Ultra Training Week #5

I've not had a great week this week. I was incredibly tired through the middle of the week and Thursday's rest day could not come soon enough. Genuinely the first time I've felt that I have needed it. This is down largely to a consistent increase in my mileage. The previous 4 weeks i have covered 150 which is an increase for me of around 40 miles over a similar period. I've not felt damaged just tired. I think that this has been evident in my heart rate and pace. My heart rate has been quite low this week at around 136-138 bpm or around 75% of my theoretical max (220-age *75%) although having said that my actual max is higher meaning my % rate this week has been lower.

In numbers;

• My theoretical max is 178 (220-42). 
• In reality this is at least 190. 
• This makes 75% effort either 142.5 or 138bpm. 
• If you consider that my max HR is 190 and i've been running at 135 bpm then that's closer 70%. 

All of which just backs up that i have had very little zip this week (and that i am particularly boring!!). 

What i have learned though is that when you feel like this while important to train not to feel under pressure to train to hard. I started out with the training programme as a framework and so long as i am close i am happy with that. Yesterday was meant to be 20 miles followed by 10 miles today. I ran just shy of 14.5 miles yesterday and no miles today. This leaves me short by 10 miles this week. I'm unlikely to run tomorrow and will not be running on Monday either. As next week is an easy week, the longest run is 10 miles, i should be feeling fresh and ready to push hard again the following week. Although with Christmas parties and a complete lack of personal discipline this does put high mileage in jeopardy - i have experienced this before when a couple of years back i was training for an ultra. 

I'm still enjoying the training and the discovery of Strava clubs really helps with motivation and keeping it interesting. Nothing like a social media angle to make something more interesting! 

Looking ahead next week's schedule is:

Mon - Rest

Tues - 4 miles

Weds - 4 miles

Thurs - 4 miles

Fri - Rest

Sat - 10 miles

Sun - 6 miles 

This will be a total of 28, refreshing, miles for week 6. 

Keep on running....