Etikettarkiv: training

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Pause on the running

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I have had a break from the running for nine days but today I took myself out again and it was terrible. Can’t believe how fast you loose the hard earned condition but I also know by now it comes back rather quickly, a coupl of more runs and I should be going great again.

I had to take a break because I have this muscle in my right hip that started to act up. It has done that before and always when I increase the distance or the speed of my runs. Usually I can match it around with putting some short distance runs between the long ones but this time it did need some proper rest.

I am not certain whic muscle it is but I have been to several physicians a few years back and they agreed it was not the actual hip that was the problem but a muscle that is a wee bit too short to actuate properly when I am running. Stretchning it works a bit but in the long term strengthen it by running slow and careful is what will help.

But today I was at it again, a nice 6,5 km run in 8:15 tempo, felt really slow for some reason but it actually isn’t – not compared to my usual speed on this distance. But anyway, it’s getting better and I think I will get a 10 k run in before the end of the week again. But a slow one. And a bit of walking if necessary to calm things down.

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Training Wk16

This week, easter week was a very good week actually. Foodwise we kept in check and I had some really good runs including my first 10 km run this year. Weather has been perfect for outdoors activities so it has been a real pleasure to be outdoor this week. Dun has been nice and warm but in the nights the temperatures drops down and best runs are done in the afternoons really.

I have started using a new sports tracker on my Android phone called Endonundo and so far, for all similar softwares I have tested this one seems to be best of them all. I also love the BuddyRunner software but Endomondo does very much the same thing but has even better statistics.

Day by day

Monday
speed in the forest, 2.35 km in 6:36 tempo, pretty good for being me actually, I was very happy with that.
Tuesday
Altorp 6.7 km with Jenny, had a really good time as always and although I came home late it was a really good run that.
Wednesday
Resting, no training.
Thursday
My first 10 km this year. Eastern Järvafältet and that was good as well, but HARD. I was struggling at the end to keep it together and I had some walks in the middle of it as well but I did it even if it took me 99 minutes.
My first 10 km run this year
Friday
Short runt at home, a very slow run to just flex everything up a bit from the 10 km the day before.
Saturday
A 5km run a new route I have not done before. Down to the Görväln castle and then back home again. Beautiful run but some hills that was really straining and by now I am starting to feel the miles in my legs this week. Decided this was last for this week!
Sunday
Resting.

This week

Total distance 26.8 km Total tim 4:03:42 HMS
Avg tempo 9:06 min/km Avg. speed 6.6 km/h
Max. HR 173 bpm Avg. HR 148 bpm
Training Effect 4 TE/EPOC Energy spent 3 032 kcal
VO2(max) 32 ml/kg/min Peak EPOC 169 ml/kg
Max. ventilation 93 l/min Max breathing 42 bpm

Last week

Total distance 16,8 km Total tim 1:19:16 HMS
Avg tempo 8:29 min/km Avg. speed 8.29 km/h
Max. HR 175 bpm Avg. HR 153 bpm
Training Effect 5 TE/EPOC Energy spent 1 162 kcal
VO2(max) 32 ml/kg/min Peak EPOC 159 ml/kg
Max. ventilation 96 l/min Max breathing 45 bpm

10 km more than last week is not horse manure. Probably too much of an increase in a single week but I feel good nevertheless. Time spent training also increased to more than the double, not bad at all but my average time dropped with 30 s/km. Not too surprising, longer runs and more km into the legs. Spending almost 3 times the amount of energy on running as last week, yay, almost two days worth of food.

Average heartrate has dropped a bit, longer and slower running and perhaps a bit better condition as well but the max hartrate is very similar and shows that I am still about 10 beats from maxing out. Good thing, don’t wanna do that alone… tried it once and i had such a bad tunnel vision I thought I was gonna faint.

Training effect is a 4 which is great compared to a 5 last week which was overtraining. Getting better at keeping slow on the long runs and not over-excerting myself to the point of breaking down rather than building up.

