For the first time in a long time, I had a great week of training and recovery.
Now I’m settling into my new training program I’m very keen to focus on quality sessions and recovery runs between as well as getting a long run done once a week because the Millennium Way Ultra is coming up reasonably soon so I need that stamina for the 41 miles of that course.
With one speed session a week – 10 x 400m reps at somewhere around 5:10-5:20/mile pace and a long run, the remainder of the week is about recovery and I now run much more with my heart rate monitor and keep an eye on it and it’s definitely helping aid the recovery.
Running below 140bpm (usually more like 130) has meant I got to the end of one of my bigger weeks feeling fresh instead of knackered for once!
It does mean most of my runs are now more like 8:45-9:00/mile pace instead of the 7:45-8:00 I used to run and so far the benefits in recovery have been noticeable. Looking at my strava feed, I’m amazed how many people who are slower than me seem to run much faster every day and wonder if they will also have some sort of realisation that slowing down will make them faster. I guess it’s one of those things that’s painfully obvious but overlooked easily.
- Monday – 10 miles
- Tuesday – 10 miles
- Wednesday – 5.1 (400m x 10 @ 5:10-5:20/mile w/60s rest)
- Thursday – 9.5 miles
- Friday – 10.5 miles
- Saturday – 16 miles
- Sunday – 4 miles
Total: 65.4 miles, 5,500ft elevation gain