Recovery week. Important to take this. We’ve delayed it one week. Sometimes it’s when everything is going so well we lose track of the plan and do something silly (don’t take enough rest). But there’s still some decent runs in there and I’ve stuck in the stair master as well to see how that goes. Any problems let me know.

150 Points Target

Missed Thursday’s 50 mins easy, but made up about 20 mins of this on other days. I’m ok with that, as I’d had a cold, so I know the extra rest day did me good. Didn’t quite finish the S&C, missing the wall sits, Russian twists and calf raises. Very unlike me to miss a wall sit! Very happy with how things are going.

It’s all about the big picture. It’s rare that weeks are going to be perfect and if we look back at the last 5 now they read 110%, 99%, 99%, 115% and 94% of training hit. If you imagine those numbers as rest results that’s pretty good right? I’m excited to see the results from this training you’ve been doing lately. Keep up the great work Joe.

MONDAY

12pts | 20 Mins Stair Climber

12 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 20 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?

27 Points

Will be finishing off the S&C later on in the week, as sit ups, planks, wall sits and Russian twists still need to be completed. All of the others done. These can all be done at home, so won’t be a problem. 108 floors on the stair-stepper…I was on level 20 by the time I finished…blimey! Haha. Jogged to the gym, which was 15 minutes, so I’ll knock 10 mins off Thursday’s run, as I’m not looking for bonus points this week, due to it being deload week

Level 20. ****king hell 🤯 How did you find it though? Reckon it could benefit you and the hills in the ultras? If so we can have it in there once a week. I think it’s more beneficial than another 40 mins of pavement pounding right? Great start to the week though. I ain’t going to be hitting level 20 on there anytime soon, so that number is safe for a while.

TUESDAY

36pts | Continuous Hills

36 POINTS

10 Mins WU @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)
40 Mins @ HM-Marathon Effort (RPE: 6)
10 Mins @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

Find a hilly route and push the pace a little. The uphills will naturally make the RPE increase. Try to attack the downhills as well, then ease off a touch on the flat. This is a session though so effort should be quite high during the 40 mins on.

36 Points

I feel a little broken after that session. I really feel like I left it all out there. Someone asked me if I was ok when I finished, as I was crouching down and breathing heavily😂. That’s what those sessions are about though, right. Doesn’t help that I’ve eaten absolutely rubbish today, as we had our Christmas party meeting, so I’ve eaten mainly crisps and cookies. Back on the fruit and nuts tomorrow

Exactly that. You here a lot of people talk about how many miles they’ve done, but unless you work hard in those key sessions you’re not going to hit your potential, so it’s great to hear. And doing it solo is great. Awesome work Joe!!

WEDNESDAY

thursday

I’ve been fighting a cold for the last week, and the way I’ve felt these last couple of days has made me realise that I need to take it a bit easier with the training. I ran to the gym on Monday and my cool down on Tuesday was longer than in the plan, so if I add an extra 10 mins on to tomorrow’s run, then I’m down only by 10 minutes overall for the week

Yeah I mean last week was above and beyond the target. I think this highlights the importance of consistency. I see it a lot with the HY runners, they go all in for a 6-8 weeks and ruin themselves, then need 2-3 weeks to recover before repeating the cycle. Hence why I feel a more consistent training schedule, week in, week out, works better. No worries about missing this run, you’ve got points in the bank at the moment.

FRIDAY

21 Points

That was a lovely run. Pretty much bang on 9 mins/mile. Just over 130 HR. Nice and comfortable. Just under 8 miles in 70 minutes, to make up for some of the missed run on Thursday. I was thinking today, how fortunate am I to be able to run about 8 miles in just over an hour and feel comfortable doing so. A lot of people, for one reason or another, don’t have that level of health and fitness at my age, so I’m grateful that I do

Gratitude is such an important thing in life and it’s great to be able to have that self reflection. My run didn’t go to plan yesterday but still took the positives and was able to run for 45 mins and drove past a chap with an artificial leg on the way home and that made me realise how lucky I am. Well done o n the extra mins as well.

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

54 Points

That was a biggie! 21 miles in 3 hours, with about 1300 ft of elevation. Went a bit too quick to start off with, then found it hard to slow down, until my legs forced me to! Made a rookie error and forgot to take gels with me🤦🏻‍♂️. Feeling good

Impressive. Moving at a decent clip there. Just shows how well you are running right now and hopefully another boost for the confidence levels. Great work Joe.