Last week, week 6 we focused on a big block of trail running with two days back to back at the beginning of the week. This was to begin putting extended time on my feet, followed by some recovery time on the bike to flush out the lactic acid build up.
Week 7 Training Plan: (21st-27th September 2020)
Monday: Rest and Recovery, Mobility 30+ minutes.
Tuesday: Bike trainer 40 minutes, Strength 60 minutes.
Wednesday: Run 4 miles EASY (Low Zone 2), Core strength 30 minutes.
Thursday: Run 7 miles EASY (Low Zone 2), Strength 1 hour.
Friday: Run 7 miles EASY (Low Zone 2), Mobility 30 minutes.
Saturday: Outdoor team ride 3 hours.
Sunday: Trail run 12 miles keeping Zone 2 as best I can.
This week we were still maintaining 30 miles total running, but we are dropping the intensity down to heart rate zone 2. Dropping the effort down to zone 2 will help build up my aerobic base in order to allow me to sustain the long efforts with less fatigue. In short Zone 2 training uses more of the Type 1 muscle fibers, these are the muscles that are most used in exercise lasting longer than 3 minutes. Zone 2 training also encourages your body to build more capillaries and increase your mitochondria ability to process lactate. It also trains your body to process fat for fuel in preference to carbohydrates which are in short supply.
Both Tuesday and Wednesday's plan was executed as planned, and my nutrition and sleep was on target. My sleep was about 8 to 8.5 hours each night leading into the workouts. My nutrition was spot on taking in a good healthy mix of nutrients with 40% coming from carbohydrates, 30% from protein, and 30% from fats. My total calories in and out was just about flush both days, and my hydration was also spot on.
I went to bed Wednesday night ready to take on my first day of a 2 day block of 7 mile runs on Thursday. Unfortunately Thursday I woke up completely exhausted even after getting 8 hours of sleep and not remembering waking up. Turns out that my hormones were messing with me, and I actually had a temperature Thursday. I kept drinking cold water, and stayed near a fan but nothing helped and I felt run down, low energy and ended up deciding not to do my workout.
Thursday I got to bed at my normal time, in bed by 9:15pm, read till 10pm and then lights out. My plan was to get up at 5:20am on Friday to do my 7 mile run from Thursday, so that I could do Fridays run in the evening. As all good plans go, they don't. Ha. Again I woke feeling exhausted and feverish. However by 9am I was finally feeling better, so I got my first run done. Due to the higher temps that day I was happy to go in the morning. I brought my handheld water bottle and my GoPro and off I went.
Since I decided to go a slightly different route than my normal I created a short video of my route and how peaceful it is at that semi-early time of the morning. You can watch it here on my YouTube channel. The rest of the day was spent working, so I never got a chance to do the second 7 mile run. And actually looking back that would not have been a smart move considering how much training I had on my calendar for Saturday and Sunday.
Oh glorious Saturday and a ride planned for the East Bay. I was looking forward to that ride all week. I actually looked back in my Strava and found I haven't been to this particular route since 2013. The route was starting in San Jose near Calavares and South Park Victoria, riding North into Fremont then out toward Sunol to climb up Palomares road, before descending back down and finishing our jaunt into Sunol and past is taking Calavares road all the way out past the reservoir and back to our starting point. The route was 48 miles in total with 3800 feet of climbing and it was the perfect early fall day to be there. We had cool temps to start, clean newly paved roads, then a beautiful ride through the canyon of Hwy84 to get out to our first climb up Palomares road. Once back down we continued to head East into and then past the little town of Sunol. Once we passed Hwy680 we still had a few miles before we hit the beauty of Calavares and the reservoir that lays below. As we were riding Calavares I remembered this was the sight of one of the recent fires, but yet I hadn't seen and damage. Just as I was saying that to a teammate, we turned a corner in the road and there it was in all it's fire scorched glory. I made a video of our ride and about 2/3 of the way through the video you can see some of that damage on the canyon above and in front of us.
After getting back to my car I had my usual recovery protein shake waiting in my lunch pail, and extra water and a second cup of coffee, and a sandwich. LOL, that sounds like a lot, but after burning 1500 calories in the morning I needed to replenish as much as possible. Plus it was only 11am so still early enough to have my second cup of coffee.
Last but not least was Sunday's long run. I knew it was supposed to be hot out again so I started my run at 7:30am, which was a perfect 63 degrees. For this run I used my hydration backpack as I didn't want to carry a water bottle in each hand. The backpack had only water in it today, but I did bring some of my own nutrition bites I have been making. I've got to say they are pretty yummy. If you are interested in the recipe it's also here in my blog from September of 2019.
https://northsnotesonline.blogspot.com/2019/09/homemade-energy-snack-balls.html
Hope you enjoyed reading this weeks adventures. Next week I have to get all my runs in as it's 11 weeks till my run and I need to be getting all the miles in my legs as I can now.
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