Offseason Week #5
Normal service to resume
It was rather nice to take a deliberately easy period after smashing through a few big months of training. I expect my fitness and endurance to have dropped in these 5 weeks, but as I explained once before, the graph of fitness is a tad complicated. You start with a baseline of fitness and periodize training so that it increases and peaks in time for your key race. But with increasing fitness, there’s also the associated fatigue which accumulates with your training load. If you continue to train through after the race, you might accumulate fitness but your fatigue will continue to grow which can eventually result in chronic fatigue or an injury. Instead what the smart athletes do is reduce the training load and let the fitness and fatigue fall. The levels drop but as you had raised your fitness to a higher level in your previous training block, your fitness doesn’t fall as far down to the level when you started training and instead it creates new higher baseline. When you resume training, you can now build on that new baseline and getting fitter.
I have done a good job of following the training plan so far. But, given that I am “racing” this Sunday, I switched the threshold run from Friday to Tuesday because my guess was that a 4-mile threshold run would not feel the same as it normally does. (I was right, it didn’t. Though I managed to get through 4 miles in 22:13 off basically nothing but walks and recovery runs for 5 weeks, which was very pleasant. But I needed to nap afterwards. More on that later.) Much like any other race week, I am front-loading the week meaning I will do a bulk of the training earlier in the week and then cruise towards the end to let the body recover.
My focus off-late has been on doing strength training which included one day where I did 101 push-ups and followed it the day after that with a kettlebell workout. As you can imagine, my shoulders weren’t very happy with me but they will thank me come race day. Lower body strength workouts have helped me regain a bit of a pop in my strides. Plus I have
less mud marks on my legs*.
*Basically, this is a whole another tangent but if you run on a muddy day or just in general, if you see marks on one of your calf muscle from the other shoe it means that your hips are weak and your leg is rotating too much. During the marathon build, I was getting a lot of marks on my ankle bone because of said weakness.
I was thinking of also re-introducing my body to Vo2 max workouts come next week. Of course, I will not start by doing 2*1 mile, 2*1200, 2*1000 and 2*800. The same way I built up to 101 push-ups, I will build my way to some Vo2 max fun. I am sure I will find good company for these. I have to admit, I did the threshold solo on Tuesday and it was a bit of challenge to keep going. I was saying “Good job” and “You’ve got this” out loud to myself, which I’m guessing weirded out a couple of people on the track. It’s a much easier workout to do while staring at the back of Jake’s shorts. I think in general, any hard effort is always better in the company of people.
The community aspect of running is undeniably beautiful. I used to pride myself on being a lone wolf, often running huge solo workouts back in 2018 and 2019. But coming back from my injury in 2022, my perspective shifted. The sense of gratitude I gained from being able to just run pain-free was compounded when I got to share the road with my friends. I then realized that pushing workouts solo undoubtedly enhanced my ability to “time-trial” but more often than not, races I do aren’t time-trials. They are run with people and you need to learn to work with them. Plus, the people I run with often bring a rich and unique perspective from their lives, which reshapes my thinking.
The famous adage goes something like “Your personality is the sum total of the personalities of the five people closest to you”. It is because of this saying that I choose the people I run with very carefully. At work, I do not have this choice, so I use my home office days very well. I draw a degree of separation carefully knowing my attitude will be influenced by the behaviours of others. And I am glad to have my close circle of friends because they are obviously amazing people and have resulted in my maturation over the last couple of years.
Talking of my tempo run from Tuesday, I had some nice takeaways and thought of sharing them with you here. So, the last time I ran at my threshold was on 4th April, nearly 8 weeks ago. At that time, threshold felt like the way it should “comfortably hard”. On Tuesday, it felt the opposite of that, “hardly comfortable”. After a nice warmup, which I clearly miscalculated and ended up running 1.5k extra, I headed to the track to reintroduce my legs to threshold. I used Garmin’s track mode, which is excellent btw. I ran 4 miles (6440 meters to be precise, even though 4 miles is 6436 meters but frankly, metric system is better) and my watch gave me exactly 6440 meters. When I use it in the “normal” mode, this would often be 6.5 or 6.6k. I decided to run between 3:22–3:28/km(5:22 to 5:33/mile) knowing very well that I am not at all in 1:10 half marathon (3:22/km) shape. I was like if I can run Sub 3:30, that alone would be a win. Given what I said before, if Sub 3:30 is my baseline for the season after 5 weeks of walking and easy jogging, that’s brilliant. I started off with the 1st 4 laps in 5:30, and then basically didn’t slow down. It was a bit difficult to run alone but I tried to smile at others on the track and talk to myself. I finished in 22:13 and noticed that the heart rate did manage to stay in the zone. But my soul felt empty. I think what I lost is the endurance. Being brutally honest, I don’t think I could run this pace for a half marathon right now. Maybe 15k. But hey, it was 3:27/km which was much better than what I was expecting. The jog back home was a reminder that Lausanne has steep hills.
