Nicolas Runs

Summary of my last 7 workouts

After my last blogpost about the discovery of the running track I ran into a relative rest-week. Only four workouts were scheduled. The first was a recovery run and I started this with hopes to spot an increase in long run / heart rate ratio pace. But ... it turned into a real recovery run, I felt very weak.

The second run was a 45 minutes long distance pace run and went well. I ran this in melting snow conditions and there was heavy wind.

Next I did a 75 minutes long run with 8 short speed bursts, nothing special to mention there. The run after that (only 24 hours after that), I did a 60 minutes with 7 times two minutes around my threshold. I had a very good feeling about this one, but the pace in those two minutes wasn't really following.

This week I started with a 40 minutes recovery run. I ran it along very dark roads and forests. Probably not the best idea, but thanks to my chest light it was doable. Wednesday I ran a 50 minutes long distance pace run that had some signs of pace improvements.

And yesterday I closed with a 10 times 400 meter repeat. I hadn't the opportunity to run this on a track so I had to cross bridges, pay attention to the traffic, etc. Not ideal conditions and I could somehow see this in my split times. But, I don't search for excuses, I'm nearwhere as fast when I did this training cycle two and a half years ago. The summer months without making much kilometers are certainly still in my body. I also managed to damage a right foot tone tail on that run. (for this first time in seven years ...) Hopefully it heals quickly.

I'm the kind of person who needs to buildup for three months, run 5 times a week in those months, and can then top a half marathon in 1h45 minutes. So I have to work heavily to reach a certain point of improvement. (but don't we all have to do that on our own personal levels?)

My eating habits were OK for the last 70 days (thank you MyFitnessPal) but the focus on that one has disappeared in the last two weeks. So I'm in damage control mode there. Thankfully I'm logging a lot of running.

Weekend summary

Saturday I ran my 90 minutes long run. I chose a course that I hadn't run for over 6 years. It went smooth and I had some flashbacks to the period 6 years ago when I couldn't quite run this distance very well. Now it was on autopilot and no unexpected surprises.

On Sunday I did a first in my running career. Finding a decent track (that is free) has finally come to an end. Close to my home there is a state of the art running track that is free to use as long it's not reserved by an athletic team. My wife and son joined me (they are building confidence to run the Spa Francorchamps distance in March) and I ran 15 minutes in heart rate zone III and 10 minutes in heart rate zone II. This track is certainly THE discovery of 2017. It will be great to use it for 400 meter repeats etc.

The last three weeks I've build up my mileage so this 4th week now will be a rest week where I drop my mileage a bit so my body can adjust and benefit from the training load.

Pyramid interval

Post workout picture. My son goes to Judo training on Monday and Thursday and I take the opportunity to run during that timeframe. (win-win situation) I ran a pyramid interval. 100-200-400-800-1000 meter (and reverse). The middle part of 800-1000-800 is always so hard! The last 400 is a welcome relief. (strange that I hate 400 repeats, but in a pyramid interval they feel like “easy”) I reached all the necessary high heart rate zones. I'm definitely in a good training place at the moment.

Last three runs wrapup

Last week I ran a total of 50K and I hadn't reached that number in 5 months. Because of number, I can see progress around the corner. My heart rate is starting to drop. But ... I can't benefit from it yet because my legs have to adapt. They feel very tired at the moment.