Training 7-13 September

This week has felt much more like the training of old and it has been a killer.

Sunday:

AM: Long run around the streets of the lower Blue Mountains from Glenbrook to Springwood. Felt like I was dying on the hills during that last 30 minutes.

Monday:

AM: Run easy for a couple of loops of the Nepean River Bridge to Bridge course during lunch

PM: Run home via all the hills I could find.

The run home was solid. I felt strong on the hills and it was nice passing a few fitness people out there tackling the climbs.

Tuesday:

AM: Run easy to work

PM: (planned) 7x500m hill of 8-10% gradient.

PM: (actual) 7x300m hill at 13-15+% gradient.

I miss calculated the length and steepness of the street before heading out. It came as a surprise during my first rep. Toughed it out and felt great during the cooldown. Running on the flats felt like I was bounding along effortlessly.

Wednesday:

PM: Run 90 minute moderate.

Met up with a couple of fast dudes after work and preceded to get smacked. Although I was mostly at the front pushing the pace. Maybe not the smartest thing to do. We covered almost a half marathon in about 87 minutes of running.

Thursday:

AM: Run - Interval session.

I found a nice cricket ground about a mile from work and the surface was great to run on. If I can’t make one of the athletic ovals close to home then I will run my interval sessions here from now on. The session went OK but I didn’t have the time to relax into it. Took it out too fast and with little recovery (1 minute) they quickly got hard. I still had enough in the tank to let the last interval rip which was good to see.

PM: Run home – ran straight up Mitchell’s Pass which is the shortest route I could think of. But the climb was relentless.

Friday:

AM: (planned) – Long run

AM: (actual) – Recovery run to work.

After a much needed extra hours of sleep I decided to capitalize on the great running week behind me and take it easy and short this morning. The car was left at work so all I had to do was to roll the 10km downhill and keep it easy. The legs feel great!

Saturday:

AM: Workout.

Today's session called for some hard running followed by 10x100m hill repeats. I started out running easy but immediately I felt rather ordinary. I find it frustrating that I can feel so crappy after running easy but that I can feel so good after running moderate to hard the day before. Maybe I should stop running the easy recovery runs and just take a day off if needed.

After 15 minutes of easy running down to the nearest oval I found that it was closed for maintenance work. Damn! The only thing I could do now was to run hard tempo on the road and with hills in every direction it was going to much harder than planned.....and it was! After the hard running was over I headed back to the start of my hill which I use for the short hill reps and started running with the aim of completing 10. I felt like I was jogging on the first and was suprised that I was quicker than when I ran them last time (and I was fresh then). The first nine reps were in the 26-28 second range and with a little more effort I finished up with the last one in 23 seconds. Finished up with an easy 15 min run back home.