needing to stop multiple times throughout the run. In the end, I fell short of my scheduled volume and only covered 10.8km.

I tried to do some flat strides afterwards, but started to feel some tightness in my left calf and stopped after three strides.

Including the strides, the total volume came to 11.1km.

Wednesday December 27

For this workout, I again attempted a 7km tempo. After my poor pacing in the previous attempt, which led me to split the workout into two segments, my goal this time was simply to finish the full distance. My strategy was to maintain a controlled pace for the initial 5km, and then push the final 2km.

Although my legs still felt a little fatigued, I felt generally good heading into the workout. The first 3km went smoothly, and I got into a comfortable pace. However, from 3-5km, the route had some unexpected hills which made it challenging to sustain the pace.

By 5km, I knew that completing the full 7km at the current pace would be ambitious, so I adjusted my goal to 6km. The final kilometer hurt a lot, but I pushed through and finished the tempo without blowing-up.

The kilometer splits of the 6km tempo were the following:

• 4:07
• 4:17
• 4:21
• 4:16
• 4:16
• 4:09

With an average pace of 4:15/km, I hit my goal pace, but failed to cover the entire 7km distance. This was pretty disappointing, however, the tempo included about 50m of elevation gain, which was more than I had expected.

After the tempo, my legs were completely fried, making it a huge struggle to complete the cool-down.

Including the warm-up and cool-down, my total mileage for the day reached 13.3km.

Thursday December 28

After the previous day’s hard workout, my plan for the rest of the week was to take it easy and rest up for this Sunday’s big long run. Sticking to that plan, I did a relaxed and hilly run on this day.

Initially, my legs felt quite heavy, so I took the mainly uphill first half easy, walking sections whenever necessary. As the run kept going, my legs started to feel much better, and I ended the run feeling surprisingly good.

The total distance covered was 10.8km with 190m of elevation gain.

Friday December 29

The planned workout was a threshold interval session, consisting of 10x600m intervals with 90 seconds rest between. The primary goal was to get some more threshold pace volume, while keeping the intervals short to maintain an overall moderate-intensity level.

Starting the workout, my splits were slower than I anticipated and my stride didn’t feel very strong. Nevertheless, keeping a conservative effort level remained my top priority, so I held the slow pace and focused on staying relaxed. This approach went well and it allowed me to recover effectively during the short rests.

As the workout progressed, I began to experience some discomfort in my left calf. While it didn’t significantly affect me during the intervals, the pain persisted and worsened over time. Growing increasingly concerned, I decided to cut the workout prematurely after six reps.

The splits for the 600m intervals were as follows: 2:25, 2:24, 2:24, 2:20, 2:23, 2:17, resulting in an average of 2:23 (3:59/km).

Including the warm-up and cool-down, the total volume was 12km.

Saturday December 30

After finishing the previous day’s workout, I started to experience some swelling and tightness in my left calf. Because of this, I decided to take the rest of the week off and allow my body time to recover to hopefully jump back in next week.

Sunday December 31

Off

The total mileage covered during this four-day week was 47.2km with 390m of elevation gain.