Ventilation and breathing is up a little though VO2max seems very similar. A higher peak EPOC and a lower Training Effect just means I have leveled on the training effect scale (to a level 6.0 from a 5.0 where I started).

Tomorrow is a resting day and then monday is a free day, I will see if my good friend Jenny can manage a nice run together then, looking forward to the next time.

Weight wise I have gone up 0.5 kg this week. Still keeping diet but I have also noticed my legs are getting stronger. I believe I am building more muscle. This is good, it means I will be able to run faster and longer and increase my metabolic rate even when I sleep. Good stuff that.

 

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Training Wk 30

A nice week but a little slow on the training side because we went to our summerhouse for a bit of holiday and I did one 5k run there around the lake. They have built a new gravel road there in order to be able to run timber from the woods out of the area but this road is hardly worth the name, it was soft and difficult to run, lots of potholes and fist-sized rocks strewn about and it was also quite hilly, not surprising actually. After that we came back home to Stockholm again and I had a really nice run together with my friend Jenny.

Jenny who started running in 2006 and then had a couple of stops since she’s had two children since that time, runs at a tempo that is a bit higher than mine usually but this was really good, she could slow down and I could work on getting a little better tempo in to my run. Not to mention she’s just such a great person and nice to talk to so we had a really good run although we took a couple of wrong turns so the 6,7 km yellow track at Altorp became about 7,7 km instead, no problem there.

Tonight I am going for a run where I live so that will make it 3 runs this week.

Then I have less than two weeks before Midnattsloppet to train for it, I am not worried but I need to get a quality week of running in and then a long distance run and some rest the days before the actual race, I think that will be good.

And of course more runs with Jenny!

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Training Weeks 28-29

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Week 28 started out with a good contiuation of the previous couple of weeks with a 5 km run on Monday before I left for the Summerhack meeting in Skutskär. While there I found this beautiful bike/jogging trail going all the way to Rullsand, one of the finest beaches in whole of Sweden so I started out on Tuesday by running almost all the way there and then back again, making some 6,5 km.

Then one day of resting the legs and hacking in the night (Carpe Noctum as we say) before setting off on my next run all the way out to Rullsand and back again completing a full 10 km if I include the warmup and cooldown walks as well, it was a beautiful run with loads of energy and the kilometers just ticked away as the legs moved. Not too fast either just a great running experience with the exception of the mosquitoes and flies that set on in the woodland parts of the track.

That was it for week 28.

In wk 29 I started on Monday with a tempo based run with lots of hills, the ordinary long track at home 3,5 km one lap and did a pretty good time despite being intervals and kept a 7:23 tempo on average. On Tuesday I did my second 10 km PLUS warmup/cooldown (Kallhäll-Ängsjö-Kallhäll) so in total about 12 km actually but the running part was 10,9 km. This was asphalt for the full length with the exception of the first and last km that was gravel road.

This run was also a really good one, I even though parts are extremely hilly on this run but I managed with a few walks to get the pulse down again to jog at a really steady pace most of the time. Tempo was about 9:07 min/km which is slow but still, for being me not bad at all, I was really happy but very tired when I got back home. A bit overtraining here if I believe the training watch I am using.

On Thursday I tried jogging again but it was terrible, I just went home after 2 km that felt terrible. Bad sleep from the heat and not enough fluid as well as the 10 clicks from 2 days earlier was still in the system, it was better just give it a rest actually.

Saturday I visited a friend in Täby, Jenny B and ”borrowed” her usual track. Took a few wrong turns there so her 5 k run turned out to be a 6 k run for me but did well and it felt really really good!

Trail running 7km

Sunday was another first for me, running trail! I have heard much about it so I did myself a map over the trails in the area and laid out a 7 km run on them. It was not fun. It was just BRILLIANT! I have never really had so much fun running. Roots and fist-sized stones, slippery boulders, wet pine needles and loose branches as well as mud, cold water streams to jump across, a little bit of old forgotten gravel road and then back into the woods again.

There was a mist all through the woods, permeating everything and the really tricky parts I had to negotiate half crawling but it was challenging, hilly, technical, lovely and just something I really really enjoyed doing.

