A week of highs and lows, both physically and emotionally. One day I felt good, one day I got injured and so on. Money can’t buy this kind of thing, only running can…..
I decided to enter a 5k cross-country race next week. In fact, I ‘greedily’ will do 2 races on back-to-back days (5k Saturday 4:30pm, 8.6k Sunday 7am). This might not be the smartest move since I am just in my third week returning after a lengthy injury. But timing is a secondary issue for me right now.
Mon: Easy Day
AM: 1-hour Yoga
Today’s class was core-focused, lots of squats, planks etc
PM: 25mins jogging (6:07 pace)
Wanted to run on grass to avoid pounding, but I didn’t see a root and rolled my bad ankle again! Unfortunately, the impact wasn’t hard since I ran really slowly or perhaps I had a higher pain threshold from the last ankle injury :p
Tue: Workout Day
2k warm up
6 x 800m (av 3:53 pace) with 2mins passive recovery
2k cool down
Wanted to do intervals in order to gauge my fitness for next week’s 5k. Did the session on 800m road stretch. Splits (3:06, 3:05, 3:10, 3:05, 3:10, 3:00) were all over the place due to a slight headwind on the way out. It is emotionally depressing that pre-injury, I was able to do 5x1600 with 2mins active recovery but now after 6x800 with passive recovery, I was very wasted :( I think I am hard pressed to do a sub-20 min 5k now which is used to be my tempo pace. Flew to Jakarta for work in arvo.
Wed: Easy Day
AM: 20mins elliptical + a couple sets of weights in Ritz Carlton
It seems that running intervals yesterday with 5kg additional body weight wasn’t a good idea. Ankle was really sore from the pounding :( No mood to run, decided to XT
PM: 20mins Easy (5:15 pace)
Flew back to Singapore in the evening. Did a shake out at 10pm.
Thu: Easy Day
45mins Easy (5:10 pace)
Calf and hammies were really tight. It seems the muscles were overworked becoz I went from 0km to 40-60km in the last 3 weeks.
Fri: Aborted Workout Day
5k warm up to the track
2 x 1k in 3:50, 3:55 + 3x200m in 43-44
Walked in despair for cool down and took a bus home.
The plan was to do intervals as my last hard workout before the race. Felt good during the warm up, but the session turned out to be a disaster. Ran the first k on target pace, but slowed down badly in the second. I was struggling both aerobically and muscularly at this point. Decided to abort and run a few 200s in order to salvage something from the session. However, my 200s were in the 43-44secs range (normally sub-40) and this was even with 200m walk for recovery! I decided to have enough after 3x 200s. Tried to jog home, but the body seemed to be paralyzed and running at 8 min/km pace was frekingly difficult:( I walked 2k to the bus stop and took a ride home.
PM: 1-hour massage
Looked back at my old logs and found the problem was typically muscular-oriented. Managed to get a last-minute appointment and had a painful one hour session.
Saturday: Workout Day
2k warm up
8k Tempo (av 4:12)
4 x 200s (38-40)
2k cool down
30mins stretching/foam roller
I was thinking this is it! If I couldn’t get a decent workout then I should cancel my plan to race. Did an Ovett tempo (3 miles HMP, 1 mile MP, 1 mile 10kp) with splits 19:58 (4:09) + 7:02 (4:24) + 6:35 (4:07) = 33:35. Just didn’t have any strength to run the last mile at 10k pace. 3 months ago I did the same session with splits 19:48 + 6:57 + 6:16 = 33:00, hence today’s last mile cost me 20secs. I attribute this to the fitness loss and a drop in lactate buffering capacity. Despite this, I am happy to be able to squeeze in a decent workout considering that I was unable to run yesterday :)
Sunday:
90mins ez (5:05 pace)
Warm and humid day. The body just is not used to long runs anymore.
Total 64k for the week.
5 comments:
Best of luck with the races coming up. Nice increase in km's and think the quicker runs are pretty impressive especially considering the time you've had off.
I agree with Clown - those speed sessions are pretty good considering.
Are you really sure you want to do those two races back-to-back rather than focus on one (especially if the XC surface is uneven)?
Best of luck either way.
frustrating hey, well hopefully things pick up a gear next week...just be careful to look after that ankle, be patient keep plugging away, celebrate improvement no matter how small, and enjoy the bonus of being able to race again. adjust expectations accordinglky and hopefully you will climb back to where you were in the past soon...stick with it...
Epi,
Although, the race is called XC, but I believe it is a mix of concrete and gravel. There are not a lot of real xc route here in this modern city! The second race will be just for fun (MP-effort type).
Certainly an up and down week, but overall I'd say you're ready to race. Don't know about two races in 12 hours though!
The Saturday workout wasn't too bad, with only the last mile letting you down. The races will tell you more about your fitness level. Have a good week.
Post a Comment