Slept 7h 10m, HRV 42 against your 40, yesterday 10 km at 5:38/km with an average heart rate of 148.
Yesterday was down as an easy run and it was not one. Your easy pace is 6:10/km, the run averaged 5:38, and heart rate drifted from 138 to 156 over the last 3 km. That is the third easy run in a row that crept up. Thursday is your one quality session of the week, and it is the one that needs the legs.
Per Pete, easy running is what builds the running body: capillaries, mitochondria and connective tissue all adapt at conversational effort, and they need volume that only genuinely easy running allows. Run easy days easy enough to talk in full sentences, so the hard day can be hard.
Conversational the whole way, 6:10/km or slower. If you cannot speak a full sentence, slow down. Thursday is the day to push.
With Pete Magill · easy days easyYou do not need a rest day, you need a slower easy day. Your last three easy runs averaged 5:34, 5:41 and 5:38 against an easy pace of 6:10, so your calves have had nine days without a genuinely easy one. Mileage is not what is loading them. Pace is.
Pete Magill, Masters Running CoachThe most common way masters runners stall is not too few miles, it is easy days run too hard. Every run at a moderate effort leaves the body tired enough to blunt the hard session and loaded enough to keep tissue from recovering.
What ends most running is injury, not missed training. Tight calves after a run that was supposed to be easy is the early version of that warning, and the answer is to slow the easy days and add strength, not to add rest.
What to do today
Run today at 6:10/km or slower for 40 minutes, and take the watch off the wrist if it helps. Add 8 minutes of calf and foot work tonight. Keep Thursday as the quality day, and judge the week on that session, not on today.
With Pete Magill · injury-proofing
I had this for breakfast plus a large strong coffeeAvocado toast with 2 eggs + strong coffee logged
A good breakfast after an easy run: about 480 kcal with 21 g of protein. On an easy day the protein matters more than the carbohydrate, because it is the repair that today is for.
Coffee is fine. One thing to add across the day: aim for about 100 g of protein, spread over your meals rather than stacked at dinner. You are at 21 g so far.
Pete Magill, Masters Running CoachRunners over 40 lose muscle faster than they lose endurance, and the muscle is what holds form together late in a race and protects the joints. Protein through the day and strength work twice a week are what slow that loss.
Noted. I’ll keep an eye on protein through the day and remind you at 5:20 for the strength session.
Plan for Today
Forty minutes at a pace you could hold a conversation through. Slower than the last three, on purpose: this is the run that builds the engine, not the one that proves anything.
With Pete Magill · easy days easyWith Pete Magill · easy days easyEggs, yoghurt or cottage cheese to open the day. Repair starts at breakfast, and spreading protein beats stacking it at dinner.
With Pete Magill · protein through the dayWith Pete Magill · protein through the dayAn easy day does not need a fuelling strategy. Eat a normal plate, keep protein on it, and save the planning for Thursday.
Squats, single-leg work, calf raises, then two short plyometric sets. Twenty five minutes, twice a week. This is the part that keeps you running at 60, not the mileage.
With Pete Magill · strength and plyometricsWith Pete Magill · strength and plyometricsSecond protein block of the day, within an hour or two of the strength session.
Calf raises, toe curls, short foot work. Eight minutes tonight is cheaper than six weeks off with an Achilles.
With Pete Magill · injury-proofingWith Pete Magill · injury-proofingAdaptation happens while you sleep, not while you run. An easy day with a full night behind it is what makes Thursday possible.
With Pete Magill · recoveryWith Pete Magill · recovery