Monday, August 10, 2009

recovery week

didn't plan for this week to be a recovery week but after making the decision to run 50km on the trails on saturday my quads are particularly smashed. luckily i didn't go the whole way and complete the 90km so hopefully i won't miss too much of training. steep descents though are unkind to the legs...

i took sunday off from running and just concentrated on eating plenty of good high nutrient foods to help speed up recovery - mainly green veggies, fruits, whole grains and protein.

waking up on monday morning to day two and the dreaded delayed onset muscle soreness, it was time to get active again. with this need i headed out at lunch, walking and stretching for the first 10 minutes and then jogged around the park for 20-30 minutes. legs felt sore but my running felt smooth and not as slow as i expected.

tuesday and another run for 45 minutes (about 9-10k) following the advice that i gathered from listening to barry mcgee's interview on imtalk and ran for 10 minutes at a steady pace and then walked for 1 minute. i repeated this throughout the session. i did find it hard to get back into a run after the walk but it got easier to do the longer i went. i don't plan on using this protocol for anything shorter than a marathon but i might consider training with it for the longer distances. today i just used it to ease the strain on the legs until i'm fully recovered.

hopefully tomorrow the legs will feel almost back to normal...

Thursday, August 6, 2009

going harder

yesterday i could hardly walk after three hard back-to-back days but today i'm feeling good. actually better than good. i had to stop myself during my recovery run today from doing something crazy which i'm known for doing. with my first higher intensity week almost behind me i'm looking forward to the next 10 week training block with a couple of races along the way. just need to get the volume back up to a respectable level. probably hit around 110km this week. a good start...

heading over to New Zealand in two weeks and i'm contemplating jumping in and running a 100km ultra race down near dunedin. probably decide next week. i'm not ultrafit but i'm good at bluffing my way through it fueled on gels and hornet juice.

psyched for a hard session in the morning... 1km repeats until i've had enough (at least 8 i hope).

on the diet front things have been going well this week and when i weighed myself yesterday and this morning my weight is down about 2kg from the weekend. the plan is to drop 7kg over the next 10 weeks. hunger is my friend.

my diet is not strictly primal but after spending a good portion of the last 6 months eating a largely raw fruit and veggie diet and reading about eastern philosophy, traditional chinese medicine and wholefood nutrition healing etc i have gone back to eating more protein and have reduced my fruit intake to help drop a little weight. my eating probably follows closely with the recommendations suggested in friels paleo book for athletes with changes made to focus on health and healing. typical post-exercise eating has included sweet rice (pre-washed/sacked brown rice cooked with raisins and spices) or oats (steelcut or whole) and a portion of protein - fish, eggs, nuts or seeds and/or maybe some fruit (a couple of pears, bananas or dates at the moment). breakfast this morning was stirfried chinese greens with 3 eggs and an orange. snacks have included carrots or apples with almond butter, a handful of goji berries and a lara bar. dinner will likely be a large green salad, some steamed veggies and will finish with some cooked protein.

training summary:
monday: 50min easy run
tuesday: intervals 2000-1000-1600-800-4x400m
wednesday: 90min steady run with half @ marathon pace
thursday: 40min fartlek (5-4-3-2-10x1min with 1/2 time recovery jog)
friday: 50min recovery run
saturday: 1k intervals @ race pace (tomorrow)
sunday: long trail run (2-3 hours - maybe more if i'm feeling ultra frisky)

Day 2: Early start

After discovering that my wife's bike had been stolen from the bus stop where I had chained it up for my ride home last night meant that...