Building a Strong Foundation

Week two of my training for trail running races has been banked with steady progressions. I am happy with how my body feels. My leg and buttock muscles have been sore from the extra work load with bigger elevation gains and also the leg exercises I’ve been performing regularly through the week.

For me, feeling this soreness is a good thing. It is a good indication that I’m doing the right work to strengthen the areas I consider myself weak in. My idea is to “stress” these areas just enough so that they will adapt and become stronger as opposed to over-stressing them and causing break-down of these key areas.

My training week went as follows:

DAY	TRAINING	DISTANCE	ELEVATION
Monday AM	Easy run Ocean swim 10 min leg & core workout	8.7km 637m	50m
Monday PM	Run with 10 x hills	6km	256m
Tuesday AM	Easy run Ocean swim 10 min leg & core workout	7.21km 651m	135m
Tuesday PM	Easy run	11.2km	152m
Wednesday AM	Easy run Ocean swim 10 min leg & core workout	9km 756m	174m
Wednesday PM	Leg exercises: 20 x Bulgarian single leg split squat (each leg) 10 x Bulgarian split squat (each leg) 5 x Bulgarian split squat (each leg) Hip Thrusts: 100, +10 single leg (each leg) Glute Medius Leg Lifts: 30 each leg.
Thursday AM	REST
Thursday PM	Warm-up run Main set broken 1600’s interval training	5.5km 11.5km	76m
Friday AM	Easy run Ocean swim 10 min leg & core workout	5km 950m	82
Saturday	REST DAY
Sunday	Long trail run Warm-down	22.7km 5km	830m 130m
TOTALS		Running 91.9km Swimming 2995m	1829m

*10 min leg & core work-out consists of leg raises, side raises, single-leg squats, donkey kicks and hip thrusts

While the total kilometers were the same as my first week, the elevation increased by 1000m. This was the primary reason for the muscle soreness.

Swimming

The swimming that I do during the week is good for two things:

1. A great form of low impact cross training which increases my lung capacity.

2. The cold temperatures of the Atlantic ocean (14-20 degrees Celsius all year) act as a cold water therapy and anti-inflammatory session for my body. I have really noticed a difference in improved recovery and also all round well-being. If you are unfamiliar with cold water therapy I highly recommend you check out Wim Hof, (though he likes it a bit colder than that!)

                                                               Me and my mate Jim in an alpine lake in NZ (this is not the Atlantic…)

Looking Ahead

The next four-week block will see the same total of kilometers but the elevation will continue to increase. This of course is subject to change as I will listen to my body and any signs of over-training and I will change the regime accordingly.

Also to add to my leg strength training I will incorporate some low impact cycling which will be done primarily in the mountains, climbing.

If you’d like to follow my progress on Strava you can find me under Andrew O’Brien (Cascais, Portugal).

If you have any questions, comments or feedback I’d love to hear from you!

Happy Running!

Andrew.