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. 

Morning easy run

 Today I was up at 05:30 a.m. and sleep good so I woke up and headed out at 06:10 a.m. to do the Blasco ibañez route. I thought that I would feel pretty tired and with the hamstring and glute bothering me. That was not the case. I felt pretty good and the glute and leg did not bother me at all. The weather was much fresh than in the evening, but still hot. 51:31. A bit slower than I wanted, but I will take it, the effort was pretty easy. However, I can feel some tiredness, maybe its from all the racing that I have done in the last month.

Second evening run of the year

 Today I again ran in the evening after work. I started the run at 7:15 p.m. with the sun shining hard. The plan for today was to do a recovery run of 48-50 mins to simulate my morning easy runs. I did a lot of laps in the blasco park, first one was 5:34, last one in 5:22, all the rest in between those ranges. Felt good really, but the sun and the heat bother a lot and I sweating a ton. However, generally felt good.  The reason I ran in the evening today and yesterday is that I am waking out of no where at 4 a.m or before and I cannot get back to sleep until 1+ hour later. These days are stressful at work and sleeping less than necessary guarantee a headache the whole day. A headache at the work place leading with stress is not good. When I get up at 07:15 a.m. I hardly ever suffer a headache, but when I wake up at 5:15 a.m. on workout days for example, the headache is guarantee. I will get back to the morning running of course, because its much more convenient, but sometimes you have to adap for your own particular situation. Sometimes is not easy to do a hard workout in the morning and then deal with a very stressful day at work. Likewise, is not easy to do a hard workout after a hard long day at the office. You have to find what works best for you and that might change from time to time. The most important thing is to keep training consistently no matter the time of day.

49:10 total for the day sweating a lot. I would guess it was around 8 -8.1k. Did not felt sore at all from the workout.

Another thing that I forgot to mention is that yesterday the hamstring/glute bothered me a lot in the second half of the tempo, I almost quit, but then felt better. Today It bothered me a lot in the office. When I was running I could feel it, but could run easy without problems, but the pull / strain is there.