Training

Yesterday I arrived to the cycling meeting place by 08:07 and the Peak group were still there, getting read to set off. It was understood that I had planned to ride with the group and I was tempted to try. The issue is that I already rode quite hard with the Wednesday group and the Thursday group.

The other issue is that they were going on a 100km ride with quite a bit of climbing so I would have struggled to keep up. I was also not ready, food and snack ride to do such a long and physical ride.

Yesterday I rode with Group 2 rather than Group 1 with TDC. I believe I could keep up for a second time. I also believe that when you’re cycling hard three times a week it takes a lot of energy.My experience last Saturday showed that I was pushing myself too hard by riding by cyclists stronger than me three times in a week, especially after riding close to my max on Wednesday, Thursday and then Sunday.

Today I went for a run and the Garmin Epix Gen 2 labelled it as unproductive. Yesterday I went for a 5k run and I wore the Garmin Instinct Solar with the HRM-Pro Plus and it was just marked as a wrong. I was curious to see if I would get more running with this belt and the Garmin Instinct Solar and the answer is “nope” so the heart rate strap is not an Epix Gen 2 replacement.

I have been putting the 80/20 running rule into practice. The principal is simple. Instead of running to your max you run at a comfortable pace for most of your running instead. Instead of pushing yourself to be fast, you push yourself to have endurance. You train at a pace that is 80 percent or less of your maximum, to perform better when you race.

Train for Endurance, Not Speed

The concept is rational. You could train to your max but by doing so you tire yourself emotionally, physically and mentally. Instead of improving you hit a wall. The 80 percent rule builds on the idea that by training consistently at a lower intensity 80 percent of the time you build stamina and endurance.

Today I went for a run earlier than usual and had to deal with mischievous shoelaces. They decided to come undone at least three times during the first three kilometres before I finally got them to behave.

I went for a run earlier than usual because rain is forecast for this afternoon and if I go after lunch then I get rained on. I prefer not to run in the rain, if I can avoid it.

I am approaching the five kilometre mark now. I am getting close to being able to run five kilometres in a row once again. It is paradoxical that I find running hard, compared to walking and cycling. I was able to run up to 13 kilometres before. Now I’m aiming for half, to a third less.

If I ran somewhere flat I would find running easier. One of the challenges of running in this landscape is that it undulates. In theory I could also run around in circles like others do. I could run laps, rather than a long circuit but I don’t want to run around in circles. I am considering running around in a circle for the 4.8km run. I want to run around in that circle to focus on achieving the distance, rather than struggling to cope with the contours.

Normally I walk from village to village. My walks can take me through four to six villages per walk. I walk from village to village in part because I live in the middle of a landscape where walking from village to village is easy.

I had doubts about today’s run because I can feel various parts of my legs. I can feel that they are under a different strain than usual, due to the running. I felt fine when I was running, but after sitting I could feel ligaments and tendons. I find myself considering taking proper rest days where I don’t walk at least ten thousand steps as I think that running and walking puts a lot of strain on my body. It could simply be that I need to perfect my running technique.