Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Week 4: Rest Week for 50K Trail Race

 Rest weeks are just as important as hard training weeks. This weeks plan was 15 miles running and 2 hours 48 minutes of riding. During a rest week both the duration and intensity is decreased, however there are still short bursts of intensity to make sure to keep the body sharp as we say. 

Week 4 Training Plan: (31st August - 6th September 2020)

Monday: REST day, Mobility 30 minutes. 

Tuesday: Run 4 miles at easy pace, Strength 60 minutes.

Wednesday: Core strength 30 minutes.

Thursday: Bike trainer 48 minutes high cadence, Strength 60 minutes. 

Friday: Run 4 miles at an easy pace.

Saturday: Bike outside 2 hours with one 10 minute high intensity interval.

Sunday: Trail run 7 miles.

This was a difficult week for me, I started Tuesday with a migraine, and this time it lasted all day Wednesday too. Because of the migraine I took both Tuesday and Wednesday off from training, and just focused on work, rest hydration and nutrition. Finally by Thursday I was feeling much better and went out in the morning to do my run from Tuesday, then followed it up with my core workout from Wednesday. Because I did a double workout I made sure to get my nutrition dialed in that day, and also stayed off my feet as much as possible during the rest of the day. 

How do I dial in my nutrition when I'm so busy? It comes with practice and planning. I have to plan ahead in order for this to work. I knew that there was a possibility of doing 2 workouts on Thursday so I went to bed knowing that I had to spread them out and eat at appropriate times throughout the day. When  it comes to running in the heat or riding in the heat I always choose ride over run, so I decided to get my run in first thing Wednesday morning during my early break. I immediately followed it up with my post workout protein shake, and then lunch was 2 hours later. The nice thing about that set up is that I can easily ride after eating lunch, so I jumped on the bike trainer and hit my high cadence workout, and again followed that workout with my post workout protein shake. 

With all that protein you're probably wondering am I getting too many calories. Nope. My protein shake of choice is Vega Sport Premium Protein powder.  I chose this one because it is high in protein, has the 30 grams required for women, and it is low in carbohydrates and fat which means I can get those from real foods. Yes I could have a chicken breast post workout, but that gets expensive and it's not something you can quickly get down immediately after a workout. Also this protein powder tastes the best to me, and seems to me to dissolve the best of the other ones I've used. 
 
Skip ahead to Sunday and my 7 mile trail run. Since I've been running at Rancho San Antonio preserve for all my trail runs these past few years, I decided it was time for a change. I headed over to Arastradero Preserve this weekend for my trail run. The temperature was supposed to get up over 100 degrees and with it already being 72 degrees at 6:30am when I woke, I decided to get a move on and start my run by no later than 7:30am. This turned out to be a smart decision as it was 88 degrees at 8:45am when I finished my run. This preserve differs from Rancho because there are no long sustained climbs, it's all short somewhat steep climbs followed by short steep descents. That's not my preferred trail as I like to just dig in deep and get all the climbing done in the first half of my runs and then enjoy a really long descent for the second half. Here are a couple of pics from Sunday's run at Arastradero preserve.





In total this week was 15 miles running and 3 hours on bike. Having been a rest week, I'm feeling recovered and ready to go and hit another hard couple weeks of training again. Block 2 of base training begins on Tuesday. Stay Tuned.

Also during Sunday's run I wanted to try my hand at creating video content while I'm running. It wasn't easy carrying my water bottle in one hand and the GoPro in the other, but I managed. Turns out I get nervous and talk too much, and I'm not great at video editing so coudn't get rid of some of my babbling, but if you want to see my first attempt at it you can see my video here. Be prepared it is a bit on the long side, at least long winded. LOL. I'll work on getting more footage of the actual places where I am running and riding for the future attempts. 

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