Going into week 3, it’s time to get some quality started!
Monday:
AM: I got up early and ran to work. I felt good out of the gate and even though it was cold, my legs were springy and I enjoyed it, even having a little dance on the way downhill to Hechtsheim! I ran just over 10k at 4:49/km.
PM: On the way home, I had another nice run, despite the cold and rain! It was a nice and easy one, 9.1km at 4:34/km. So that’s 19.3km done today, a good start to the week, I should get my 115km in easily enough.
Tuesday:
I went to the TV Hechtsheim training. I ran there then did a few slow laps with the group. We did a short warm up and some drills and sprints before getting to the work out. They always seem to concentrate on short and fast stuff, not ideal for me, but still worthwhile.
We did 5x(400m-200m) I ran the 400m in 80s and 200m in about 38, give or take. The breaks were 100m walk/slow jog. After those were done, we did 1k, followed by another 2x (400m-200m). I just did a 3:39 km, then the same pace as before for the 400 and 200s. It was actually reasonably tough, I am generally slow, so faster stuff isn’t my forté. All in all, I ran 15.1km according to Strava. I did lose about 800m be forgetting to restart my watch when running home, but I can live with that.
Wednesday:
AM: I was up early and ready to run. I set off and light snow started to fall. Then it got a bit heavier, and a bit heavier. My run route back towards Hechtsheim on the top of a small hill was a nightmare. The snow was horizontal and getting into my eyes. At times I couldn’t see just due to the snow, sometimes due to the snowflakes in my eyes. I was freezing and hating it.
As soon as I dropped down to where houses are, the wind wasn’t so bad, and I think the snow let up a bit too, so I could enjoy warming up for the rest of the run. When I got to work, I was slightly disappointed that I ‘only’ had 11km behind me, I thought it would be 12km. Anyway, it was 11km with a 5:00/km average, slow but mainly due to being blinded!
PM:
Ran home, 7km nothing special. My hips have been tight but once got going it was fine. 4:42/km 135bpm.
Later on I got the tram to swimming. My guts weren’t good after gnocchi and pesto for some reason. I did a good kick set and worked on tautness and alignment. I was slow and crap, but it was all fine. 1h – 2500m done and dusted.
Thursday:
There was a big storm in Germany and the wind was gusting at up to 100km/h, so I decided to try to hide out a bit in the industrial area for a quality work out. I did a little loop around, then found a fairly straight flat path that I thought was 1km long, and started my intervals. One way is slightly downhill and with the wind, the other slightly uphill and against. I managed 7x1km, the route wasn’t ideal as the path was more like 970m, so I had to run round a corner at the end of each interval! All done I ran 16km at 4:34/km with a HR of 149, a bit high still.
Friday:
AM: I got up after a bad nights sleep (waking up every hour) and ran to work. It started raining and as I was running out of town the wind was lashing me with rain, it reminded me too much of Wednesday, which was a nightmare, so I cut back onto a more protected route and ran 8.7km with a 5:00/km average. My heart rate is too high at the moment, it was 137bpm average. As a comparison, my last run in Lanzarote was 8.8km 5:03/km with a 122bpm average…..
PM: After work I ran into town to pick up my ticket for the Mainz game on Saturday. I just took a short route home, so my run was only 7.8km with a 4:50/km average. My heart rate was high again, I wasn’t feeling great.
Saturday:
After another dreadful night’s sleep, I decided to put off my long run until Sunday. I had a bit of a lightbulb moment that I am probably low on iron, that is why I am struggling to sleep and my heart rate is up. It’s happened to me a few times before. I started hitting the iron hard straight away and will be keeping on top of it much more from now on in.
I swam for an hour in the afternoon. It was something like – 400m in, 3x200m kicking, 5x200m swimming with snorkel, 500m drills, 100m out. I felt like my left hand is crossing over slightly during my one handed drills, I will watch out for that. My hips sink too, I need to work on that too.
Sunday:
Feeling a bit better after a rest day, and having slept much better, not well, but better, I did my long run for the week. I decided against adding quality as I didn’t know if I could handle it. The route looped around through Bodenheim, Laubenheim and Mainz before heading back. I felt quite good at the end, I ran 32.6km in 2h32, picking up the pace slightly at the end.
Overview:
Well it’s been an odd one. On the one hand I did 2 sets of intervals, ran 118km and managed a good long run as well as swimming twice so all good! On the other hand, my heart rate is higher than normal, my sleep is suffering and my hips and calves are tight. Luckily next week is an easier week, so I will drop down to 90km or so, but try to keep up the quality.
Now that I am hitting the iron tablets, I expect/hope that my heart rate will drop again, making my easy runs easier, so helping with recovery and everything else really. I should notice in the next week if I am seeing the benefits, I’ll keep you up to date!
Just a side note, I started taking probiotics after getting back from Lanzarote on the off-chance that it would help my stomach issues when I run. Well it’s really helped! I haven’t had a single problem this week, that is nearly unheard of for me!