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Showing posts from March, 2023

Long Run Friday...

Saturday is long run day.  Friday is the day off before the long run.  That's the plan and that's what I've been following!  But this weekend I am away on Saturday/Sunday, so I needed to adapt...  I did Monday to Wednesday as normal, but I skipped the Thursday run, to have a day off before the long run today.  This means I am free this weekend - yay ๐Ÿ˜.  Today was the same plan as last Saturday but with an extra five minutes.  So 175m rather than 170m - not exactly a big change.  But I found last Saturday very hard and, surprise, I found today very hard too!!  The last long run was 30.95km, and 20 miles is about 32.18km, so my plan today was to up the pace a tiny bit from last week, and with the extra 5 minutes running I could try and hit 32.18km!  Much easier said than done!!  I did it by mainly running at 11.7kmh on the treadmill and then 35m or so at 12kmh.  My total distance was 32.21km, but that included an extra 9 seconds...

Another Long Run

Haven't posted for more than a week, but thought I should maybe post when I do a long run!  As always, with my odd focus on safety post-tbi, this run was on a gym treadmill.  Dunno if a treadmill makes it harder or easier, but at least it's flat with lots of water and history podcasts to listen to ๐Ÿ˜. The last long run was two weeks ago.  Typically the plan has one long run every Saturday, but last week was an easy week.  Don't know why but I wasn't complaining, so last week was 'only' a 90m run on the Saturday ๐Ÿ˜.  Today it was back to 170m, so exactly the same plan as two weeks ago.  I found that last long run very hard!!  I was nowhere near the power targets and struggled loads near the end.  Today was much better, but by no means perfect!  I was still below the power targets, but nowhere near as far below.  And I still struggled to have a shower in the gym and walk home after the run, so lots of similarities.  But, apart from th...

Hammer Strength

I wasn't going to put anything in the blog today as I am following the plan and today was scheduled to be an easy 45m run at 206-236w power.  Nothing very interesting there ๐Ÿ˜€!  But two things made today slightly unusual, so I figured doing a short blog entry wasn't so bad...  Firstly, although I had no pain in the run or walk home from the gym yesterday, in the late afternoon and in the evening, my right calf did not feel quite right.  Not exactly painful, or maybe very mild pain, but not quite right.  So that was a slight concern for today.  This morning I felt no pain, and the scheduled run, as mentioned above, was very straightforward.  I thought I would slow down or stop at the very first sign of discomfort but that I would attempt my standard run.  That would be starting slowly and building up to 11.3kmh on the treadmill for the run.  But the best laid plans...  And now we get to secondly...  When I got to the gym, all the tre...

Long Run Saturday!!

My last post, on Wednesday, said that my next run would hopefully be long and slow.  And this morning I went to the gym and spent two hours fifty minutes on the treadmill!  It seems weird doing such a long run on a treadmill but at least I could have my water there, take some gel for 'fuel' and listen to podcasts!  So definitely advantages over running outside!  I still, of course, prefer to run outside - the reason for using the treadmill so much is more for post-TBI safety rather than convenience!  As planned, I did the whole run at less power (therefore slower) than the training plan scheduled, but I guess there were two valid reasons for this... As mentioned earlier , the โ€˜coachโ€™ saying that slower runners (me!!!) should โ€œreduce the lower end of the training goals to a slightly lower percentage of CPโ€. Recovery from calf injury meant I was still concerned and still not back to full fitness. In the end, this morning, I ran at an average pace of 5:50m/km....

Calf Still Better?

I am doing the easier runs in the training plan and skipping the harder ones until I am sure the calf is ok.  No pain Monday but I went on the Wattbike in the gym yesterday (Tuesday).  I  thought that was safer for my calf than doing Tuesday's running plan.  Today was planned to be an easy paced run of 55m, so after not running yesterday, that was perfect.  I took it fairly easy with an average pace of 5:47m/km but it was comfortable with no pain so I am pleased.  Like yesterday, tomorrow is planned to be fartlek and intervals, so like yesterday I will skip it.  I am very keen to avoid injury and just try and get the distance up so that I can finish the marathon in April.  Speed is not a factor for this marathon!  After tomorrow's run which I will not do, the next run is a very long run on Saturday.  It's scheduled to be two hours fifty minutes!  Aaaaggghhhh, slightly scary!!  Not fast by my previous standard but is quick post ...