After last week's injury issues this was always going to be a very tricky week of balancing training with recovery from the injury. Especially given it was to my ankle with the history of issues.
I am VERY relieved to say that I appear to be recovering incredibly quickly. So much so that I managed to put in a trail run last weekend less than 6 days since the problem that saw me in A&E getting XRays. While I'm not out of the woods yet, I am now picking back up my training programme for this summer block.
It is concentrating on the key areas of:
Injury bullet-proofing and joint (ankle/knee/tendon) strength
Recovery speeds
Zone 2 Pace improvement, targeting 25% by end of September
While total mileage volume isn't overly horrific at the start of this block (it's still starting out at 35km a week), the big focus is putting the right amount of higher intensity into about 25% of all the run work I'm doing, while also adding in more focused strength and speed exercises.
I have the following plan:
Day
strength & conditioning + Bike recovery
Zone 2 plus high intensity Strides
a recover zone 1-2
High intensity Hill Repeats day (which I'm calling Bastard Day)
Rest
Lactic Threshold/Tempo Run
Zone 2 Long Run (and a fast finish if I can manage it)
I'm about 6 weeks away from 2x Training sessions a day on days 2 & 4 but these will come as I push volume midway through this 14 week block. This plan was put across to me out of the back of one of my Physio's who is also a competitive triathlete and qualified running coach. He knows what I've done so far and is very familiar with my injury history so it made sense to outline to him the challenge I face to become more unbreakable, quicker to recover and to be able to hit day one of the challenge with a much quicker Zone 2 pace than i have currently. His initial first word was "Intensity!
I clearly had a big aerobic base, and that now we needed to start pushing the body hard to make the adaptions I need to get through this challenge with better/faster recovery and improved injury-prevention. But there is a process and a fine line to walk between going hard vs. going TOO hard.
This is why my week has strength and higher end speed work sprinkled in there. between 20 and 25% of my work is structured for this block as being high intensity running, but when I run easy for the remaining 75-80% it needs to be running really easy, which should get faster as i get stronger. The secret is, the high intensity parts need to always take you to the edge.
This follows the legendary cyclist Greg LeMond's quote of "It never gets easier, you only go faster"
The irony is that this is the type of training I love most. High impact, high intensity, go-till-you-puke-or-collapse type intensity. This was how I used to train when young and unbroken by injuries. The problem is not doing too much of it and folding because you've broken something through pushing too hard.
Given I'm less-than-young anymore, this is where judging the balance and only going high intensity for long enough that you aren't risking something going wrong simply because you feel good that day. I did that the other week and my ankle decided to f*ck my shit up as a warning.
That said these are the key sessions and their RPE levels - Relative Perceived Effort (measure of session intensity) for each one. Scored out of 10 for level of intensity:
Hill Training (RPE 8-10)
I took this approach into hill training. Week 1 (two weeks' ago) was 5x 150m hill sprints...Yesterday was 6x hill sprints of closer to 200m. Progress, and while still being cautious about this ankle. I can only be happy with this.
Far from the hills being alive with the sound of music (more alive with swearing and sobbing), the Hill Training session is incredibly beneficial as it's so much about strength building. It's high impact, it's heavy on the ankles, knees and hips. It takes your heart rate way into Zone 6 and keeps it in the 4-6 range until you cool down. There's that 25% High intensity, right there! Just enough to monster you... not so much that you break. Today is the day after, and while I am sore (DOMS), I am not injured. Success! A few weeks ago this session would have had me laid up with a tendonitiis flare up in the Achilles that would have seen me off running for at least 5 days. That I could comfortably go through a 5-10K easy run today (albeit after warming up) gives me the sign that things are improving already.
One of these sessions each week should build a lot of strength over the next 3 months. That also bodes well for lifting the pace I run at. Better strength leads to better technique, and also fitness levels, which means I should start to see my Zone 2 pace start to go up a level fairly soon. Strides (RPE 4-5)
I also have a strides session in my week to build speed. This is simply 5 or 6 bursts of speed at the end of a workout. to give an Idea after 40 mins of easy Zone 2 jogging at the 7-8 KMH mark, I put in 5x 1 min bursts of 15-17 kmh. This is more about form and speed, getting my body used to running quicker again. The trick is not to do too many for too long, so as to avoid injury risks. I did strides this week on Tuesday and had to take care due to the ankle. I had a reaction after the 4th one and cut it there. Straight to ice after my cool down on the bike and everything was fine for hills 2 days later.
Strides are about building my basic running pace to quicker levels so that I can run an easy 8-9 kmh over 25km (which is where I need to get to in 3 months' time for my challenge on the demands of Day 1 of the 6).
Lactic Threshold/Tempo Run - RPE 6-8
This is a race pace 5km run. I fondly refer to this as my 'Park Run W@nker' run as I've had negative experiences with over competitive park runners who act as if they're all that, and obsess of your time as well as their own in search of some form of validation of their self-perceived 'epic'ness'. I know I'm being mean as there will be many people who are lovely there, but my whole drive is adventure and not competition, but my physio who put the plan together insisted I do some of this so I build a tolerance to dickheads who humble brag and delight in feeling sorry for those slower than they are, as there could well be one or two when i do my challenge and I'll be around them a lot longer than the 30 minutes a park run will take. Truth be told I've held off going to one as I prefer the trails, but I will need to sign on to it in the coming weeks.
This Saturday run is about race pace for 5km. Both to build speed and to build fitness while raising my Lactic Threshold. Zone 4 running, basically.
So there you have it. My schedule for the next few months. The distances will grow as strength, fitness and speed do, and I'll be tracking my Zone 2 average pace throughout as the fundamental marker for progress with ongoing MAF tests.
Thanks for reading...
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