• November 24th - 30th

A solid week. I’d be a little wary at the CrossFit just for now not to go overboard with the weights. Nothing to prove to anyone, just add slowly. A busy but hopefully manageable week of training, any problems just let me know.

125 Points Target

I missed a couple of sessions but think Im doing alright, putting in big efforts and not everything is gonna be done perfectly every week. I like the routine it works well for me. Adding a point to vo2 max this week makes me happy too that its all moving in the right direction. Pretty sure im getting fitter!

Good to see the VO2 Max go up and we can always tweak the targets if need be. But that’s another week close to 100 points which is a good level of training. If you’re happy and enjoying the training that’s the most important thing. We sometimes forget that when we get so focused on improving and hitting our goals. Well done Mitch.

MONDAY

Loading...

4-3-2-1-30s

24 POINTS

10 Mins WU @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

4 Mins @ 5K Pace (RPE: 8)
120 Seconds Recovery

3 Mins @ 5k Pace (RPE: 8)
90 Seconds Recovery

2 Mins @ 3K Pace (RPE: 8)
90 Seconds Recovery

1 Min @ <3k Pace (RPE: 9)
60 Seconds Recovery

30 Seconds @ All In Pace (RPE: 9)
60 Seconds Recovery

x 2

10 Mins CD @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

Total of 21 mins of efforts!! A good opportunity to work on a variety of paces across varied reps. The shorter the rep, the quicker you go.

24 Points
TR 65%
Great sesh thanks, you were right my pace wasnt that far off, about 4.35 pace but my current 5km pb pace is 4.49 per km although that was july 27th and it was during a duathlon (1500m swim before). – watch finally pinged up to 52 vo2 max tonight!
Yeah I had a look at the splits and they looked pretty good. Perhaps a fraction too quick at the start but that’s normal. Overall a good session. Given what you are training for we don’t need to break down the stats too much, so long as you’re working at around the 5k pace or under for these sessions, and working hard we are going to get the right training effect. Ultimately we want to make half marathon pace feel comfortable by running at these quicker paces in training. Excellent work Mitch, great start to the week.

TUESDAY

Loading...

Rest Day

0 POINTS

0 mins @ RPE 0-1

“Rest days are key. Our body adapts and gets stronger when we rest & recovery. Have a good one!”

WEDNESDAY

Loading...

CrossFit

15 POINTS

A good way of getting in some strength work but also some additional cardio!

30 Mins Swim

9 POINTS

30 Mins Swimming @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

Enjoy. Swimming is a great alternative to running and probably the best form of cross training.

TR 75%
Swim felt great, felt very strong in the water and fitter too. Shoulder bit of pain the coach reckons might be tendinitis but we are working through it. Missed crossfit sadly (works crazy currently) but do need to work on getting up in the morning when I have 2 sessions planned, (im really bad at it :( ).
I think after missing a few swims lately that was the priority so no worries about crossfit. Speaking of early mornings, don’t sacrifice recovery for training. If anything the former is more important. So if you don’t get the rest/sleep you need, don’t be afraid to skip a session. If you start forcing yourself to do a session when you’re not recovered that’s when you’ll get injured. Also I have some home workouts we could smash out in this scenario. Some as short as 10 mins. So let me know if you ever want a few of those, if time is limited and we need those pts.

thursday

Loading...

30 Mins Spin

10 POINTS

30 Mins @ Varied Intensity (RPE: 3-9)

Sometimes it can be good to reduce the impact and get the heart rate up with some cross training. Plus spin classes can be great fun.

20 Points
TR 65%
Did a 30min race on zwift, they are brutal! Absolute full out sprint last 250m almost killed me off lol, super fun though. Done a race this week and last, might switch to just a workout next week as not sure that level of effort is good every week, especially with trail race next Sunday.
Sounds like we earned some bonus points here. Yeah it’s finding the right balance. This sounds like the intensity was possibly a bit high and limiting how often you do these is probably sensibly. There might be weeks you need the extra training pts and you could swap a lighter session for a race. But we want to ensure we don’t tire ourselves out so much we can’t execute everything on the plan.

FRIDAY

Loading...

CrossFit

15 POINTS

A good way of getting in some strength work but also some additional cardio!

TR 55%
Tired day, wanted to have good weekend sessions and was busy in the evening so left this. I think in future I might follow a Joe wix video or something if times short lol
No worries Mitch. To be honest I do some short 10-15 min workouts with short recoveries focusing on specific areas (eg Core) and they are much tougher than say 45 mins in the gym where you faf around moving from one machine to the next. So a lot can be achieved even with 10-15 mins and I use that a lot for those on the team with limited availability.

SATURDAY

Loading...

120 Mins 🏃‍♀️

36 POINTS

120 Mins @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

Long runs are key. Fuel and hydrate well & join a group if you can.

36 Points
TR 60%
Done, you might only see a 1.5 hour treadmill run on strava but first 30mins zwift wasnt working so it just didnt record. Felt ok, not used to treadmill running its so boring I kept stopping every 15mins for 2mins to walk for the first 50mins or so and finally got into the groove when I turned off the podcast and put music on instead lol. Even though ive missed a couple crossfits this week I’ve been pretty tired from work, even with good sleep.
The treadmill is a tough gig for this length of time. If you can ever get into Hastings to join the long run gang I think you’ll find that much more enjoyable, it obviously just means an early start which is tough if feeling tired. There is a lot going on and why it’s always good to keep the feedback coming, if you’re finding it a bit much at the moment we can always tweak the schedule, time is on our side right now. But well done Mitch.

SUNDAY

Loading...

30 Mins Swim

9 POINTS

30 Mins Swimming @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

Enjoy. Swimming is a great alternative to running and probably the best form of cross training.

120 Mins Cycling

12 POINTS

120 Mins @ Easy Pace (RPE: 1)

Cross training, including Cycling can help improve your cardio whilst reducing the impact. 2 hours cycling is worth around 40 mins of running.

TR 50%
I was up at half 4 this morning for work and just didnt feel like a long ride when I got back, did 30min ride with 3 x 5 min efforts at threshold which was still a good session. Missed swim again, it sounds bad when I give you feedback but I think this week went actually really well lol..
On my platform 30 mins intense cycling scores close to the same points easy. Whether that’s accurate I’m not 100% sure yet, but it means you did the right thing to add some speed to the session. I think this early in the plan it’s about finding what works for you and I’m more than happy to change the targets if need be. I’d rather do that if necessary than you get down for always missing sessions and not hitting targets. Although from this feedback that doesn’t appear which is good. The real skill to creating training plans is adapting and using the available time as efficiently as possible. Well done Mitch. 4am for work as well? That’s crazy.