Training log 2023

On a fourteen-year long chase for the sub-3 marathon (mission accomplished!)

This is the year (it was!).

I will keep editing this post every Sunday as a log of my 2023 training.

I am mostly writing this for me, as a diary, but please feel free to comment or engage in conversation should you have any questions. This is how we learn and grow.

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This year I’ll be 39 years old. I am running since 2009, and I have been building very gradually over the years. For more background about my training history, philosophy and structure, see this blog.

Year races and goals:

• B goal. January 8th: Prom’ Classic 10 km, aiming for a PR as fitness continues to improve.

  • I ran 36’ 40” (PR, down from 37’50” which I ran 4 years ago in 2019). I covered my last training block before this race, here.

• C goal. February 12th: Monaco 5 km. Aiming for my first sub-18’.

  • I had health issues and minor injuries leading to the race, eventually deciding not to race.

• B goal. March 5th: Cannes half marathon. Hoping to improve from the 1h 21’ 45” of last November.

  • I ran 1h 22’ due to an injury in the last 200m. Battled with issues for several weeks, then ran a good race until I had a hamstring strain and had to walk the last part.

• A goal. March 19th: Amstelveen marathon, aiming for my first sub-3 hours. This one is a bit close to the half, but last time I was good to go after 2 weeks.

  • Had to cancel this due to the hamstring strain suffered in the half. I have been able to run slower without pain and decided to pace Ale for her race.

  • I then made a relatively quick recovery and raced the Manchester marathon on April 16th, when I finally broke 3 hours (2h 59’ 17”).

    • Blog here.

• A goal. May 27th: 100 km del Passatore. A lot will depend on the weather for this one. On a good day I would like to finish in less than 10 hours, but given last year’s experience, finishing without major drama would be already something. Hoping to enjoy my day on this special race.

  • Canceled because of the floods in our region. I will run the Biel 100 km on June 9th instead.

  • I ran 9 hours and 50 minutes at the Biel 100 km, finishing 36th / ~700. Very happy with this one, maybe as much as for the sub-3 marathon. Race report, here.

• C goal. July 1st: Parkrun, 5km. Just setting a summer baseline.

  • very happy with a 17’ 51” (PR).

• C goal. July 17th: Veluwezoom Trail 32km. An event I like to do every year in a nice natural park in Holland, during my off-season or early season, just as a training run near marathon intensity.

  • happy with this effort, I ran 30 minutes faster than last year and closed 6th (activity here).

• B goal. September 9th: Winschoten 50 km. Aiming for sub-4 hours.

  • Finished in 3h 58’ on a hot day (4th overall).

• A goal. October 8th: Chicago marathon. Hoping to run another sub-3, not really aiming to get faster, as much as I’d like to enjoy it more and be in less physical pain due to cramps.

  • I got sick (food poisoning) in Chicago and could not race, then I signed up with our home marathon in Amsterdam, which was the following week, and ran a PR in 2h 56’.

Week one

• Training Block: VO2max, week 5 of 5

• Workouts: 2 (4 x 1000m with 300m recovery, 10 km race)

The first week of the year was the last week of a 5-week VO2 max block that I started 2 weeks after the Ravenna marathon, and also the week of my first race of the year, the Prom’ Classic 10 km in Nice. The goal of the training block was to work on my speed again, to get ready for a fast short race after plenty of tempo / marathon pace in the previous months.

Below is my HRV in the past 2 months, showing a bit of struggle post-marathon, then sickness, and eventually rebuilding and responding well to training (and reduced life stress), before the race.

Given that this was race week, I did what I have done for all my recent races, which has worked quite well for me:

• regular training on Tuesday, in this case, an easy hike / run of about 2 hours and 30’ with friends

• hard training on Wednesday, with 4 x 1000m pushing hard, 300m recoveries. This is a really high-intensity session, I push maybe even harder than on a regular workout, but I do half the reps I’d do on a regular training week. I do not expect to make gains with this, but it helps me a lot psychologically.

• mini-taper: 3 very easy days, running little, typically an hour or less, and very slow. A few strides on Saturday were the only intensity these three days.

Race report

The race went well, data here. I thought I could do about 37’, but eventually had a slightly faster pace in me and finished in 36’ 40”. I was very happy with the effort and time, even though during the race I felt like I didn’t have that drive to dig really deep, and I was mainly managing the (hard) effort. I finished in better conditions than in Barcelona (I recall really “needing a minute” at the finish line back there, but not today), then ran to the car feeling still strong.

Other notes on race day:

• Breakfast / food: oats (7 spoons) with banana and berries, a slice of marble cake, 2h 30’ before the race. Then one precision hydration gel (30g of carbs, 100mg of caffeine), 10’ before the start.

• Sleep: slept normally between 10:30 and 5:20, then couldn’t really get asleep again and called it a night. Felt fresh and awake (not like the total fuckup pre-marathon with 2-3 hours of sleep).

• HRV / HR: solid trends and no alterations this morning, all according to plans. Much easier over the holidays without traveling, overeating, alcohol, or meetings.

• Weight: I was 67 kg this morning. Being careful but still gained weight recently, looks like this is what my body needed, given the performance. Not stressing, just keeping track.

Week two

• Training Block: Threshold and steady-state, week 1 of 9

• Workouts: 1 (2 hours steady-state)

This week I started a new training block, that will last 9 weeks, until the Amstelveen marathon. The goal of this block is to extend my ability to maintain for longer the speed I have just developed. This is very similar to what I did in the previous cycle (June-December, discussed extensively here), and will include plenty of threshold and tempo work.

In order to give myself enough time to recover, I did no workouts until Saturday. Post-race, I was quite hungry for adventures on trails, so after my usual Monday off I started the week with two longish runs (3 and 4 hours on Tuesday and Wednesday). I always start these days with plenty of options to call it a day in case I don’t feel it, as the goal is to enjoy my time outside and not get tired, but I carry plenty of food and water in case I end up staying out many hours.

beautiful mornings on trails. More pics here and here.

On Thursday and Friday, I went for two easy runs with Ale, before my steady-state run (what we can also call tempo or Z3) over the weekend.

I was quite looking forward to the first long tempo run of this block, to see where the pace would end up given the recent progress (I always do tempo runs guided by perceived effort and heart rate, and never by pace, for reasons I also covered here).

Eventually, I was very happy with the outcome (activity here), a big step up with respect to the previous ones at the end of last year. Some other notes and practicalities: I had 3 gels (more or less every 7 km) but forgot the salts and I was maybe a bit short on water (carried half a liter). I finished feeling like I could have continued (an unusual feeling for me during these runs). I ran the first and last part on the hills but tried to maintain a somewhat constant effort and had my usual workout breakfast (see Week 1). I will do another one of these in 3 weeks, probably a 35 km run with the first 10 km in Z2 and then 25 km steady-state.

Sunday, the day after, I was feeling good, even though I do have a minor issue that I need to watch, some pain below my glute that was getting better but is now a bit annoying again since last week’s race. To close the week I went out for another 2 easy hours on the hills with Ale.

HRV was stable and trending high the whole week, in line with the recent progress and feel. Below is a screenshot of HRV4Training on Sunday morning.

Week three

• Training Block: Threshold and steady-state, week 2/9

• Workouts: 1 (5 x 2000 @ threshold)

• Other events: Sickness (🤮, 💩)

This week I had planned a hard threshold session, and a very, very long run (60-70 km).

