Training Log Archive: W

Another "Mona Fartlek" workout. 2 x 90s, 4 x 60s, 4 x 30s, 4 x 15s, as sort of last minute desperation workout before the half. I'm not going to realistically get any fitter now, so hopefully this is just going to help me be as fit as I possibly can be given the past month of training. Nice to be out on a pleasant and mildly cold day. Running felt good, though I got a little tired quickly. Could be from all the flying. Here's hoping, anyway.

My overall general total lack of time means that I'm probably not going to get to do any training over the next three days, and today was down to the bare minimum. The little skiff of snow we had is rapidly melting with the +3 and rain, which is not so nice, but totally normal in November it seems like. Still haven't seen the sun this month, and I'm really expecting two, which means there have been two fulls months this year without sunshine. No wonder they tend to, you know....

Really glad I joined in on a run with the boys. They jogged over to Keltinmäki to pick me up then I got to see a couple new trails I hadn't seen before. I definitely wouldn't have gone for this kind of run without them, so super glad that I did it. Rainy and wet out, but nice evening for a snowing water jog. I hope I can find those trails again in the daylight! Felt better about my fitness for week and a half from now, unfortunately this weekend will be another bad training weekend, probably nothing on Friday and even Saturday. Boo-urns.

Well, that was a frustrating session. I checked the track schedule to see if it was available, and nothing was booked all evening. So, cool, I headed there around 4:15 to do another 6 x 1k. Warmed up, then as I started the first one, a whole lot of people started streaming in. This was a bad sign. But, I finished that one, then rested started the second one, and as I rounded the bend, someone looked directly at me and did that universal [Finnish] symbol for "stop", and I said "why?" in English, and he said... something. I'm pretty sure he didn't hear what I said, and may not have even been talking to me. But, I suppose that meant I had to stop running because someone else had booked it. I slowly got changed and still couldn't understand why I couldn't run on the track.

But, I resolved to keep training, so I went to the gym and hopefully get on a treadmill. But, they were all taken, so I had to bike for 10 minutes. I then managed to get on one and do another 3 intervals until someone else at the gym booked at 6, so it ended there.

Argh. Annoying day for so many reasons. I don't understand why they could kick me off when nothing was booked. I wished I had a Finn there with me right then.

Reasons outside of my control have forced me to be constantly taking days off, and its super frustrating. I really don't like the current situation, but I think it will improve after Christmas. Doesn't help my current month of training though, very bad indeed!

To be fair, one thing that would help me a lot is if I didn't quite dawdle so much when going from one activity to the next. Need some to harass me to speed the hell up! Geez.

Light run down to the Jyväsjärvi and back around. Almost went crazy and decided to do the whole lake, but didn't in the end. Probably a good choice. (In reality, not a good choice, its volume time! I just didn't have the motivation. It'll come back eventually, I hope.)

Finally got to go to another Kurko-Cup. I sucked. Not enough night orienteering at all and really brutal terrain that I simply cannot run quickly in. Didn't really hit any controls very well and felt super discouraged by the end. Oh well, I didn't get to go to any of these this year, so I shouldn't expect too much.

Went indoors to the track for some 6 x 1 kilometer at a to be determined pace. Basically whatever I felt like it. The first 4 were manageable, then the last two I tried to do quite a bit faster, so I ran 3:24, 3:24, 3:22, 3:19, 3:13, 3:12. Felt pretty good most of the time. Ran in my 1600s which I hoped would work my calves a bit, but I think tehre's really no way I can do 21k in those shoes. Calves just won't allow it.

I suppose one big reason why I haven't been logging much is that training just hasn't been going all that well. Its goign okay, but I'm not getting anywhere close to the volume I would have liked to. So many things at school and work has hit me at once that I find myself coming home every day and just doing more work until 11 and then I go to bed. No great opportunities to train! Trying to go to the gym has been quite frustrating too since its always really really crowded and the bros totally dominate the olympic lifting area.

Today was another super busy day, just trying to get ready for this week, where I've got a bunch of practicum related stuff. So, just managed to get around Laajavuori for an hour long run, rather than the intended two hour run. But, my legs were feeling.. not sore... but certainly tired from yesterday's run. Considered doing some plyos as well, but I think I might try to go to the gym tomorrow and lift some heavy weights.

I might even put on two 10kg plates on my squats this time. WOWZERS. This week will again be another busy busy week, so hopefully at least I can get in a few hard sessions, if not any volume.

Suunta Jyväskylä has a test loop that starts near the university and then heads up to Roninmäki and back down. (If you're wondering, mäki means "hill"). Each lap seems to have about 70 meters of climb, so not a ton, but not insignificant either. The goal for this was to have a real good hard effort, try out my potential half-marathon shoes, and see what happens.

I took the first lap quite nervously, as I seem to do, afraid of blowing up. So I got dropped a bit by G and S, but as we neared end of the first lap I was resolved to do a negative split, so I tried to pick up the pace. I pulled back to maybe 10 meters behind Gianluca, and then could not, for the life of me, make that gap any smaller. I was never going to do that on the downhills, but couldn't do it on the flats, couldn't do it on the uphills. Just about the same distance the whole time, though lost a second or two on the final stretch.

Ran around 19:08 the first lap, which means I ran 19:26 the second lap for a total of 38:34. I managed to beat Minna Kauppi's record by 3 seconds. Yay.....?

I'm glad I gave it ago, my legs did not feel very sore after, despite the show choice, so that's promising. Heart rate topped out at 176 and I hovered in the 170s for quite some time. I think I need a little bit more courage to maintain that 170 HR for longer. THe first lap before the climb I was only in the low 160s, presumably running a little afraid that I'd blow up. I feel like at the Valon Kymppi 10k I went for a bit more and though it hurt a lot, I didn't blow too much, but I was relying on the fact there weren't many hills. CI won't have a lot of big hills either though. In fact, unless it goes up to the top of a building, I can feel confident there will be no hill larger than 8 meters, and that's only if we go to the top of the landfill.

C • Minna Kauppi's record... 1

Went from one class to some work and then squeezed in apparently a perfectly even 50 minute run before going back into town (for some actual socializing, that doesn't sound like me at all!). Legs felt generally fine, hopefully they're fine because I'm going to do the 10k testrun course tomorrow. Yikes!

This was probably my busiest week of the year, so I'm surprised I even got out to do this. Just ran around Laajavuori and threw in the hill climb detour. Its dark all the time now (almost as dark as it can get), but I really don't have a problem with the darkness. I hope it snows a lot soon!!!

Warm-up jog in some minimalist shoes before heading to do some weights at the mini-gym. Kicked a rock on the extremely dark loop and put a solid bend in my big toenail. Ouch.

Same workout as last week. My left leg seems to get a bit more tired than my right. But now, a day later, I'm far less sore than I was after the session last week, which is a good sign. My muscles have remembered about lifting weights, so I think I can soon move towards lifting something a bit heavier!

Ran the highly recommended "Mona" workout - http://irun.org.au/News/mona-fartlek

2 x 90s, 4 x 60s, 4 x 30s, 4 x 15s, at pretty fast pace with equal rest.

I actually felt pretty good most of the time. Ran it on some gently rolling packed gravel so I could cruise at a pretty good clip. The only downside were the 15s ones because I'm not great at getting up to speed anymore! The feeling was quite similar to the old 30x30s, but the workout isn't quite so long that it ends up being 10 good ones and 20 horrible ones. There's no reason why you can't hammer most of the time. So, before the half-marathon, I'll almost certainly do this at least once more.

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.