Another KoM

I've felt a bit tired this week. Not a huge surprise as last week was a solid week. I did slightly more Zwifting than standard, including solid climb portal ride. Run-wise, I did get out for that promised 10k on Monday, a lunch run from the office Wednesday (and by heck was that ever a hot one). Yesterday I ran an unusually short (for a Saturday) 6k but did claim another KoM segment, although I only equaled the record so there is still work to be done to claim it outright. Today was a hilly 10k. I pushed the climb and was rewarded with my fastest time so far, only 35s from my heyday best so I am closing in. Not sure it's going to be a viable KoM target as I am way off the time of the top spot. Maybe top ten...

The week ahead will see me ease back as I head into the weekend as I'm back out to the Mountains for the Fan-y-Big fell race on Sunday, a testing 16.5km with 650+ metres of ascent. And it definitely will be a test. 

More Running in the Woods

It's been a middling week with only one treadmill interval session - but it was a solid one, the ol' ladder down and up hitting 4min/km.

Friday I got out for a run in the heat of the midday sun for around 6k. I pushed pretty hard on the church lane climb KoM and claimed a PB and sixth place on the leader board but a long way back from top spot - it doesn't help that there are four downed trees to navigate, one of which you have to crawl under on your hands and knees. After that one, came the eastside climb KoM. I went for it but paced it too conservatively, leaving too much in the tank, accelerating into the finish but with too much left that I should have used sooner. It might take another couple of attempts to pace it right but I only need 4s so it will be mine....

I was back out there today, for 10k. Feeling less fresh, I never-the-less took another crack at the church lane climb. Better but still the cigar eludes me. A 22s improvement and now only 14s off top spot - the hands and knees bit doesn't help, mind. Later in the run I tried the eastside KoM again but fell short as I was knackered by that point. Still, the hill efforts are bloody good training.

Other training this week as been, three sessions on the Zwift, including one slightly more tempo, hour session. More running tomorrow and Monday, as I push the rest day out to Tuesday in the coming week.

Back to the Intervals

It's put in some decent training over the last two weeks. After the strength and endurance work of the last few months I'm a bit ring rusty on the focused treadmill sessions. So the Tuesday before last, I was back on it with a decent enough set of 6-minute ramped efforts.

As I said the focus has been building my strength and endurance and the Zwifting (bike) has also been in cruise mode. I feel my FTP has dropped a little so it was with some surprise that I managed a 30s PB on the virtual Cheddar Gorge climb the previous Wednesday. Not gonna lie, I went for it. Out the saddle for the majority of the first half, the steeper bit. I am definitely an out the saddle grinder sort of climber vs the in the saddle faster spinner.

Last weekend, starting Friday, I ran back to back 9k tempo's and a 6k Sunday although that was more pruning than running as I cleared away the brambles and nettles from my local loop. I followed Saturday and Sunday's run with two zone 2 30-minute bike sessions.

This Tuesday it was more reps, five 1-minute sprints followed by six 3 minutes efforts. Wednesday I tried the new Zwift FTP test, which is, in essence, just a 3.5k hill grind at an average of around 10%. My legs had a bit of fatigue from Tuesdays treadmill reps so I wasn't holding my breath... but I still manage to clock 224W which is only just shy of my 227W best FTP, and well within the bounds of experimental error as these type of FTP tests are not exactly a precise science.

Up Thursday was more treadmill intervals. Short ones this time 3 blocks of five 1-minuute 'sprints' at 16kph with 30s recovery. Yesterday was a solid 45 minute Zwift and today, a 13k zone 2/3 run as my Garmin keeps shouting at me that I don't have enough 'low aerobic' runs logged. It's hard running slow, and when it's hilly the slow is easy but the zone 2 becomes hard as I'm not dropping to a walk - zone 2 be damned.

Hopefully, it'll be 10k-ish tomorrow and then back on the reps Tuesday after feet up Monday.

Twenty Four

The focus over the last month has been building distance, culminating in today's hilly 24km with 540m ascent. The last few k were hard work but through twenty I felt good and I'm definitely stronger on the hills. There's still a way to go but I'm definitely noticing that I'm able to keep running further up the hills before they claims me as victim.

Next week I'll be switching back to some focused interval sessions, while maintaining the strength I've gained on those longer runs. Hopefully, with my improved strength and endurance I can really push out some longer speed intervals.

It's only a few weeks till my next block of races and with a bit of fine tuning I'll be ready. The block starts with a proper test at the Fan y Big fell race, followed closely by the Blaisdon 10k (road) and rounding things out, the Waun Fach fell race.