Eventually, I got sick twice, first vomiting (Sunday night and Monday all day), then diarrhea (Saturday), and canceled the long run. I’m glad that between the two rounds of sickness, I managed to do some good training and a strong threshold session, shown below.

Today (Sunday) I went out for an easy 2 hours run and felt good, I’ll take my usual Monday off tomorrow, and then hopefully I’ll be able to do the second marathon-specific training of this block next Tuesday.

Here is my training week:

and my resting heart rate and HRV data, showing a large change with the acute sickness of Sunday / Monday, then a slow rebound to normal:

All things considered, I’m glad that despite the setback and adjustments, it looks like I’m good to go and was able to do a good workout midweek.

Week four

• Training Block: Threshold and steady-state, week 3/9

• Workouts: 2 (Long tempo run ❌, 5 x 3000 @ threshold ✅)

This week started poorly but finished well. I had a rough day in the long run (10 km Z2 + 25 km tempo) and underperformed. I could not produce any power since the beginning, and my heart rate was higher than expected. Maybe I was still not 100% after being sick the previous week, but it was quite a demoralizing effort.

I then took the usual three easy days, and went out for a hard threshold session on Saturday, in which I ran hard for almost a full hour in total (5 x 3000m). This was a really good session in terms of pace and amount of work. Very happy with how fitness keeps progressing.

Here is the full week of training:

I’ve also modified slightly my training plan to be able to do one extra long run given that this week it didn’t go well. I’ll try again next Wednesday.

Resting physiology keeps trending in the right direction, definitely a good phase to absorb the training.

Week five

• Training Block: Threshold and steady-state, week 4/9

• Workouts: 1 (Long tempo run ✅)

• Other notes: sick

This week started well but finished poorly. I had a really good long tempo run with only two easy days in between the previous workout, and was very happy with how I felt and ran. The format was the usual with 10 km in Z2 and then 25 km at marathon intensity. I also fueled as I plan to do in the race (1 gel and 1 electrolyte pill every 7 km). Here is the workout:

After this session, I started feeling poorly and eventually I got sick, probably with a cold. I had minor symptoms, so I ran the whole week, but always at low intensity, I never felt like it was sensible to do anything different. In hindsight, I might have gone too hard for these last two workouts and might have compromised my health. Or maybe I was just unfortunate and got a bug somewhere, who knows. Life stress is also on the high side, building the new HRV4Training Pro is giving me some headaches and I often sleep little and wake up between 4 and 5 am.

Anyways, I’ve learned to be patient, and I am not stressing about any of this, just giving my body time to heal. Let’s see if I bounce back next week.

Here is the full week:

Week six

• Training Block: Threshold and steady-state, week 5/9

• Workouts: 1/2 (Short intervals ❌, high-end zone 2/short tempo)

• Other notes: half sick, injured

This week was probably the worst week I had in quite a long time. On Tuesday, hoping to have recovered from last week’s issues, I went out for a short interval session and got injured. The issue I had in the ligaments behind the knee since the long run at marathon pace extended towards the hamstring, and at about 8 or 9 reps into the workout, gave me some unpleasant acute pain. I took more time off and started having even more issues in both legs and at the right calf. Quite a few demoralizing days. On top of this, my heart rate has been also out of control, very high during exercise, high during the night and in the morning, clearly signaling that something is off, despite feeling quite good centrally (no headaches, clear-headed, able to do high-quality work for many hours in a row, but unable to train well). My stomach hasn’t been great either.

Below is the session (12 x 90”/90”, interrupted due to the injury). I was feeling okay during the warmup, difficult sometimes to determine if we should power through some niggles or not.

Eventually, over the weekend I started feeling less physical pain and ran a bit longer. I decided not to race in Monaco, but since it seemed low-risk enough in terms of having less pain at the injured locations, I paced Ale for her 10 km PR. For me, it ended up being a high-end zone 2 effort for the first half, then slipping into tempo for the last kilometers as we picked up the pace. I’m grateful I was able to run with her, it was lovely to race together.

Full week of training:

and my HRV data below, capturing the recent setback.

In hindsight, I think I made a mistake the previous cycle, by running two really hard sessions in too little time (3 x 5000 @ threshold, then three days later 35 km with 25 km at marathon pace). I felt great during the sessions, but it has been a total nightmare since then (see the acute dip on Feb 1st, then a chronic suppression). Getting better at it, but still slipping at times. Let’s see how it goes next week.

Week seven

• Training Block: Threshold and steady-state, week 6/9

• Workouts: 1 (long run with fast finish)

• Other notes: half sick, injured

This week I slowly bounced back from the issues I had accumulated, re-normalizing in resting and exercise physiology, and also feeling better in terms of the acute injury I had during last week’s workout. I went out for easy runs the whole week, sometimes a bit longer than usual, but always keeping the intensity very low, as low intensity does not compromise my recovery.

On Saturday, the injury was better and I pushed for 1 km toward the end of a short run. On Sunday, I went for a long run with Ale (a fun adventure, going by train to Ventimiglia and then running back to Villefranche), and I had some discomfort in the first hour or two, but then felt nothing at all later on. Eventually, I decided to push harder for the last 5 km, at around marathon pace.

I am definitely in a much better place than I was last week, but I still need to get rid of this injury before I can get back into more structured training. Racing season is really close, but I have not decided yet what to do, I will give it another week first.

Week eight

• Training Block: Threshold and steady-state, week 7/9

• Workouts: 2 (3 x 2000m at threshold, 2-hour-long progression at marathon pace)

• Other notes: almost back from the injury

This week I felt better on Monday and decided to try a hard workout on Tuesday, ready to call it a day in case of any pain. I was also curious about the pace I could sustain given that I hadn’t done any intensity in weeks. In terms of the pace, it was pretty good, somewhat surprised that I didn’t seem to lose anything by maintaining a high volume of low-intensity running in this period. In terms of pain, I started to feel the hamstring becoming tighter and tighter during the third rep and decided to step there (I’d normally do 5).

The following day I went for an easy run on trails and felt discomfort the whole time. It didn’t get worse while running, but I had clearly felt the session. Two days later I had however no discomfort at all and ran 4 hours on trails and hills. Saturday I was also fine, and just ran 30 minutes to see if I could try another session on Sunday. Sunday I went out for one last session at marathon pace (I won’t have time for any more of these sessions probably between now and the marathon), and I had no pain nor discomfort. I picked a 3.4 km loop with a hill, which was far from an ideal route for a long run, but I wanted to make sure I could stop any minute in case of pain (good mental work, I guess). Here is the run:

and here is my full week:

and finally, my HRV is below. I had a suppression on Monday, paying for the long run with a hard finish last Sunday, but then re-normalize quickly and stayed within normal range the whole week, for the first time in a while. Overall I am happy with this week, it’s been rough in the past month, but it’s getting there.

Week nine

• Training Block: Threshold and steady-state, week 8/9

• Workouts: 2 (2 x 1000m at threshold, half marathon race)

• Other notes: hamstring injury during the final part of the race (the other hamstring, not the one where I had issues in the past weeks)

This week I ran really little, hoping to make a full recovery from my recent niggles and race a good half marathon. I felt okay on race day and had a good race until the very last few hundred meters when I pulled a hamstring and had to walk to the finish line. I was on pace for a one-minute PR until then and eventually closed in 1h 22’.

Quite sad obviously as it might take a while to recover from this one. Not sure what I could have done differently, as I ran only 35 km the entire week, prior to race day.

