Fat Girl Running

Training Block 2 - Week 3

This week, in a fat girl’s running schedule

Tuesday - two short runs in a row, one 25 min from my Garmin Coach program, and a short 11 min run from TAO’s suggestions. And then I  was getting tired of the Garmin Coach program only giving me 25 min runs and TAO only giving me super short ones, so I changed the setting on TrainAsOne to stop suggesting runs shorter than 25 minutes so that at least I could do the GC and TAO ones at once.

Thursday, therefore, was just one run of 25 minutes. As was Friday.

Sunday was supposed to be a very long run of 11 km from TAO, but I decided to do the first 3K in one go without breaks and that was a little too tiring for my legs so it only ended up at 9km in total. I did manage those 3000 metres though, first time ever, and it feels so awesome to make this sort of progress.

Overall therefore, a pretty good week.

Training Block 2 - Week 2

Well this was a bit of a trial week of combining both the plan from Garmin coach, and the runs Trainasone suggested.

It meant several days had two short runs, that I mostly did right after each other, one from each plan.

The GC runs were all 25 minutes, or 10+5 or 15 minutes of running, and the TAO runs were a bunch of shorter economy runs and an interval session. 8 runs in total, even though none of them were longer than 30 minutes.

Tuesday & Thursday: GC 25 min + TAO 11 min

Friday: TAO run 16 min

Saturday: Interval run. 5 min warm-up, 8 min slow pace and then 8x30s runs with 30s rest and another 8 min slow, which I did on my way to a nearby park event I went to. I also added a short recovery run to that because the park was 6 km away. I also walked home and my feet were ready to die when I got home.

Sunday: GC 25 min, but this time I didn’t to the cool down and instead kept running, which means I ran for an uninterrupted 20 min. I actually think I might be ready to run during the warm-up and cool downs from now on, instead of walking.

It feels pretty exciting to get so many runs in that actually are meant to be uninterrupted instead of walking when I feel like it. I’m getting very excited about how far I might be able to run at the end of these 11 weeks.

It is, today, Saturday September 3rd.

I have a brand new personal best for the 5K distance, but I did that using walk breaks because I’m pretty unfit. I am, after all, still a fat girl. I think it’s about time to actually get through the full distance in one go though, before heading onward to the 10K distance.

Why not do a simply Couch to 5 K?

Yeah, why not? Well, there is one good reason for that. Pretty much every single c25K plan out there is based on imperial units, which most reasonable people would agree are pretty dumb, especially when training for a distance that is literally measured in kilometres. Come on. I know that this will annoy me to no end. Why would I run 3.2 km when 3km is right there, nice and even? Not everyone is going to get why this bothers me, but it does to the point where I know it will eventually cause me anxiety.

So I went looking for other beginner programs, and then remembered that my watch app has some. And I know some of them also used stupid imperial just converted to metric even though that means running 14.1448 km or some other totally random number. But Greg McMillan’s plan is based on time spent running instead, which felt more comfortable, so today I set that up.

I just want to run 5K in one go, without self-induced breaks (can’t control traffic lights etc.) So that’s what I asked of the plan. There is a local 5K in the beginning of November that I thought would be suitable, which gives me 11 weeks. Long runs on Sunday.

After a short benchmark run today, the plan has planned 3 runs with this format:

5 min warmup/cooldown which I will do walking until I feel more comfortable jogging them.

10 min running, plus 5 extra minutes if it feels comfortable. That’s a total 20-25 minute run. 3 times a week.

What I like about this, is that I know I can do this. I can already do week 1. We’ll see if I progress the way Greg thinks I will?

In addition to this, I do have Trainasone active with a 10K race date in April. 3 runs per week is not really enough to suit me, so if Trainasone suggests a good workout for me on a day where the garmin coach doesn’t, I will follow that. Trainasone is adaptive anyway, and won’t plan me more than 4 workouts per week, including the ones from the coach program.

So, goals for this 11 week Training Block:

Run 5 kilometres without needing a walk break.

Not get injured or sick.

Maybe even run 5kms faster than 39.46, my current PB, but that’s a minor goal.

Participate in the 5K in the beginning of October.

