Training Diary of an Old Pair of Legs

Running on Old Legs.

Training Diary of an Old Pair of Legs:

Target event XTerra 21 km trail, Langkawi.

Training Log for Schedule 1 Period 1: 30 Jan to 26 Feb 2017.

Running - 220 km this period. 220 km this Schedule. 293 km this year

Ậ training pace this period 7:28 mpk.

Ascent - 2546 mtrs. 2546 mtrs 2991 mtrs

Cycling- 334 km 334 km 419 km

From this issue my Diary will change to My Training Diary. There will now be four issues in each thirteen-week training cycle, three specific four-week training periods and a final report and analysis of my training and how I felt it has impacted on my target event.

WEEK 1 saw the first tentative steps back after almost three months of none competitive events due to a very persistent Achilles injury.

The last month has been totally run free, I have tried to keep up some fitness level by getting out on the bike as much as possible, but no running has certainly taken its toll.

I had forgotten just how hard five-kilometres can be, and muscle soreness for three days after just a five, that takes me back to the very beginning.

But there is a bright, very bright, side. No Achilles reaction. Step one, of many, ticked off.

Into WEEK TWO, it is just great to be able to not only run again, but, to just run. No drills, no set mileage or targets, JUST RUN oh yes and there is also the bike. Increasing the mileage while keeping the intensity low has enabled me to push up my distance run very much more than the recommended 10 – 15%, but, I am not a new runner and I feel that my body is able to adjust to the demands without any ill effects. Once I begin to increase the intensity of the runs then I will need to adjust my increased distance to conform to the norm.

I think it was the bike that kept me sane while I couldn’t run. But, it didn’t keep up my fitness levels as much as I would have expected, or perhaps wished.

Having a measurable gauge to fitness is a good thing. I use my Garmin VO2max to measure my relative fitness, I know that the accuracy is not reliable but it is a measurable number with which to see a trend irrespective of its accuracy. And, my trend is not good, before injury my readings were 57 – 59 which dropped to 42 and are at least now moving in the right direction.

www.wareable.com/running/best-vo2-max-devices-tested-9129

This alarmingly rapid drop in condition and fitness only reinforces my views, as expressed in the article I wrote on how much easier it is for us older folk to lose what we work so hard to gain, and, how much harder it is to regain it.

On this week’s pleasure front I would like to thank the great bunch of guys and girls of the Mont Kiara Running Club (MKRC) for the time I spent with them, nursing myself along the trails of Mont Kiara. It was just what I needed, an easy trail run with good friends.

WEEK 3 was much like more of the same, but, there were two firsts for me.

Being quite a newbie on the cycling front, not quite a year since I first sat on a racing bike, ‘firsts’ aren’t too hard to come by. This one was significant as my first ride of sixty kms. is, not coincidently the distance I need to cover in the up-coming Powerman Duathlon. The time being only ten minutes slower than my target I was well pleased with my effort.

The other first wasn’t quite so welcome. It was the first, and I hope last, time I have ever been knocked down by a truck while running. Shit happens and perhaps I could have been a little more careful at the junction, thankfully I was only scraped, bruised and a little shaken up. The most worrying part of the whole experience was watching the truck speeding its way through the traffic, making it’s getaway without any care for me, still lying in the dirt. The run back home was sore!

WEEK 4 an easy training week culminating in my first Ultra Trail Run.

A real test of how my fitness has improved, or not!

In some ways it was unfortunate that my first event of the year, having had to drop out of the other three scheduled events, was such a testing event. However it was approached more as a very long LSD. I can’t say that I intend to race as such, I will just have to see how the experience goes, but, I do want to finish the 50 kms. My race report will be posted soon.

Please comment and let me know what you think of the new format.