Training Log Archive: stiands

Drove to the pist after working with some football stuff. The weather was good. 3 degrees, cloudy and not a lot of wind. Skiing conditions were not good. They really don’t look after the slopes here since everyone skies off piste for the most part anyways. It was so icy, I really struggled with keeping the pace up.

But I did. For a while.

I went up at a controlled but steady effort and must have used 30-32 minutes. At the top I realized I had not started my watch. Guess I shouldn’t have tried to do that with my gloves one. This was really annoying obviously. But things were about to become worse.

Because of the icy conditions, I didn’t want to risk going down the piste with these skis. I’m used to going down hard, icy slopes, but with compettition level giant slalom skis that are 10cm longer than I am myself.

So I went off piste and things were good. I got down, put the skins on and started going up. Soon thereafter, my polenwent through the ice as I pushed myself up and I broke it in half. Actually I first broke it last year, but I glued it together. Today, the glue let me down. With only one pole, I couldn’t go up at the same pace. It was still a good effort, but more of an easy/recovery effort and I didn’t get that far up in 30 minutes this time.

Had an ok time anyways. Glued my pole back together when I got home. Quads are pretty tired. My back is also tired. Hamstrings are okay. Calves as well.

Drove to the gym, did he warm-up exercises and started running. Time went by quickly, as it should with only 30 minutes of running. Legs felt alright. Couldn't feel any fatigue from yesterday. I still kept the effort really easy because I haven't had a proper recovery run after the workout. Ran at 5:00min/Km pace and 1.5% incline.

Went through the same session as last time a little quicker than usual because I had no coach with me today. Felt good. No problems with form i think. Might be able to lift a little heavier next week.

Waited until the thin layer of ice on the roads had melted and went outside to do drills and run. The weather has been so nice, not at all what was forecasted. 0 degrees, clear skies and sunny. Pretty strong winds today though.

Ran the same flat route I always use for these type of runs. Downhill first 2km, flat and then up final 2km. This quickly gets me into the moderate pace, while the effort still feels easy. Don't know if the heart rate stats are correct though. As always, I had the wind in front of me the first half and tailwind going back home. It was significant enough to make me run 5-10 seconds slower per kilometer going out. But I also ran 5-10 seconds faster going home. Effort was good though. Not very easy, but I think that was mostly because of the workout yesterday.

The roads were completely free of ice and snow. I had such a good time. Been missing this and will hopefully be able to run more and more outside. Maybe I'll have partly snow-free trails soon.

5x5’ @ 10% incline (4’ easy)

Restarted the treadmill and started running when it was at the correct setting.

The first rep was hard. Really it was hard from the go. My upper body was tense and I couldn’t relax very well. Realized I probably couldn’t keep this up for 5 reps, but didn’t want to adjust the pace mid rep. I remembered what you said, I haven’t failed if I can’t do the prescribed pace. Obviously I want to do what you have written no matter what, but decided to try and cut my losses by running the second rep at 4:17 and seeing how many I could do at that pace.

The recoveries were REALLY easy. They had to be. I was shuffling at 9-10 min/km pace towards the end. That was easy effort at 10% incline today. Hopefully that wasn’t too slow. If so, I need to run at an easier effort for the reps.

Second rep was still hard, but better than the first. Managed to relax much more and I wasn’t tense in my upper body. My legs weren’t fatigued yet, but I was breathing hard. Heartbrate was 159 according to my watch. Probably 30-35 beats off. This was a 90%+ effort.

Third rep I managed to hold at 4:17 min/km pace. Harder than the second, but I guess that’s natural progression. Hamstrings were getting tired. Didn’t really feel any fatigue anywhere else.

The fourth rep I decided to run at 4:20 min/km because I’m was pretty sure I needed to do that to be able to run 4:17-4:15 pace the last one. Although it was slower, it wasn’t much easier. About the same effort as the third rep. 8-9/10.

The fiftth rep I ran progressively. Ran 1 minute at 4:22, then 1 min at 4:20, 1 min at 4:17 and then 2 minutes at 4:15 min/km. This wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Hamstrings were definitely tired, but I managed to finish it up a little quicker without absolutely destroying myself. Same effort level as the 3rd and 4th.

When it was over (hallelujah) I just had to stand still for a minute, bent over my knees, until I was in control of my breath again. Had some flashbacks to a couple of FHC-sessions last autumn.

Seems like the conversation tables are close to correct. I think I can try running at the prescribed paces in the program right now.

Didn’t have a car so had to jog back home. Changed into warm clothing and ran home. It’s a lot of uphill and I wasn’t in the mood for any more than the easiest of efforts so it took a while. Usually I’ll run this route in 17-18 minutes.