Well, I did. I used Trainasone for six weeks in the hopes of getting a long-term goal of mine to run 5km faster than 40 minutes, which for most people is a piece of cake, but for me is an achievement I was not capable of last year or even earlier this year.

And I did achieve it.

The question though; how much did Trainasone help me with this, and how much was just me running more this summer than ever before?

Well, I can say the following:

Using Trainasone was easy and simple. All the workouts synched to my watch properly and the instructions were easy to follow. The plan was adjustable and did so pretty well if I for some reason missed a run due to health (which was the only reason I skipped a run during this block).

I did reach my time goal so yay for me.

The free features do seem to be enough for staying on top of things. I missed some features, but nothing major. The basic features work, basically.

The paces all seemed reasonable to my actual fitness level.

On the other hand:

Trainasone never had me do any training at goal pace, and very little speedwork and seemed fine with giving me just economy runs for a whole week unless I added something myself.

Workouts that weren’t easy economy runs were constantly rescheduled for no reason that I could see at all. This meant I never got to do any tabata runs that were on my schedule at one point, and I think during these six weeks, I was only given one threshold run and one interval run. Maybe I was just underperforming?

Once the free trial was over I could no longer block a day from having a workout. I could still decide what days should be running days I wanted to schedule, but schedules sometimes vary, and being able to tell Trainasone not to plan something on THIS Wednesday, but not keep ALL Wednesdays free was handy and I wish that was still available. 

And well, I do call this training block a success, but I am going a different route from now on.

Well, whether I was prepared or not, race day arrived. I gave myself a lot of rest during the beginning of the week, but did a very short run on Wednesday just to see how my legs were feeling.

They felt fine, breathing felt fine, got plenty of sleep and things were staring to look up.

And then Thursday, Sept 1 arrived.

The goal was to beat my old PR of 40min 39s, and preferably get under 40 minutes for the first time ever.

The result:

39.46

In other words:

I did it!

And I don’t think I had that much more strength in my legs to be honest, so it feels like this PB isn’t going to change for a while. But we’ll see.

We will definitely see.

Training Block 1, Week 4

Week 4 of this block turned out about as bad as week 3, with just two runs completed. Thursday was a 6 min assessment that I’ve done before but it worked out better this time. Not sure what Trainsasone learnt from it because I didn’t see any change in what it planned for me.

Training Block 1, Week 3

Well that week was a complete failure.

Week 3 Plan

Starting now, I’m just giving myself Monday as a rest day every week.

Trainasone has planned another Perceived Effort run for me this week, because apparently, it thinks it has calibrated my easy pace wrong. I might have noticed this, so it’ll be good to have it updated if it needs to be.

There are also two threshold runs, but I’m replacing one of them with some 400m intervals at race pace, probably on Wednesday.

That Sunday run might become a little longer too, but it’ll depend on how I feel.

Training block 1, week 3

or, a fat girl’s running plan runs out of premium features.

Pic 1: the plan

Pic 2: the reality

And in this week, my free trial of the subscriptions features ran out, and I am a) poor and b) not really wanting to pay that price. I’m sure it’s reasonable, but it’s a little too high for me in general.

Monday was supposed to have a run, but once again, I felt like crap, so I skipped it, and it got moved to Tuesday instead.

Tuesday -said run was an interval run, which didn’t go well at all, because it was a set pace that frankly, I’m bad at finding and I ended up running too hard and needing a break in the middle of each interval and that’s just not how intervals are done.

Wednesday was an economy run, and it went pretty well. I ran to a nearby mall and managed to do it with very few run breaks, so all in all, I was really happy with that.

Thursday was my own planned workout, and consisted of 10x 150m slow intervals with 30s walk break. It went okay, but I need to redo it at least one more time before increasing the distance.

Friday ended up being an unplanned rest day due to poor planning

Sunday was my first ever 10km long run. My leg hurt a little towards the end, but nothing serious. I ran it at a lower heart rate, and I could’ve kept going a bit more I think. Hoping to make 10km my standard long distance run during the fall, that’d be good.

Plan for week 3

Currently there are little less than 4 weeks left until my next race. Starting to feel both excited and nervous.

This week I added my own interval run for Thursday (10x 150m + 30s walk break) which I like doing now and then just to check in, and Garmin had a challenge for 10K this weekend, so I added that too, and then let Trainasone work its magic.

