Still running!
As is typical for me I've dropped off on writing. But I'm back for a short update.
Weeks 6, 7 and 8 all went well. Week 8 was a lower volume week with a critical power test thrown in at the end of it. I managed to increase my critical power from 261 to 296 which seems about right. It might be a bit high but only time will tell. Doing this 3 week build and then a lower week with a critical power test at the end of it seems to be suiting me well. Now I'm under no illusion that my critical power will continue to go up and up and up but so far it's been nice. I've only done one run at this new power and I think it's the right setting. Previously I knew that 261 was a bit low as when I'd do certain runs they just felt to easy. However when I was attempting to run in zone 2 yesterday morning it felt like I was doing work and not just putting in the motions. So I think that's a good thing. We will know more in about 4 weeks if it was the right area.
The critical power test I did this last weekend was a hard 20 minute followed by a 5 minute break and then a super hard 30 seconds. I debated long and hard about what test to do and this was the one that I settled on. All of the other tests I looked at were a lot longer than I've been running, currently, and I didn't want to have my CP test tire me out for the next couple of weeks. I felt like I performed this test really well. For the 20 minutes hard I stuck fairly close to the power I was supposed to be at (272) for the first 15 minutes. After that I let it rip and I was breathing pretty hard at the end. The 30 seconds was nearly as hard as I could go on a flat straight away. In the future when I'm putting in more time I'd like to do a more traditional testing the 3 minutes-9 minutes or I've seen some chatter about the 3 minutes-12 minutes. I probably do need to have a few more harder sessions at the lower end of things.
If you are into podcasts Zach Bitter has a couple of good podcasts I've listened to a couple of times now and have been using in my training. I have to admit there have been a couple of times that he's been talking about effort and heart rate etc and I want to stand up and shout "you need to run by power". But so far I haven't mentioned it. I'm sure that he's well aware of power for running! The podcasts I'm talking about are as follows:
There is a long run podcast I listened to but I honestly didn't get much out of it. Others might get something out of it.
The couple of takeaways I have gotten out of it so far are the following. Do the least specific race training in the beginning and end with the most specific race training. So for my trail race (A race) I'm going to be doing long intervals as we get closer (8-15 minute intervals). Working at close to what my race pace should be (will probably do a CP test a couple of weeks out). That will be in town and up hills but also out on trails and getting used to that type of running. Right now and leading into our B race (5K) we will be doing a more shorter intervals (1-4 minute intervals). Honestly any thing I do right now is going to help me but I found the way that Zach put it easy to understand.
Lastly a quick update on weight loss. It's been a struggle these past few weeks. I think my body is just tired of being in a deficit. However I am near the lowest I've been in a long time, 210 lbs, and I think I'm going to take a 2 week break from attempting to lose and just try to maintain for that period.
Hope everyone has a good week and their running is going well.
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