Core consistency. Perhaps.
Update two? I’m as surprised as you are!
This is the second update for our Daft 5k January Challenge – you may want to go back and read our intro first if you’re just jumping in!
Jamie: This week has been strange for me, with life getting in the way of my training once again. I thought that was finished with 2020. Either way, I mostly only managed quality sessions this week, so my training plan looked more like Alex’s than my proposed high volume method.
My running included an easy 10k, a decent speed session on a treadmill and a tempo run. The speed session saw reps of x2 1ks, x2 800metres and x2 400 metres with an easy warm up and warm down. As an aside, mentally it’s much nicer to have a descending distance to target. 400 metre sprints seem almost easy after the 1kms! I did increase the speed as I went down this particular ladder though. You can be very specific about the speeds you target in your training plans if you have a target time, but I played this very much by feel. Sometimes it’s nice not to look at data! The tempo run was a decent session outside, wrapped into a 10k run. I’ve been doing a lot of treadmill running recently and it’s nice to get out and about. Our local trail running routes have been trashed a little by the weather, so isn’t easy going, but fun nonetheless.
I also had two sessions on the bike (Zwift): one recovery ride and then a hill session up a virtual Box Hill. Not sure I want to try it in reality, with Zwift reducing the difficulty relative to real life by 50%. I’m sure I’ll get better.
I feel like my core and stretch workouts were more accomplished. I tried some specific kettle bell exercises, which will hopefully contribute to a more healthy core if I’m continue with them. Specifically: sumo squats, deadlifts, some side leans and some snatches. Taken in isolation, that sentence reads a little weird? The drills I mentioned last week also felt helpful. They weren’t particularly lengthy, but I think consistency will be key.
The next week is key and will be my last chance to get some speed in the legs and then an extreme taper of 2-3 days rest. Oh joy.
Alex: I must say I’ve been finding it a bit hard to motivate myself this week. Not so much with the training – I’m actually always up for doing my planned sessions. No, my issue has been mostly with just getting up in time. Sign of the times probably.
Anyway, my 3 running sessions went well – in so far as I did them and felt relatively smug about having done so afterwards. I do still feel exceedingly slow – especially in the tempo sessions. All 3 of my training sessions are very approachable, but still leave me with a soupçon of dread when approaching the final couple of intervals – which I think is about the right level of tuning.
For the indoor bike sessions this week I went with a couple of different sessions – owing to forgetting to charge the Apple Watch (not actually used outside of these Fitness + sessions). For my first session I went with a Les Mills RPM session. Back when we were allowed in physical proximity of others when exercising I did a couple of these sessions a week. They are heavily choreographed and favour lots of short, sharp bursts of activity. In a gym environment this worked well as you kind of feed off the other riders in the session. At home RPM is still a good workout – but I don’t hit the same level of exertion for some reason. I think perhaps the focus becomes more on being ‘in time’ with the music, rather than the pseudo-competitive workout against your compatriots alongside you.
For the second session I tried a wholly new app to me – WithU. I was surprised to find that there was no video. What would I look at for 40+ minutes?! I almost flaked out and ran back to the comfort of the Les Mills app – however, I thought some change would be good for me. The workout was a lot more of a ‘standard’ indoor cycle session – some interval speed-work mixed with some drawn-out hill climbs. Once I got past the fact that I had no visual stimulus I got into the workout pretty easily. The instructions were clear – if requiring a bit more attention that normal – as you can’t just look to see if you’re supposed to be in a ‘standing’ or ‘seated’ position. I don’t think I had a high level of exertion on that workout – but I think adjusting to the audio-only instruction and get in the zone would be easier after a couple of more times.
One thing in the Apple Fitness+ camps favour is the heart-rate linkup that does give you an easy focus to try and keep up in the rankings. Being compared to others does seem to get past the ‘so what is this about?’ to ‘ok, I’m gonna go 100%!’.
Hopefully this is actually proving useful training, as I’m actually not doing any of the core training I said I would… maybe next week. Perhaps.
Daft Runners 