Training Log | Lots of DOMs vs Little mojo: Week 11 Ultra-Training

WEEK ELEVEN 

1st January - 7th January 2018

Monday 1st January

My New Year's Day started exactly the same way as yours I'm sure: Double parkrun! New Year's Day is the one day of the year where parkruns can change their start time by up to 90 minutes in order for people to rush between parkruns and run twice. It's great fun and a really silly game. In previous years I've only ever done the New Year's Day double in Cambridgeshire so as we were in London I was excited to try the tube double. First the 5 laps course of Highbury Fields at 9am chatting the whole way round followed by another chat round the 3 laps of Southwark. A brilliant way to start 2018.

Running: 5km | Time: 24:16 | Av Pace: 4:50/km | Elev Gain: 43m
Running: 5km | Time: 26:31 | Av Pace: 5:23/km | Elev Gain: 23m

Tuesday 2nd January

Wow my legs hurt a lot after the 10km race on Sunday. Major DOMs. Rest day today.

Wednesday 3rd January

Bit of a lack of mojo today so at about 9pm I finally persuade myself out and run to the gym to go swimming. I'm treated by no-one else in the pool. Great fun swimming bang in the middle of the pool for 750m before running home. 
Running: 3.7km | Time 19:43 | Av Pace: 5:20/km | Elev Gain:13m
Swimming: 750m

Thursday 4th January

Today is the final long run before Country to Capital next weekend and I'm still not really feeling it. Training plan says 39km but training plan also says my ultra next week should be 50km and my race is 72km so I figure the shorter run is better than no run. Adidas Runners has all changed for 2018 with no more Friday morning sessions and they're launching their new Thursday night session down in Fulham. As Fulham is miles away I figure this is the perfect way to scrape the mileage together and run to Fulham, do the AR session and run home. The last 5km or so are hard but it is pretty late by that point and I've not eaten as much as I probably should have done. But pleased to have got some mileage in. 
Running: 27.4km | Time 2:43:57 | Av Pace: 5:59/km | Elev Gain:247m

Friday 5th January

To make up for last night's slightly shorter long run I've committed to doing a back to back session. Last night finished at 8:30pm and this morning I'm out with Advent Running's new Fast Fridays group at 7:15am. Wow my legs are tired. My calves are totally solid and I have to really cajole them in to moving. Buddy up with someone who pushes the pace the whole way but from 7km I'm really flagging. So much harder than usual and therefore pleased to have got it in. 

Running: 11.3km | Time: 1:04:17 | Av Pace: 5:38/km | Elev Gain: 58m
Cycling (commuting): 13.3km | Time: 47:53

Saturday 6th January

If this week were to be classified by one thing only it would be DOMs (delayed onset muscle soreness). Once again I wake up and my legs are dead. It takes a lot for me to miss a parkrun so I still bike up to Cambridge parkrun enthusiastically but my legs are not so keen so I take it easy and jog round with a friend. Even the sub-30 pace feels tough going but my legs definitely feel better at the end than they did at the start.

Running: 5km | Time: 29:06 | Av Pace: 5:56/km | Elev Gain: 4m

Cycling (commuting): 10.8km | Time: 44:54

Sunday 7th January

Manage to scrape myself out of bed before church for a run. The plan says 16km but too much snoozing means I've got time for about 12km. My legs are still quite sore but I've treated myself to some new calf guards which I hope will hold them together. I head off out in search of the only hill in Cambridge and as it's pretty icy it's much harder than usual. Commit to running up the whole things without stopping which I achieve. It's slightly further than I thought which inches my distance back over 70km for the week which I figure is a good first week back on after last week's cutback. 

Running: 13.3km | Time: 1:13:39 | Av Pace: 5:32/km | Elev Gain: 83m

Cycling (commuting): 12.5km | Time: 44:22

Week Eleven Totals

Running: 70.7km | 6:41:00 | 471m

Cycling: 36.9km | 2:17:00 | 212m

Swimming: 750m

Thoughts: I wasn't really feeling it this week so I'm really pleased I still managed a long slow run and a back to back session. More strength work needed and that hill was harder than I thought so post next week's Ultra going to take to the hills a bit more to practice ascending and descending.