It added an interval run for Monday and two economy runs Wednesday and Friday. Not the toughest week, but that’s fine and I look forward to it. Also keeping an eye on my recovery extra hard right now, due to the benefits I got from two rest days in a row last week. I’m wondering if maybe I should do that more often.

Training block 1, Week 2

or, a fat girl takes a break and comes back strooong

Pic 1: the plan

Pic 2: the reality

Well, well, well. Lots of changes of plan this week.

Monday was rough and it needed to be a rest day, that was just what needed to happen.

Tuesday and Wednesday went as planned, with two shorter runs that went well, I thought.

But then I got almost no sleep Thursday night, and very bad sleep Friday night too, so I turned those into rest days, but Saturday morning,

Saturday was just... I got so much sleep and I woke feeling so rested that I let Trainasone plan me a run even though I rarely run on Saturdays. It suggested an economy run of about 1h 20min. I started, as I always do, by ignoring pace and heart rate and just trying to run slow as far as possible, dreaming of the day that will be 5K. Until last week, my longest uninterrupted run was 1.5km. But those rest days paid off, and I managed 2.39km before needing a walk break. That was awesome and I am so fucking proud of myself. My legs felt strong all the time too. Progress is so encouraging too.

Sunday turned itself into the progression run that was supposed to happen on Friday. TAO planned it like this:

Walk/slow run for 5 minutes at 09:47 /km 138 bpm (132 to 143), (511 m).

Very easy run for 25 minutes at 09:25 /km 143 bpm (138 to 148), (2.7 km).

Easy run for 25 minutes at 09:02 /km 148 bpm (141 to 155), (2.8 km).

Fast run for 25 minutes at 08:29 /km 161 bpm (155 to 166), (2.9 km).

Walk/slow run for 5 minutes at 09:47 /km 138 bpm (132 to 143), (511 m).

It went pretty well, except I misjudged the distance and ended up running around the grocery store twice because I planned on stopping there. I also thing I need to be more prepared and bring water for these longer runs. I do bring it in my backpack, but it’s not really accessible during the actual run.

Week 2, the plan.

This week, I have no workouts I wanted to add myself, so TrainasOne has been given free reign on planning my week for me.

I’m not sure how much information Garmin tells it about my training readiness, but TAO certainly thought I needed an easy start to the week. Which I do. I need rest like the desert needs the rain. Suitable then with a rest day on Monday (today, when writing this), and the first three runs of the week are all really short. Friday has a progression run which looks interesting and on Sunday there’s a longrun planned.

I did change my settings to make TAO limit week day runs to 1 hour, so I hope that means it will keep pushing the longer runs on Sunday. I’m also hoping my weekly total for August is going to be about 18-20km, so that looks good too.

In addition, I’m doing plenty of yoga, 2 dance aerobics classes, 1 crosstrainer class and probably 1 crosstrainer free session at the gym. Assuming I don’t need to cancel because I need more recovery time.

Training Block 1, Week 1, or,

A Fat Girl Runs and Falls on her Face

Pic 1: the plan

Pic 2: the reality

The first real week of the plan from Trainasone has gone by, and I am exhausted.

Monday started with a so-called 6 min assessment run, which consisted of the following:

Walk/slow run for 5 minutes at 09:29 /km 136 bpm (130 to 142), (527 m).

Easy run for 15 minutes at 08:43 /km 147 bpm (139 to 154), (1.7 km).

Run for 2 minutes no faster than 09:29 /km 136 bpm (130 to 142).

Run as FAR as you can for 6 minutes

Start from a slow walking pace and increase speed gradually for 1 minute

Easy run for 16 minutes at 08:43 /km 147 bpm (139 to 154), (1.8 km).

It went pretty well I think, but I’m not really sure what the assessment actually assessed.

Tuesday was an 11 minute long economy run. That is really short, but I think Trainasone might actually want me to run fewer days, but since my plan is set to 5 days/week it puts in something really easy. I ran to the gym where I did an eliptical class.

Thursday was my interval training day, where I do increasingly longer intervals each time to see where my limit is, and also to push it with the intention of eventually getting 5x1000m. This week I did them with a set rest period of 30s, other times I do them by heart rate. I ran too hard though, and ended up needing longer rest a couple of times, so that’s something to consider next time, which will be in two weeks.

