Zach's Training Journal
2025 Week 31: 08.11.25 - 08.17.25
Weekly Totals: Running - 13 hours 10 minutes, 112.61 miles | Biking: 3 hours 07 minutes, 65.80 miles | Total Training Volume: 16 hours 18 minutes
Weekly Recap: This ended up being a very promising week of training. I was a bit sleep deprived to start the week after our trip last week, so I took it pretty easy on Monday. By Tuesday, I felt pretty fresh as I would expect after a deload week. I ended up leaning into running a bit more this week, and ended up hitting my highest totals for running so far this build. I had workouts that really boosted confidence. My mid week hill interval session (Wednesday below) ended up being a breakthrough workout. I have used this hill for workouts quite a few times since moving to Austin. I didn’t realize it during the workout, as I typically do this one purely on effort, but I ended up with all my splits exceeding my fastest split to date prior. Maybe timing was good with the deload the week prior, but I suspect the biking I have done this build has really improved my uphill running pace. My original plan for the week was a typical single long run, but after Saturday, I gave myself the option to borrow some of the previously planned bike volume to add to the run, and get my first back to back long run of this build. That run went better than I expected. Other than the heat, everything felt great, and I ended up dipping under 6:30 min/mi pace for the second long run without feeling like I needed to force at all. I always like to tell my coaching clients and anyone interested that running is funny. You can put in weeks of work without seeing any clear signs of improvement and then suddenly feel like you improved over night. That was exactly how this week played out. I believe the signs are pointing towards having the required overall running fitness to begin adding more focus on the ultra specific training sessions. I was less certain when this would happen with this build, since it is the first one I have done that had a sizable portion of my interval work on the bike. It appears that has translated well to running fitness and put me in a pretty good position to peak.
Monday:
Run:
Duration: 01:38:47
Distance: 13.24 Miles
Average Pace: 7:28/mi
Average HR: 147 bpm
Elevation: 276 ft
Strength: Mobility, Stretching, & Massage
I got out a bit later in the day due to arriving home late last night from BC travel. I kept it pretty relaxed. I am definitely still catching up a bit on sleep and circadian rhythm mismatches from crewing and pacing last weekend. My legs felt good all things considered, so should bounce back completely by tomorrow.
Tuesday:
Run 1:
Duration: 01:20:43
Distance: 12.09 Miles
Average Pace: 6:40/mi
Average HR: 148 bpm
Elevation: 243 ft
Run 2:
Duration: 00:45:50
Distance: 6.21 Miles
Average Pace: 7:22/mi
Average HR: 141 bpm
Elevation: 121 ft
Strength: Core & Stability (hanging leg raises, banded core twists, banded clam shells, banded hip flexor raises.
I had a double on the schedule todayI went to Rogue for my morning run. They had 6 x 2km (90 seconds rest between) with 4 x 200m scheduled. The 2km reps cut down from 6:15/mi to 5:54/mi and the 200m were about 37 seconds. My afternoon run was a relaxed 45 minutes with some core and stability band work. My energy felt noticeably up from yesterday, so I should be set for some short hill intervals tomorrow.
Wednesday:
Run:
Duration: 01:27:27
Distance: 11.73 Miles
Average Pace: 7:27/mi
Average HR: 141 bpm
Elevation: 1122 ft
Bike:
Duration: 01:00:34
Distance: 22.80 Miles
Average Pace: 22.6 mi/h
Avg Watts: 204
Elevation: 492 ft
Strength: Lower Body (hex bar deadlift, weighted hamstring curls, weighted bent and straight leg calf raises, weighted hip thrusters).
My morning session was short hill intervals and it went about as well as it could have. I have used this hill in training since moving to Austin in 2022 for similar sessions, so I have 184 trips up it. It is about a quarter mile at 9 percent incline average. I didn’t look at my splits during the session as I wanted it to be purely effort based. I find this to be a better way to gauge improvement over time, because it eliminates the desire to chase a prior mark, but rather just match effort. The structure was 8 reps at a solid 8 of 10 effort with easy jog down. All eight of my reps were faster than my best previous effort. I didn’t really expect to even have a single PR rep, so this was a pretty cool surprise, and hopefully validates to a degree the current training inputs. My splits up were 1:36, 1:36, 1:36, 1:36, 1:35, 1:35, 1:34, 1:33. My afternoon session was an easy ride on the bike and lower body strength.
