Training Log Entry 4: June 19 - 25, 2023
After last week’s failed attempt at returning to my regular training schedule, this week’s plan to once again aim for 2 workouts on Wednesday and Friday and get the mileage in the low 60s.
Monday June 19
Off
Tuesday June 20
This run was really all over the place. In the first half, I my breathing wasn’t feeling that great and I had to stop a couple times. But on the way back, I started to feel better and sped-up quite a bit. However, when I did pick-up the pace, I did notice some discomfort in my left calf, similar to last week.
I ended at 8.5km and was planning to do some strides afterwards, but considering how my calf felt I decided to not do them.
Wednesday June 21
The weather was extremely nice this day. I started in Mahone Bay and ran my fartlet workout on the Bay-to-Bay trail. The workout consisted of 6x(2’ on, 2’ float).
Overall, it went pretty well. I felt comfortable on the ‘on’ intervals and never struggled to complete a rep. The paces were all over the place, with times of 4:16/km, 3:58/km, 4:16/km, 4:15/km, 4:11/km, 3:59/km, averaging out to 4:09/km. On the floats, I wasn’t recovering as quickly as I would’ve liked, which made the floats feel shorter. I ended up taking an extra 30s rest after the 4th rep. The average pace for the floats was 4:53/km, which is slower than my goal pace of <4:40/km.
There are a few parts of the trail that are a little sandy, but overall its well maintained and has lots of shade. One of my goals for this summer is to do the entire 8km trail segment in sub 32 minutes (4:00/km).
Thursday June 22
After the workout the day before, my legs were very tired, especially in my hips. It was also quite hot this day, so I just slogged my way to complete the day’s mileage.
During the run, my left calf started to feel concerning again, even though it had been completely fine the day before. It could be that the shoes I wear on easy days are irritating my calf. I wore my Endorphin Speed 2’s for the previous workout, which haven’t given me any issues.
While on this run, I came across someone who was leveling the trail. The sections they worked on made the trail very soft, so I hope they either flatten it or that it will firm up quickly on its own.
Friday June 23
On this day, I did my typical Friday workout, which is continuous uphill repeats. This has become a regular part of my training over the past few months. One of the unique aspects of ultra/mountain races, compared to track and road running, is the significant role that elevation gain plays on race strategies. My goal is to minimize the amount of time power hiking during races, so I have made these continuous uphill runs a key component of my training.
Unfortunately, where I currently live, there are no mountains or very long uphill roads. The best place I have found to do these workouts is a mountain biking trail at the MARC. This route is about 800m long with a bit over 50m of elevation gain. The terrain is highly technical, with lots of roots, large rocks and small drop-offs designed for mountain bikers. The grade of the trail also changes frequently, with only a few short flat segments.
Below is a picture of the trail.
There are no paces in the workout, just a target number of reps and the goal of limiting the number of breaks at the top. This day I did 4 uphill reps. I felt decent during the workout. My breathing wasn’t an issue, but my legs were definitely not used to the climbing after a few weeks of not doing this workout. I finished the first two reps continuously and then took about a 1 minute break after the second and third reps.
This wasn’t the best workout to do considering how my calf has been feeling lately. I took the downhills very slow, which resulted in them being close to the same pace as the uphills. However, for me, going that slow makes the recovery less effective since I am breaking my stride while going down. This also caused my knees to be sore, which I noticed late in the workout.
Overall, including the warm-up and cool-down, I got 11.3km with 250m of climbing for the day.
Saturday June 24
My legs were completely fried after the hill workout. I just did a very short and slow 4km shake-out to get ready for Sunday’s long run. Both of my knees didn’t feel too good at the start, but felt a bit better after the run.
Sunday June 25
The plan for the day was to do a fast long run. I ran on the Bull Run Trail from Conquerall Road to County Line Station Road, which is a bit over 15km. One of my goals for this summer is complete a fast effort over the entire ~23km trail, so this run was meant to test out going harder on this route.
I felt okay when I woke up. My legs were not completely recovered, but I did a bunch of rolling and activation exercises before heading out.
Overall, the run didn’t go as well as expected. The humidity was very high, which drained a lot of the energy out of me. I started out too fast, and at only 6km in, I had to take my first break. Checking my pace afterwards, I was going much slower than what I felt like I was running at the time, likely due to the humidity.
After the break, I threw out the plan of going hard the entire run and instead focused on shortening my stride and keeping a smooth pace. Things were going well, but my pace did go down in the middle section. I managed to pick it up for the last 2km, although it wasn’t particularly fast, and those 2km felt like an eternity. In the end, I got through the run and finished with 15.2km.
This week’s total mileage was 60km with 430m of elevation gain, which is almost double compared compared to the past few weeks.