…like a hole in the head!
I have not sat on my racer all year and since I got a rare moment alone at home I decided to jump on the trainer and decided to do a set ot timewise-tabata sprints; 15 minute w/u, 8x(20 seconds Max, 10 seconds rest), 2 min w/d.
Hurt lik hel and there was a HUGUE drop off in power as the sprints progressed. This means that I simply had not got the fitness for it. No biggie – better than a zero day!
Surprisingly today I got the chance to run. That puts me at 14lm three days in a row and four 14km runs in dive days; that is the most running I have done in a very long time. It was my usual 2,5+10km trails. The 10k was ran in 45:07 in fairly extreme heat. Considering that and the week’s volume, that’s pretty good going. Happy with my week!
I did the very same 14km run that I did on Tuesday and Thursday and found it extremely difficult going. I think it has been quite a while since I ran 42km in 4 days and that was plainly evident today. The heat didn’t help matters at all; I felt completely dehydrated by the end – something I never experience. My new mantra to keep me going when every part of my body says stop is: “It’s a privilege to be in a position to willing put myself through this pain. ” Whatever works eh!
Hopefully I’ll get the benefit of these runs next week and can continue to build form for September 18th; my one and only result-to-be for 2010…
Ran today and -to my surprise- it was hot! Did the 10k trail and found it pretty tough going the entire way around. I ate breakfast in two parts; first at 7:38, second course at 8:15 – the idea was to remove fuel as an excuse for feeling bad since that was my likely candidate two days ago. Well, I can now state with a high degree of certainty that I was properly fueled. I must then be either slightly run-down or not fit enough for the intensity of my training.
Choices are:
Ignore it and keep on truckin’ and hope for a breakthrough.
Keep running but reduce training intensity for a week.
Take a two day rest.
I’m currently 37 days from what will be my only result of 2010, so I should take the cautious approach. Having said that, I want my only result of 2010 to be a good one so I may opt for the moderate risk approach… Let’s see.
I didn’t manage to get a run in tonight; too much to do at home and yet nothing it seems that nothing got done at home!
Instead I did a very quick free weights session:
3×12 push-ups
3 x (6 bicep curr to shoulder press to squat)
3 x 7 two-arm Standing dumbell rows
I’m going to attempt a double run today. I’ll start with an easy lunchtime run and hopefully get to the track tonight for a hard interval session… Now; Plan is laid – all that’s left is to execute it!
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I won’t do the double today – far too tired after the first run. I did th1 10km trail in Ursvik as planned which gave me a total of 14km running when the distance to-and-from the trail is considered. While running it felt slow and difficult – I thought that I might be due a small rest. I have just checked my watch and the time is a none too slow 44:51 for the 10k trail: not too bad at all. Apart from the decision not to run tonight I made one more decission while running: I will target Kista loppet as my A-race for the year. This leaves me 4 weeks of hard and fast training to do a respectable time. I haven’t seen the course profile, so it is difficult to predict a time but I would deffinitely like to go under 38:00 if the course allows. This means I’ll be hitting the track and doing lots of 800m repeats… so there is pain in the post!
If I can hit [ 12x800m on 3:00 (w/ 2:54/800) ] in 4 weeks time then I should surely do sub-38 for the 10k.
For a few weeks now I have had a set of running gear in the boot of my car so that -should the opportunity present itself- I would be able to run at a moments notice. That opportunity arose on Saturday. We went to the garden centre in Ulriksdal for lunch and there since my parents were with us we needed two runs in the car or I could run home.
I decided to run with a large bowl of soup, some bread and a large piece of cake in my belly! I will most likely never eat that particular cake again – the waves of nausea I felt during the run were accompanied by the flavor of the regurgitating cake… Not a pleasant experience but at least I got to run!
I also managed my come-back training route: the 2,5km followed by the 10km trail. As usual the format was: 2,5km easy, first 5km (of the 10km) mod-hard, next 2km mod-hard->hard, last 3km hard. I don’t have my records in fromt of me this minute, but I suspect that all the splits were the fastest I’ve had; it’s now time to start the Xtreme again… Maybe I’ll be fit enough to do the Xtreme race on the 25th of August. There is one in two days time, but I don’t think I’m ready for that sort of punishment yet!
Today was my second consecutive (now weekly?) track session. A little harder than last week which is how I think it should be:
20 min w/u then into the intervals:
2*[2*800 (on 4:00)+1*400] 2:00 RI.
6*400 on 2:00 (1:22,1:26,1:24,1:26,1:25,1:16)
I think the 1:16 is my quickest 400m ever – I’ll have to check the archives for that one… All in all, I’m very pleased with the effort. Next week I will write down the set BEFORE I go; tonight I made it up as I went along – thus doing the set I was mentaly capable at the time. I think it is probably best to pre-plan and take the pain as it comes. I’ll do 1 200-400-600-800-1000 pyramid set : nasty!
My new run on the trails is the 2,5 followed by the 10k. I did this today in torrential rain; it was nice to start with but the humidity really got to me by the end – It was very hard to breathe… Still though, I did it and the 10k was knocked out in 45:20 – a semi-respectable time.
Didn’t get out running last night but I managed a track session tonight. I’m not fit so I took it relatively easy:
4×400 on 2:00 (1:25, 1:29, 1:29, 1:29) 90 secs RI
800 in 2:58 on 4:00, 4×400 on 2:00 (1:29, 1:31, 1:31, 1:29), 2:00 RI
800 max, in 2:45 – !st lap in 1:25, 2nd lap in 1:20
12 mins jog home – all good!
