Tuesday - 8km Easy

Despite today's heat-induced fatigue, I felt better on this run than most of my runs last week.

My heart rate got very close to its maximum at 190BPM in my last kilometre, which was mostly uphill––a combination of many factors once again. Other than that, this was a smooth and consistent run.

Running in 32-degree heat is never easy, regardless of the pace you are running at. I knew my heart rate would be all over the place today so my goal was to keep a consistent perceived effort.

My main focus for this week is recovery and getting my shin splints under control so I can get back into proper training, so I'll be running on a modified schedule with all easy runs and shorter distances. That means no tempo run on Thursday, and a shorter run on Sunday––probably no more than 12km.

That's okay. I'll recover this week. I don't want to risk missing more valuable training if I push too hard and make my leg worse.

Thursday - 10km Easy

Today was one of the more encouraging runs I've done in a while. I felt comfortable and pain-free for most of the run, and kept a consistent pace of 5:08/km with an average heart rate of 155.

Runs like this make me feel like I'm 100% and ready to get back into full training. I know that's not the case yet unfortunately. As frustrating as it is not being able to train at full intensity and feeling like I'm falling behind, I'm taking it easy until the end of the week. Then I'll ease myself back into higher intensity next week.

I can't wait to do more longer and faster runs soon, and actually make progress towards my goal.

I'll get there.

Saturday - 8km Recovery

I was feeling slightly sore yesterday so I decided to take the day to rest.

Today I got back out and did another recovery run, aiming for Zone 2 HR.

If you've ever tried Zone 2 training, you might find it frustrating at times. Today was one of those runs for me. My effort was minimal, but for some reason my heart rate did not want to stay below 160. Whatever. I ended up running based on effort anyway (3/10), and tried to disregard my heart rate.

Other than that, I felt almost no pain in my leg at all. Encouraging signs. It seems this recovery week has played it's role well.

Tomorrow I'm going to test myself with a longer run at some faster paces.

Sunday - 12km 'Long'

Today was a test to see how I've recovered with mostly easy runs and lower intensity for the past week or so.

We are so back.

I feel close to 100% now but it seems I have my injury under control.

I could feel from the start of this run that I was feeling much better. I had set pace goals of 4:48/km for the first 5km (after a 1km warmup), and 4:30 for the last 6km. My challenge today was holding back. I did allow myself to run a bit faster than I had planned, but still stayed within a comfortable pace. My splits for the first 3km of work were: 4:30, 4:30, and 4:21––all much faster than planned.

I stayed around the 4:20s for the middle third of the run until I got a bad stomach cramp. This isn't completely new for me. If there's one thing I've learnt about these kinds of cramps is that they rarely cause long-lasting damage if you push through them.

That's what I kept telling myself until it got so bad that I had to slow down in my 9th kilometre.

The cramp eased enough by the second last kilometre for me to give one big push aiming for one km at marathon pace. It was so nice to finally be able to run fast again. 4:02 was my last split before a cooldown, and then the cramp hit again.

I'm relieved that a stomach cramp was the only reason I slowed down today. They are usually easy to fix––maybe I had too much water or food too close to running. Either way, promising signs.

This week was another lesson on the importance of patience and listening to your body. Yes it was frustrating not being able to progress in my training this week and being limited to easy runs. In hindsight though, it was all worth it.

I now feel ready to take things up a notch next week.

Weekly Summary:

Total Distance - Scheduled: 50km

Total Distance - Actual: 38km

24 Weeks Out.