Friday was another assessment run and I faceplanted. It was supposed to be a 3.2K assessment run, which consisted of the following:

Walk/slow run for 5 minutes, 10 seconds at 09:56 /km 136 bpm (130 to 142), (518 m).

Easy run for 20 minutes, 30 seconds at 09:10 /km 147 bpm (139 to 154), (2.2 km).

Run for 2 minutes no faster than 09:56 /km 136 bpm (130 to 1

42). Run in as QUICK a time as you can (3.2 km).

Start from a slow walking pace and increase speed gradually for 1 minute

Easy run for 20 minutes, 30 seconds at 09:10 /km 147 bpm (139 to 154), (2.2 km).

In the middle of step 4, I tripped over a tree root, and fell on my face. Luckily didn’t hurt myself more than some scrapes and bruises, but after that, I was worried about running on what easily could’ve been an injured foot, so I ended the workout and walked home. TAO seems to have gotten something out of it anyway, so.

Sunday was the last in a series of five virtual 5Ks, and I’m pretty happy about my time.

Week 1, plan

I have two runs in the coming week that I want to get in. The first is an interval run on Thursday, and the second is the last virtual run I signed up for during July.

I also decided to use a rest day on Wednesday in addition to my usual Saturday. Train as One filled in the rest, and gave me two assessment runs and an 11 minute economy run.

Training Block 1, Week 0.5

Well, I’m not calling this week 1, because I only started using Train as one on Wednesday, and it only gave me one suggested run, since I had an interval run planned on Thursday, and a virtual 5K on Sunday, so we start for real next week.

This is the longest week I’ve ever had, in terms of distance run. 5 runs, which is what I like to stay with unless injury or illness or signs of overtraining. Stuff that is distorted is just breathwork activities which of course end up being logged by Garmin.

(Training block 1, week 0.5)

Today was the first day of letting TrainasOne plan my workout, which meant an assessment run called a Perceived effort run.

As is my habit, I ran it on my way to the gym. The instructions was as follows:

Stand still (and relax) for 2 minutes

Run at your very easy warm-up pace for 5 minutes

Run at your natural easy pace for 22 minutes

Stand still (and relax) for 2 minutes

The standing still part was to let TAO measure my standing heart rate. The warm-up went well, and at this point, any time I can run uninterrupted for five minutes is a win for me, but I ran into some issues when deciding what my easy pace was, compared to my very easy pace. I know my very easy pace. It’s the only pace I’ve ever managed to run an entire kilometer in. My “easy” pace is harder. I can’t keep that up. My heart rate starts to go up, and eventually, the talk test doesn’t work anymore, and I need to stop and walk.

The result being that my very easy pace was faster for step 2, than my easy pace was for step 3. This is probably an issue. I don’t think I have a slower pace than my very easy pace. Little over 3km in total.

The run was properly logged though, and I’m happy to see that I now have a 2 week plan with details to look at. Having been completely disappointed in how Garmin’s suggested workouts decides my paces, I was much happier to see that TrainasOne’s workouts for me are more in line with what I can actually do.

Also on good track to reaching my weekly total goal of 17km for this week :)

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(this is the format I hope to keep for this blog)

Goal: Run 5K at a time less than 40 minutes on Sept 1 2022.

Method: Letting the app Train as One train me and decide (most) of what I will do)

Trainasone is an app that’s supposedly using a smart AI to give you a constantly adjusting training plan to your fitness performance and goals. A training week seems to contain all kinds of workouts, from threshold, intervals, Tabata, to what they call Economy run, which as far as I can tell so far is just easy running.

There are 43 days left until the race, which isn’t really enough time, but I also think that time goal is doable without any particular training plan, so I’m confident in using these six weeks to trying this app out properly.

I will, however, not follow it blindly. I am also keeping an eye on the weekly distance total, because I hope to keep increasing that during the fall to be at least 20K per week, so if I need to add something to a workout to make that happen, I will.

I’m also going to try to work the running workouts around my crosstraining, which is more fixed as most of it consists of classes at my gym. Currently I do Yoga, the Crosstrainer (Eliptical machine) and a sort of dance cardio class.

Well, that’s where we are.