Zach's Training Journal
2025 Week 21: 05.26.25 - 06.01.25
Weekly Totals: 8 hours 21 minutes cycling, 06 hours 40 minutes running, 178.76 miles cycling, 52.5 miles running, 7 total rides, 7 total runs.
Weekly Recap: I am very excited about this week. I was able to run all seven days with no increase in discomfort in my left achilles tendon. If I sat for a while mid day, it would get a little tighter, but was easily relieved with a simple wedge stretch. A continued, and added a few things this week from last that I suspect may have been helpful. I continued to leave out any lower leg strength, but did daily rehab exercises (eccentric heel drops, and isometric calf holds), and only wore the New Balance 1080 with a wedge. I’ll likely continue this for another week before attempting to add back some weighted calf raises (bent and straight leg). I doubled down on calf massage work. I spent 15-20 minutes each day really focusing on digging into my calf muscles and directly on the tendon. I mostly kept all the running in zone 1, but did bleed up into the lower end of zone 2 during one run (Thursday). The volume running this week was a noticeable jump from the prior few weeks, and a bit faster as well. I will likely keep volume pretty similar next week, but may try to add a bit more zone 2 if things continue to trend positive. I did all my speed workouts on the bike, which included three main sessions. I did a VO2 & Aerobic Conditioning session, 2 x (5 x 2 minute) Threshold Session, and 3 x 20 minute Sweet Spot Training Session. My volume between bike and run was similar with a slight favor towards the bike, but the training load distribution still favored the bike quite a bit.
Monday:
Run:
Duration: 00:46:52
Distance: 6.06 Miles
Average Pace: 7:44/mi
Average HR: 139 bpm
Elevation: 2,224 ft
Bike:
Duration: 01:30:47
Distance: 31.25 Miles
Average Pace: 20.7 mi/h
Avg Watts: 269
Elevation: 1,677 ft
Strength: Lower Body (weighted hamstring curls, hex bar deadlift, weighted hip thrusts, weighted hip abductors and adductors)
I basically continued from the weekend today with a short run, but did bring the pace a bit closer to the high end of zone 1. If this feels good over the next 24 hours, I will aim to keep more volume around this intensity. My bike session was a quality session 4x (3 minutes just under VO2max, 2 minute recovery, 2 minutes just over VO2max). My results: set 1 (346 watts, 379 watts), set 2 (351 watts, 89 watts), set 3 (353 watts, 392 watts), set 4 (352 watts, 392 watts). I ended the day with a lower body session, but kept out lower leg strength as a continuation of holding off with this input for at least one more week.
Tuesday:
Run:
Duration: 00:54:36
Distance: 7.26 Miles
Average Pace: 7:31/mi
Average HR: 139 bpm
Elevation: 157 ft
Bike:
Duration: 01:00:58
Distance: 18.69 Miles
Average Pace: 22.5 mi/h
Avg Watts: 226
Elevation: 2,224 ft
Strength: Core (hanging leg raises, cable twists, weighted side dips)
I did a similar run to yesterday with a slight increase in volume and pace. Everything felt fine after yesterday, so continuing on. My afternoon bike session was an easy ride. I ended the day with a core session at the gym.
Wednesday:
Run:
Duration: 00:36:05
Distance: 4.31 Miles
Average Pace: 8:22/mi
Average HR: 129 bpm
Elevation: 80 ft
Bike:
Duration: 01:00:46
Distance: 23.17 Miles
Average Pace: 22.5 mi/h
Avg Watts: 227
Elevation: 1,033 ft
Strength: Upper Body (lat pull downs, shoulder press, seated cable rows, seated weighted push downs, back extensions)
I am planning on doing a relatively longer run tomorrow at a slightly faster pace, so I am keeping today really easy on the run. I was ready to plan a rest day if needed, but things felt great with my achilles, so I did a short run. My bike session was a zone 2 ride. I ended the day with an upper body session in the gym.
