My legs, my legs, I can’t feel my legs. Actually I can, they bloody hurt!

My coach is trying to kill me.

I’m not sure which workout exactly killed my poor sticks but today’s long run was excruciating. I’m pleasantly surprised that I don’t have many cuts and bruises. My legs were so heavy that I tripped and stumbled because I simply wasn’t lifting my feet high enough off the ground.

The week started well with a rest day/cross training day, turning 5km run with my puppies and a brand new VO2 max, 50! Yep 50. My Vo2 Max has set of 45 since I first got my heart rate monitor. Mostly because I don’t wear it often enough because it would chafe but when I started training at a lower heart rate I had to suck it up and just wear it. Sometimes I would jump to 46 or 47 but not much else. On Sunday after my long run it jumped to 47. I was stoked. It must be working, I thought.

Then on Monday I went for a quick 5k with the dogs, 2.5 with each and it hit 50. Unfortunately every run after that resulted in it dropping back to 47 but hey, it’s still up.

So I’m training for a 100 mile run with 5000m of elevation up and then back down. Problem is, I’m a flatlander. Literally. My 5k sprint with the dogs had a total elevation of 1 metre. If I don’t make an effort to drive at least 10-15 minutes from my house I won’t find a single hill.

My training plan this week called for the following:

P1- 2.5-3 hr trail run

P2- 60 min of moderate hills

P3- A rising heart rate run

P4- Midweek 21km rhythm run

P5- 60 min moderate hills

P6- 500 metre intervals

I ticked off the P2 of moderate hills on Wednesday night after going hunting for some hills in Geelong. I was pretty disappointed to see the lack of elevation on my Strava but 132m is better than nothing. It looks more like hill reps than rolling hills.

I backed it up on Thursday morning with a 20k rhythm run. Constant heart rate, constant cadence.

On Friday I really hurt. My legs were heavy so I just plugged in and did a steady 60 minutes as a P5, no hills as requested but better than nothing. I added a body weight lower body session on the end of it. 50 squats, 30 jump squats, static and walking lunges. Oh the burn.

By the time Sunday’s long run came along I was wrecked. As I said, my poor legs just didn’t want to lift more than 2 inches from the ground. Technical parts that were usually a breeze were difficult and I tripped more than I would like. Might be a good indicator for the end of Tarawera so probably a good learning experience in the end.

I ticked over 2.5 hrs before I got interrupted by a call in to work. Just as well, my legs couldn’t have taken much more.

Week 3 totals
61.2km
7hrs 8 min
812 m elevation

Nutrition

I think my intermittent fasting cancelled out my junk food. I lost about 400g. I’m calling it half a kilo. Haha

62 days to go.

Ordered my poles. Hopefully they come this week!