Week of Earlies
Who organisers a roster where you have a week of 06:00 starts? It probably wouldn't be as bad if I wasn't used to forward rotating shift work. That said, there are plenty of benefits to my shift work. Just when you get to the least best part you wish you were in the better part of the roster. The week of earlies makes training a bit different compared to when I'm on my normal rotations.
A bonus of this week is I get to spend the late afternoon and evening with the family. The difficulty is balancing training and sleep. The decision to be made is between an early morning session or a session at night after the kids go to bed. I've experimented with both options and the winner is running in the early morning. That means up and 04:00, drive to work, run 30-45 minutes, then shower and change and its time to start the my shift. This tends to add up to a little bit more sleep over the week than if I run late, plus I just feel better at work if I get the run in first.
This week on Monday and Tuesday, plus Thursday and Friday the early run was a simple 6km of regeneration. That being just a very easy and relaxed jog that gets the body moving a bit and hopefully assist in recovery rather than adding a training stimulus. Also a good way to start the day. On Wednesday the day was shaken up a little bit. The schedule was broken with a work training, that was shorter and started later. That gave me the opportunity to get in a bigger training session. So it was another go at the 90min MP80%. This time I was able to hold the 4:48/km goal pace and still felt comfortable enough for a subtle negative split over the final 30 minutes.
Finally it was the weekend. Saturday was some Hill Reps: this was 6 repeats up a a mixture of stairs and about a 13% grade taking about 2:15 to get up, then a relaxed but quick descent in about 1:30. On paper the session looks small, but the combination of steepness, technicality on the stairs and requirement for high knee lift up the steps makes for quite a demanding hit out. On Sunday I originally had plans to throw in my long run, but life and some muscle strain from yesterday's hills meant that was held over for Monday. Instead I hit an easy 10km with a focus on technique.
All up it was a much smaller volume than the previous week at 64km. I think it has still added to my fitness with enough stimulus to add bit of a training effect, but mainly a week of active recovery that has hopefully consolidated the adaption forced into my body from last week. I am seeing some improvement in the way I am running, so something is going right.
A bonus of this week is I get to spend the late afternoon and evening with the family. The difficulty is balancing training and sleep. The decision to be made is between an early morning session or a session at night after the kids go to bed. I've experimented with both options and the winner is running in the early morning. That means up and 04:00, drive to work, run 30-45 minutes, then shower and change and its time to start the my shift. This tends to add up to a little bit more sleep over the week than if I run late, plus I just feel better at work if I get the run in first.
This week on Monday and Tuesday, plus Thursday and Friday the early run was a simple 6km of regeneration. That being just a very easy and relaxed jog that gets the body moving a bit and hopefully assist in recovery rather than adding a training stimulus. Also a good way to start the day. On Wednesday the day was shaken up a little bit. The schedule was broken with a work training, that was shorter and started later. That gave me the opportunity to get in a bigger training session. So it was another go at the 90min MP80%. This time I was able to hold the 4:48/km goal pace and still felt comfortable enough for a subtle negative split over the final 30 minutes.
Finally it was the weekend. Saturday was some Hill Reps: this was 6 repeats up a a mixture of stairs and about a 13% grade taking about 2:15 to get up, then a relaxed but quick descent in about 1:30. On paper the session looks small, but the combination of steepness, technicality on the stairs and requirement for high knee lift up the steps makes for quite a demanding hit out. On Sunday I originally had plans to throw in my long run, but life and some muscle strain from yesterday's hills meant that was held over for Monday. Instead I hit an easy 10km with a focus on technique.
All up it was a much smaller volume than the previous week at 64km. I think it has still added to my fitness with enough stimulus to add bit of a training effect, but mainly a week of active recovery that has hopefully consolidated the adaption forced into my body from last week. I am seeing some improvement in the way I am running, so something is going right.
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