Looking at HRV data there’s quite a striking difference between two months of doing really well (December - January) and a month of doing poorly (February). I thought I was getting back to normal but apparently, I was wrong :)

Week ten

• Training Block: none, recovery from a hamstring strain

• Workouts: none

This week I progressed with the recovery of a hamstring strain that happened during the half marathon race last week (right leg). On Monday I had no swelling or bruise and was quite relieved (probably a minor strain).

I went for walks for a few days, and the pain was lower and lower each day. On Wednesday I could run a little (more like a shuffle), and the same the following days, with Friday concluding the run with a more normal running form. On Saturday I had yet another issue (right calf), which I think was due to compensating for the hamstring and running with poor form.

On Sunday I signed up for a gym nearby home in Amsterdam and went for an easy indoor ride so that I can stay active without further compromising the injury.

I feel like this could have been a lot worse, and I might be able to run at easy intensities next week, for longer. Let’s see. It will be marathon week, I have not completely abandoned the idea to run with Ale yet.

and here is my HRV, which is finally trending better in the last few days since I got back home in Amsterdam and stopped stressing about training and injuries.

Week eleven

• Training Block: none, recovery from a hamstring strain

• Workouts: none

This week I progressed with the recovery of a hamstring strain that happened during the half marathon 2 weeks ago. I kept improving and feeling better, so I started running a little more to see if I could pace ale for her marathon on Sunday. Eventually, I was able to run even though I have to be very careful with intensity / speed, as I feel acute pain if I do not run slowly (however, I do not feel any pain at all when running easy, which is a good first step). Full week of training:

Running the marathon with Ale was a lot of fun, and she managed to run a 15-minute PR. Some good memories.

I am of course quite bummed to have missed this opportunity for a sub-3 marathon, which I think was in the cards given some of the training and racing I’ve done in the past months. However, I am also pleased with the quick progress from the strain, it could have been much worse, and I am trying to stay positive for a change. Now I’ll try to see if I can get back into some more structured running next week.

Week twelve

• Training Block: none, recovery from a hamstring strain

• Workouts: 4 x 2000m @ threshold

This week the hamstring pain due to the strain started fading, and I was able to get back into structured training. I still need to be careful as I have underlying issues in both hamstrings that are not resolved, but I was able to run and do a good hard session at threshold. I was happy with the pace as well, despite a few weeks of no proper training.

The day after I went for a long run on very tired legs, mostly a mental exercise, quite amazing how sore you can get when not doing intervals for a few weeks. The remaining days were all easy running:

Next week if all goes well I will be back in the lab for some lactate and VO2max testing, which I had previously postponed due to the injury.

Week thirteen

• Training Block: none, recovery from a hamstring strain

• Workouts: 8 x 800m, VO2max test, long progression

This week I felt better and went out for a good workout on Monday (8x800m), which was probably one of my better sessions, despite not having done any short intervals in a while:

I then took Tuesday off, and ran two easy days before a lab test (VO2max + lactate). During the test I felt reasonably well and gave all I had (blog about the data and results, here).

I then ran easy 90’ the following day, and had yet another issue on Sunday’s long run, when my right calf locked up. I was far from home and had to run on it for another hour, which probably did not help. I am quite frustrated with my fragility these weeks, even though I also made a mistake here and should have probably gone for an easy run after a week with two workouts. I felt no issues in the hamstrings and decided to still go for it, but it didn’t go well. I hope it will not compromise next week as Daniel is meeting us in Liguria, and I would hate not to be able to run together. Full week:

Week fourteen

• Training Block: none, working on staying healthy and fit while recovering from injuries

• Workouts: none

This week I slowly recovered from a calf issue (possibly a very minor strain), and fortunately made a full recovery by mid-week, when I enjoyed a few days on the trails with Daniel, who visited from Switzerland (we just got to Liguria and will be here for a few weeks).

It was a big week for me, maybe the biggest in a while, running 19 hours, with a nice adventure on Friday (51.2 km, 1760m of vertical gain, and many good memories with Daniel).

I then took an easy weekend, felt quite sore on Saturday, but much better on Sunday already. I did not do any intensity, and have been finally feeling good again.

Full week:

and the vertical gain:

I haven’t made up my mind yet about next week’s marathon in Manchester, but I will be at the start.

I feel good, but also tired, and mentally I shifted a bit into “Passatore mode” since I got to Liguria and started focusing more on volume and climbs. I feel somewhat less motivated or focused for the marathon right now, as here I do not even have a flat road to run.

Passatore (100 km) is at the end of May, and it would be wise not to race a marathon now, but I’ll decide only mid-week after trying a hard workout. It would be a good idea to use the marathon as a workout and keep something in the tank. Let’s see next week.

Week fifteen

• Training Block: taper

• Workouts: 7 x 4’ hard, 2’ recovery (Tuesday), Manchester marathon (Sunday)

This week I mainly aimed at getting fresh after running almost 20 hours last week. I felt strong and quite sore, but I also wanted to do a hard session to test my recent injuries. I ended up doing a hard session on Tuesday, which felt pretty good despite the recent load (and most importantly, I had no pain), then a longer and easy run on Wednesday, before shifting to taper mode for 3-4 very easy days (2 days off this week), before the Manchester marathon.

Here is the workout, I found a little stretch of semi-flat road near San Rocco, which worked well for this session:

And my full week:

In the marathon, I finally broke 3 hours, running 2 hours, 59 minutes, and 17 seconds.

I felt really strong at the beginning and ran controlled, at an easy effort. I might have paid a bit for the recent lack of marathon-specific training (due to injuries, etc.) in the second part, as it was quite hard to maintain the pace. I did my best to run by feel and manage the current condition. As it often happens, I had quite a few cramps, and had to manage also those, but this time I was able to do so just by slowing down a little, and avoiding large changes in pace towards the end. I don’t really know what to do about this, I train specifically for the event, I do strength training, I fuel well, but I just cramp a lot. In the second part of the race I feel like I have a lot more to give, but I just can’t, because I need to manage all the cramps (quad, hamstring, calf, adductor, etc.), before they blow up. It’s quite exhausting mentally, but at least it was enough for what I wanted today.

The weather was perfect for running today, and the crowd was really something in Manchester. It was a hard day but I’m really happy.

Now time to recover and then the last goal of the season, the 100 km del Passsatore.

Other notes on race day:

• Fueling: oats (10 spoons) with banana and berries, in soy milk, two slices of bread with jam, 2h 30’ before the race. Then one gel (30g of carbs), 10’ before the start.

• Sleep: slept normally between 10:30ps and about 5am, then I couldn’t really get asleep again and called it a night. Felt fresh and awake (not like the total fuckup pre-Ravenna in November, marathon with 2-3 hours of sleep).

• HRV / HR: solid trends and no alterations this morning, all according to plans. It’s been a good month after a very prolonged down phase in February and March.

• Weight: I was 66.2 kg when I left Italy to travel to the UK, probably 1 kg more on race day. I think this is my optimal racing weight at the moment.

See also:

• how to turn the worst running economy ever measured into sub-3-hour marathon performance in only 14 years

Week sixteen

• Training Block: recovery post marathon

• Workouts: none, just one very long run (6 hours)

This week I had a decent week of training post marathon. I rested only on Monday, as I normally do, and then got back into training on Tuesday. I went in the afternoon to give myself a bit more time, but of course I was massively sore. I took it really easy every day and started feeling more like myself on Friday.