It’s so funny, in peak fitness I do 4–8 miles of threshold on a weekly basis and frankly, I get on with my day after that. On Tuesday, I needed a nap. And some extra calories. I haven’t felt this way for a while. But something good definitely came from this. Off late, my aerobic zone also seemed to have shifted. Running 7 minute/mile pace was pushing my heart rate above Zone 2 which was a tad annoying. I think the workout on Tuesday had a positive impact on the stroke rate of my heart because I had another 10 mile run on Wednesday, albeit aerobic and 7 minute pace came back to normal levels i.e. within Zone 2. I told myself that this is the adage “fortune favours the brave” come to life. (I told myself that in rather crude words, which I won’t repeat here). Basically, I wasn’t using the heart the way it was intended to be used and it was being coddled. I gave it what it needed and it returned back to normal. Now that the 2 big days are done, I will take a “rest” day tomorrow and I do not have too much running leading into Sunday.
In the end, I was too tired from my week to race on Sunday. I had a full day of First-aid training on Saturday, in French and I had to use way too much mental energy to get through it. I preferred to sleep in on Sunday morning and go for an easier long run, which I ended up doing. I did 2 loops of the Chalet-à-Gobet yellow trail, in opposite directions which ended up totalling 14 miles, with a fair bit of elevation. I realized something about running in the forest, that it feels nothing like doing a long run by the lake. By the lake, there’s a fair bit more of road and your legs have the energy return from the road. The first 2 and as a consequence last 2 miles of my long run were on woodchip and soft mud and it has a net negative energy return. Which feels so difficult! I haven’t had that feeling in my legs until I went past 35k by the lake. Ok, I am not in the best shape right now but I see the potential of training here. There’s a fair bit of elevation but always rolling which makes time fly-by and though the energy return is negative, the softer surface is easier on the joints.
A bit of a sports roundup:
This weekend was one of the most anticipated meets in athletics since the World Champs in October last year, the Prefontaine Classic aka the Eugene Diamond League. Within this meet there were already some crazy storylines: Keeley Hodgkinson versus Mary Moraa in the 800 meters, Winfred Yavi versus Beatrice Chepkoech (versus the real deal, Olympic Champion Peruth Chemutai), the Kenyan men and women 10,000 Olympic trials IN EUGENE of all places and the big one, the Bowerman Mile with a field as stacked as the Olympic final with Olympic Champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen up against his nemesis 2023 World Champion, Josh Kerr, a super in-form Yared Nuguse and the return of the 2022 World Champion, Jake Wightman.
The 10,000 meters was a huge surprise if I’m honest. First of all a bit of a rant on Athletics Kenya (AK), who announced it on Tuesday that their trials would take place in Eugene of all places. Some of their best athletes almost didn’t get a visa and missed out on participating. They already pulled some weird by selecting Brigid Kosgei on their women’s marathon team, even though Sharon Lokedi (2022 NYC champion and 2nd in London in 2024) was a clear favourite on form. Letsrun.com’s Jonathan Gault wrote about this and mentioned that their women’s team would have been entirely comprised of non-Nike athletes (Olympic champ,Peres Jepchirchir is sponsored by Adidas, while Hellen Obiri is sponsored by ON and Lokedi by Under Armour). As AK is sponsored by Nike, they added Brigid Kosgei on the team who hasn’t been anywhere close to her past form in the last few years. It was a corrupt and questionable selection from an athletics federation which is the governing body of arguably the greatest pool of talent in athletics. Pulling this shit again in the 10,000 selection by hosting it in a Nike meet and thereby skewing the process in favour of Nike athletes is a highly ridiculous move. (The Prefontaine classic is a Nike meet which is a mandatory event for all Nike sponsored athletes. They are contractually obligated to run in it. So, all Nike-sponsored Kenyan athletes would have anyways been ready to run in Eugene as opposed to others.)
