Training Log Entry 7: July 10 - 16, 2023
Monday July 10
Off
Tuesday July 11
I didn’t have a good night’s sleep, so I felt mentally exhausted going into this run. My calf was also bother me, making the run quite uncomfortable. Originally, I had planned to do 9km, but I ended up only doing 7.5km.
I also decided to not do any strides because of how my calf felt.
Wednesday July 12
I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do for this day’s workout, but I decided on doing a ~4.5km tempo run along Naugler Road. The road consists of three back-to-back hills and very little flat running, which makes this road good for strength session.
However, the workout did not go as planned. Once again, I had to stop halfway through the effort and take a minute to rest. The main issue, once again, was my pacing. The rep starts with a long uphill, where I split the first k in 4:26, but then I had to stop partway up the second hill. The last time I did this workout I was more conservative at the start. I went 4:44 and was able to gradually bring the pace down for the rest of the rep.
Despite not going according to plan, I still managed to finish the workout much faster than last time, averaging 4:17/km with 70m of climbing, excluding the break. Fortunately, my knee didn’t bother me, so the downhills were a bit smoother, although I am still cautious about my calf.
Including the warm-up and cool-down, I finished the day at 12km.
Thursday July 13
For this run, to focus on getting more mileage on my easy days, I chose a flat route and made a conscious effort to keep the pace slow.
I felt quite good following the previous day’s workout and started off strong. It ended up getting really hot out, so I took a short break at the turn-around point. On the way back, I slowed down my pace, but it was still pretty rough finishing the run.
In the end, I finished with 8.5km. Since my calf wasn’t feeling great, I decided to not do any strides.
Friday July 14
For my Friday workout, I did another interval session. The workout consisted of:
- 1600m (3’ rest)
- 1200m (3’ rest)
- 800m (2'30 rest)
- 400m (2’ rest)
- 300m (1'30 rest)
- 200m
Since it was hot out, I decided to do the workout on the Bay to Bay trail, which has lots of shade.
Overall, this workout went very well. I made a point to pay attention to my watch during the reps to make sure my pacing was on target. During the mile rep, I felt very comfortable. I went through 1k at 3:53, which was slightly fast, so I pulled back a bit and finished with a 6:22. During the 1200m, it was opposite. I started off slow and had to pick it up in the last 200m to finish with a 4:51. Although this was still slow, the issue wasn’t fatigue but rather being overly conservative, which I much prefer.
Mentally, after those two reps, the bulk of the workout was over since I don’t need to focus as much on pacing for reps under 1km. The 800m, 400m, 300m and 200m went well, and I was able to bring down the pace with each rep, running times of 2:56, 1:24, 61 and 39, respectively. I wanted the 400m, 300m and 200m to be a little faster, but considering I was running on dirt and there were some uneven patches where I was doing the shorter reps, these times were pretty good. Overall, I am starting to feel stronger and more comfortable running at faster paces.
With the warm-up and cool-down, I finished with 12.9km for the day.
Saturday July 14
This Saturday, I went for my usual easy 5k run. My legs felt a bit heavy, but overall, I still felt fine during the run.
Sunday July 15
This week, I decided to do an easy long run to Crescent Beach. The route is pretty hilly and a bit long given my current mileage, at about 17.5km. Therefore, I planned to take the uphills easy and be okay with taking breaks when needed.
Unfortunately, the run didn’t end up going well. From the start, my legs felt heavy, and I could never get into a comfortable rhythm. While I didn’t feel great, it wasn’t going horribly since the majority of the hills are at the start. Howver, at 8km, I had a really bad breathing spasm. Even after a long break, I still didn’t feel good and thought about cutting the run short. But I decided to keep going.
For the next 2km, I run-walked and then took another longer break. After that, I was pretty much back to normal. The last part of the run went relatively well. I slowed down a bit, but felt much more comfortable.
In the end, the run ended up being 16km, bring the weekly mileage at 62km with 400m of elevation gain.