I ran 4 hours on Saturday and 6 hours on Sunday (this was part of Ale’s training, and I decided to tag along, which I think will be useful for Passatore, but I took it very very easy). If next week I feel good I will do a little intensity, otherwise another easy week before the last month of training prior to Passatore.

Full week (+4000m of climbing):

and my data, looking good post-marathon with only a day of suppression, quite different from the situation in November when I was already in a hole on race day:

Week seventeen

• Training Block: build for the 100 km del Passatore

• Workouts: two: 12 x 90”/90” on Wednesday, 2 x 5000 on Sunday

This week I went back into structured training. It was just one week after the marathon, but I felt good and started with a 90” hard, 90” easy session, without forcing it much. It felt good to move the legs a bit faster again. The day after I went for a long run (33 km, 1200m), and felt really good, but then had a bit of a low on Friday and Saturday, when I went for a long hike / run (5h 30’, 1200m).

Sunday felt good again and I continued with my plan, going out for a 5000m hard uphill, followed by another 5000m on a flatter road. I am trying to do more workouts up or downhill this month as I prepare for Passatore, given the race profile. Grade adjusted pace below.

Full week (3400 meters of climbing):

Week eighteen

• Training Block: specific for the ultra (100 km del Passatore)

• Workouts: race simulation (6 hours)

This week didn’t go as I hoped. I had planned a race simulation which was the most important workout of the block, and where I was hoping to sort out a few details, feel good, and gain some confidence. Instead, I blacked out completely after about 4 hours and a half or a bit less. I wrote more about my preparation for the race simulation here, and how it went here. In short, I have learned a few things, but I also took a hit mentally and came home with plenty of doubts and self-doubt. I will have to run slower, but I am still very unsure if I can run that long.

The rest of the week I took it easy before and after the simulation. I feel quite tired physically right now, but I have no strict plans for the next weeks. I would like to do 2 hard threshold sessions with parts uphill and parts flat and 2 long runs in the next 3 weeks before race day, but I will pass if not feeling 100%.

Full week (4250 meters of climbing):

On the bright side, I’ve bounced back in no time from this one as well, it’s definitely a good phase since mid-March:

see also:

• 100 km del Passatore: race simulation

• 100 km del Passatore: race simulation learnings

Week nineteen

• Training Block: specific for the ultra (100 km del Passatore)

• Workouts: race simulation (7 hours), threshold (5 km hard climb + 2 km hard flat)

This was my biggest week ever, I felt very good and I am in a much better place mentally after a successful race simulation (discussed here). I ran 70 km in 7 hours, with plenty of elevation, controlled intensity well, and ate only gels.

I went out on the warmest day of the week, which was still not particularly warm though (maybe 22-23C around midday, while only 16C when I started). It looks like after a cold May, temperatures will go up to 27-29C just 2 days before the race, hence this will be the main challenge once again.

The rest of the week I took it easy before and after the simulation, and then did a threshold session 4 days after the simulation, which went quite well all things considered (5 km hard uphill + 2 km hard flat):

Mentally I feel much better, I needed a very long run to go well to gain some confidence. Data looks great too:

Next week I will do the last round of heat acclimation, hoping it makes race day a bit less miserable. Two weeks to go!

Full week (4800 meters of climbing):

Week twenty

• Training Block: specific for the ultra (Biel 100 km)

• Workouts: 50 km with long climbs and steady descents, 35 km with 4 x 4000m steady on the hills

This week a lot happened outside of training, with the floods hitting hard our region. We had to cancel our trip back home, and the 100 km del Passatore was canceled as well. Fortunately, our families and friends are fine, and we should be able to reach them next week. In Liguria the weather was okay, so I kept training and added some intensity and volume given that the race won’t take place next week.

I went out on Thursday for 50 km at a sustained pace (harder than race pace), with long climbs, and had a good day. Then on Sunday, I went for 4 x 4000m steady on the hills after 90’ easy (GAP is shown below), for another 35 km. I would consider this all rather specific work for the ultra:

Here is my full week (including 3700 m of climbing). I’ve re-introduced a day off after 3 weeks of daily running which I did as an attempt to increase volume as much as possible pre-ultra (peaking at 190 km last week):

Next week we should be able to drive home as the situation is now less critical. I will aim at doing yet another long run (50-60 km) but on the flats, and probably no hard workouts unless I feel fresh enough for some threshold work. In the meantime, we have found an alternative for the race, which is the Biel 100 km in Switzerland. This is another historical ultra, which dates back to the 50s, and covers a single loop that is run during the night (22:00 start). For this reason, this week we also went for a night run, to just get a bit of that type of feel, which is quite different from our typical routine. Not too excited about this as a morning person, but I’m sure we’ll enjoy our night out. On the bright side, the heat won’t be a problem for this event, and the race profile is not as hard as Passatore (less climbing).

The race is June 9th, so we need to stretch our season another 3 weeks. I’m looking forward to a break from this much volume honestly. Mixed feelings, but at this point, I’d like to at least release the stress, test my fitness and use the opportunity to learn from the experience as this remains uncharted territory for us. One year to the next Passatore…

Week twenty one

• Training Block: specific for the ultra (Biel 100 km)

• Workouts: 70 km long run

This week I felt good, it’s been a good phase without niggles or other issues, and I decided to go out for one last very long run in preparation for the 100 km. I ran 70 km at race intensity, which is a bit quicker back home as it is really flat.

During the run I used the usual protocol I tried in the past weeks, with one gel every 6 km, no solid food apart from the gels, electrolyte pills with the same frequency, and 2 gels with caffeine (24 and 48km).

The rest of the week I’ve accumulated mileage without doing any workouts, as I needed to get reasonably fresh and then recover from the long run. On Sunday I went out for another long run with Ale, for about five hours. This was my biggest week overall, with 200 km (+3500m of elevation gain):

For next week I plan to reduce volume and do at least one hard workout, not to lose the good habits.

Week twenty-two

• Training Block: specific for the ultra (Biel 100 km)

• Workouts: 5000m + 4000m at half marathon pace, 3 x 2000 at threshold

This week I reduced the volume and ran two relatively short, hard sessions. I also went back to taking a day off. The weather was quite warm, and on both occasions, I cut the workout slightly shorter, as I felt it was enough (and I am trying not to overdo workouts as much as I did in the past, to try to stay healthier and more consistent with hard sessions). The workouts went well, I was happy with the pace despite environmental conditions and very limited hard workouts in the past month or two, due to the focus on the 100 km race.

5000m + 4000m:

3 x 2000m + 500m:

Between workouts I felt quite flat though, and extremely tired mid-week, probably also due to the heat (we went up to 29C). I also went for two short double runs, which was a bit unusual (morning and evening, and one night run to test the setup for the race, headlamp, and all).

Full week:

and HRV data, more frequent suppressions recently. I am definitely tired both physically and mentally, let’s see next week:

5 days to the Biel 100km.

Week twenty-three

This week I finally ran my first 100 km :)

I am very happy with how this went and how I managed some of the issues that came up during the race. Race report, here.

Apart from the race, it was a very easy week, just resting the legs for the big day:

Now I’ll rest up a bit, and do little or no running for about a week or two, before getting back at it.

Week twenty-four

• Training Block: off-season

• Workouts: none

This week I took a few days to recover from the 100km race, and then started moving a bit again. I was in Como for a few days and then went to visit friends in Switzerland, so I have hiked quite a bit. I have not planned structured training or workouts for about 2 weeks, but I am feeling good and took the opportunity to spend some quality time in the mountains.

