Paper Versus Body
Never quite a straight forward plan. Never quite an easily repeatable format. The life of rotational shift work keeps me somewhat removed from normality. It's probably a combination of good and bad. It certainly guarantees one week won't match the next. It means planning training has a mixture of calendars and rosters spread out and eventually combined back into one.
In planning I fill out the non-running commitments I have and then work out how the running fits around them. Then over a four week block I put in detailed workouts, for the four weeks after that there is a general outline. Beyond those 8 weeks nothing is really written down as I know it will change substantially anyway.
The upcoming 4 week block has the detail I need. Length of sessions, pace goals, time goals, type of intervals, terrain type etc. Of course that detail usually is in my own training short hand, and is kind of stuttered sentence. Sometimes one word covers everything I need about a session. Now I have made my way beyond the first week of training. The details were there. The volume wasn't crazy, but I was making a point to throw in some relative speed and a focus on working my weaknesses. I am curious to see how my body responds.
The main weakness is a mismatch between my glutes and hamstrings. The focus was to re-establish proper muscle synchronisation and a basis to create some robust conditioning in this area. I really don't want any chronic hamstring issues again. As the first 8 days went by it was clear that each day I was recruiting my muscles in the correct way. The result is I worked my glutes harder than they were used to and into the second week of training I wasn't able to follow the plan on paper. Some more recovery is definitely needed at this early stage.
That is not a bad thing, but as usual I am overly optimistic about what my body can handle as I plan my training. At least I am now listening to my body and maybe understanding what it is saying. The running for the most part is feeling absolutely fantastic. However, my glutes aren't quite used to firing properly for a full 60 minute threshold run and need more than just one day to recover at this stage. This hasn't shown up during the runs, but in between are the signs of the muscles and tendons struggling a bit. Which is perfectly fine. I've just taken two extra recovery days and it seems to have done the trick. I'll find out after my next long run if I'm still tracking how I hope.
In planning I fill out the non-running commitments I have and then work out how the running fits around them. Then over a four week block I put in detailed workouts, for the four weeks after that there is a general outline. Beyond those 8 weeks nothing is really written down as I know it will change substantially anyway.
The upcoming 4 week block has the detail I need. Length of sessions, pace goals, time goals, type of intervals, terrain type etc. Of course that detail usually is in my own training short hand, and is kind of stuttered sentence. Sometimes one word covers everything I need about a session. Now I have made my way beyond the first week of training. The details were there. The volume wasn't crazy, but I was making a point to throw in some relative speed and a focus on working my weaknesses. I am curious to see how my body responds.
The main weakness is a mismatch between my glutes and hamstrings. The focus was to re-establish proper muscle synchronisation and a basis to create some robust conditioning in this area. I really don't want any chronic hamstring issues again. As the first 8 days went by it was clear that each day I was recruiting my muscles in the correct way. The result is I worked my glutes harder than they were used to and into the second week of training I wasn't able to follow the plan on paper. Some more recovery is definitely needed at this early stage.
That is not a bad thing, but as usual I am overly optimistic about what my body can handle as I plan my training. At least I am now listening to my body and maybe understanding what it is saying. The running for the most part is feeling absolutely fantastic. However, my glutes aren't quite used to firing properly for a full 60 minute threshold run and need more than just one day to recover at this stage. This hasn't shown up during the runs, but in between are the signs of the muscles and tendons struggling a bit. Which is perfectly fine. I've just taken two extra recovery days and it seems to have done the trick. I'll find out after my next long run if I'm still tracking how I hope.
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