Legs weren’t as heavy as expected. Ok actually. Was breathing easily as well.

Dad had the keys for the bike lock and mom needed the car so I was driven to the gym. Weather was really nice though (not what was forecasted), so I brought with me extra clothes to do the drills outside. Did two sets. Felt great really, nothing to complain about.

Changed into the Tracer 2s, split shorts and the least covering singlet I’ve got.

Warmed up at 1.5-5% incline. Effort was easy though. Did one quicker minute just to get the legs going.

Forgot my water bottle in the car so I was glad I was barely wearing clothes and that there weren’t many people in the gym. The temperature was pretty good for an indoor gym.

So here's the situation. Sunday and monday, 60cm snow fell on Tromso. On April 1st, it hadn't been more snow on that date since 2001. Tuesday-Wednesday brought a lot of rain and 6 degrees. This is just the perfect example of how the weather has been very unstable this winter. It created a situation where there was so much snow (really heavy because of the rain) on the roof of the gym it was actually closed. Could have gone to another gym as they actually invited us who had a membership at mine there, but at noon it became sunny and with 6 degrees outside and melted roads, and it was just the perfect time for a run outside.

Did the drills and warm-up exercise outside. Felt pretty good today. Legs weren't heavy or tired from the skiing.

Ran on my usual flat route north-south and as usual, it was headwind out and tailwind home. Every time I do drills before easy runs I run quicker than usual. Averaged about 4:40 for the easy section of the run. Felt good and effort was definitely easy. Hips were a little tight though.

Could even have run hill sprints today, but didn't want to do that without your council first. After 80 minutes, I did 6 strides of 20 seconds instead. First three were conservative while the final three were pretty quick.

Now, I could say to you that all the roads are melted, let's move outside, BUT the forecast says otherwise. It's going to snow and become much colder tonight already. So that's not happening. Sorry about that.

So this is the closest I’ll (hopefully) get to running uphill into a headwind, knee deep in water.

Drove out after SZ-registration. Rain was pouring down which is absolutely incredible after 60cm of snow in the last two days. Wind was blowing.. This wasn’t going to be easy.

Snow conditions were terrible. There was just so much snow and the rain had made it incredibly heavy.

Went up the slope that’s 1.7km snd skied down the long way (2.2km maybe). So pretty fucking steep. Used ~30 minutes both runs and accumulated 900m. That’s not a ton, but in these conditions I’ll take just finishing the session.

Luckily I had learned from my mistake and brought another inner layer. Changed into that after the first run.

Another one that went by really quickly. Skipped the drills, had the incline at 1.5% and pace at 5:00 min/km.

Wasn't much different from the morning. Legs were good and I felt so as well.

30 minutes is enough to get warm and breaking a sweat, especially when there is a lot of people at the gym.

Back to regular scheduling with this one. No problems with the reps today. Spent 20-30 minutes afterward stretching.

Drove to the gym after school and went through the entire pre-run routine there. Felt alright. Nothing worth mentioning.

Didn't know I was supposed to have it undulating so I kept it at 1.5% incline.

Quickly got up to moderate pace and stayed there for the entirety of the run.

This was a really good run. It flew by actually and I had no company or entertainment of other sorts. Just got locked into this flow and managed to stay there without thinking much about time/distance as usually happens on a treadmill.

Felt good as well. No pains or niggles. Not sore anywhere either. Could have run forever it seemed like.

This one got kind of messy as there had fallen so much snow overnight that I couldn't get the car out in time so I had to run to the tunnel. That was 2.5km in 12 minutes. Felt alright this morning. Better than yesterday, but maybe not 100%. Wasn't in doubt over whether to run or not though. l know when I'm sick and when I'm just not 100%.

Got to the tunnel and ran at a moderate pace until the Rotterdam crew was ready to go with me. That was probably 4 kilometers or so. Felt good. Body was not having any troubles with the pace, the effort felt just right.

As soon as the pack caught up to me, the pace steadily when down towards 3:40 the next 12 kilometers. At that point I had only run like 1:05 minutes, not counting the warm-up, so I was a little unsure about what to do. Decided to run slow down and run a moderate kilometer and then I jogged back home.

In total with warm up and the warm-down, the workout got a little long. If I had driven my car there, I'd probably do 80' moderate but seeing I had to run home and it's basically all uphill, I stopped at 1hr 8mins. For 12 kilometers I ran a little faster than moderate effort, so I thought it made a little sense.

I felt surprisingly good at the quicker paces as well. Thought for sure there'd be some marathon fatigue lingering in my legs, especially right hamstring, but I had no problems today. Stomach didn't sit entirely right though.

All in all it was a good time and I'm glad to help some of the other guys out. It makes it all a little more worth it.