Training Log Archive: W

There's no lack of desire to train more, its just at the moment there's a lack of time, and today involved a whole bunch of work and then a three hour drive. So, I eventually got in my run, but it was pretty short.

And also it was like, +2, windy, and raining. So I was frozen solid in only 40 minutes. Finland in November. FUN.

Recovery run day after weights yesterday, in general, calves are a little tired, hamstrings are little tired. The hamstring fatigue thing is good because it means I was doing the Romanian deadlifts properly. If my back was more sore, I would have known I'm doing them wrong. Hyvää! I think one more session of that early next week and I should be good to go!

Light warm-up run before hitting the crappy gym in Keltinmaki. Good for my today purposes, though.

Yes, i'm back in the gym. I'm going off of one study that showed an improvement in running economy in 5k runners with 10 weeks of high-intensity weight training. No, I don't have 10 weeks, but I think this will help my fitness without hurting my bones too much.

However, first I decided I should do a few sessions of low weight high-rep before going into the heavy lifting. So, it was 25 reps of squats, romanian dead lifts, a random arm exercise just to change things up, and then calf raises and lunges. Good opportunity to work on form again, and sensing what muscles will be sore tomorrow will let me know if I'm doing it right!

Now, my intended half-marathon shoe is the Mizuno Wave Hitogami, but they're just starting to feel a little too firm. I did my usual run around half of Jyvasjarvi and then just felt a little too hard on the pavement. I don't like the way they sound under my foot, and I'm starting to not like the way they feel. They sure as hell feel better than the Adidas Boost's I did my last half in, but I want something good. And I'm continually flirting with the idea of the NB1600s. That'd be crazy, but might run really well.

What the heck, I'll take them all with me anyway.

Though its not for lack of desire, but this month is going to be busy busy busy. Everything seems to have piled on all at once and its going to be a struggle to get out and do all the workouts I want. I'm trying to ignore volume hopes up until the half-marathon, and just focus on getting in some quality workouts.

So, first, was to ramp up my former 3 x 1 mile now to 4 x 1 mile. Coach Kim recommended around a 5:45 pace, which, I initially aimed for, but then I felt quite good, and accidentally went faster. Yeah, I felt very good. It was on rolling hard gravel terrain, so not on pavement, and my lungs and legs felt good. Did the first one in 5:53, but then did 5:31, 5:39, and 5:39. Solid feeling workout. Running in these Pure Connects is such a pleasant experience, its tempting to run in them for the half, even though they're a touch heavy. More on this later.

We're back in the running game! Huzzah! Time is of the essence (since I don't have much of it), so I'm trying to make every workout count in some way. Today I ran an easy run but in my F-lite 190s to hopefully start condition my calves a little. I'm considering doing the half in my NB1600s. Super light shoe, maybe a little risky for 21k. But it felt sooooo fast to run in.

The subsequent calf-mageddon was less fun. But, you know.