Full week (+4500m of elevation gain):

Week twenty-five

• Training Block: I have changed periodization as of this week, for the next year, and therefore the “training block” is not relevant anymore, as the new periodization is non-linear. See this blog for details.

• Workouts: 400s, 2 x 10 km @ marathon intensity.

This week I went back into more structured training. It was a bit earlier than originally planned but I felt good and motivated to run a bit harder / faster. I tried to limit it to a small dose, and stopped when my muscles felt like they needed a break. On Wednesday I was in Darmstadt on my way to Amsterdam and ran a series of 400s on the track, it went well until I felt like my right hamstring had enough, and stopped:

Then after a few easy days, on Sunday, I ran a bit of marathon pace (2 x 10 km). It was quite a hot day (up to 32C in the day, but lower temperatures during my run), and I tried to hydrate well but still got a bit dehydrated. I also tried the Maurten bicarb 19 (instead of the 15 that I used so far), and it went well I think, even if I increased food intake to 1 gel every 6 km (instead of the usual 7 km for marathon pace / intensity). My stomach wasn’t great, but I didn’t have big issues either.

Here is the full week of training. I also started doing doubles, which I’d like to do consistently once per week from now on. As the weather was nice here in Holland, I also went for two rides (not shown below):

Legs are not 100% back but I was definitely feeling quite good during the workouts. Next week I planned no sessions, but to race a parkrun to set a summer baseline and see where I’m at. Below is a plot of the past 12 months of HRV data with annotated events and training load, it was a good running year and I am looking forward to the next one.

See also:

• Training talk: changing periodization

Week twenty-six

• Workouts: 5 km race.

For this week, I planned no workouts, apart from a 5 km race on Saturday (parkrun in Amsterdam). I felt fresh around mid-week, and finally managed to remove some monotony from regular runs, pushing a few hundred meters on bridges uphill on Thursday, then a few strides on Friday. The first part of the week I felt quite tired, and it took a bit of time to get over the marathon-pace workout of last week, but I managed to run a good volume.

Full week:

The 5 km race went quite well, I wasn’t sure what I could do after the last 2-3 months of ultrarunning-specific work, but I was able to push hard and go sub-18 minutes for the first time, with a 17’ 51”:

Here is a distribution of my running speed in the past two months, showing how little specific work I had done for this race:

I have also re-introduced strength training and plyometrics, with two sessions this week. On Sunday I was extremely sore after the combination of racing parkrun and doing plyometrics, but I went for my usual easy long run. Some discomfort in the right calf, but hopefully nothing too bad, a good week overall.

Week twenty-seven

• Workouts: 3 x 2000m at threshold.

This week it took me a few days to get over last week’s 5 km race in terms of soreness and a calf issue I experienced at the race. I went out on the bike a bit more and ran for just an hour on Tuesday and Wednesday (Monday off). In the second half of the week, I was able to run more, I went for 40 km on the dunes, then ran a double the day after, with a workout in the morning. On Sunday I started my run feeling a bit heavy in my legs, but it got better and better over time, and eventually, I stayed out for about 6 hours and 50 km.

An average week overall, trying to get more aligned with my goal of the year (staying healthy while doing some hard sessions and increasing volume, without overdoing it with intensity). The threshold workout went well, it was quite warm, and I had no pain. I went for only three reps as I felt like it was enough and my form was starting to break.

Next week I’ll try to run another hard session at the beginning of the week (shorter VO2max intervals), before tapering a bit for the Veluwezoom 34 km, which I plan to run near marathon intensity.

Full week (running only, + 5 hours of cycling):

Week twenty-eight

• Workouts: 8 x 3’ hard, 3’ easy. 34 km trail race

This week I had planned one VO2max session, which I ran okay but a bit slow, probably because of the recent high volume (2 x 150 km weeks) and intensity (racing):

I then kept volume a bit lower, to get fresher for Sunday’s trail race (C event).

For the race, I was aiming at 2h 45’ or so, about 17’ faster than last year. Eventually, I had a good day at Veluwezoom and I was really happy with the effort, I was able to push hard until the end and enjoyed racing for 6th place and 30 minutes improvement despite a few more hills with respect to last year (activity here).

Full week:

Week twenty-nine

This week I got injured. I had a great race last week but then probably did a bit too much on Monday and I felt again the calf issue I have since the parkrun I raced a few weeks back. As a lesson, I need to scale down training post-race, when I dig much deeper with respect to a hard training session. Unfortunately, this time it seems worse, maybe a minor tear, but I have not been able to do any running until Sunday when I ran 15 minutes and then had pain again.

As a mitigation strategy I am now biking a fair amount, and also walking a lot during the day, which doesn’t really hurt (even when running is not an option). So far I’ve walked 2-3 hours / day and biked a similar amount. Hoping to be better next week but I seem to progress really slow on this one. I’m taking it positively and try to see how this little experiment goes, in terms of maintaining fitness mostly by riding.

Training week (biking in orange, running in green):

Week thirty

• Workouts: 10-20 minutes intervals (cycling), 4 x 6 x 1’ under, 30” over (cycling), short progression (running).

This week I continued with my cross-training while I get over a calf injury. I was able to run ~30 km, including a 5 km progression where I tested the injury a bit more and had no pain (very happy with that!). I have cycled about 550 km, for a total of 26 hours of training including strength training. On Sunday I was on the bike for 8 hours and a half (200 km), which was my longest ride. I felt pretty good and had no physical pain even after many hours, but I do hope I can get back to my favorite sport soon even for long days out.

Full week:

I miss proper running but I am making the most of the situation I think, trying to do a lot of low-intensity aerobic work on the bike, and some higher-intensity efforts, while maintaining some running to make the comeback quicker, limiting detraining (I wrote about detraining and cross-training here).

I’ve been struggling with higher intensity sessions on the bike as my legs are not conditioned for cycling, and therefore I always feel very limited (muscles burning, but little effort from a cardiorespiratory point of view, e.g. low heart rate as well).

I should be able to do a bit more running next week, as I do feel quite a bit better. Let’s see.

Week thirty-one

• Workouts: threshold (5 x 5’ @ 285W, cycling), (2 x 2km + 2 x 1.5 km, running).

This week I was getting better with my running (ran 18 km on Monday, then 10 km on Tuesday), but after a day off (bike intervals on Wednesday), I tried some intensity on the run on Thursday and felt the injury again, with a sharp pain that set me back again. I stopped and walked it home, then took another day off, and ran a bit on Saturday (20 minutes) and Sunday (90 minutes but very easy).

I kept riding a fair amount (21 hours), and went for a very long ride on Saturday (200 km). Including the usual two strength sessions (with plyometrics, at least I’m being consistent with these ones as I have no other muscular issues apart from the injury), this was my biggest week ever (27 hours of training):

I won’t be able to do much riding next week as I am traveling to the mountains, hence I pushed a bit more this past week.

HRV data looks good:

Two months to Chicago, I am not very optimistic on my ability to recover in time to train hard to prepare the race. Let’s see how the next week or two go.

Week thirty-two

• Workouts: VO2max (2 x 5 x 90” hard, 30” easy, cycling)

This week I was able to run more, even though I still need to be careful with the calf injury, and I am avoiding intensity given the setback of last week. I cycled less as was home only Monday - Wednesday before going to visit friends in the mountains (weekend in Chamonix). Overall it was a good week, with 125 km and 4000 m of elevation, and many more hours on the legs, which gives me hopes of recovering soon for some proper workouts in preparation for Chicago.

