This week was a bit of an experiment. I dialled back the running during the week to get my Achilles tendonitis under control, recover fully and then take on a bit of a time trial (26km in the end) The aim was to leave my house an hour later than my two friends who are training to walk the 100km Jurassic Coast event I'm aiming to run; follow their exact same route; and to see at which point I caught them up.
This was an interesting test to
1. see what shape I was in if and when I did, and if I was falling apart by the time I reached them
2. see how much quicker than fast walking my run-walk strategy might be and how sustainable it is shaping up to be over longer distance.
I'd caught them up by the time we got to 15K and they were almost 3 hours in. (taking me just over 2hrs). That made what I was doing 30% faster.
When I extrapolate that out across 100km, my 34 hours it took to hike the route last time should now take me 24hrs under the same conditions... IF I CAN MAINTAIN IT!
And that's the big thing. Maintaining that 30% speed increase over the entire course. Right now that's not feasible. It will take a lot more miles on my feet yet and a ton more training, rehab and strength work. But that is the end goal target I'd like to achieve!
So on to the week's progress...
Week 8 Training
Monday:
- Rest Day
Tues
- Rest Day / Stretching / Core Training
Wed
- 11km hike
Thurs
- Rest Day / Stretching / Core training
Fri
- Rest Day /Stretching
Sat
- 26km Fasted run (MAF HR)
Sun
- Rest Day
The rest certainly helped my Achilles tendon last week which had flared up after the grit run mud shit I had to train in the previous Sunday. Because my long run switched to Saturday this weekend, I cut out my usual Friday treadmill run.
I've also upped my stretching work and putting in more core work as I've been getting a lot of hip ache and lower back tightness. I'm looking at my running gait as well for this which I'll talk about in another post.
Fat loss progress
The weight continues to come off pretty consistently at the moment. The eating has certainly reduced my appetite, and was put to one of the most extreme tests a man could face... ordering a Papa Johns pizza for the family while not being able to eat any.
I'll admit, that was shit. But that's a price I needed to pay otherwise risk unravelling work I've done. I consoled myself in a hand made almond flour crust pizza thing I made which wasn't too bad... not the same fucking thing at all though if I'm being honest with myself. That said, results like these help keep me going:
Starting Weight: 112kg
Wk 7 Weigh-in: 101.5 Kg!
Weight Lost = 10.5kg (23.1IbsIbs) in 59 days
Remaining weight to lose = 11.5Kg
I am now approx 48% of my target in in 8 weeks!
Next step is to get to double figures! I'm putting in a higher volume week this week and seeing if that can be achieved within the next 7 days. That'll be tough to do but I'm not far off.
If I can eat right, sleep well, and train with more volume this week then it might just be possible.
Let's see... Thanks for reading
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