Nevertheless, the women’s race was an absolute delight. The 10,000 was paced to Sub 29:01 with World 10,000 meters champion and 14:00 5000 runner and part time Goddess, Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay bidding to become the first woman to run Sub 29 and break the world record in the process. Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet (also a 14:05 5000 runner and in great form, having very comfortably run 14:26.98 in Doha) was in the race and basically ran with Tsegay until 8800 meters, having hit halfway in 14:31. Then Chebet went into hyperdrive and while Tsegay ran an excellent time of 29:05, Chebet closed with a 63.63 last 400 and ran 28:54.14. Yup, the women’s world record is now Sub 29 in both the road 10k and track 10,000 meters.
The men’s race was a bit of a surprise, with Kelvin Kiptum’s (RIP) former training partner, Daniel Mateiko winning in a world leading time of 26:50.81. The silver medalist from the 10,000 meters world champions and pre-race favourite, Daniel Ebenyo took a fall with 2k to go and finished a lowly 8th in 27:24.33.
The rest of the diamond league was great and if you want to read a recap; you should go to letsrun.com as they did a great round up:
Final event of the day was the Bowerman mile, where world champ Josh Kerr wanted to take down Steve Cram’s 39 year British mile record of 3:46.32 and every track fan including me was waiting for Jakob Ingebrigtsen to make his return from injury and go head-to-head against Kerr. Not to forget, last time Jakob ran this meet he ran the mile in 3:43.73, missing the world record by 0.60 and he took Yared Nuguse to a 3:43.97 mile in the process. The race went out fast, Alvarado Abraham pacing the field to 800 meters in 1:52.74 but with a kilometer in, Josh Kerr surprisingly moved to the front. Usually, Jakob Ingebrigtsen stays in the front and the way Wightman and Kerr beat him was by sitting on his tail and outkicking him with 200 to go. Kerr led the way at the bell with 1200 coming in 2:50.70. Kerr ripped the last lap in 53.2 and Jakob never got a chance to move in the front as Kerr won in 3:45.34, with Steve Cram proudly commentating about the loss of his world record to this talented Scot. Behind Kerr, a gracious Jakob looked happy with a 3:45.60. Frankly, coming back from injury, I wasn’t expecting Jakob to be so fit but he looked and that’s a great sign for us track fans for the Olympics. Yared Nuguse continued to impress with a 3:46.22 mile and behind Yared, two other Scots, Neil Gourley and Jake Wightman ran 3:47.74 and 3:47.83. I am pleased for Wightman, having missed an year after his world championship win and all but forgotten (it’s funny how volatile our sport is). But this is a step in the right direction. In 11th place, a 17 year old Cameron Myers, the Aussie teen phenom took 2 seconds off Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s age group record to run 3:50.15.
Giro D’Italia
Long story short, Tadej Pogacar has won 6 out of the 20 stages so far. Usually the race leader doesn’t participate the final sprint of a grand tour (Bradley Wiggins did lead out Mark Cavendish in 2012, but didn’t “sprint”) but with Pogacar you never know. He is all but assured of the win, leading Danny Martinez by 9 minutes and 56 seconds. Pogacar could literally get off his bike, walk to the line in the last kilometer and still win the Giro. The last time someone won by more than 9 and a half minutes, you have go back to 1965. This guy is on another level. I am excited to see what he does against Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour de France.
And finally, book of the week:
If you are a Formula One fan and a nerd who likes mechanical engineering (everytime I am at a train station I am explaining Bernoulli's theorem to people), then you will really enjoy “How to Build a Car” by Adrian Newey, OBE.
Adrian Newey is one of the most successful car designers in Formula one, his cars have won 14 championships and 155 races. Worth a read if you like nerdy info on aerodynamics and of course, stories on Formula One.
That’s about it from my side. Hope you have an interesting week ahead! Thank you for reading!
