Well, cross country season is here and it was a tough start at Jells Park. Fatigued legs and warm weather may have gotten the best of me!
Jells Park relays
This is the traditional season starter for the Athletics Victoria XCR series. Jells Park consists of a 3km hilly grass course which each runner completes 2 laps of to complete 6km.
Unfortunately I haven’t had much luck here with a disappointing result last year and again this year. I’m not 100% sure what the cause is but my leg’s fatigued very easily, burning calves and quads were holding me back so I felt like I just completed it rather than raced hard.
This wasn’t entirely unexpected as it was similar to how I have been feeling in my threshold runs. But I’m still excited that the cross country and road racing season is back and I’m sure I’ll have some good races this season!
Recovery
Given how my legs have been with threshold runs and racing I’m going to try doing a bit more recovery stuff. As much as I don’t really enjoy ice baths I know they help in making my legs feel better, so I’m going to add a post long run ice bath in once a week or fortnight. And also put on the compression tights afterwards.
Week 12 is also a planned recovery week so I get a shorter long run and coach has also told me to drop the Wednesday run, so a much lighter week than usual. Instead or running Wednesday I’m going to go get a proper remedial massage. So hopefully all of this will get the legs going better again.
This week
Tuesday was step down reps at Altona Hill. Much happier with this session compared to the last time I did it.
Wednesday 10km run around Werribee after work. This was one of those runs where my pace was set on cruise control. Each km split very consistent without thinking about it which was nice.
Thursday 400s at Olympic Park during lunch. I was surprised to find a big group down there and shared the track with the Melbourne Midday Milers. This week I had the rest reduced from 2 minutes to 1.30 which seemed fine, pretty good session.
Sunday’s long run was done in the City to catch Lisa before she heads back to Germany. I started at the Tan and decided to run down into Southbank, figured might as well on a Sunday morning when it’s quiet. I then looped around the CBD going through docklands, up La Trobe street and through Fitzroy Gardens back towards the Tan to meet Aimee, Mechelle and Kip.
We then ran the opposite way along the Yarra ending up down on the Burnley half marathon course and then turned back. This run I also had to do 10 minutes at 5:00 per km pace mid run which I did for kms 14 and 15. That was fine but have to say I was pretty happy to finish towards the end of the run!
Kip was highlight of the Sunday run with a combination of being scared of the noise the ramps make along Yarra trail and he scared another runner when he quickly passed them to catch up to Mechelle!
Running
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Rest |
| Tue | 2km warm up Drills and strides 1600 in 6.50 (6:46/168bpm), 1200 in 5.20 (5:19/173bpm), 800 in 3.00 (3:03/176bpm), 400 in 1.40 (1:30/170bpm), 200 in .40 (43/164bpm) w/ 400 jog recovery 2km cool down |
