Well well welcome back to the training diary.
As I said with Week 1, I’ve been following a SquadRun program for a while whilst incorporating a few of my own little researched quirks.
After a bit of my own research, I decided to create my own experiment (n=1) using the Zone 2 heart rate training theories famous in the triathlon community such as the Maffetone method. It’s very frustrating and initially I found it had it’s pro’s and con’s. Pro’s, I found I was out there longer and previously I had two speeds ‘standard’ and walking. Essentially I would go out to run a marathon for example, start off at my 5:25 pace and then when it got too hard I would walk. I only had two speeds. Incorporating this technique of going slow meant that I had a third speed, 5:25, around 6:30 and walking. It helped me keep a decent pace for longer. To be honest I don’t think I saw great results until I embraced it 100% meaning every session that wasn’t a designated ‘speed session’ was slow and every fast session was as fast as I could go. Most of the time I had literally nothing left and couldn’t even complete the speed session.
Con’s- It just takes forever. In the beginning I was literally having to walk to get my heart rate low enough, now I’ve improved my slow pace and I’m able to run faster with much less effort.
This was very evident this week.
Being away in Brisbane for a week for a training course, I was conscious of my training being interrupted but was determined to do my best and not let my training fall by the way side.
Training
This weeks work outs included mostly 90 minute runs (x4) and a 10x500m surges speed session.
I’m pretty stoked to say that I completed all my runs. The humidity in Brisbane was pretty insane and there were more hills than around my local area. I made sure I ran the hills even though it increased my heart rate and just kept the same slow plodding pace going. I could definitely feel it in my legs when I would take the stairs. I figure every metre of incline would help in the long term.
I had a crack at the 10x500m surges on the treadmill but I fell a bit short, in reps and distance. I hit the speed bit at level 16 on the treadmill. That’s super fast for me and pushing to 400m required everything I had. I made it to 7 reps of 400m at 16 with 60 seconds rest in between. I added a cool down of 5 minutes on the stair master.
Over the course of the week I ran 5 times, 55.1 km, 6 hrs and 5 minutes and 384 metres of elevation.
I didn’t have access to an area for my strength sessions so hopefully I can add them back in this coming week.
After my 18k run this morning, my Garmin gave me a new VO2 Max, 47, up from 45. Taking that as a win!
Nutrition
I thought being away would have been a bit of a disaster food wise. Being plant based means sometimes the only option is salad and chips or toast. But I was pretty lucky and managed to eat really healthy. I bought snacks at the start of the week and even with eating a box of BBQ Shapes, a bag of Sour Patch Kids and a tube of Oreos (sounds like a lot when you say it like that!) I lost half a kg on last week.
In the heat, I upped my water intake to 3-4 litres per day and limited my coffee to one long black in the morning. I also stayed dry at the pub!
Overall I’m pretty stoked with Week 2, there’s lots of km planned for next week so here’s to Week 3. 69 days to go!
Ordering my trekking poles for Tarawera this week. Will let you know how they go!