Thursday:
Run:
Duration: 01:11:39
Distance: 9.94 Miles
Average Pace: 7:12/mi
Average HR: 144 bpm
Elevation: 426 ft
Bike:
Duration: 01:00:48
Distance: 21.19 Miles
Average Pace: 22.5 mi/h
Avg Watts: 249
Elevation: 1,125 ft
Strength: Mobility, Stretching, & Massage
I went to Rogue for a relatively longer, faster, and relatively hillier run. It went great. My achilles responded well to it and dipped into the lower end of zone 2 for a good chunk of it. I did a quality session on the bike in the afternoon. The session: 3 x 1 minute under FTP with 1 minute recovery, 2 x (5 x 2 minutes first set escalating each 40 seconds from under FTP to over FTP, second set 2 minutes continuous just over FTP). The results: 1 minute reps (271, 277, 272 watts), 4 minute recovery, 2 minutes (269, 294, 330 watts 40 seconds each), 1 minute recovery, 2 minutes (277, 295, 327 watts 40 seconds each), 1 minute recovery, 2 minutes (281, 301, 330 watts 40 seconds each), 1 minute recovery, 2 minutes (273, 298, 330 watts 40 seconds each), 1 minute recovery, 2 minutes (292, 301, 332 watts 40 seconds each), 6 minute recovery, 2 minutes (309 watts) 1 minute recovery, 2 minutes (313 watts) 1 minute recovery, 2 minutes (313 watts) 1 minute recovery, 2 minutes (317 watts) 1 minute recovery, 2 minutes (329 watts), 8 minutes 47 second cool down.
Friday:
Run:
Duration: 00:58:58
Distance: 7.55 Miles
Average Pace: 7:48/mi
Average HR: 134 bpm
Elevation: 118 ft
Bike:
Duration: 01:00:28
Distance: 21.60 Miles
Average Pace: 21.4 mi/h
Avg Watts: 257
Elevation: 1,663 ft
Strength: Mobility, Stretching, & Massage
I started the day with a similar run as earlier in the week for approximately an hour. I did a ride in the afternoon mostly in the high end of zone 2, with a couple surges on zwift segments.
Saturday:
Run:
Duration: 01:28:45
Distance: 12.08 Miles
Average Pace: 7:21/mi
Average HR: 144 bpm
Elevation: 676 ft
Bike:
Duration: 01:00:50
Distance: 18.45 Miles
Average Pace: 22.5 mi/h
Avg Watts: 217
Elevation: 2,224 ft
Strength: Mobility, Stretching, & Massage
Since I have been responding well to running, and believe I have a good short term setup with shoes and rehab, I decided to go to Rogue and go relatively longer. I ended up getting one of my longer sessions in a while at just under 1 hour 30 minutes. It was mostly in the low end of zone 2. This run felt much smoother than previous runs. It is probably just getting used to the running routine again. I got on the bike for an easy hour in the afternoon to end the day.
Sunday:
Run:
Duration: 00:43:39
Distance: 5.28 Miles
Average Pace: 8:15/mi
Average HR: 135 bpm
Elevation: 102 ft
Bike:
Duration: 01:46:30
Distance: 44.39 Miles
Average Pace: 25.0 mi/h
Avg Watts: 250
Elevation: 361 ft
Strength: Lower Body (weighted hamstring curls, weighted hip thrusts)
My main session today was a ride with 3 x 20 minute long sweet spot intervals. I ended up hitting 281, 280, and 279 watts for the 20 minute intervals. I did my run later in the day as I wanted to see how my achilles felt after yesterday’s relatively longer run along with the accumulated load from running each day this week so far. It ended up feeling fine throughout the morning and early afternoon, so I ended the day/week with a short run.
Newsletter Sponsors:
LMNT: drinkLMNT.com/HPO (free sample pack with purchase)
deltaG: deltagketones.com Code: BITTER20 (20% off)
Maui Nui Venison: mauinuivenison.com/bitter
CurraNZ: curranzusa.com Code: Bitter20deal (20% off first purchase)
Love seeing some progress for your calf Zach!!