This training week was very much a go-slow one. I kept this deliberately light to ease up on the ankle/achilles issues, and let my energy levels come back.
I felt heavy legged on my first run of the week and put that down to still recovering, as well as cleaning up the diet again and cutting out the carbs in the main.
My second run, for the long run on the Sunday was a scorcher. It was around 25C by the time I got out in the morning and was a fasted 10km. The longest run since the event 3 weeks earlier and was all trail. Carrying a pack and full water load (took Dog with me), I was a hot mess by the time I got back.
I was pleased I hit the 10km I'd set out to do (though my GPS didn't pick me up for the 1st half-km), and to do it in the heat was good training as we don't get too many hot days to train in in the UK.
Reviewing the week, I had a look at the data from my treadmill run earlier in the week and was pleasantly surprised. I'd completed a 20 min cross training session first and then jumped on the treadmill and recorded the following
I'd got through 2.5km in 20 mins at an average pace of 7.4 km/h while holding an average HR of 132bpm in my MAF Zone. Considering I was still in recovery this was pretty quick for me. What particularly stood out was the VO2 Max score which is now in the magic 39-45 range (considered in the 'Good' category for my age).
This is the highest VO2 Max I've recorded since I began training this year, with my first being a score of 32.9.
You can see more about this topic on post 26 - building the engine.
I'm shortly to post about measuring to help master your progress, so look out for that one coming up next.
Back to the weekly stats:
You can see it was a light week. Only training twice, which was my intention for recovery.
I got my 10k done in 1.5 hours in hot conditions, and really just was turning the legs over. This coming week I'll be doing something similar, with an added run Thursday (Today in writing this), and increasing the long run to 15km on Sunday.
I'm adding in the usual stretching, etc every other evening, but will also be hitting the ankle/achilles rehab and strengthening work again from this coming week to ease back into that, now my injuries have settled down a little.
Weight loss progress
As you can see, it hasn't moved this week yet, though I've added in a couple of 24hr fast days. I'll fill you in on how that's panning out in next week's update though.
It's hot here at the moment so I tend to retain more water in hot weather. I'm not concerned really. I feel leaner at the moment, and it'll be a week or two before I see the impact from the fasting changes as well as stepping up the miles again.
Overall I'm feeling positive and that I'm getting back into the groove again. It takes time, of course, and at 47 now, I'm no spring chicken. Still a lot more to do and to achieve, but we do it one step at a time. Thanks for reading.
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