Full week:

Week thirty-three

• Workouts: short intervals (cycling), 2-hour easy progression (running), short tempo (running)

Road to recovery continues.

This week I took a day off on Monday as I was terribly sore after the previous weekend in the mountains. I slowly got better until I could do some sort of workout on Thursday (long progression), which wasn’t too bad. On Sunday I tried a bit of tempo / marathon intensity, I wasn’t really feeling it, tried to force it for a while but eventually called it a day after 8 km + 4 km. It was also quite a warm day, but in general I just don’t have the legs yet. Underwhelming day.

Still, I am happy I had no calf pain during the week, and it seems I am getting there with the injury, but the running feels like it will take some time to get back to normal. I feel very sore all the time, and probably need to re-adjust to this type of exercise.

I kept riding this week as well, doing a workout on Wednesday, and easy riding the rest of the week. Full week:

Running only:

My data hasn’t been particularly good recently, especially my resting heart rate is somewhat highlighting the difficulties (first the altitude, then not feeling well - headaches and some stomach problems - and now some fatigue). Looking forward to a better week :)

Week thirty-four

• Workouts: my first double high-intensity session on the same day, with a morning running threshold workout (3 x 2000m) and an afternoon cycling VO2max workout (90” intervals).

Mixed feelings about this week. I finally trained instead of “just running” (110 km and 10 hours), including a hard running workout (3x 2000m hitting the right intensities) and a proper long run (40km), but I also started feeling more pain again. I was in less pain last week, and I clearly still need to be careful and manage the situation, it’s too soon to go back to normal training.

3 x 2000m, this one went well. I was very fatigued at the end, but the pace was still there despite 6 weeks of little running and no workouts.

I kept also riding a fair amount, even though mostly lower intensity. In the second part of the week, Ale also suffered an injury, hence we cycled together for a few days.

I am starting to get in the order of ideas not to race Chicago, but to keep building and healing well. I do not want to make this an even bigger setback, especially because I am still in decent shape at the moment, hence I want to prioritize the long-term plan even if it means just jogging this marathon. Too early to decide but in the meantime I am starting to think about it a bit differently.

I am also starting to enjoy more and more cycling, and planning to keep it as part of my week in a minimal dose for various reasons, not only running related, which I discuss in detail here:

Full week:

and full month:

Week thirty-five

• Workouts: running VO2max workout (8 x 3’ hard, 2’ easy), cycling VO2max workout (6 x 2’ hard, 3’ easy), running tempo / marathon pace workout (35 km progression).

This was a really good week, I trained hard, and did not have pain even during workouts or when going longer. I still feel a bit delicate in the calf, but it is getting better and I am able to train reasonably well. I had a business trip to Oulu mid-week and did what I could in terms of training (some short runs very early in the morning or late in the evening), including a double before and after my flights (5 km in the morning, 24 km in the evening), which went quite well (no pain).

Very happy with this long run after 2 months of issues.

I also went back to being more strict in terms of planning, with a couple of changes that I want to implement weekly to limit injury risks: Monday off and 4 days between workouts (instead of 3 as I did in the previous years).

During the VO2max workouts I hit the right paces, and I was quite surprised by how good I felt during the long progression at marathon pace. I started a bit slow but got better and better during the run, finishing strong. I had the Maurten bicarb as well, but no extra sodium during the run (1 gel every 6 km, one with caffeine after 12 km).

Full week:

Running only:

Quite optimistic for Chicago after this week. Let’s not do anything stupid in the next weeks :)

Week thirty-six

• Workouts: 50 km race

This week I was quite tired and felt very injury prone after last weekend’s hard run. I think that the business trip to Oulu also finally caught up with me, as my data showed quite a prolonged suppression that I didn’t feel at the beginning, but was definitely aligned with my fatigue after 2-3 days. For the same reason I also skipped the weekly Zwift workout, I just didn’t have it me:

Given the situation, I decided to mostly ride my bike, and run only to check how things were feeling, and see if I could make a recovery for the Winschoten 50 km. I had originally signed up for the 100 km, but obviously changed my plans after a summer of running issues. This was also an abnormally hot week in The Netherlands (30C every day, after quite a cold summer), hence the conditions for the race were far from ideal. Anyways, on Friday I finally bounced back and started feeling better, had a normal run with a few strides, and figured I could try to race on Saturday.

The race eventually went quite well, I finished 4th and reached my goal of sub-4 hour despite the heat, which is also a 50 km PR for me (3h 58‘). I will write more about the race preparation and race itself in a separate blog post in the next days.

Full week of training, missing a strength session I will do tonight:

I will now only bike for 2-3 days to avoid creating more issues, and then I would like to do 2-3 good weeks of running before Chicago, if the injuries allow me. I any case I am getting more confident that the combined running and cycling is working quite well for me, and I am less stressed about the need to run more.

A good day in the heat.

Week thirty-seven

• Workouts: VO2max (7 x 1000 running, 10 x 90”, cycling)

Quite happy with this week as I trained plenty and I trained hard. The only issue I had was a knee problem post-running workout, which I still have, but seems to be getting better quickly, hence I’m reasonably optimistic for next week (I was quite worried yesterday as I couldn’t even run 45 minutes, but it was better today).

After the 50 km race, I took two days off running (went cycling 3-4 hours per day), then started running again, and after 4 days I felt fresh and ready for a workout. I opted for a set of 1km reps, which went really well for my standards:

On the same day, I did also a workout on Zwift, as I have tried to do more these past weeks, to get some extra stimulus while managing the running injury.

Next week I am hoping to do a good marathon pace session to gain some more confidence before Chicago, but otherwise it’s getting there. The calf has been pretty good the whole week despite some issues during the race last week. Full week:

Running only (120 km):

Week thirty-eight

• Workouts: 3 x 10 km at marathon pace, 2 x 15’ FTP

Mixed feelings about this week. I had my best marathon-specific workout ever, and I am clearly ready to race really well in Chicago, but my knee has been troubling me the whole week and at this point, it looks like a bigger problem than I was hoping for. After the marathon-pace workout I had trouble running for two days, and then started running more but always with a bit of pain / discomfort (never sharp enough to stop, but still, not ideal). For the same reason, I passed on cycling most of the week, apart from a workout that I did post marathon session. I then went again on the bike on Sunday to see how it would go. I didn’t really have pain during, or at least it feels worse while running, but after the fact it was quite sensitive even just touching it. I think it is a ligament on the inner side, but the pain kind of moves still. Anyways, this is the session:

Very happy with this one, beyond expectations after an unusual summer.

For next week I will try to ride a bit more (the weather seems decent), and do the usual running but without workouts. I’d like to do another session before the marathon but I won’t risk it if the knee doesn’t get quite a bit better than now. I am glad I can run and the pain doesn’t seem to get worse when running longer, but after dealing with an injury for the past 2 months and a half, this extra problem has been mentally draining. Didn’t really need it. Let’s see how it goes in the next two weeks.

Full week of running:

Including cycling:

Week thirty-nine

• Workouts: 10 x 90”, cycling

This was a good week, with 28 hours of training (how is that for a taper). I feel still some issues in the left knee but it’s getting there and it is much better than last week, giving me confidence that I will be fine on race day (only one week to Chicago). I avoided big workouts to keep everything going in the right direction, but managed some intensity with a session on the indoor trainer (cycling) and some short intervals on the uphills of a few bridges (running), as well as a very short tempo block on Sunday (2 x 2km). Overall, I’m happy of my current condition and really looking forward to race next Sunday. I am aiming for something between 2h 55’ and 2h 57’ if everything goes well.

