Journey to Fitness Chapter #10.1: The beginning of Phase 2 – Part 1

10km Intermediate Training begins!

Without any rest, the trio of Miles, Wade and Gallop embarked on their Phase 2 – 10km Intermediate Training Program the following week.

The training comprises of 4 days of consecutive runs, with easy runs on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday will be reserved for speed training alternating between Tempo and Interval training.

They will also see Tuesday’s run increase from 4.8km to 9.6km, with increments of half a mile (800m) each week.

Weekends sees their long run from 6.4km in week 1 to 12.8km in week 7. They have decided to switch the long runs to Saturday and the 1hr cross training to Sunday. Knowing how the weather can wreak a run, they rather do the run on Saturday, with Sunday as a backup in case Saturday’s run is rained out.

This time, with a determined goal of 6:45mins/km pace as their target, along with a threshold of 7mins/km and a stretched target of 6:30mins/km pace. They are all set to continue their training.

Week 1 looks pretty straightforward, 4.8km runs on weekdays with a 35mins tempo run on Wednesday.

Weekend comprises of a very manageable 6.4km run, followed by 1 hour of cross training. Let’s do it!!!

Macro Week #08 (10km )

Micro Week #01, Session 1 –

Plan: Run 4.8 km

Actual: Run 4.81 km (37:31 mins)

First run of the first week felt surprisingly easy. Miles completely the run in a comfortable pace of 7:48mins/km with average HR of 137 bpm. In the first 7 weeks, he usually ran slower than 8mins/km for his 4.8km runs, and HR was hovering around 140-144 bpm. Is the training program working? The increase in pace and reduction in average HR points to an improvement in his fitness.

Micro Week #01, Session 2 –

Plan: Run 4.8 km

Actual: Run 4.8 km (38 mins)

Second run was on Tuesday, Miles took it easy again, maintaining an average HR of 139 bpm. Pace dropped back to below 8mins/km. However, Miles wasn’t too concern as he wanted to condition his body for 4 consecutive days of running.

Micro Week #01, Session 3 –

Plan: Tempo 35 mins

Actual: Run  km ( mins)

Wednesday means speedwork. Miles hasn’t done much speedwork in the past, so he took a cautious approach to his tempo run, targeting to start slow and gradually increasing his pace every 5 mins until a peak of 6:20mins/km and gradually decreasing pace.  Average HR was bumped up to 153 bpm, but still he felt good about the run.

Micro Week #01, Session 4 –

Plan: Run 4.8 km

Actual: Run 4.8 km (25:46 mins)

And with a final 4.8km run on Thursday, Miles completed 4 consecutive days of training in week 1 of the 10km Intermediate training program. Maybe it was because of the speedwork the day before, but Miles felt that he could run faster while maintaining the same effort.

And so, this conclude the weekday runs for Miles and his buddies.

….. (to be continued)