Easy Effort 1 Plan 3h30

by Tom O'GARA
(France)

Catching up in training and Effort 1 heart rate.

"Hi Marius

I'm back in to the training again after my ciatic issues and able to manage it with running. In all I lost 5 weeks of training. I've followed the adjustments on the 100day plan and am about to enter week 8.

I have 2 questions:

1. I'm feeling pretty under cooked at this stage and wondering if I should be adding some more interval training in to try and boost my fitness and speed, or should I be adding some more effort 1 runs in. I'm a bit stressed that I've not the base that weeks 1-5 would have given.

2. I follow the HR method and find when in zones 3 and 4 I'm hitting or surpassing the min per kilometer comparison but when in zones 1 and 2 i' quite a bit under the comparison. e.g today I did 90mins effort 1 but averaged 6mins 07 secs per/km @135bpm. Should I push a bit harder for the effort 1 runs?


Kind Regards

Tom O'GARA

Answer: Hi Tom and thanks for your questions.

There is no need to stress and do more intervals. You cannot catch up at this points, it is BY FAR the most usual mistake when trying to get back into training again after a period of injury/set-back. You have to stay calm and just let your body get a chance to gradually get back into shape again. If you do that, you'll also find that it will be able to "find" the previously done training as well, instead of just breaking itself down.

As for your Effort 1, you want to keep it in that heart rate zone - no need to push the pace :)

I wish you all the best,

kind regards,
Marius