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Halfway 2024 Training Review

Date Modified: 2024-07-02

Summary

Start Date: 2024-01-01
Thru Date: 2024-06-30

No. Activities:

Tracking Total Per Week
Run/Hike Mileage 1,120.03 mi 43.08 mi/wk
Training Duration 235:58:32 09:04:34/wk

Consistency, Volume, and Intensity

For the most part, I feel good about my training in the first half of the year. I focused on consistently maintaining my volume above my previous year's average, and so far I've trained about 29 more hours in 2024 than the first half of 2023. That's a 14% increase in total training volume, which has felt pretty manageable. I've basically been training injury free, and the biggest disruption in my training so far has been from work travel + sickness.

The increase in volume was split fairly evenly between running and biking. Even though I've only run 31 more miles so far this year, I've done a bit more vert, so I've run about 14 hours more than last year. I've also biked almost 15 more hours than last year. That breaks down to 30 minutes more running per week and 38 minutes more biking.

A little more than an hour per week increase in training might not seem like much, but I'm just trying to consistently build brick by brick. If I can increase my training by that amount in the second half of the year and keep building, year after year, soon I would really be training at a high level and pushing up against my absolute time constraints from other priorities in life (like making living I guess). Just need to stay patient.

I've also raised the intensity of my training, specifically my running. It had been quite a while since I really trained much at my high end, so I spent the first three months of the year focusing on speed work and VO2max intervals to try to set my new fastest 5k time. Since then, I've worked in some good hill bounding, Tempo, and SSR workouts as I've transitioned from the roads to the trails.

Overall, my average running intensity increased from 11.8% of my time spent at RPE 7-10 in 2023 to 13.06% at RPE 7-10 in 2024. That's an increase in total running time at intensity of 3 hr 44 min. Notably, a little more than 2 hr of that intensity increase was at 10/10 RPE, VO2 Max or speed work intensity. Again, small increase, but I'm staying patient and can keep building from here.

Most importantly, I have been enjoying the training and staying healthy.

Performance

I train because I love to train, but I also enjoy improving my performance. The biggest question that needs to be answered: is all this training working?

In the middle of training, it can sometimes be challenging to know. I look at things like my HR or lactate at a certain pace or power but there are a number of confounding factors that can change how that looks on any given day. So I try to look at the trends I'm seeing week after week. I also pay attention to how I am recovering in between higher intensity sessions or bigger volume training days. But those are just the numbers and feelings. Outcomes on race day are the true measuring stick for performance.

Three results so far this year tell me I'm on the right track:

  1. Mile Time Trial - 1/21/24
  2. 5k Time Trial - 3/9/24
  3. Logan Peak Trail Run - 6/22/24

Mile Time Trial

Time: 4:59, Distance: 1.00 mi, PR: Yes!

I ran this one three weeks into my 12-week 5k training block. So all the hard training for this one was just a handful of 200-400 m speed workouts. Really not too much specific training and still managed to run my all time best! My previous best was 5:11 in high school, which was probably a 1600 m race not 1 mile.

5k Time Trial

Time: 16:49, Distance: 3.11 mi, PR: Yes!

This was supposed to be the first of two 5k time trials at the end of my 5k training block. I was hoping to get into the 16:30s by the end of the training, but my previous best was 17:11 at the Logan River 5k in 2023, and I think that was also my best time in high school XC. So I was pretty pleased with this result.

I ran this time trial at the end of week 10/12 of the 5k block, and I was planning to try again after a short taper at the end of week 12. But the weather wasn't great that weekend, I got an invite to go play some basketball that morning, and I honestly hate the discomfort of running a fast 5k. Maybe if I would have made myself do the second time trial I could have reached my goal of 16:3x, but I guess we'll never know.

Logan Peak Trail Run

Time: 4:29:58, Distance: 26-ish mi, Vert: 474 ft/mi, PR: Yes!

After getting fast to start the year, I really wanted to carry over that speed to reach my best trail fitness ever. As the winter snow receded and I started getting out onto the trails more, I focused on doing some short (12 s), max effort hill bounding on the ridges above Dry Canyon to try and help my speed and VO2max gains translate into vertical speed gains.

Then for the 7 weeks before the race, my focus shifted to Tempo workouts just below LT2. This was the period of time that I had my biggest disruption to training at the beginning of May when I had to travel for work, and ended up catching some kind of nasty cold that kept me out of serious training for a couple of weeks.

Despite the training disruption, I had my best ever performance at the Logan Peak Trail Run, and even got 2nd place. It was a bit of a slower year overall, but my time would have placed well (top 5-10) in most of the years prior when they ran the full course. My previous best time at this race was 4:54:13, so this was a solid improvement!

The Future

Immediate

My current training focus is now shifting to getting in my highest volume of training for the year with some SSR workouts and couple of big days in preparation for the White Pine 50 in August. I've never run that race before, so I don't have a previous result to benchmark against. I don't yet have a clear idea of how fast I might be capable of running. I need to spend some more time out on the course and see how training goes over the next few weeks. There are less than 7 weeks to go until the race, and I'm getting excited to see what I can do!

Before the White Pine, I'll also be running the Handcart Half Marathon in Bountiful on July 20. No specific training for this one, and I probably won't do much for a taper besides taking a few easy days that week. It's been a while since I last ran a half marathon. I'm curious to see how I do and if I can be near my previous best half marathon time of 1:19:45.

Long View

July 1 is the start of Week 36/100 of my long range plan leading up to the Bear 2025. It hasn't been a perfect 35 weeks of training, but all in all, I'm quite pleased. I can't know for sure if my approach to training is optimal. Maybe I would be seeing even better progress if I had done things differently. But I do know that I've executed my plan well, and the results show I'm moving in the right direction.

After the White Pine, I'm going to take a 4-week off season to give myself a bit of a break from serious training. Then I'll spend the rest of 2024 and the first three months of 2025 consistently building my training volume with a mixed intensity periodization. So every couple of weeks will include a mix of VO2max, Tempo, and SSR workouts. I'll also be trying to work regular strength training back into the program. The goal for this period of time is not to wring every ounce of improvement out of my training, but to build a big base of consistent training. I might do the Behind the Rocks 50 miler in Moab to cap off this big training build.

Then the final build to the Bear 100 will begin in April 2025!