• 27th April - 3rd May

A busy routine but nothing too demanding in terms of individual sessions right now. So we progress to 105pts this week, up from 100 and that’s where my approach works well, those small increments without overdoing it. Be consistent with the speed work based on your current targets, if we can nudge under them slightly brilliant, but it’s no essential and pushing too hard, too earlier will only lead to niggles. Any issues let me know, but let’s make this another solid week.

113 Points Achieved

MONDAY

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Rest Day

0 POINTS

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

12 Points
Gentle swim this morning to shake off the weekend and kick the week off, and rest of the day will be at the desk so will make the most of the rest.
Nice, I always like the idea of a refreshing swim but never been my thing really

TUESDAY

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12pts | 40 Mins Swim

12 POINTS

40 Mins Swimming @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

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

15pts | 50 Mins Run

15 POINTS

It’s important to keep the easy runs easy. Focus on good running form and low heart rate.

27 Points
Swim was a coached one today looking at technique so nice and gentle, so paired it with the run which felt good. Feeling good at the moment – really enjoying the running and feeling like a runner again!
Ah that’s so nice to hear. Great to see the confidence is growing again and the consistency combined with the odd bit of speed work will do that. Fantastic work Chris.

WEDNESDAY

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2pts | Stretches

2 POINTS

A stretching routine you can do daily to help with your flexibility. 30 seconds for each stretch is plenty.

10pts | Home Full Body

10 POINTS

A good all round workout you can do at home. Simple but really effective. If you repeat this twice a week and slowly add to the weights you are going to make some good gains in the long run.

If you superset the exercises it should save time and hopefully make it achievable in around 60 mins.

12 Points
Full body workout is getting easier now to complete within an hour or so, nice change to the running and swimming.
Great to hear and if you can progress the weights slightly you will make some good gains. In time we can switch up the exercises too. It’s good to be a strong all round athlete rather than just a good runner.

thursday

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Rest Day

0 POINTS

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

First open water swim of the year yesterday, gentle relaxed day generally ready for the intervals on Friday
Looked stunning from the photo.

FRIDAY

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24pts | 10 x 2 Mins

24 POINTS

10 Mins WU @ Easy Pace (RPE: 2)

2 mins @ 3k Pace (RPE: 8)
90 Seconds Recovery
x 10

10 Mins CD @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

Another simple but effective session. You want to be going quicker than your current 5k pace if you are going to make improvements. Your effort level (RPE) should be high for the last 30 seconds of each rep. Dig deep to make those gains 💪

24 Points
Felt hard work this week, was really digging deep for the last 4 reps – started a bit hopefully, too, which certainly did not help! Great session though, really enjoying these speed sessions thrown in with the other runs – they satisfy that appetite to run a little quicker and keep things interesting.
I’m not surprised if those Strava splits are correct. Holy smoke they are fast. Which is good as it again highlights your potential but just be careful. The training paces on the dashboard are normally a good guide and if you follow those you’ll finish a session like that feeling like you’ve got another rep in you (which you don’t have to do). I have tweaked the training paces again, and may bring them down more depending on progression. But really well done, very impressive. But equally just find that right balance between good pacing and working at a decent level.

SATURDAY

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10pts | Home Full Body

10 POINTS

A good all round workout you can do at home. Simple but really effective. If you repeat this twice a week and slowly add to the weights you are going to make some good gains in the long run.

If you superset the exercises it should save time and hopefully make it achievable in around 60 mins.

12pts | 40 Mins Swim

12 POINTS

40 Mins Swimming @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

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

Went to the Peak District over the weekend and swam for an hour, then did quite a decent hike so substituted that for the circuits as I was shattered after!
No worries. You hit the target for the week with the swim and run so all good. And never easy to do the strength stuff when away.

SUNDAY

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2pts | Stretches

2 POINTS

A stretching routine you can do daily to help with your flexibility. 30 seconds for each stretch is plenty.

18pts | 60 Mins Run

18 POINTS

Keep that RPE down. You want to be able to run and chat, speaking of which, joining a group can add to the enjoyment here.

20 Points
Took the heart rate monitor out again instead of the Garmin to try to focus on gentle heart rate rather than obsessing over the pace – finding myself looking at my Garmin every two minutes lately so this was a nice break and I know if my HR is around 150-154 then that is 9.15 – 9.30 pace for me. Nice and gentle, although pretty hilly surroundings in the Peaks so took some of the hills at a walk to stop the heart rate spiking too much.
It’s a really good way of doing it. Even 150-154 might be a bit high for an easy run. But it depends on your normal HR to be fair. But no problem with walking some of the hills. The heart doesn’t know if we are walking or running. This obsession with pace is really preventing lots of runners from getting the most out of their easy session. Well done Chris, another strong week.