Training Log: May 24-31, 2025
It has been a while since I’ve posted a weekly training log.
The past four months have been very hectic with work and travel. I continued to train, but dropped by training volume significantly over the past two months. I also changed many aspects of my training and discovered some fun and challenging new workouts, especially strength training, kettlebell workouts, and stability exercises (more on this in future blogposts).
I appreciate the humility of training. I must often start over and re-build my mileage. It can take a while to increase training volume and improve VO2 max, and relatively little time to regress. Moreover, training is never easy. It requires discipline, patience, effort, and consistency that nobody sees. But the difficulty is the joy. Endurance training is an excellent teacher, and it allows us to learn a lot about ourselves. And we may learn the most about training — and ourselves — on days we do not want to do it.
I am currently re-building my mileage and training volume. It has been difficult because I’ve haven’t felt well for several weeks. But I am slowly building my way back up to 100KM of weekly mileage. Today I felt drained and that there was no way I could possibly run. But I ended up running a 12KM and felt surprisingly good during the session. Some pre-run Medjool dates helped.
Here’s an overview of this week’s training.
Mileage: I ran 70KM and took a couple of days off of running during the week. I took more rest days than usual to avoid stress fractures as I increase mileage. I also did one double run that was roughly 20KM. During higher volume weeks (usually 80+KM/week), I tend to do a double run on most days. It’s a relatively easy way to augment mileage, and breaks up the day nicely. Counter-intuitively, the second runs tend to be easier than the first.
Type of training: I ran almost exclusively in Zone 2 (70% or so of max heart rate). I didn’t do any threshold sessions or speed work. Generally, I try to avoid increasing more than one variable per week (e.g.: increasing speed, volume, or hills in the same week). My VO2 max used to be 64 or so and it has dropped to 62. My goal is to get it back to 64 by end of summer. I plan to integrate more VO2 max sessions when my mileage has increased and stabilized.
I also completed a couple of cycling sessions, which was fun. Like many days in Ottawa, the wind was absolutely brutal on the 10KM or so loop back.
I’m also looking for some new cycling routes in and around Ottawa, so please send me any suggestions you have.
Heart rate and sleep: My resting heart rate was around 37 BPM, which is good considering that I haven’t felt well for two weeks. I tried to keep my Zone 2 runs at around 130 BPM. Sleep was OK. My goal is 8 hours per night, but had some nights that I slept closer to 6 hours and training felt horrible the next day. It is unreal how important sleep is.
Other training: I also started to do more kettlebell exercises. They are an excellent way to identify weaknesses and stability problems. Also, there are tons of great kettlebell exercises that train core. The workouts are pretty quick and fun, and I enjoy them a lot. Besides that, I am doing lots of strength training, especially glutes, hip flexors, and upper-body. I try and do my strength work very early in the morning before I write.
Next week’s goal. My goal for next week is to increase my mileage to 75KM or 80KM. The week week after will be a periodization week, where I drop my mileage by half. During a mileage-building phase, I train in three week blocs where I increase my mileage by 10% or so per week, followed by a periodization week that allows my body to adapt to the mileage and avoid over-training.
Upcoming blog posts. I will also publish another blog post that provides an overview of Zone 2 Training versus Threshold Training. I’m always surprised when someone tells me that they actually read these blog posts, and I hope they are helpful.
Have a good week!
All views expressed in this blog are my own and do not constitute any form of medical, nutritional, physiotherapy, or other type of advice.
They do not represent — and are not endorsed by — any academic institution.
