Setbacks

 Monday was a planned rest day.

Tuesday -  The plan was to run in the evening after work, I woke up feeling good, but after lunch time, I started to feel very weak and sick, when you feel when you are get the flu. I skipped the run and watched football, I slept 7 hours and I sweat a lot, my bed was wet.

Today I woke feeling much better, but still no great, but wanted to do a short run in the evening, but I started to feel down again, not as bad as yesterday, but when feel hot, and you start caughing a little. Again I skipped the run, I dont run when sick, it does not worth it.

I dont know when I will be back , maybe on Friday or on the weekend, lets see how I feel tomorrow. But  rest and recovery is the goal now.

It sucks when you are going to start running 6 times per week and then the momentum stops. Thats life.

I hope your running is going well.

Catching up

 Thursday - Ran in the morning at 06:10 a.m., but had to cut the run short because I had strong stomach problems. Did 35:23 total time. Legs felt off once again. And again much slower than normal.

Friday -  I ran in the morning again at 06:20 a.m., this time alone because my brother raced a 7k at Friday night. Finally found my legs and felt pretty good, no stomach problems. Did my normal 8.3k route. Did it in 51:03. Felt pretty good.

Saturday - I ran at 07:20 a.m. a.m. to the harbor and the plan was to do 60 mins, but I ended up running 64:39 and then did 6 x 20 seconds strides with 40 seconds walking rest. I did those In the street of my home. I ran with my brother on the run, since he ran a race on Friday night, we were running pretty slow for a lot of the run, but then once we got to the harbor, I started to pull way, on my way back I ran again with him, until He finished his run. Felt ok, but not as great as on Friday. Around 6:20/km.

Today I ran at 09:05 a.m., because I went to bed at 2:30 a.m. because we had a small party here at home yesterday, I dont remember the last time that I went to bed so late, so I knew that the 07 a.m. run was not happening, as I wanted to sleep. I drank a lot of beer, but I tricked myself, meaning that between beers I drank around 3 glasses of water, and I woke up feeling pretty good today, no hang over and no nothing and actually felt pretty good on the run. I ran with my brother and we went to the Turia park today, the heat was hitting hard and in the harbor there are no shades, so we opted to the turia this time. A lot of runners there as always. I did 61:27 total time, around 6:15/ km ,  running easy. Felt good.

Ran 6 times this week, which was the goal. However, I did not do any workouts, so this week I have to get some stress work. The next couple of weeks will be hard workwise, because one of my colleagues its on vacation, so the work load will be higher. However, I will run on morning or evenings, but need to keep the training going.

Have a great Sunday you all!!

Zapping the zero

 I was going to run tomorrow, but ended up stuffing myself with fried chicken. DNR.

Today I ran in the evening at 7:50 p.m. after work with my brother in the blasco park. Felt good, but in the last almost 3 laps I had to speed up for 2 laps because a guy that runs regularly there was going to pass me, I told my brother that he was not going to pass me, so I sped up. Its an indiscipline, I know, but I am sick that that guy pass me. As I have run in the morning for the last almost 7 months, did not have the opportunity to run with him. He often runs in the evening, anyway, he never got to pass me, but I was running harder than I thought at a slower than tempo pace. I am not very good changing the pace from easy pace to a " fast" pace. Ran 50 mins total. Around 8.5k or something like that. Ran laps in the blasco park, but did not count them and we started running from my home, but finished there until the watch read 50 mins. All in all a good run.

The plan is to run everyday for the remaining of the week.

Sunday morning run

 Today I headed out at 7:10 a.m. with my brother to the port. The plan was to do 60 mins of running. I did 62:15 or something like that. Very confortable run, but cramps in my left ankle. The glute and hamstring are behaving quiet well, but now that cramp make me start limping, then it gets better and I can run normally, but I dont know why I have that cramp, because in my last day of running ( race day) I felt awesome and even after the race, next days I did not feel any soreness or nothing.

