Update
From Madeira to Andorra
When training is good, life is boring. Busy + boring is no good for a writer. Nonetheless, I’m obliged to push some basic information about how I recovered from Madeira and trained for my upcoming race in Andorra (June 15).
The week after Madeira I was wiped. Of course that did not stop me from exercising as the legs must move. In hindsight, I probably could have benefited from some zero days as I fell sick right when I wanted to jump back into training.
But once the fever and sinus infection passed my legs were fully recovered, as if the body was saying, “Look mate, if you are not going to rest, we can enforce it another way.”
Despite the sickness, I would give my body a solid B- on recovery, which is the best its done after running 100+km.
I then grew the work over three weeks, profiting from fresh legs to log my first 100 mile week of the year. I was forced to take several Tuesdays off for a “Civic Formation” as part of my French integration.
Workout Wednesdays
To compensate for these off-days, I decided to load up on Wednesdays. Combine uphill intensity, downhill violence and compromised endurance to create a stiff drink.
-Wednesday 1: Climbing ladder
600m Up warm-up, 400m Up then Down, Repeat → 300m, 200, 100, 100, 300, 400
-Wednesday 2: Up/down repeats
600m Up Hard, 3 x 200m kind of hard (KOH) with fast descending, 1 x 700m KOH
-Wednesday 3: Time Trial (Hount Blanque)
To reach this summit, the trail gains 1300m (4265ft) over 6.5km (4 miles). Making good time means running every step, but judging the effort can be tricky. I managed my best time with 54:59. A good feeling but still room for improvement.
The TT by itself is a good workout, but not specific to my goals. I tacked on 2.5h of endurance (a large portion at 100km effort) to emulate mid-race feelings of acute muscle fatigue and challenge myself to maintain good form and a positive state of mind.
-Wednesday 4: Time Trial (Teihllet)
This little peak, just opposite Hount Blanque, gains 625m (2050ft) in 2.7km (1.7miles) on technical trails—rocky, muddy, irregular. I ran a personal best of 24:42. After the TT I directly logged 2.5h of endurance in the heat, feeling good about my form.
Other Important Workouts
Each week I’ve done an incline treadmill with added weight hoping to increase my endurance power for the long climbs in Andorra. I added 5kg to my bag and did between 1 and 2 hours of steady running with short hiking rest at 15%. If anything the sweaty gruel of these workouts helped build mental fortitude.
I’ve done a rolling hill session every week (20 miles or so with 4000ft of climb). An interesting point is that I’ve reduced my pace on these workouts. Going fast, even if the intensity is reasonable, has a longer recovery time than just being light on the feet and I managed respectable paces without the punishment of pushing.
Progression
With the treadmill workouts and threshold Wednsedays I have been steadily ratcheting up the difficulty of specific sessions, mostly by extension. Example: Treadmill climb 1h week 1 to 1h40 week 3, time at threshold 15min week 1, 40mins week 3.
On the macro side I ramped vert from 6800m → 9500m → 11000m → 12700m and hours from 13h, 18h, 19h, 23h respectively. That’s a steep curve and not generally applicable. I intentionally did that because of the short interlude between races and to give myself a nice bookmark to return to post-Andorra.
You can only progress so many things at once. Growing volume and time-at-intensity can be a dangerous mixture so I have been careful not to overdo it.
Based on training data I am currently in better shape than last year at this time. But training well is one thing, performing is another. Next week, the big match.