I have an old and out of shape engine that needs to be rebuilt. They wheels have bearings that are shot, and with low fuel economy and carrying a bit of excess weight, there is a lot of work to do before 300km.
The reality is that I'm a bit old, a bit fat and a bit busted up. I'll keep going, but lightweight modern design, high octane fuel efficiency, high speed, etc are a fair distance from where I'm at presently.
But that's OK... there are things we can do to rebuild some important parts.
Injuries have dogged me throughout this entire journey. They are also taking incredibly long amounts of time to fix and heal. Part of this is I'm having to train throughout or risk getting too far off the distance and pace I need to complete my goal.
I mentioned in my last post that I am splitting my training block into three phases.
- Phase 1 - VO2 Max
- Phase 2 - Raising Pace
- Phase 3 - Building Max Volume
Well here I am in mid Phase 1, where in my second week of high intensity VO2 Max intervals I am beginning to feel a little fried.
The principle is simple. Warm up for 10-15 minutes, Run as hard as you can up a hill for 2 minutes, then recover (walk) for 2 mins.... then repeat 5 or 6 times.
You have to get your heart rate up to 90%+ of it's max and hold it there for as long as you can in those two minutes. In my case my max HR based on 220-age is 172bpm. And then recover for two minutes. When you do you'll see a heart rate profile like this
And you are likely to be close to blacking out a little by the end of it (this was my first session).
I'm sure It's no coincidence that my heart rate chart looks like the climb elevation profile of an ultramarathon, BTW. The execution of this is not as simple as it sounds... Not in a concentrated block where you are performing so many interval sessions over a short space of time.
I have put down 5x VO2 Interval sessions in the last 10 days, and I am blitzed! I can really feel the fatigue building. I still have another 5 sessions to do over the next 10 days before I take a recovery week and then moving into phase 2. Of course, it's not meant to be easy. Far from it. It's meant to be bloody hard. But already I am seeing fitness gains with respect to my pace already increasing at my Zone 2 130bpm Heart Rate. This is good news.
I performed a quick MAF Test two days ago on my recovery run (Zone 2) and scored my highest ever on tired legs at 4.5km at 128 bpm in 30 mins. I'm very interested to see what I score again in two weeks time after a bit of recovery! I'm hoping to get to 5km and a VO2 Max of around 44% (currently it's sitting at 40.5%) by the end of the next two phases (end of July), which will be in the 'very good' range for my age (and in the 'truly remarkable' range for my age and weight LOL!).
... that's if I survive this next set of 5 workouts, of course.
My heel is still sore. I'm managing the best way I can to rehab it, but it's chronic pain I have to deal with that's getting harder as I'm hitting more and more hard interval runs.
That said, I'm having to put the hard weight loss goals to the side for now and simply trust that eating (mostly) clean (mixing protein, some carbs and fat) will give my body the fuel it needs for this intense onslaught. Mixed with the training, I'm hoping it will shock & shift my body composition to leaner. It either will or it won't.
Either way I need to get the engine and the wheels in the right place as there is absolutely no point having a beach body flexing at where the toilets are at, while sat crying halfway up a mountain in the Outer Hebrides Islands of Scotland... all because I can't continue through not focusing on getting those most important things right from the start.
Right now we need the engine built, tuned, and the rest of the car in the kind of shape that it will hold together once you send it down 200 miles of bumpy track.
...And that journey has just begun.
Thanks for reading.
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