I was entering my luteal phase last week so energy wise was not in its peak. It’s good to know how hormonal shifts affect me and be compassionate about it.
Monday: 7 miles easy and enjoyable run. I had an earlier meeting so didn’t have time for yoga afterwards.
Tuesday: 7.9 miles easy with 6 strides. Again, didn’t have time to do strength training in the AM and I just don’t have energy to do it later in the day.
Wednesday: the workout: 2 miles easy, 3 sets of 2 miles @15-20 secs faster than desired HMP, rest between sets 3 min of SLOW jog, 2 miles easy. This is the third time I do this kind of threshold workout, and I love it. I was excited before the start because I knew it will challenge me mentally and physically. I was challenged by the third set but knew I could push through it. I enjoyed the cool down and went a bit longer as it felt so good to just flow. 11.5 miles total. 20 min full body strength.
Thursday: 7.9 miles easy with 6 strides. My legs felt the workout as expected.
Friday: full rest
Saturday: 6 miles with 922 feet elevation gains as we were in high land (our airbnb was at 3000 feet). I was not prepared for the hilly terrain at all. I did 5km downhill and 5km back. It was brutal the way back. My cardio was challenged but not my legs (or I thought).
Sunday: the plan called for 16 miles easy but I only did about 10 miles, any more than that would not be an easy run.
By Monday, I couldn’t get down stairs with proper form, my quads hurt so much, as if I just completed a marathon. The good part is that the temperature is cool, and air is so crisp. I wish it was flat but still I enjoyed what I had and got better with running hills?!
Total miles: 50 miles
Strength: 1 session
Yoga: 0
I think running hills up and down really challenge a different set of leg muscles and cardio. I really admire those trail runners that do this in a regular basis.
Our New Journey 
Excellent workout week!
My marathon in October will be flat, but I still incorporate quite a few hills in my training (we have a lot of them here in Switzerland).
It was a good idea to cut that long run to 10 miles. It’s good to listen to your body!
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Wow – those hills sound very intense! Glad it was cool…one silver lining?
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Great week of training, Coco. I had hill repeats on my training plan this week and ran up and down the “hill” for 30 minutes. It’s definitely a different type of leg workout LOL
BTW, I wanted to let you know, you gave me some thoughts regarding my struggles during my long run last weekend… I am in my luteal phase, too, so maybe that impacted my performance as well. (I fueled the same way as the week before so I don’t think I was underfueled.)
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Hills are so hard and definitely work our muscles differently – both going up and down the hills. I live in a pretty steep hill and sometimes see people doing hill repeats on our hill which would be such a tough workout! If I was training more seriously for a race, I would def use that hill for workouts. I do run up it at the end of every run, though.
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