What Happens When a Training Plan Falls Apart

Well, things had been going relatively smoothly with training, right up until they weren’t.

Roll back time ten days, and everything was going well. There’d been a dip in mileage while in the mountains, but then I’d done a lot of elevation change in that run, getting my body used to something a bit different. I followed that up with a 130-kilometre week back in Hanoi, all good. The next goal was to push forward and reach for that 100-mile target.

And I didn’t.

Not only did I not reach the target, I didn’t reach for it.

I purposefully took it easy on Monday, giving my legs a bit of a break ahead of acupuncture on Tuesday. Another easy run followed on Tuesday, to let things settle from the acupuncture. All fine, all part of the plan. Big day Wednesday, easy day Thursday, then three big days to wrap up. Instead, I haven’t completed a single 10-km run since. 

Where did I end up?

The big issue was tightness in my calves. They were fine when walking, but they would not behave on a run. I was met with stiff aches every time my feet landed, and my calves didn’t seem to return any of the energy back out as I pushed back off the ground. It was as if I had forgotten how to run.

This caused a bit of additional mental stress. How could I run Japan if I couldn’t run around the block? What if my calves stayed like this for weeks? What should I do to help them recover? How much rest did I need? Or should I push through? 

None of these thoughts helped. While I kept running every day, to hit that 75-day target, they were slow grinds. I’d plod out at 7 or 8 minutes per kilometre, my heart rate never rising above the mid-120s, and I felt like I couldn’t push past it. I couldn’t speed up. I was stuck. 

How much of this was psychological? I don’t know. Some of it was, for sure. Fatigue has a mental component, and I know some of this was fatigue. I was at the stage where, for the first time since starting this project, I really didn’t want to run. 

So what went wrong? 

Well, too much running and not enough strength training for a start. You can only overload in one area at a time, and I prioritised running, as that’s what I’ll be doing in Japan. Through August, I expect to sacrifice some mileage for some good strength sessions.

Running every day also derailed the plan. It was clear that there was not enough rest scheduled, and this had an impact mentally as much as physically. Again, this was purposeful, to replicate Japan; run every day for 75 days, sometimes twice a day. The first 60 or so days were easy; the last 5 were awful. This helped me understand what I’ll go through on my adventure, so again, it was useful, but now I need to recover from that awful stretch. I’ll give myself a bit of a mental break through the rest of July, before getting back to running 6 days a week in August. 

Changing shoes changed my calves. My old Brooks felt like they had no life in them, and I was starting to get a bit of knee grumpiness. If I’d pushed my strength training hard enough, I suspect my knee would have been happier. But either way, I needed new shoes. I switched to Altra trail shoes, with a 4 mm drop. They were fine but probably added a little extra stress to my calves while I was out running up and down hills. I couldn’t get the road shoes I wanted, so I picked up a pair of Hoka Gaviota 5 that were on sale. These have a drop of 2.2 mm. That might only sound like a slightly smaller drop than the 8 mm Brooks, but it’s significant. And significant enough to put my calves in rather a lot of pain. I should have been smarter about following advice on switching shoes, and perhaps a little more picky about what I chose, rather than just grabbing the pair that was on sale.

Poor sleep the week before, too much work stress, not getting my salt balance right, leaving me with leg cramps, all contributed to the crash. In the UK, I wouldn’t have to worry so much about salt imbalances. But out here, sweating in 30ºC every single day, things can feel a bit out of whack. While I’d been getting the calories in, I perhaps haven’t been getting the right balance of nutrients that my body needs. 

So what happens now?

I’ve taken a few days to try and reset. This has been tough. At some point, I need to stop resting and get back on the horse, but when is enough?

I’ve had a week of awful runs. But, the last few have been okay. They’ve started to feel a little better. Over a 50-minute run, my legs carried me a kilometre further on Sunday than they had on Friday. The calves started a little heavy, but they felt okay by the end. By yesterday, I was almost 2 minutes quicker every kilometre than I had been on Friday. 

I now need to manage my training load, working out when to push a bit harder and when to ease off. I no longer have the pressure of trying to run every day; those 75 days are done. I’m glad I did it. The fatigue, getting tired of running and having to anyway, of not having time and running too close to eating, these are all the sorts of challenges I’ll face in Japan. But now, I know what I need to know about those things, and I don’t think running every day is optimal for my training. It might work for some people, but it’s not giving me the best results. I’m gladly going to switch up the training through August for that last 6-week block. 

I’m back in the Brooks for the next week too, while I’m away in Laos. They don’t have many more miles left in them, but I want to see how my calves feel after switching back into them. Perhaps changing my shoe drop is a step too far in my training for Japan. I’m hoping to get a couple more “runcation” videos out, following up the Sapa one with Laos, China, and Hong Kong. I just need to get my mojo back first.

I’ve got to get back to running long mileage, and my body is getting closer to being ready, but my mind still isn’t so sure.