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A Quiet(er) Week

My blog has plenty of posts of my love of a chatty run... and earlier in the year, I was thrilled to discover that chatty runs are an essential part of training. Reading about the 80/20 rule, I discovered that 80 per cent of your running should be run below the ventilatory threshold, at a pace slow enough to hold a conversation. 

And this week, I've definitely had some excellent chatty runs, especially with another Friday Five with Liz this week - putting the world to rights as we tried a number 5-mile-ish route around Trentham.
But, whilst chatty runs might still be my specialty, ever since reading about the 80/20 rule of training, I've been trying to work on the missing 20 per cent too; running at high intensity. And this week, I might just have managed it...


I set myself another mini speed session challenge in Cauldon Park on Tuesday... 10 minute warm-up, followed by 60 second fast, 90 second recovery for 10 minutes, finishing with 10 minute cool down (ish… the high intensity laps lasted about 75 seconds). I was a bit faster on my intervals than last time... so that counts as progress. I also included some hill reps out by the University... four uphills, followed by one all-out downhill effort.


Making Patterns

And then at Hanley parkrun yesterday, without really planning any advance planning, I completed the Hanley parkrun route without chatting to anyone... I just about managed to still thank all the marshals but I definitely lifted my intensity levels and completed my fastest parkrun at Hanley since November last year (probably the last time I ran without chatting too). Fortunately, there was plenty of time for chatting in the cafe afterwards!

All in all, I've done just over 3 hours of running this week and about 40 minutes of that has been at a higher intensity... so probably, for the first time ever, I've actually worked to the 80/20 rule of training.

I wonder if I can keep it up!

PS Fruit challenge update... this week, I've sampled physalis (the little yellow fruits that you might get as a garnish), avocado in a salad, tomatoes (fresh from Marion's garden again), grapefruit coconut, dates and today I'm trying figs! It's getting tricky now but only 8 more fruits to find - I've got 5 in mind but still 3 to find.



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  1. Simon Douglas Thompson22 September 2019 at 19:41

    Managed two runs this weekend, my legs are so heavy I can't do them any other way but slowly

    ReplyDelete

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