 

Challenging is an understatement. Compared to running on even ground this is so much more difficult, you got to keep a cool head and THINK all the time in order to not put yer foot in the wrong place and slip leading to a sprained ankle or even breaking something. When you get tired you have to be even more careful of the footing but it was just great.

I am going to keep doing trails more often now that I know how fun that is!

 

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Training Wk 25-27

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The training is going well despite the extremely hot weather we are having. I have started my holidays now so my training is done outdoors exclusively since I don’t wanna go into work just to use the gym there.

Wk 25 saw 4 passes all between 2-4 km but wk 26 I ran every day, 7 workouts in total and it was great, the legs felt really good. Of course i ran shorter and easier between the longer tougher runs but active resting seems much better than just not running at all!

By the end of Wk 26 I did my first 10 km ever. It is difficult to tell you how good that felt. It was not a high paced run or anything but just to be able to go on for 10 km without stopping was a big win for me.

Wk 27 had 5 workouts because I had a bit too much other things to do on two of the days but I was pretty happy with that, the Suunto training watch has upgraded me to activity class 8,5 which is very high on the scale but also means I have to work harder in order to maintain the training effect I am looking for. This is an indication that my condition has improved a lot since I started on activity class 7.

The legs need to get stronger, now that the condition is improved it is easy to run out of strength and fuel and in this heat water… I generally do not bring a flask of water when I go running mainly because I don’t like carrying it in my hand and I don’t have any belts or similar for carrying additional drinks with me. I might get that some day but for the short runs I do these days it is generally enough to drink before and after.

But last saturday got me thinking when I tried to repeat the 10 k run I did the week before it just stopped working after 7 km. I was definitely in the zone up to that point but then I started getting into all sorts of trouble and when my right thigh muscles started to cramp up painfully I decided enough is enough and walked back home without pushing my luck.

This week seems to be just as hot and frankly, last nights run was not really cool at all even if I started at midnight it was still hot. Incredible.

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My first 10 km run!

I did it! My first 10 km run tonight. Not very fast at all, instead I forced myself to run really really slow keeping the heart beat low and not considering the pace or the time really just letting the kilometers drop away.

My favourite lap times five, it’s about 1800 meters and then down towards the beach and back going home again.

And it actually felt quite nice. Right now my feet hurt a little but during the running it just felt good. Strange that, I hardly thought I could make it and then it even felt good. I’ve been training at a too high pulse as usual before.

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Streak Running

Not the same thing as streaking that is, but I have been running every day since Sunday and I am starting to notice results. Condition goes up very fast and now I need to let the muscles and ligaments catch up. I am back at about 6 km and are working my way up to 10 km slowly in low tempo but still jogging. Yay.

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7 weeks to my first race!

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There are just seven weeks to Midnattsloppet now and I have not been getting the exercise necessary. Time to change all that, there will be some training every day now from short runs to weight lifting, treadmill, forest and asphalt running and not more than 1-2 resting days a week. Together with a better diet and no alcohol what so ever I think it may still be possible.

The demons to fight are excessive food intake, the heat outside as this is the hottest period in Sweden with temperatures reaching 30ºC it is better doing pulse-high activities in the evening rather than in the mid-day sunshine. Such as my 2.1 km run today which was tough but I still felt good after it.

I am currently developing my exercise schedule based on good advice from funbeat.se the greatest training community in Sweden right now.

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Training Wk 19

Today the training will consist just of a walk. I have gotten a major cold that I have been incubating a few days but this morning I was really under the ice. Therefore no more cardio training this week but the weather is so good that I want to make a walk around my favourite track tonight.

Two good runs on monday and wednesday this week however, another 6k run on Monday and intervals for 4km on wednesday finished by steep hillclimbing that really got the pulse up.

Now, I will give this cold tomorrow to get in shape and then I want to start training on monday again.

Oh, and I got a new pulse training book today with lots of examples of different types to run to, intervals, hill running, distance jogging, and many other things, I’ll get back to you with a review when I know more!