Rest week

It's a rest week this week. That doesn't mean I simply down tools and do no exercise. What it means is that I don't train for as long I would on a full week - the intensity remains the same, the distance doesn't. For instance, this morning it was a 5km tempo run as opposed to a 9km. Reduced distance, but still plenty of hills. It took a while to get going - I went off too fast, and then slowed down to much, before finally reaching equilibrium after about 2km. I set a new PB though, 17:51, so I was pretty content.

The turbo session the night before was a short but sweet 40 minutes. 15 warm up, before 10 minutes at 133-149 BPM (Zone 1), 10 minutes at 149-164 BPM (Zone 2), and 5 minutes at 141-149 (Zone 1 High) before a 5 minute warm down. Felt good - seems a tiny effort, but rest weeks exist for a reason. BPM is heart rate beats per minute - the higher the figure, the more the effort. Zone 4 is very hard, whereas Z1 is low intensity base endurane work. Many people have more complicate ways of working HR, but I stick to a four zone method for biking and running.

I also got a cheeky 9 hours sleep. No surprises, I still felt tired in the morning. I've got used to that, but it's always, always unpleasant to leave a warm bed for some cold weather training.

Club swim tonight - hopefully crack out about 3000m of good endurance work.

20/01/2010