Last week was a rest week, meaning both my mileage and intensity was dialed back. This allows the body more rest and recovery time so it can adapt to the training stimulus you have put it through over the past few weeks.
This week we now get back into more distance and working on doing back to back long run days over the weekend, plus still continuing to have 2 bike days for the cross training.
Week 5 Training Plan: (7th-13th September 2020)
Monday: REST day, 30 minutes FRC mobility.
Tuesday: Run 10k with 2 x 1k at sub 7 min pace, Strength 1 hour, Mobility 15 min.
Wednesday: Bike trainer 40 minutes. Core strength 30 minutes.
Thursday: Run 10k with the lasst 2 miles at sub 8 min pace, Strength 1 hour.
Friday: Bike 40 minutes, Core strength 30 minutes, Mobility 15 minutes.
Saturday: Trail run 10.5 miles
Sunday: Trail run 10.5 miles.
As is every week, Monday is an active rest day. That means I spend time doing some upper body strength exercises, along with doing my total body mobility routine. I am an FRCms and FRA certified specialist, which makes it really easy for me to know what my body needs for mobility. If you are curious what FRC is, check out my previous post here.
Tuesday was a 10K with 2 x 1K elevated pace thrown in for speed work and to break up the distance a little. The elevated pace works the supra-threshold level of body systems and allows you to adapt faster to the training than just steady state alone. I was feeling good that morning, but knew it was supposed to get into the 90's that day and planned my run for the morning. That plan was smart and I executed it perfectly. One bottle of 355 ml water, plus a small breakfast an hour before and I was ready to rock.
Wednesday however threw the entire Bay Area and beyond for a loop. Due to a weather pattern that I do not understand, all of a sudden all the smoke from all the fires on the West Coast was hovering on us. We woke up to an orange-brown sky, and ash falling on us. Many of us referred to that day as feeling post apocalyptic.
The unfortunate thing about the orange-brown haze is that it lasted 3 days. During those 3 days no outdoor activity would have been safe to participate in. Luckily I was able to do my bike workout indoors on Wednesday. However, Thursday came around and it was time for my next run, but it just had to be skipped. Normally Thursday is my strength and HIIT sessions (I teach class and participate in it too.) In addition to the 30 minute strength and 30 minute HIIT session, I also did another 30 minutes of heavy weight lifting. Due to adding in the extra lifting session, my body would have been pretty sore for Friday so I also spent 30 minutes doing mobility work.
Friday morning comes along as the AQI is still pretty bad, but I thought I'd look to see if there was anything within a 90 minute drive from me that had a safe AQI. I was in luck! Santa Cruz was hovering at about 80 AQI. I know it's still not great but it's way better than the 175 AQI we had at home. Off to the sleepy beach town I drove to do my Thursday run on Friday morning. Though the AQI was better by almost 100 points, the air was still had an orange tint to it. You can see what I mean about the air color in this YouTube video.
Later in the afternoon on Friday I did my easy spin in my garage. At this point I'm caught back up on my workouts for the week. Next up is a 2 day block of 10.5 miles trail running. Unfortunately Saturday the AQI was still hovering around 200 so my workout got a last minute change to a 2 hour bike spin again on the trainer. Back to the garage I go and get it done. Nothing worse than sitting on a stationary bike for 2 hours, unless you have some fun YouTube subscriptions to watch. Gotta tell you that makes the time go by much easier. Also I highly recommend if you are watching something do be careful of what you choose. I'm following this Professional Mountain Biker from the UK. He's funny and entertaining, but every time he's flying down those hills and making sharp turns or dodging trees, I find myself leaning a bit on my bike. If you know anything about most stationary bike trainer set ups, there is no room to rock and roll. Let's just say that I had a few close calls tipping myself over. LOL!
Last day of the week and the air is still bad, Sunday started at about 155 AQI. No trail run again today. Instead I went to Aptos with my wife and spent the say chilling on the beach. I know that probably wasn't the best place to be but being cooped up for one more day I was gonna lose it.
Stay tuned for next week, I've still gotta do the back to back trail runs.
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