28th Jan 2020
Week 1 is done, and I'm happy to have got going. Headlines: Completed my sessions, didn't get injured. If those two things can stay true for the other 15 weeks, I'll be super happy. Anything more is a bonus.
Those who've had a look at the plan will know what was planned for this week, but here's a run-down of how it went:
Not much to say about the first session of the process – 35 minutes on a treadmill wasn't the most heroic way to start a training block, but that's how this one goes. My Polar M430 is wildly inaccurate at estimating pace and distance, but it's more accurate than the treadmill itself. It has me down as having completed 5.6km in those minutes, but more important was average heart rate of 135bpm. Job done.
I felt really good on this run. The sun was out, I'd been rested for the week before, and the biggest trouble was staying in my Easy zones – I'm trying to stick to the plan regardless at this stage, so getting excited and running away with it isn't wise. 13km at 5:57/km at 159bpm average. A little higher than I should have been, but I'd have happily run these at 4:30/km so I'm putting it down as a discipline training win.
I can't even remember what I did in the gym for this session, but I do know it felt like a waste of time I could have been running. I know that's a lie though, and my previous constant injuries are testament to that. If this stays as the toughest session to do mentally each week I'll be happy with that!
This one was my first taste of something not instantly clicking on the run side. Third session in, not ideal, but whatever. I felt fatigued, which I definitely shouldn't have felt at this point. Couldn't get the Tempo section anywhere near to the 4:30/km that I needed, which was tough to take as I'd felt so good in session 2. Didn't force it though, just put in the relative effort that 4:30s would normally feel like and got it out of the way.
Another relatively short run, but this time I decided to take it onto the Ashdown Forest. A friend at Uckfield Runners quips that "there's no such thing as an easy run on the forest" most times we head out there, and he's absolutely right. Knowing that in advance, I just tried to move forwards with purpose for the distance. Took it as an opportunity to work on getting heart rate down between hills, and felt positive about that. Overall a really fun session, and I'm looking forwards to getting onto the forest for as many of my long runs as is sensible while keeping others on easier terrain for more pace.
Overall I'm happy with how the week went. Apart from Session 4 I felt in good shape for all of them, and the fact that Session 5 went well just points at the fact I was having an off day. We can all deal with those, so off into week 2 we go. At the time of writing I'm a few days into that, but the main sessions are coming up – including a nice 10 interval session tomorrow early morning.
