Cycles

The current training plan is built around 2 week hard work (basically every second day) and a week of easy exercise. I just finished the hard part and started the easy runs today. This was the first, knowingly two week period. January started with basic what-can-i-still-do type of orientation that formed into the current actions.

The conclusion is: hard. Even though I felt very strong by the end of second week, with very surprising result in my bag, by Sunday I did feel the result of the seven workouts (none of them anywhere easy) in my legs. OK, the snow and the ice on the last 15 km long run did not help either. It was very difficult to avoid falling and breaking my arm or worse. But enormous strain on my back and on my brain as I was concentrating hard.

But due to all the effort I did get to know my boundaries better. I know now, that running 8x400 fast is not going to kill me. I know, that running 15 km can be very relaxing if done right. I know, that I can run faster and longer than I imagined.

So I am trying to figure out the next two hard weeks' plan. I do know, that I will run a half marathon distance (if weather permits) on the last run. I also start doing hill repeats as the first race in April will have quite some in it. And I would definitely improve my top speed as well.

It will be a fun two weeks. But first, off to recover and overcompensate...

It's good to push hard

I think the biggest revelation of this year is that I just need to push through the pain to get results. I know, it sounds kind of obvious, but it wasn't to me.
There are zillion training methods and theories out there. The people I tend to read all base their trainings on heart rate zones, repetitions, hard workouts and rest days.
Most of their hard workouts are harder and more ambitious in development over a training period for let's says a half marathon then I'd ever try to achieve on my own.
The the opposite side: their easy workouts are much easier then my easier workouts. At least as far as HR goes.

Side note:
I have to note it here that I just not a regular guy in terms of HR definition. 220-age never worked for me. I could easily push over the 100% limit determined this way any time. I had to learn from experience (since the monitored treadmill was giving the same, low max HR results) what my actual max could be around.

So end of last year, in order to keep my body happy (so I thought) I watched my HR very closely. It just wouldn't go down. I was running very-very (and I _mean_ very) slow and yet: I still bit into the 80% zone whatever I tried. This resulted in my running slowing down so much that I hated every minute of it.

Than this January I just started that machine and ran. While trying not to overdo it I pushed as hard as I could. Both pace and HR. By the end of the first week I was happy again with my running. By the end of the second week I ran the longest distance in a long time with reserves in my body and way under the time I set as "it would be nice to beat that".

To avoid over-training I took last week "off", only running 3 times and low mileage. This week it's back to business once again, and I'll see where the revelation leads to...