All About The Base

I have three weeks off from work. We close every year during Christmas and New Years but have chosen to extend the time a bit longer due to COVID and the students (who are our main clientele) being gone.

This is given me a great opportunity to build a solid aerobic base of fitness before we begin the next segment of training. I will continue to work towards a 5 minute mile using a strength endurance approach. This way I will hopefully get faster at the 5k/10k/half as well. Though watching the Marathon Project yesterday has built my excitement for a marathon.

Something I’ve never done in my training is consistently running twice a day. I can remember a handful of times where I’ve run twice and usually those have been races or out of the ordinary situations. Coming off a season without a big race was nice in the sense that my body wasn’t broken. I felt pretty recovered and good a few days into my break, which did wonders for my mental fatigue. It didn’t take long for me to feel ready to go again, which is what I am after. The thing I hate most about long races is the recovery period after them. I want to get back to running!

My plan for building my aerobic base will focus on running twice a day and feeling good. If I jump into a teammate’s workout I will be there mostly for support and to help pace parts of it. I’ll include strides and hill reps at the end of a run or two a week if it feels appropriate.

I also have my strength work planned out, so I will also use this time to get into that habit so when I am back working full time, I’ll already know what I am doing on which days. The hurdle drills are something I want to keep as well which will conclude easy morning runs. The evening runs will simply be there just to do. It’s the habit and practice more than any fitness gains. Running in the winter is tough, getting out of my comfort zone will make me tough too.

Today was the first day, the beginning. My schedule looked like this:

AM: 68 minutes easy w/ Jenny

Strength work: 30 minutes core/foam rolling

PM: 43 minutes easy w/ Mike

Extras: 60 minute nap, hydration focus

Food: BREAKFAST (Oatmeal/PB/Raisins/fruit) LUNCH (tofu, broccoli stir-fry, scone) DINNER (veggie poutine) SNACK (yogurt/protein powder/PB)

Mood: I feel good and mentally fresh. I was happy to run today and my legs felt loose all day.

I’ll do my best to update this when it’s appropriate. My deal with myself is that if I get overtired or mentally fatigued and unhappy I will stop and reassess. After these three weeks, I’ll take a down week and then begin something more concrete with focused goals.

Holiday miles turn into holiday smiles.