SC100 Training: Base 2
My first week of training began after a few days off. This continued straight on with the training load. No days off leading in. Would that make a difference?
A lack of sleep before my early start, had the run into work feeling terrible. Through those 5km, all I wanted to do was go back to bed. At the other end of the day, the 8km route home felt like gold. Running was just so easy. Early to bed and a recharge for the next morning's hill repeats.
It's not even Winter, but the second day's running was in 1 degree Celsius. That's cold, at least it wasn't raining. Wearing some extra gear, I ended up warm enough for some hill plyometrics. A different course this time, not quite as steep, slightly longer up and and an extra minute on the return. It felt good. I was very happy with the session except for a bit of a twist against some tightness in my left knee on a bend during one of the descents. I didn't think much of it, as I carried no pain for the rest of the run and day.
Next day I was back for an attempt at the 2 hour carbohydrate depletion run. Again I just ran at what felt like a reasonable intensity. The course wasn't technical, but it had a few good hills. What a difference a week's training makes. This run felt great. I definitely felt faster, got past the previous weeks point of decline at 1:22 feeling great. It took until 1:35 to start feeling a bit of difficulty. This was just the need to concentrate harder, and not sudden loss of all energy compared to last week. Soon enough I returned home a few minute shy of 2 hours and feeling really depleted. My mind was now being engulfed in the lack of sugar haze. Mapping out the run I discovered I covered a little over 20km. So a pace under 6:00/km is a great place to be this early in the build up.
Over the rest of the day, my left knee developed and increased in pain. Clearly that twist two days early was something to think about. As a result I skipped the MAF test the following day. Got in some mild rehab work and hoped that would be enough. This took me into a night shift at work. Without a run in the legs, the start of the shift just didn't feel right. My partner went home sick half way in. Historically that can mean an easy night, as once you are by yourself, you don't tend to get responded to as many patients because you can't transport and treat by yourself. Unfortunately this wasn't the case. It was a big 14 hours. I returned home and passed out, waking up a few hours later, not feeling much better. Running just wasn't appealing, but either was much else. Yet, I still put the shoes on and headed the door in the afternoon. For the first 10 minutes I actually felt crook, but just continued on auto pilot. It got better. The run became a therapeutic. No concern for pace or intensity, went out to check a new river crossing, got the feet wet and just covered some of the best trails close to home. I felt better and better with each step.
Still with a bit of sleep debt I chose the sleep in option. That's having to get up for the kids, which is about 0630 instead of the 0400-0500 wake up required to get training in. My plan was to run with the kids in the pusher, but torrential rain and strong winds made that a no go. That left me with only an easy 30min on the treadmill.
Day 7, and it I was up to the only time I had to fit in the 4 hour long run. With an extra night shift scheduled that night it called for another early start followed by a sleep in the middle of the day. With plenty of predawn rain and cloud cover, the darkness was thick. As a nice surprise the rain cleared for the run.
Continuing the trend from last week I ignored my heart rate and just ran at whatever pace felt right. This meant I fell into something a fair bit faster than last week. By what I thought was about halfway it was clear I running much harder, but was capable of doing so. There was also a lot more power up the hills. The run was good. I even met an emu out in the hills.
I chose a looped course, which didn't turn out as planned. A trail which I've been through before was now all blocked off. Looks like it was private property. This added a fair amount of distance with doubling back and finding another way home. That put me out for an extra half hour. I ran well up until about 3:45. The remaining 45 minutes really pointed out the ways my form drops when I'm stuffed. I still managed to keep running, but it wasn't pretty.
A lot went right from a nutrition point of view on the run. The struggle from 3:45 seemed more about the limit of muscular endurance rather than failure in energy levels. Each hour I averaged an intake of 45g maltodextrin, 13g fructose and 4g protein. Not quite the full 50/15/5 I had mixed, but it worked. There was one significant problem. After 3.5 hours the mixture frothed up both in the bottle and my stomach. Making it hard to get in and with some making it's way back out. I believe this is due to having the electrolyte powder mixed in with the protein. I'm thinking separating the electrolytes from the energy drink may be a lot better.
