You'll see from my last post that the theme this week has been resilience. The long run this week was a simple exercise on gritting my teeth and finishing the 20K target I set. The conditions were rubbish so this was what I called a 'Grit Run' rather than a 'Fit Run'.
It was 20km of largely soft mud and was exhausting. The rest of the week I'd gone a bit easier and felt well recovered after a couple of rest days and a couple of easy Maffetone 5km runs. But Sunday's long run suuuuucked.
As you can see, this was very soft indeed and the problem with that is that it drains the energy from every step you take. Judging from my heart rate I'd say it takes an extra 20% of your energy from traction loss to move through stretches like this.
It was very difficult to stay in my MAF Zone for large stretches of this because of the effort. I also changed things up a little and ran with poles. While they helped with stability in a big way in certain stretches, they also pushed my heart rate up a notch. I put that down to using additional muscle groups to move such as Shoulders, triceps, etc.
As I approach the first 50Km ultra in 6 weeks time, I need to get used to running with them and that means training with them. They will be essential for the 100km. No question about it. Better I start now.
This run was hard, but I felt stronger for it. One thing I know about this session is it's preparing my body (and my head) for the torment of over 5 miles of shingle beach on my final challenge, which hits you at 80km in. A diabolical section of the course that is nothing short of traumatic. Your feet heavy with stones with every step, as your energy is stolen as your foot sinks. This type of run helps with that. Miles of endless mud is probably the next best surface to that particular obstacle to come. As I mentioned, I call this a 'Grit Run' as it builds the mind and body to cope with a little suffering.
So onto the results and stats....
Week 7 Training
Monday:
Rest Day
Tues
- Rest Day
Wed
- 5Km MAF Run Treadmill
Thurs
- Rest Day
Fri
- 5km run/walk (Maffetone HR = 128-134 BPM) -
Sat
- Rest Day
Sun
- Long 'Run' - 2hr 32 mins, 14km trail run - FASTED
Weight loss is going steady. The Pounds are coming off and my body is deep in Ketosis right now which I can feel is getting better fat adapted. The fasted run on a sunday is hitting hard as I end up not eating from Saturday night until Sunday evening. It's making me very curious as to how much energy I'll have when I finally put some calories into me and throughout. My intention at this point is to take carbs and calories on the main events (50 & 100Km) but need to do a bit more research about this given I'm fat adapting
So these are the results:
Starting Weight: 112kg
Wk 7 Weigh-in: 102.3 Kg!
Weight Lost = 9.7kg (21.3IbsIbs) in 52 days
Remaining weight to lose = 12.3Kg
I am now approx 45% of my target in in 7 weeks!
The Forecast suggests I should meet my target weight pretty much the day I take on the full 100! It'll be interesting to see if the weight loss accelerates now that I am better fat adapting in my body (fat for fuel), or if it starts to tail off.
I am now at a weight that is the lowest I have been for a decade, and this has got to make a difference.
Today I call this a win.
Thanks for reading
Kommentare