Week 17 - A flex week?

 After last weeks 5K race we went on a little vacation for the 4th of July weekend.  I decided that I was not going to bring any running stuff and just enjoy the down time. After all I'm not a professional athlete! As it turns out I could have brought my running stuff and been just fine but I think the time off was worth it for me. 

When we got back into town on Tuesday, the 4th, I went out for a run and did some strides.  And my legs felt like bricks.  I think it was a whole combination of things.  Not having run since the race on Saturday, eat WAY to much food on the vacation and doing this right after a 2 hour trip

Thursday when I went back out running, in the morning, my legs felt fine.  It was just an easy run for 33 minutes or so.  

Saturday my legs felt heavy once again.  I'm not sure why.  It may have been because of the humidity or running at a higher power.  I did 2 x 5 minutes at threshold or high zone 2 for me with a 3 minute break in between.  It was work but not to bad.  This pace, right now, is what I should be running my trail race at.  

After having such a good 5K race I spent way to much time thinking about how I was going to train these next 8 weeks to replicate that feeling that I had at the 5K.  And I've come to the conclusion that I'm just going to continue to run and throw in a few faster sessions here and there.  In 3 weeks time I've got another critical power test (this will be a 3 minute, 12 minute test) and then we will be 4 weeks from race. The week before the race I do have another vacation planned at a much lower elevation. So I'm going to have to watch what I eat, but still enjoy myself, and take that into account when I am running the race.  Probably need to lower the power a little bit.  My goal for that race is to go sub 50 minutes (it's a 4.8 mile trail race) but I don't know if that will happen.  The Stryd power meter, in my opinion, is not very good in going from road to trail.  Even though I have the course in their race calculator and everything. So I'm just going to do my training and go into it happy to be there and enjoy myself.  

This week was not 4 days of training but as I'm learning taking time off isn't going to hurt me...and probably in the long run is good for me.  This next week we will have 4 days with some strides, some uphill sprints and some threshold runs on our long run. I feel like the threshold, or running at nearly race pace, is really good for me.  My plan is to do more strides during this 8 week block and see what happens.  I suspect it will be good for me!

Happy running everyone!


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