22-08-2012, 07:30 AM
Hi there coach
Well, it has been a week already since I came back from Paris and I guess it's time for some updates.
I must say that the little break has done me more bad than good. I only trained two days out of 9 during this time, one 1h easy run and a 1h30' at 4:30 avg pace for a total of 20K, a very nice training visiting the most emblematic places of Paris: Champs Elysees, Arc du Triomph, Tour Eiffel, Invalides, Nôtre Dame.. it was a very enjoyable run. Despite of this, I must say that we were all day long walking and doing tourism which was pretty tiring in its own way so It really wasn't much time to train and I even think that may had been counter-productive.
I don't think that training only two days may have had a hard impact on performance, but the problem is that I thought that after half a year training and dieting hard maybe I would deserve a little reward, so these days I eat whataver I enjoyed (and that includes mostly sweets and chocolates) and I think that this is what it had the hardest impact on performance, because on other ocasions I also noticed that if any day had an excess in food the next day I'd feel drowsy and gain weight fast. In fact, I weighted 65 when I came back, that was 2 kg more than when I left and I was already on a slightly-high edge (when I feel more in shape I'm between 60 and low 62).
So, in order to prove this, see: the first to days I ate well and recorded morning HR more or less consistent (between 46-48 avg), but after a few days releasing myself I started recording higher HRs every day until I reached 60-66 avg!! As for the general feelings, I felt well during the whole travel but when I came back I tried to resume training and everything has been pretty bad.
Last Tuesday I tried to run the 6x1000 on the mill (since the track is still only available until 6PM and can't train with so much heat) and tried to stick with the 3:30 pace and only could do two intervals, I left the 3rd one at 800m and call it a day. Then on Saturday I had been processing the pictures and I didn't feel like I wanted to run the 5K paced, so I skipped it. This Monday's 1h easy on the mill was done at 5:10 pace and avg 154 bpm, highest 162 when I was doing it a month or two ago at 5:00 144 avg... and finally yesterday I did the 10x400 on the street in a very well measured and flat zone where I trained sometimes before going to the track. I did the fastest one in 1:17 and the slowest in 1:21, avg 1:18, at full effort, when on best shape I was managing 1:15-1:16... also HR by the roof, hitting 180+ in all intervals and 150 bpms in the 1' recoveries.
Over a week I've been eating very clean and I regained some of my avg weigh, now at 62.5.. but the morning HR still remains high in an avg of 50 although I may have seen a little improvement over this week.
The thing is that I'm very disappointed that one week of break can have such an impact on me. Until now I always have been training hard and motivated but I had faith in that over the time I will become more fit, but the more time I spend running the more I realize that the minimal break I do in my routine can set me very back on performance and also this year I'm only going backwards instead of forwards despite being following the cycles in a consistent manner as suggested here.
So all this makes me wonder what is the meaning of all my effort and that maybe I'm not cut for this and I must confess these lately days I even considered quitting running, at least as a "competitive" effort. Some would say "hey, don't think like that, take it easier and enjoy your running" but the fact is that running on an almost everyday basis over the same places during 3 years has become a little bit boring, I think I do it more because I set a goal some time ago that is important to me more than because I actually enjoy it, and while the key sessions where challenging once and had me motivated, this year's I can only run them a little bit slower every time, which means that I have to give everything on me on this sessions and that puts a lot of strain and I must confess that I'm starting even to "fear" this sessions more than enjoy them...
Sorry for lowering the karma of the forums so much with this, since this acts as my athletic log I wanted to persist my feelings here as they are important over the time to see where I was once and were I'm now. Maybe in the future I'll laugh at this. For the moment, I'll try to keep with the cycles without thinking too much and see if once I enter the regular races schedule this September I can catch up again with at least a decent shape.
Well, it has been a week already since I came back from Paris and I guess it's time for some updates.
I must say that the little break has done me more bad than good. I only trained two days out of 9 during this time, one 1h easy run and a 1h30' at 4:30 avg pace for a total of 20K, a very nice training visiting the most emblematic places of Paris: Champs Elysees, Arc du Triomph, Tour Eiffel, Invalides, Nôtre Dame.. it was a very enjoyable run. Despite of this, I must say that we were all day long walking and doing tourism which was pretty tiring in its own way so It really wasn't much time to train and I even think that may had been counter-productive.
I don't think that training only two days may have had a hard impact on performance, but the problem is that I thought that after half a year training and dieting hard maybe I would deserve a little reward, so these days I eat whataver I enjoyed (and that includes mostly sweets and chocolates) and I think that this is what it had the hardest impact on performance, because on other ocasions I also noticed that if any day had an excess in food the next day I'd feel drowsy and gain weight fast. In fact, I weighted 65 when I came back, that was 2 kg more than when I left and I was already on a slightly-high edge (when I feel more in shape I'm between 60 and low 62).
So, in order to prove this, see: the first to days I ate well and recorded morning HR more or less consistent (between 46-48 avg), but after a few days releasing myself I started recording higher HRs every day until I reached 60-66 avg!! As for the general feelings, I felt well during the whole travel but when I came back I tried to resume training and everything has been pretty bad.
Last Tuesday I tried to run the 6x1000 on the mill (since the track is still only available until 6PM and can't train with so much heat) and tried to stick with the 3:30 pace and only could do two intervals, I left the 3rd one at 800m and call it a day. Then on Saturday I had been processing the pictures and I didn't feel like I wanted to run the 5K paced, so I skipped it. This Monday's 1h easy on the mill was done at 5:10 pace and avg 154 bpm, highest 162 when I was doing it a month or two ago at 5:00 144 avg... and finally yesterday I did the 10x400 on the street in a very well measured and flat zone where I trained sometimes before going to the track. I did the fastest one in 1:17 and the slowest in 1:21, avg 1:18, at full effort, when on best shape I was managing 1:15-1:16... also HR by the roof, hitting 180+ in all intervals and 150 bpms in the 1' recoveries.
Over a week I've been eating very clean and I regained some of my avg weigh, now at 62.5.. but the morning HR still remains high in an avg of 50 although I may have seen a little improvement over this week.
The thing is that I'm very disappointed that one week of break can have such an impact on me. Until now I always have been training hard and motivated but I had faith in that over the time I will become more fit, but the more time I spend running the more I realize that the minimal break I do in my routine can set me very back on performance and also this year I'm only going backwards instead of forwards despite being following the cycles in a consistent manner as suggested here.
So all this makes me wonder what is the meaning of all my effort and that maybe I'm not cut for this and I must confess these lately days I even considered quitting running, at least as a "competitive" effort. Some would say "hey, don't think like that, take it easier and enjoy your running" but the fact is that running on an almost everyday basis over the same places during 3 years has become a little bit boring, I think I do it more because I set a goal some time ago that is important to me more than because I actually enjoy it, and while the key sessions where challenging once and had me motivated, this year's I can only run them a little bit slower every time, which means that I have to give everything on me on this sessions and that puts a lot of strain and I must confess that I'm starting even to "fear" this sessions more than enjoy them...
Sorry for lowering the karma of the forums so much with this, since this acts as my athletic log I wanted to persist my feelings here as they are important over the time to see where I was once and were I'm now. Maybe in the future I'll laugh at this. For the moment, I'll try to keep with the cycles without thinking too much and see if once I enter the regular races schedule this September I can catch up again with at least a decent shape.