Week 12 Review: In Health and Sickness
A strong cross-country race performance set the tone for this week, and that was backed up with some speed training as well. However, I didn’t back this up with appropriate easy / recovery runs, and then also got hit with a stomach bug at the end of the week. That has knocked things out of kilter!
Weight change: * NOT RECORDED *
Training: Tempo 10k (Flat), XC Race, Speed training (10 x 400m), Refereeing 10k
Total Training Distance: 32.5 km
Weight loss
I am taking a sabbatical on this one for the week! The sickness bug hit me Saturday evening, so my focus was on getting better and well-rested again. I was not totally in the right frame of mine to be tracking weight 🙂
Training
The sickness bug only impacted Sunday in terms of training (I wasn’t going to go running, even if a recovery run would have been routine).
Despite this, I am a little disappointed in myself in that my training volume dropped from my recent 40 km+ levels. Primarily down to not getting the recovery / easy runs in on days following harder training. While some things have got in the way, it’s still my responsibility and essentially I should do better.
On the positive side, the cross-country race was great fun, and I have already written up how it showed my training is resulting in significant improvements.
The race was backed up with a preceding tempo run (Deliberately kept flat on this occasion, as the cross-country would provide the hills!), and also a standard 10 x 400m speed training session.
The healthy part of the week ended with some refereeing. A typical distance in a game is about 10k. This one was a little lower due to the nature and tempo of the game, and my fitness was not tested. However, the 90 minutes or so of running about and the twists and turns required certainly mean I need decent recovery afterwards.
What’s next?
The beginning of the week is all about recovery and ensuring fitness ahead of a game on the Tuesday night.
After that, it should be training (and diet!) as usual, leading up to another game on the Saturday.
Having two games which are likely to be high intensity means I will prioritise recovery days over speed / hill training this week.
Let’s get it done!