Full week:

Running only:

Week forty

This week I was in Chicago for the marathon. I felt fit and ready, but got some sort of food poisoning already the first night. I then basically recovered by Friday, before getting sick again on Saturday afternoon. Quite a crazy week, especially considering we never ate out and rented an apartment to do our cooking and control the controllable. Bummed as the weather and atmosphere were just perfect today in Chicago, but I couldn’t race.

Alessandra was sick as well and stayed home, while I started the race but had pretty bad stomach cramps after about 5km, then had to throw up on the course, and then decided to call it a day as the pain was quite unbearable. Well, that’s life.

Next week there’s the Amsterdam marathon, we signed up just in case, let’s see how it goes with the stomach issues and the trip back home.

Data doesn’t lie.

Week forty-one

• Workouts:

  • 3 x 2000m.

  • Amsterdam Marathon (2h 56’, PR)

This was a bit of a crazy week, but with a very happy ending. On Monday and Tuesday I ran 25 km each day in Chicago, feeling better and better (and upsetting the tapering gurus online, oh my don’t you dare doing any training when a race is coming up). On Wednesday we were traveling back, and in the morning I wanted to test how the body felt after getting sick, so I went for a hard session, not too long, that felt very good:

At this point I was quite confident for Sunday, but I still had to fly back and deal with jetlag. It was a night flight and I could not sleep a single minute on the plane (as usual), making it quite a miserable day. After the trip, I was exhausted and slept 1 hour in the morning, 1 hour in the afternoon, and 12 hours in the night. Then, I slept 3-4 hours per night for 2 nights, as I was not as physically tired, but jetlag hit me quite bad. Needless to say, my running felt like crap, my hear rate was elevated, and I wasn’t sure I could race a good race on Sunday. Eventually the morning of the race I felt good and decided to give it a try, I was sleepy but I figured the gelts with caffeine would wake me up, which indeed they did. I raced well, controlled intensity, careful in managing a cramp that was already twitching a bit after 27-28 km, and ran a three minutes PR:

For the race, I had more or less the same protocol I used recently, with oats for breakfast (10 spoons), a banana and berries, 3 hours before. Then Maurten bicarb 2 hours before. I also had more sodium on top of the bicarb (750 mg the day before and 750 mg the morning of the race with breakfast).

I tried a slightly different protocol for the race in terms of fueling, increasing the amount of carbs, and having 1 gel every 6 km instead of the usual 7 km. I felt good and had no stomach issues, I think also because of the cold and the resulting lower relative intensity (my heart rate was barely above 155-156, hence I think I had some margin there, even though my legs were at their limit, with the cramp building up). I also had a sodium pill (250mg) with each gel, and the gels were precision hydration (30 grams of carbs) apart from 2 with caffeine (km 12 and km 24) which were maurten (25 grams of carbs, 100 mg of caffeine).

I am also very glad that after a summer of injuries and issues, I had no pain in my calf (the major injury I had since end of June) and also no issues with my knee (this is not 100% back but getting there). Learning from my mistakes this summer, I am now going to cycle for 2 days and give some rest to the running muscles.

Full week:

As you can see, I did taper starting on Friday :)

The data below is from Monday after the race. I am very glad things look good, and I did feel good during and after the race, making it a more enjoyable experience than my previous marathons. I will now do about a month and a half of more unstructured training (for a number of reasons, mostly having to do with work and life in general, that will be less stable), before getting back into a proper routine in December.

The main goal remains the same, the 100 km del Passatore next May, and getting at the start as fit as possible.

Week forty-two

• Workouts: none

This week I took two days off running (we do learn sometimes), and went cycling on Monday and Tuesday, to let the muscles recover from the marathon, and to get moving without risking injuries.

I also wrote this recap of my training and racing for the Chicago Amsterdam marathon:

On Wednesday I ran about an hour, then on Thursday we started our drive to Italy, and stopped in Germany in the black forest, where I went running for about 22 km and 700m of vert, for two days in a row, before a short 1-hour run on Saturday, when we drove to Italy.

On Sunday I was hoping to meet a friend in Varese for a run, but he was sick and so I went for a loop of the lake alone. It was a good week overall, I do not have any pain, and soreness has been slowly fading. Next week I plan to keep going this way, with plenty of time exercising, but no workouts.

Tomorrow we finally drive to Brisighella, even though our apartment is not ready yet, and we will be staying at my father’s for a few weeks in Alfonsine while we get everything set up for spring. Really looking forward to moving to Brisighella for part of the year and finally living on the hills and having trails just out of my doorstep. Been waiting for this for a long time.

Full week (102km and 1900m of elevation gain):

Week forty-three

• Workouts: short fartlek

This was the second week after the marathon, and I started feeling pretty good. We also moved to Brisighella, where we plan to stay mostly in spring and autumn. I am really happy to be here even though we are staying only a few weeks before the winter tour begins. It’s been three years since we first tried to make this move, but life on the trail finally began.

I ran a bit more overall this week (+3300m of elevation gain), and took a day off on Sunday:

I also tried to ride a bit even though I still need to see how I can keep this up as I run more and have only the foldable bike with me in winter (and no indoor trainer for workouts). I resumed strength training and plyometrics, so far so good:

I am happy especially with the adventure on Saturday, I stayed out for about 7 hours and felt really good all the time. No issues on Sunday either, no particular soreness or tiredness.

The only niggle remains the left knee, which I could feel when doing the fartlek, but it is slowly getting better. I need to be careful and manage it well, probably avoiding running fast. Maybe I could do some of the short intervals uphill in the next months.

Next week I might also do a local race if I feel good (14.4km with a few hills), mostly as a way to get a workout in and get back in the flow of things.

Brisighella here we are.

With no short term goals / races, at the moment I am mostly interested in staying consistent with high volume, while re-introducing intensity safely (i.e. avoiding injuries and setbacks).

Week forty-four

• Workouts: 14.4 km race on the hills

This week was good all things considered. I had a bit of a scare on Wednesday after racing hard on the hills, and feeling again calf pain exactly where I had (I think) a strain in June, which impacted all my summer. I took a day off and then started feeling better, probably I am still a bit delicate, but not too damaged at the moment (I could almost run on Saturday and definitely run on Sunday, so I am optimistic as long as I am careful with intensity).

Here is the race:

I pushed quite hard, maybe slightly harder than half marathon pace, as I’d like to see how close I can get to sub-80 minutes. Grade adjusted pace was 3’46”/km on Strava (3’43”/km on Coros):

Considering that I ran 7 hours the previous Saturday, I felt really grate for the race. Another reason not to bother with tapering :)

On The rest of the week I cycled and ran on the hills near Brisighella, for a total of 100 km and 3000m of elevation gain. At a certain point I’ll try to find a flat road somewhere:

Including cycling (still on the foldable bike while our new bikes get prepared at the shop):

Next week will be a mess, traveling for work to the UK and the US, but I’ll try to get some volume in.

Lovely to be back home racing with friends and family.

Week forty-five

• Workouts: none

This week I was on the move for two events (London, Chicago), but I managed to train a good volume, even if with no intensity or workouts (twice around the airport, before / after talks and flights, a long run in Chciago and one on Sunday back home on trails). I went out for two long runs, and felt good the whole week, physically at least.