The last day of the week was mainly taken up with sleep post night shift. Waking in the afternoon with a fever and a head full of clogged sinuses made for a second day of dropped running for the week. I'm not concerned about these two dropped days. They were required for recovery. Importantly my main runs were all longer and faster, making for very similar mileage over the week. As long as the dropped days don't become a regular feature it should all come together well.
A lack of sleep before my early start, had the run into work feeling terrible. Through those 5km, all I wanted to do was go back to bed. At the other end of the day, the 8km route home felt like gold. Running was just so easy. Early to bed and a recharge for the next morning's hill repeats.
It's not even Winter, but the second day's running was in 1 degree Celsius. That's cold, at least it wasn't raining. Wearing some extra gear, I ended up warm enough for some hill plyometrics. A different course this time, not quite as steep, slightly longer up and and an extra minute on the return. It felt good. I was very happy with the session except for a bit of a twist against some tightness in my left knee on a bend during one of the descents. I didn't think much of it, as I carried no pain for the rest of the run and day.
Next day I was back for an attempt at the 2 hour carbohydrate depletion run. Again I just ran at what felt like a reasonable intensity. The course wasn't technical, but it had a few good hills. What a difference a week's training makes. This run felt great. I definitely felt faster, got past the previous weeks point of decline at 1:22 feeling great. It took until 1:35 to start feeling a bit of difficulty. This was just the need to concentrate harder, and not sudden loss of all energy compared to last week. Soon enough I returned home a few minute shy of 2 hours and feeling really depleted. My mind was now being engulfed in the lack of sugar haze. Mapping out the run I discovered I covered a little over 20km. So a pace under 6:00/km is a great place to be this early in the build up.
Still with a bit of sleep debt I chose the sleep in option. That's having to get up for the kids, which is about 0630 instead of the 0400-0500 wake up required to get training in. My plan was to run with the kids in the pusher, but torrential rain and strong winds made that a no go. That left me with only an easy 30min on the treadmill.
Day 7, and it I was up to the only time I had to fit in the 4 hour long run. With an extra night shift scheduled that night it called for another early start followed by a sleep in the middle of the day. With plenty of predawn rain and cloud cover, the darkness was thick. As a nice surprise the rain cleared for the run.
Continuing the trend from last week I ignored my heart rate and just ran at whatever pace felt right. This meant I fell into something a fair bit faster than last week. By what I thought was about halfway it was clear I running much harder, but was capable of doing so. There was also a lot more power up the hills. The run was good. I even met an emu out in the hills.
I chose a looped course, which didn't turn out as planned. A trail which I've been through before was now all blocked off. Looks like it was private property. This added a fair amount of distance with doubling back and finding another way home. That put me out for an extra half hour. I ran well up until about 3:45. The remaining 45 minutes really pointed out the ways my form drops when I'm stuffed. I still managed to keep running, but it wasn't pretty.
A lot went right from a nutrition point of view on the run. The struggle from 3:45 seemed more about the limit of muscular endurance rather than failure in energy levels. Each hour I averaged an intake of 45g maltodextrin, 13g fructose and 4g protein. Not quite the full 50/15/5 I had mixed, but it worked. There was one significant problem. After 3.5 hours the mixture frothed up both in the bottle and my stomach. Making it hard to get in and with some making it's way back out. I believe this is due to having the electrolyte powder mixed in with the protein. I'm thinking separating the electrolytes from the energy drink may be a lot better.
The last day of the week was mainly taken up with sleep post night shift. Waking in the afternoon with a fever and a head full of clogged sinuses made for a second day of dropped running for the week. I'm not concerned about these two dropped days. They were required for recovery. Importantly my main runs were all longer and faster, making for very similar mileage over the week. As long as the dropped days don't become a regular feature it should all come together well.
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