Training Journal 2023‑03‑13

Plan and Outcome

Day	Planned Workout	Executed Workout
Mon	50 min RR	5 mile RR
Tue	8 mile ER	1 hr RR
Wed	Rest & recovery	Rest & recovery
Thu	8 x 3 min Tempo + 4 x 200m R, 45 min bike ER	10 mile ER
Fri	50 min RR	4 mile RR, 30 min bike RR
Sat	12 mile w/ 8 MP	55 min RR
Sun	50 min RR	12 mile w/ 8 MP

Tracking	Week	Month	Year
Run Mileage	44.08 mi	148.35 mi	482.17 mi
Training Duration	06:30:34	21:28:57	80:29:21

Priorities

1. Recovery! Chopping block: Tue - 8 mile ER
2. 45 miles running volume, [[Training Goals#275 miles next 5 weeks|Related goal]]
3. 1 Tempo, 1 MP workout, [[Training Goals#5 Tempo & 6 MP workouts|Related goal]]

Journal

Monday, March 13, 2023

5 mile RR

Legs felt heavy, HR was higher than normal. I was surprised this morning by how good my legs felt. I was expecting to be more sore, closer to how I felt after my marathon training camp. I did 3 higher intensity workouts in 4 days, total 49.5 miles. But I actually felt pretty good. Once I started running I realized that although I didn’t have much acute soreness, my legs were indeed quite tired and fatigued.

Tuesday, March 14, 2023

I didn’t completely drop the 8 mile ER, but modified it to a 1 hr RR with Morgan and the dogs. Felt good to just go nice and easy and spend time with my family. My legs are definitely feeling some built up fatigue. I’m not really that sore, but just feeling sluggish. Need to get fresh and just get a couple more consistent weeks of training in.

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Rest and recovery today.

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Since my HRV is low and legs feel fatigued, I decided not to do the Tempo workout today. Just ran 10 solid endurance miles on the treadmill. Stayed inside because the Aggies played their first round game in the NCAA tournament right when I wanted to run. Aggies lost, which is sad, but I’m glad I got a good run in.

Friday, March 17, 2023

Weather has been kind of nice so I wanted to run and bike outside today. My HRV keeps lingering lower than I would like it to be, so I wanted to keep things light and easy today.

Saturday, March 18, 2023

HRV still on the lower end of my normal range. I didn’t feel great during my warm up and HR was eleveated, so I decided to postpone the 8 mile MP workout until tomorrow. So I just got a nice easy run in. I’ve been feeling pretty depressed over the past week or two and I’m sure all my work stress from last week and adjusting to daylight savings this week has not helped. I’m wanting to make sure I’m prioritizing things that will help reduce stress and promote recovery. After my run, I spent some good time reflecting on my values and thinking of some possible ways to feel more aligned and intentional.

Sunday, March 19, 2023

12 mile w/ 8 MP

Solid workout. Felt pretty good, although I would say I’m still feeling some lingering fatigue and sluggishness. But my HR back to what I expected during my warmup and I was going to run the workout today anway. I stopped back in after 4 miles to get a lactate reading and then again at the end of the 8 miles. Today is a great example of why it’s important to properly contextualize the data and not overreact in the moment when somtehing isn’t what you would expect.

MP Mile	Avg Pace	Avg HR	Max HR	EF	Lactate
4	6:20/mi	167 bpm	177 bpm	1.67	2.9 mmol/L
8	6:24/mi	163 bpm	170 bpm	1.70	2.2 mmol/L

The first 4 miles were 6:25, 6:16, 6:23, and 6:18. When I stopped in after 4 miles and Morgan said my lactate was 2.9 mmol/L, I initially felt deflated and resentful that the last couple of weeks have been so disrupted. But I just decided to stop looking at my watch except at the mile splits and just give a solid effort for the last four miles. The last 4 miles were 6:10, 6:35, 6:22, and 6:28.

When my lactate reading was back down to the range I was expecting, my first thought of what happened on the first go around is that I checked my watch around mile 3.25 and saw that my pace was lagging a bit, so I pushed the tempo up for the last 3/4 mile before I got home for the lactate reading. It’s also a stretch that is slightly uphill, so I probably overcorrected and ran that part closer to a Tempo intensity than MP. Looking closer at the workout file reveals that this indeed was the case. I ran the 0.67 mile stretch before the first lactate reading at 6:11/mi pace, and it was uphill. NGP from TrainingPeaks says 6:03/mi. So that’s definitely closer to my Tempo pace, and I held that intensity for a little over 4 minutes, which is long enough that I would expect it to show up in the lactate.

So the full story behind the 2.9 mmol/L reading is that I made a short duration surge in the middle of the run causing my blood lactate concentration to rise. When I reduced the effort back to my MP, the excess lactate cleared and I settled back to normal levels. I want to have a good ability to withstand these kinds of surges and recover on the move, so I actually take this as good proof of fitness, contrary to my initial negative reaction.

Review and Thoughts

Overall an okay week. I feel like I haven’t quite recovered as well as I would have liked. I’m thinking that’s due to some external factors, but I need to make sure I am accounting for that as I proceed with training. I feel like I will have less stress from work this week and I’m feeling better aligned with my values after this weekend. For next week, I’m going to target about 15% intensity and 85% easy volume. Looking back on the past few weeks of training, it looks like 8 hours of total running volume will be a good target. That will keep basically right in line with what I did the previous two weeks before this one. I don’t feel like it would be a good idea to really try and increase my volume too much right now because I don’t want to dig myself into a hole I can’t get of before the race. I’ll keep a close eye on how well I recover from today’s workout and might have to adjust my plan. But for now, it feels like I can be ready for my next workout on Tuesday.

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Training Intensity Distribution: