As I have aged it has become just as important that I plan recovery along with training for ultra races. The days of youth and difficult training with little concern for my recovery are long gone. With Recovery in mind, my weekly training routine typically includes Mondays off completely; runs every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday; strength training every Wednesday, and Friday. This setup allows for me to have a full day between runs during the week with the weekends becoming back to back long runs later in the training routine. An additional consideration for recovery has me stepping back total weekly mileage for 1 week about every third or fourth week. A two-month training cycle might look like Week 1 - 40 miles, Week 2 - 44 miles, Week 3 - 46 miles, week 4 - 32 miles, week 5 - 44 miles, week 6 - 46 miles, etc.
My current training plan had this coming week set up to be my stepback week. However in life sometimes the best-laid plans must and will change as they line up with current circumstances. This week Texas experienced a once in 100-year winter weather storm with several days continuously below freezing, lows of 3 degrees in the Dallas area, and several inches of snow and ice. This weather event prompted me to change up my weekend planned long runs for Feb 13, 14, and move them to next weekend. Week 6 became a stepback recovery week and now the upcoming week 7 will include a 20 mile run on Saturday followed by a 10 mile run on Sunday.
Week six recap -
Tuesday's 6.25 -mile run finished up as a 2-mile warm-up, followed up with a moderate to easy effort run to the finish. My legs felt great and the pace allowed me to perceive a more difficult effort without becoming tired.
Thursday I ran 8.25 trail miles at a steady pace effort. This has been my best run of this distance and at this location in some time. I started with an easy 1 to 2-mile warm-up and then settled into an effort somewhere between a trail half and full marathon effort. I was very pleased with this run and ran it just as planned.
Saturday I ran 13.1 moderate to easy effort trail miles in the bitter cold followed by a 2-mile power hike. This run also felt great! I ran at an easy ultra effort and felt good for the complete run. When I started this run the plan was to complete 20 miles followed by 10 on Sunday. With the weather being so cold and the certainty of coming snow, I decided to switch up my weekend plans and run the 20 / 10 next weekend.
Sunday became a rest/snow day
Week 6 finished out with 30 total miles, 2,185' of climbing, and 2,182' of descending.
My planned Workouts for Week 7
Week 7 - Week Ending Feb 21, 2021
Monday - Monday is my Recovery Day
Tuesday - 6-mile road run Vo2 Work 1.5 warm-up, sets of 1k to 1 mil effort followed by a short recovery, 1.5-mile cooldown. Sets = 4 x 25 seconds, 4 x .25 miles, 2 x .5 miles (Goal for this run this week is to work on fitness)
Wednesday - 30-minute Plyometrics workout (for muscle power, fitness, and fatigue resistance)
Thursday - 8 miles easy trail run - (for fatigue resistance & Endurance)
Friday - 30 Min strength workout (for fatigue resistance, muscle power)
Saturday - 20 miles Trails (for fatigue resistance & Endurance)
Sunday - 10 road miles @ Whatever feels good (for endurance, fatigue resistance, muscle power)
* You can see how each run progresses in my Strava feed below
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