March 16th - 22nd

The first thing that entered my head was how tough are those stairs going to feel come Saturday at the end of a big mileage week 😂 Something to look forward to. No need to be smashing out speed work this week, all about some decent miles ahead of the taper. See how you feel Wednesday, happy for you to run at the pace that feels right for you. Just be a little wary if anything starts to niggle, given the two runs beforehand. Keep up the great work though Joe.

174 Points Achieved

MONDAY

27pts | 90 Mins Run

27 POINTS

90 Mins @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

Keep this nice and easy. Focus on good form & efficient running economy. RPE should be around the 3/10 which means you can run and chat.

27 Points

Starting the week off right. 90 mins run completed, with a few hills, because I wanted a different route, more than needing to run hills. Then did a 6 mile walk.

Nice. I realised how tiring walking is when me and Jax did a 3 hour 45 min walk yesterday (covered 11 miles). That was the same day as a leg session in the gym though, so probably not the best. I’m not a fan of walking it has to be said. Sorry, just realised all this feedback is about me. 😂🤦‍♂️ Great way to start the week, good couple of days ahead. Well done Joe.

TUESDAY

21 Points

60 mins done and a bonus upper body gym sesh

Well done on the run. I’m not going to lie, and this is something I found more recently. Upper body work in the gym is not very beneficial for us runners. So whilst it’s good, in terms of pts, it’s not great. I’ve not yet adjusted that fact on the platform, but if 3 x 15 goblet squats are worth 1pt, 3 x 15 bicep curls are worth 0.25pts. I was watching Conal run last night actually and thinking just how light he is, and that made me wonder if I’m wasting my time doing bicep curls and other upper body exercises. I enjoy it though so will continue. All that said. Definitely a few bonus pts banked.

WEDNESDAY

72pts | 240 Mins Run

72 POINTS

240 Mins @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3-8)

All about time on feet. Don’t push the pace early on and ensure you are well hydrated and have fuel to take on at regular intervals.

72 Points

I’m starting to wonder if sub 10 is a slightly too conservative target for SDW50, based on how I’m training at the moment. That felt great, which I’m very happy about, as I’ve done some miles over the last 5 days! Had a nice kick left in the legs at the end. Finished slightly differently to my usual route, as I turned off of the SDW where we will turn off on race day, and finished at the track. I really don’t think I’ve ever trained any better than I have done over these last few weeks and a lot of that is down to you, with this really good plan you’ve got me on, so thank you for that

The best trail race I have done to date was when I didn’t once look at my watch. I just kept my effort down and ran to feel. Came in 10 mins quicker than I had predicted at the Rye Ancient Trails 30k. I think setting targets is almost detrimental to some degree in a race like the SDW50. What does it really matter what time you come in. If you start setting deadlines you might put pressure on yourself to quickly get through the aid stations, you might not stop for 20 seconds to take in the views at Ditchling Beacon or watch a couple getting married on Alfriston lawn. There might come a time in a year or so you want to nail down every split to the minute, but whatever you run here, someone is going to finish one place ahead of you, and another one place behind. For me I want you to go out there and live the trail, feel strong and enjoy it. If you do that, whatever the clock says you’ve hit your goal. And I think if you adopt that approach, the relaxed mindset that comes with it, will see you run quicker than if you are stressing about a time. Great work today, love the feedback and so pleased you feel this good approaching race day. Of course if you completely disagree with everything I’ve said here, happy to discuss target times 😂

thursday

FRIDAY

21 Points

Felt comfortable, HR was low and it was a nice sunny evening, so I did 70 mins.

Why not. Always happy if you want to chuck an extra 10 in there on a day like this. Well done Joe.

SATURDAY

18pts | 30 Mins Stair Climber

18 POINTS

A great form of cross trainer for us runners. Take a few minutes to warm up at find your stride but then push hard. You can real bang for your buck with just 30 mins on the stair climber. I hit around level 10 when doing these but find the right speed for you that you can maintain, but you find this tough.

12pts | Joe’s S&C

12 POINTS

Crammed a bit more into 1 session here but now you’ve got a lot of good stuff in there. Hopefully it’s ok?

33 Points

As I’m about to taper and I’m not running this weekend, I added an extra 5 mins on to the stair stepper. All other exercises done. Feeling good! Another week ticked off….nice!

No worries 😂 200 floors was calling right? The odd few extra mins is fine and I like that. A strong finish to another brilliant week. Great work Joe. Last 4 weeks all over 170pts. Pretty sure you are the first person to achieve that on the team.