Zach's Training Journal
2025 Week 9: 02.24.25 - 03.02.25
Weekly Totals: 11 hours 23 minutes of running, 91.45 miles, 8 total runs
Weekly Recap: This week was a pretty noticeable difference compared to last week. Last week felt like I was working a bit harder for the targets, whereas this week felt like the high end of my expectations were met across all the quality work. For the exception of week seven, this was the highest training load week of this cycle, which included two midweek workouts and a weekend long run. It is a good reminder that improvements do not run linear. The two biggest highlights for the week were I hit faster paces at my short interval work, and my long run was the most smooth and consistent so far. This all included a couple PRs on an uphill segment I have done consistently during workouts since moving to Austin three years ago, and faster paces on my track intervals at similar effort as prior weeks.
Shoe Review Spotlight: Speeland RX:FPY
This is an interesting and unique shoe from my experience testing shoes. It is Speelands first road shoe after making a splash on the trails with their premium options. This shoe has a removable plate, which I kept in the shoe for my first session with it. This model is 8.5oz (9.2 oz with plate), which is a bit heavier than some of the top of the market super racing shoes. It has a 33mm forefoot and 40mm heel. They used a supercritical foam for the midsole, which felt soft and responsive. It wasn’t the softest shoe I have worn, but noticeable. It has a very big footprint, which I felt made it feel more stable than average compared to premium foam shoes with higher stack heights. This shoe has more volume in it than any other premium foam shoe I have worn. It had plenty of toe space, and when paired with the BOA lace system, I found it pretty easy to lock down the back half of the shoe. For shoes with ample space up front, I often pay close attention to how easy it is to lock down the back half of the shoe, otherwise I end up just swimming around in the shoe. The BOA system makes this pretty simple to do at an individual level. It does take a bit of playing around with the tightness to find the sweet spot. I tweaked it twice to find the right spot for me. This should be easier going forward now that I have a feel for it. I am looking forward to testing this model without the plate, for faster sessions, and ultimately taking it into the lab for efficiency testing.
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I like the table format for your runs. Looks like it was your normal excel sheet, and then a screenshot. Probably way easier than translating all that to a text format. I think I'll copy you on that for mine. Leave more time to do other content instead of all the copy/paste. Great training week Zach!
I wish I could say the same. I had a respiratory virus issue that completely trashed my training plan. 4 days completely off. The first time for any illness since Nov 2023. I am on the mend today, hopefully back at it full capacity by the weekend.