Etikettarkiv: workout

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Training wk 17

This week was actually very good, personal best on one run (6,5 km) and generally good workouts all over. 5 workouts in the same week and over 4 hours spent running. That is exactly what I was going for so I feel really good about that.

Although several runs felt rather shitty this week I also had a very good one. Strange how that works really, my sunday run which was going to be a nice slow jogg for about 8,5 km over Järvafältet and back again was terrible. Hard winds did their thing but I also had trouble pushing on and I ended up walking short periods to get my muscles back in order.

Day by day

Monday
7 km in Svinninge with Jenny and Linda, good run, lots of hills, about 200 height meters to cross which definitely was a good workout!
Tuesday
4,3 km asphalt in Kallhäll – one of my old runs that I really like sometimes. Felt good this one.
Wednesday
6,5 km to Jakobsberg and back again on the other side of the rail tracks. A new fave of mine with about 2/3 on asphalt and 1/3 on gravel road.
Thursday
Resting day
Friday
6,5 km to Jakobsberg and back again, this time personal best for the distance!
Saturday
Resting day
Sunday
A miserable 8,5 km run that never felt really good. It was just painful from start to end but I managed to get through it. 8:40 tempo.

This Week

Total distance 35.54 km Total tim 4:38:58 HMS
Avg tempo 8:19 min/km Avg. speed 7.2 km/h
Max. HR 174 bpm Avg. HR 149 bpm
Training Effect 4.2 TE/EPOC Energy spent 3 962 kcal
VO2(max) 33 ml/kg/min Peak EPOC 221 ml/kg
Max. ventilation 87 l/min Max breathing 42 bpm

Last 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

Did about 10 km more this week than last week. Can explain why my legs are a little bit more tired this Sunday than what I want them to be. But I onlu spent about 30 min extra in workout which means my pace has picked up a bit. Average pace was 8:19 compared to 9:06 last week which is definitely a difference.

I spent about 1000 kcal more running this week than last. Good development really. Heart rates are the same but one interesting thing stands out, the ventilation has increased. I think I know which run this is, that was the friday run where I was running much harder than normal and had to really think about breathing to get enugh oxygen in.

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Training Wk15

Three good workouts this week!

First on Tuesday started out nice together with Jenny in Näsbypark, a 7 km mainly on asphalt but with a bit of trail as well. Good workout and lovely dinner as well. Got home rather late from that however, takes time going from Täby to Järfälla although you could drive there in about 20 minutes.

Second workout was my favourite route here close at home. A long startup and then two laps with a finish down at the lake. Chose the middle tough route on one of the laps, in total about 5 km and even if my condition is now improving after the flu it was still tough.

Third workout was a 5 km in Altorp together with Jenny again. Very good quality run, lovely weather, really really good run.

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
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Running project – still on it

I have not been writing much about my workouts here lately. The reasons are that I, as usual, lost the continuity in my workouts when the snow came, it is of course entirely possible to run in snow but I am not a very keen snow-jogger I must admit. Running indoors, while good for stuff like interval training is making me more or less mental really after a while. I actually read a book las time I ran my usual 5 click on the treadmill, that’s how tedious that is, staring out over the usually empty gym. I wish there was a TV set to watch the news or something while you are beating the treadmill.

But now the outdoorsy environment is back on track again, spring albeit very late this year is finally here, and it is definitely weather to go out and run which I did start off well enough and then suddenly came the flu and put and eand to my running efforts for about 3 weeks. My flu was not really that bad, about 4 days of fever but then a long recovery before I was actually feeling well enough to go running.

And now I am doing it again. Working my way back up into some kind of shape and I actually like it a lot − especially since my good friend Jenny has gone running with me again, we have been out three times now this year and every time is really good!

The routine is as usual, trying to get 3 quality runs in every week, no matter really the days, trying to get rest between the runs but I am actually about to violate this right now since I am actually scheduled to run tomorrow evening but I just can’t resist the woods right now so I will go and run a short but fun track, about 3 km is what I had in mind.

Me before a run at my favourite track

I have also limited my energy intake to about 2000 kJ less than usual (that’s around 500 kcal for you non-SI guys) which means I have started to shed some of the excess weight. I hope to be able to shed some 20 kg or so until the Kista race takes place in November. After that I should loose another 10 kg and I should have reached a reasonable goal weight for my kind of height but my first goal is to get 10 kg lighter. I think it will improve my running a lot.

I am starting my 3 rd week now of food planning (dieting sounds so dull, does it not?) and it is actually going pretty well. This weekend has been a bit over the energy budget however, it was also planned, the move night with the guys is once a month and that night I will drink beer, eat what I want and have a good time.

So that is what has been going on at this front for a while. I am also happy that some friends from Wales will be coming over this summer to do some hiking in the highlands and out in the archipelago. Need some fitness there as well since walking up- and downhill in the highlands carrying what you need is also pretty tough sometimes. I need some good maps to plan the trip which I have ordered both in digital and paper form, it will be really nice!

I have not been in these highlands for about 10 years so it will be like a completely new thing for me as well. I am planning for 2 nights camping out in the free, so I need to go through my gear to see the tent and everything is in good working condition as well as the backpack and hiking boots and so on. We are likely to go the first week in August as it seems now and I am so looking forward to it.

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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!