I have just got back for a 16K run which included 12 K of moderate intensity fartlek done in the hope of getting a little bit of speed back into my legs. It was a wonderful blue-sky day with a brisk breeze creating choppy patterns on surface of the river, and I felt quite energized. During the ‘speed’ phases of the fartlek I was fairly fluent, though there was a slight residual heaviness in the legs after yesterday’s interval session. I am persisting with my plan of doing moderately intense back-to-back sessions once per week, followed by a rest day and an easy day. Because of my recent respiratory problems the sessions have been a bit less intense than originally intended (eg 4×1Km rather than 6×1Km on the first day) and it is still too early to judge how successful this strategy will be be in improving my fitness. Nonetheless, so far I am pleased to find that I am able to achieve a substantial cumulative training load over the two day period without subjecting myself to intense stress, and hope this training load will provide a good stimulus to anabolic processes during the subsequent recovery period.
January 20, 2009 at 5:38 am |
Making subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) adjustments to the training is important for older athletes. “Bull-at-a-gate” training in our youth could be gotten away with, but no longer!
I hope the rest of the week goes well.