Full week (2000m of elevation gain, no cycling as I wasn’t at home):

It was a bit of a stressful week overall with work, but I am glad I had no issues at the calf or knee despite running plenty. Amazing to see mental stress so clearly in the data despite feeling quite good:

Next week I’d like to try to get some intensity in, probably not much, just to see how the calf responds, and keep stacking up volume. I like this phase of the year, with no focus on racing or racing-specific running, and just being out there building fitness.

Week forty-six

• Workouts: 8 x 3’ hard, 2’ easy (running)

This week was pretty good till the last day when I again suffered an issue with the right calf. Before that, I managed a workout earlier in the week, nothing crazy or particularly exciting, but I got some work done, which I need to do more consistently (if I stop being in pain…!). Workout:

Anyways, after that, Ale was busy in Biella for work and I tagged along for some adventures in the mountains. I had one of those days to remember, stayed out from sunrise to sunset, almost 10 hours on my feet, and had a lot of fun (with some scare but nothing too bad). A good adventure. Personally very glad marathon fitness allows us to spend time this way, a whole day just moving in nature, running, hiking and scrambling. I am looking forward to more of these days once in a while.

Afterward, I took a day off running (went cycling) but still had issues on Sunday (no issues when I started running or during the long run, but after 30 minutes of running uphill I started feeling the calf).

I’ll do a day or two on the bike again now and see how it goes, on the bright side, I finally got my road bike to keep here in Brisighella, and I’m excited to ride more.

Full week:

Including cycling:

Week forty-seven

• Workouts: none really (pushed 10 minutes during a run)

This week I had to deal with more calf problems, eventually I managed to train a lot of hours, but mainly on the bike (but still with 100 km and 3000 m of vert of running).

Towards the end of the week, I had less pain than in the first part of the week, so I managed to run about ~70 km over the weekend, while running very little the previous 5 days. The bike has been a lot of fun, I’m loving the roads and climbs between Brisighella and Tuscany, even though it’s getting quite cold these days, and I’m not sure if I can still do some next week or if that’s something to pick up in spring.

Taking it easy until I feel better in the meantime, no need to rush it.

Full week:

on the bright side, I am out of the (work-stress) hole I had created. More (personal) evidence that training is hardly ever the problem, and other stressors need to be managed better:

Week forty-eight

• Workouts: none really (pushed 15 minutes during a run)

Another week dealing with calf pain but able to accumulate some decent volume with a combination of running and cycling.

Not much to add, I just hope to be able to run a bit better next week, even though I’m glad today I could run 2 hours today at aerobic pace without pain (the rest of the week was a bit of a struggle after trying 15’ harder on Wednesday). Eventually I ran only 5 days but still about 100 km. I probably just need to be patient and avoid intensity for another week or two and see how it goes.

Next Sunday we leave Romagna, so there will be less cycling later on (even though we’ll bring the foldable just to maintain some minimum level of cycling in the week).

Week forty- nine

• Workouts: VO2max (6 x 2’ hard uphill), tempo (1 hour)

This week I managed to train a bit better, I went for a big run on Monday (50 km, 2200m), and maintained decent volume during the week, closing at 140 km. I had minimal pain / discomfort, and was able to do a sort of VO2max session by hiking / running on the steepest hill near home, and then running a bit of tempo in the weekend. The pace of the tempo run was rather depressing, but I was also quite tired and the roads are hilly, so I won’t worry for now.

Full week:

I went cycling only twice, I wanted to go also on Saturday but it was too cold, so I passed. I was also very tired from the week of training at that point. I hope next week we can keep going this way, with a proper workout without pain, let’s see.

This week I also stopped drinking coffee again, I have been experiencing more ectopic beats at rest, and while I first associated them with the stressful working trip in the UK and US, now it has been a few weeks and it wasn’t getting better, so I am trying to see if caffeine has an impact (it does feel like it for me). It’s been only 5 days but I do seem to have fewer, and entire hours in which I do not notice any. Let’s see, in truth, I had started drinking coffee again in summer because this issue had come back regardless, but as always we stress, there are multiple factors and things are a bit hard to untangle. On the bright side, my data looks pretty good and I feel pretty good:

In the meantime I booked my trip to Boston for the marathon, looking forward to that. This was also the last week of the year in Brisighella, as we are going to France and Spain for the next months. Overall, a better week than the previous ones, running wise.

Week fifty

• Workouts: 5 x 2 km hard tempo

It seems I am finally getting better, no calf pain, some knee discomfort, but it’s the second week in a row running more than 140 km, and with some intensity. Cautiously optimistic.

This week we were mostly on the road, driving to Barcelona after a short stay in Marseille, training was good but life was a bit more stressful than usual, and it shows on the metrics.

Let’s see next week, aiming for Monday off running, then a hard session on Tuesday, hoping it goes well as I am losing confidence a bit. I also wrote the blog below with a few totals and learnings from this year.

Week fifty-one

• Workouts:

  • 10 x 3’ hard, 2’ easy (supposedly VO2max but in fact threshold)

  • Long tempo (30 km with 22 km at ~marathon intensity)

This week I finally trained. I felt good, trained good volume, and went for hard intervals and a tempo run (2 workouts 4 days apart). In between the two sessions, I had a good day on a long run, I was quite sore but I was able to hit a good pace for four hours. The following two days were quite a struggle, I was also very low on energy as I am trying to lose a few kilograms and it is always a not-so-easy balancing act (plus, I am doing the passive heat acclimation protocol, which adds to the tiredness). The pace during these workouts was quite underwhelming, but again, without consistency I couldn't really expect anything better.

I won’t be racing in the heat soon, but I am trying it as a way to stimulate certain adaptations that might aid performance in temperate conditions too (a bit the same principle behind altitude training). Anyways, the most important thing now is training hard consistently, let’s see if I can keep it up.

This week I had no calf issues, and felt the knee a bit during the intervals and the following day on the long run, but this issue is not as limiting as the calf one, hence so far so good.

In terms of cycling, I am doing only one ride per week, the day I do not run. I find it not possible to cut calories and train very high volume both on the run and bike, I get too hungry with many hours of riding and I am eating all the time, hence right now I am giving priority to quality running and a small caloric deficit. Strength training and plyometrics are also going well, I am currently doing 2 sessions per week.

Full week of running:

Week fifty-two

• Workouts:

  • 4 x 3 km hard, 2’ recovery

Last week of the year. This week I had planned a single hard session, which I executed much better than expected (I thought that at this point I’d be slower, given the lack of structured hard training). The downside was once again calf pain. I took the day after off, and therefore cycled two days this week. I then went running again on Sunday and it was quite okay, so no drama, but a constant reminder that I need to be really careful when training hard. I am thinking to make yet another change in my periodization and go for a ride every single time I do a hard session (the day after). Let’s see.

Here is the workout, which was on flat trails:

It was also the second week of my first block of heat training, I wonder if that has also helped with my performance during the workout. Now two weeks off, and then another two weeks of the same protocol.

Full week (111 km of running, with 2000 m of vert):

Overall, I ran ~605 hours and 5900 km, with 95 km of vertical gain, in 2023. I will close this blog now, and start writing in the new training log for 2024, here.

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Marco holds a PhD cum laude in applied machine learning, a M.Sc. cum laude in computer science engineering, and a M.Sc. cum laude in human movement sciences and high-performance coaching.

He has published more than 50 papers and patents at the intersection between physiology, health, technology, and human performance.

He is co-founder of HRV4Training, advisor at Oura, guest lecturer at VU Amsterdam, and editor for IEEE Pervasive Computing Magazine. He loves running.

Twitter: @altini_marco

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