It's been an up and down couple of weeks since my last post. It has been a bit of a grind. Wake up, work, get home, train, sleep, wake up, repeat. About 6 days a week presently.
You feel like each day is pretty much the same, and you wonder (often) if it's having any real effect or benefit in bringing you closer to your goal.
I'm OK with it, it's just not very... exciting. These are the cold drudgery months of endless repetition that few people don't see. It can get under your skin a bit, and even more so when you have flare-ups of injury, or you are simply washed out from one day to the next.
Right now i am balancing progressive effort and intensity, with injury management and recovery. It's getting tricky at times. The training has kicked up a notch and the bounce is slowly coming on, but my injury is reminding me who's in charge still and my energy levels are in a state of fine balance... Oh and my data is all over the fucking shop as my watch has decided now is the time to start screwing with me (a New Suunto 9 Peak Pro should be arriving in a week's time). First-world problems, I know. It still sucks though.
So here's where I'm at, and It's probably easiest to break it down into pieces as follows:
Injury & Rehab
It has been getting much better and I've been getting stronger in my weaker side. That said I had a very frustrating flare up of my Achilles issues a few days back, after Physio appointment earlier in the day. On reflection I should have just gone straight to the bike after she worked my calf, peroneal and ankle over, so I've only myself to blame here. On tired legs I put in an 18Km trail run (mostly Zone 2) in a decent enough time last weekend. That was on the back of a 6 day training week of Bike & runs giving me a 40km run total with 3 hours on the bike. What was especially pleasing was that I managed to get in a session with Lactate Threshold intervals (5x 4 mins @ LT heart rate)) with no major flare up earlier last week. Things are getting better! The injury is sore and this is a high training volume week for me ahead of a more 'recovery week' with 30% less training stress next week. Form is improving, efficiency is improving and strength is improving. I just need for some of the adaptations from this recent 3 week cycle to 'take' in my body. Fitness
Strength is increasing, and can feel I'm starting to run with a little more ease and power. My Zone 2 running is improving. In fact I was deep inside my Zone 1 this morning while holding a 7 KMH pace on the treadmill (thank god the HR monitor was working, as i had to work this out from previous run data and time running) I'm not breaking any records with an 18km trail run in 2hr:45min, but it was almost entirely Zone 2 (90% apart from the fartleks at the end). That gave me an estimated Non-Gradiated Pace of 6:41 per KM for the 18Km. This is my fastest NGP for anything over 14km I have done on trail. It's working!
Weight
I am down to 101kg, from 109Kg at Christmas. That's pretty much where i wanted to be. My diet is pretty clean in terms of largely fresh veg, salad, fruit, a little carb, non-processed meat and almost no sugar or processed food. I can feel the changes starting to happen to the more wobbly areas. No snacking at all of an evening (unless it's a Saturday night, and that's just for my sanity), and the classic cheat meal on a Sat eve. I'm now finding I'd prefer a salad over a sandwich, and fruit over a bar of chocolate. My body is starting to tell me what it needs without the noise of the sugar cravings I used to have.
Mindset
I'm having good days, stoic days and less-good days. Through it all I'm still going forward, but some days are easier than others (usually the ones where my injury is quieter). I had a moment of frustration in myself when I was putting the charity promo together for the 300Km challenge. While extraordinary, it also reminds you how far away I still am from completing it, when you are getting the same Achilles pain you've had for 3 years after an 18km run. I have to keep that in context of course as i have been training straight through since mid December. That means my legs are constantly on the side of tired, rather than fresh. I guess, when you think about it though, it's 200 miles... on your feet... in the middle of nowhere... on every terrain you can think of... it's never exactly going to be easy, no matter how fit I become.
Here is the charity video, for anyone who eventually reads this and wants to see what lies in store for me:
For now... I just keep grinding. One foot in front of the other, one small progress step at a time. Thanks for reading.
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