| Wed | 10km easy (5:11 pace/155bpm) |
| Thu | 2km warm up Drills and strides 6 x 400 in 1:30 w/ 1:30 rest (89, 88, 90, 90, 92, 89) 2km cool down |
| Fri | Rest |
| Sat | 2km warm up XCR Rd 1 Jells Park Relays (6km XC in 27:35) 2km cool down |
| Sun | Long run 120 mins - mid run 10mins 5:00 pace (Melbourne CBD 5:22 avg pace/157bpm) |
1%-ers
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | |
| Tue | |
| Wed | |
| Thu | Foam rolling (18 mins) |
| Fri | Shoulder posture exercises/release (20 mins) |
| Sat | |
| Sun | Ice packs (30 mins) Compression tights Foam rolling (30 mins) |
Summary
| Week | Phase | Runs | Km | Hrs | TSS | Fitness | Fatigue | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | MARATHON | 4 | 59.2 | 5:17 | 426 | 61 | 73 ↑ | 23 ↑ |
| 35 | Taper | 4 | 41 | 3:32 | 314 | 61 ↓ | 55 ↓ | -1 ↓ |
| 34 | Marathon | 4 | 62.1 | 5:26 | 450 | 64 | 76 ↓ | 6 ↑ |
| 33 | Marathon | 4 | 63.4 | 5:34 | 467 | 64 ↑ | 82 | 2 ↓ |
| 32 | Marathon | 5 | 70.7 | 6:23 | 502 | 63 ↑ | 82 ↑ | 7 ↓ |
| 31 | Marathon | 4 | 48.4 | 4:13 | 367 | 61 ↑ | 68 ↓ | 8 ↑ |
| 30 | Marathon | 4 | 63.9 | 5:43 | 462.1 | 62.7 ↑ | 78.3 ↑ | 4.0 ↑ |
| 29 | Marathon / recovery | 4 | 58.4 | 5:06 | 426.2 | 61.8 ↑ | 77.3 ↓ | -0.6 ↓ |
| 28 | Marathon | 4 | 66.5 | 6:06 | 486.1 | 61.6 ↑ | 82.5 ↑ | 3.6 ↑ |
| 27 | Marathon | 4 | 66.5 | 5:50 | 482.1 | 60.1 ↑ | 79 ↑ | 0.5 ↓ |
| 26 | Recovery | 4 | 54.3 | 4:54 | 386.3 | 58.1 ↓ | 69.5 ↓ | 3.5 ↑ |
| 25 | Build | 5 | 64.9 | 5:51 | 454.6 | 58.3 ↑ | 72.0 ↑ | -2.3 ↓ |
| 24 | Build | 5 | 64.5 | 5:41 | 482.6 | 56.8 ↑ | 64.6 ↑ | 3.1 ↓ |
| 23 | Build | 4 | 46.9 | 4:07 | 340.5 | 54.9 ↓ | 51.8 ↓ | 7.3 ↓ |
| 22 | Build | 4 | 43.6 | 3:55 | 307.3 | 55.9 ↓ | 52.1 ↓ | 11.1 ↓ |
| 21 | Half Marathon | 4 | 41.8 | 3:31 | 311.1 | 58.0 ↓ | 55.0 ↑ | 20.5 ↑ |
| 20 | Taper for HM | 4 | 37.5 | 3:10 | 304.9 | 60.1 ↓ | 52.4 ↓ | 14.6 ↑ |
| 19 | Recovery | 3 | 41.6 | 3:39 | 302.6 | 63.0 ↓ | 59.8 ↓ | 10.5 ↑ |
| 18 | Half / Marathon | 5 | 71.8 | 6:03 | 541.4 | 66.6 ↑ | 86.0 ↑ | -7.4 ↓ |
| 17 | Half / Marathon | 4 | 66.5 | 5:47 | 490.2 | 64.3 ↑ | 79.7 ↑ | -3.2 ↑ |
| 16 | Half / Marathon | 5 | 64.4 | 5:32 | 479.2 | 62.9 ↑ | 76.0 ↓ | -7.7 ↑ |
| 15 | Half / Marathon | 5 | 71.4 | 6:09 | 527.1 | 61.7 ↑ | 77.8 ↑ | -7.8 ↓ |
| 14 | Speed / Half | 5 | 63.8 | 5:38 | 460.2 | 59.0 ↑ | 70.3 ↑ | -1.0 ↓ |
| 13 | Speed / Half | 5 | 59.1 | 5:20 | 419.4 | 57.5 ↑ | 60.9 ↑ | -3.7 ↓ |
| 12 | Recovery | 4 | 39.1 | 3:21 | 288.2 | 56.9 ↓ | 54.8 ↓ | 6.5 ↑ |
| 11 | Speed | 5 | 59.1 | 5:14 | 421.8 | 59.6 ↑ | 70.4 ↓ | 1.7 ↑ |
| 10 | Speed | 5 | 61.6 | 5:23 | 460.3 | 59.3 ↑ | 71.8 ↑ | -1.9 ↓ |
| 9 | Speed | 5 | 58.0 | 5:06 | 436.1 | 57.9 ↑ | 67.8 ↑ | 3.4 ↑ |
| 8 | Recovery | 5 | 49.7 | 4:18 | 395.8 | 56.8 | 61.5 ↓ | -1.3 ↓ |
| 7 | Base | 5 | 54.2 | 4:44 | 417.0 | 56.8 ↑ | 64.4 ↑ | 2.3 ↑ |
| 6 | Base | 5 | 51.3 | 4:33 | 392.3 | 56.1 ↑ | 61.0 ↓ | 1.5 ↓ |
| 5 | Base | 5 | 52.5 | 4:32 | 421.5 | 55.9 ↑ | 61.7 ↑ | 2.2 ↓ |
| 4 | Recovery | 5 | 46.5 | 4:03 | 353.7 | 55.0 ↓ | 54.5 ↓ | 4.4 ↑ |
| 3 | Base | 5 | 50.4 | 4:22 | 381.7 | 55.7 ↓ | 57.1 ↓ | 1.2 ↓ |
| 2 | Base | 5 | 50.2 | 4:23 | 381.2 | 55.9 ↓ | 57.4 ↑ | 5.9 ↓ |
| 1 | Base | 5 | 43.9 | 3:52 | 334.3 | 56.0 | 53.4 | 8.3 |