The training for fall races has started yesterday, so workouts start on Wednesday. No time to lose. Yesterday started doing push ups as well, for upper body strength. Did 4 x 5 repeats, its a shame, but better to start easy and do it consistently than doing 4 x 10 and last 1 week sore. 

Basically a rest week this week with only 2 runs. Goal for next week are going to be 6 runs. 

Today I did around 6 miles for the day. Around 6:20/km pace, so very easy.

Back on the wagon

 I rested  6 days from running. The plan was to rest 2 days, but one rest day bring other. I decided that it would be my " break" from the season to feel less guilty. At the same time, it marks an end and a beginning. On september / october there are a couple of good races. I even signed up for the 10k Ibercaja, one of most competitive 10k in spain, generally around 20 000 people run, but this time there were only room for 6000. Race is October 3rd and I signed up on Wednesday, because it will run out quickly. Today I put a rest at my rest.

But contraty to popular believe, rest is not always good for you, in fact I today started my run with cramps in my ankle, and my calves were very tight, as if I was very still, if today was a workout/ race day it would have been a disaster. I felt good in the first 10 mins, but then after that I felt horrible and dragging to complete the 45 mins.

At 7:10 a.m. today I headed out to the port 23 mins, then turned around and got home in 45:15. My brother and I met at the port. I explained to him, that sometimes rest can be detrimental to your fitness. 

Or maybe I just eat too much, and when I dont run for 6 days that extra calories adds up quickly, oh well. 

Today is the start of a new cycle of training. I hope not to lose what I had already built until week ago.

Have a great Saturday!

5k PONLE FRENO VALENCIA

 This was a very fun race and the route was great. The only bad thing is that it was not an actual 5k race, it was a 5.11k according to several GPS watches. I dont wear a watch in races, but the 5k mark was well ahead of the finish line.

However, if that would have been a 5k I again ran 23 and some change, so I did not get sub 22 mins I think. I felt pretty good and strong. What stole the opportunity to get down from 23 mins was that We headed in the starting line well back and in the first 800m, I had to dodge a lot of people, thus running from one side to the other so that made me lose a lot of time. Ran hard and strong and in the last stretch of 600m really increased the pace and passed a lot of people, finishing in a spint, but not as strong as last week`s race. 

I enjoyed the race and route, felt pretty strong and could have kept going, the thing is that I cannot find another gear to run faster in the very moment. The heat was not as strong as last week. Total time was 23:32 or so, in the results the clock time is showed and I appears like if I ran 24:10. My brother ran 24:04 and I beated him by 32 seconds. Never watched him in the race.

Good effort, but run 23.00 or over for the 5k let me a bitter taste in my mouth. Right now, I am taking a mini break of 3 days off and I will run this evening to start a new block of training for the upcoming races. Maybe I wont race more until August as I cannot find another race soon. However, I have to put racing in the back burner for a bit and start training hard again.

I have run 5 races in 5-6 weeks which is plenty. Time to rest a little. From next week also, I will ramp up from 5 days of running to 6 days of running. I have been training 5 times per week for 7 months now, and its time to get back to 6 days per week to see if I can improve my performance like races pre covid.

I will updated photos this evening. 

Shake out pre race

 Today I was up at 06:10 a.m., but headed out to run at 7:15 a.m. to the blasco park. Did only 40 mins easy, but then did 6 x 20 seconds strides with 40 seconds rest in between. Felt better in the last strides. In the beginning of the run felt the heart at 1000 beats per minute and felt tired. Then after the 20 mins started to feel better. Did several laps until complete the 40 mins. My brother was there doing an easy run, but he showed up late so when he showed up, I only had 10 mins remaining or something like that.

Tomorrow I will race another 5k called ponle freno Valencia. I was not going to run it since I have done a lot of racing in the past month, but on Monday I registered, that 23.00 really let me a bad taste in my mouth. I hope to break 23.00 tomorrow. I already did one month ago, but I want to do it again in the heat. My brother will race in this one. On Thursday he did 23.38 in practice with a lot of heat. We will see how it goes, maybe we can work together during the race.

I hope I feel better tomorrow and ready to rock and roll.