Thursday:
Run 1:
Duration: 01:29:00
Distance: 11.95 Miles
Average Pace: 7:27/mi
Average HR: 144 bpm
Elevation: 712 ft
Run 2:
Duration: 00:49:31
Distance: 6.59 Miles
Average Pace: 7:31/mi
Average HR: 147 bpm
Elevation: 154 ft
Strength: Mobility, Stretching, & Massage
I had my second of two running doubles today, both relaxed. I ran with Rogue in the AM and solo in the afternoon. I noticed a bit more quad soreness than normal today when stretching, but nothing beyond what I would expect after intervals and lower body yesterday. I am noticing being really consistent with calf, quad, and hip mobility, stretching, and massage has been making a noticeable difference. Since going to Rogue consistently, I have added what amounts to about an extra hour per week of this after the group runs.
Friday:
Run:
Duration: 01:09:33
Distance: 10.24 Miles
Average Pace: 6:47/mi
Average HR: 149 bpm
Elevation: 230 ft
Bike:
Duration: 01:06:48
Distance: 23.00 Miles
Average Pace: 20.7 mi/h
Avg Watts: 198
Elevation: 1,417 ft
Strength: Core (dumbbell Russian twists, cable twists, bench leg raises).
My morning run was at base. I aimed to keep it at the slower end of base with some bigger running volume targets this weekend. I got on the bike for an easy hour in the afternoon along with some core strength work.
Saturday:
Run:
Duration: 02:20:04
Distance: 20.30 Miles
Average Pace: 6:54/mi
Average HR: 142 bpm
Elevation: 945 ft
Strength: Mobility, Stretching, & Massage
I went to Rogue for a long run. I jumped in one of the marathon workouts with Haley, who is pacing workouts towards a sub 2:45 marathon. The workout was the first 10 miles at normal long run pace/intensity with 3 x 3 miles at MP + 5-10 sec, MP, MP - 5-10 sec with ½ mile float between. We ended up with 6:23/mi, 6:12/mi, 6:07/mi for the three mile reps. I also began doing a more thorough job of practicing race fueling and hydration. Totals are below. This was pretty high carb input for me historically, so I was curious how it would feel. It all went down smooth and did feel like I was floating along a bit easier. After the run, I definitely had zero appetite, so I need to keep pushing this if I want to make it sustainable on race day for 100 miles.
Pre run: 1 liter fluids, 650mg pack LMNT, 125mg caffeine, honey, 2 caps CurraNZ
Run: 3 scoops of BPN G1M, 4 BPN Go gels (3 reg, 1 caffeine), 1/2 packet of LMNT (620mg electrolytes), 1 liter of fluid. Pre run was 1 liter of fluid, 100mg of caffeine, 1/2 packet of LMNT (620mg electrolytes).
Sunday:
Run:
Duration: 02:09:56
Distance: 20.23 Miles
Average Pace: 6:25/mi
Average HR: 152 bpm
Elevation: 413 ft
Bike:
Duration: 01:00:00
Distance: 20.00 Miles
Average Pace: 20.0 mi/h
Avg Watts: ??
Elevation: ?? ft
Strength: Lower Body (hex bar deadlift, weighted hamstring curls, weighted bent and straight leg calf raises, weighted hip abductors and adductors, weighted Bulgarian split squats)
I wasn’t going to force this run today if I didn’t feel good in the morning, but kept the window open for my first back to back long runs of this build if things felt good after yesterday. I felt better than expected, so I borrowed what originally was going to be a second hour on the bike and put it into the run. I got out a bit later than yesterday, so I had to tolerate a bit more heat, which was noticeable near the end. I could tell I was a bit under on fluids. I get spoiled when I go to Rogue as they have water stations every ~3 miles, whereas when I run solo on the roads, I don’t always hit that frequency. I did manage to test my stomach a bit by taking in a full liter of fluid and 620mg of LMNT electrolytes at mile 10. I hit about 125grams of carbs total, which was all just sourpatch kids spread out over the run, but with a bit more backloaded in the second half. It was one of those runs where had the weather been a bit cooler, I think I would have felt the urge to push under 6 min/mi pace at the end. If I can build off this weekend over the next few weeks, I think I will be in a great spot to peak for a fast 100 miler. I went to the gym for some lower body strength after refueling, so I did my bike ride there instead of at home. I don’t get the benefit of zwift at the gym, but planned to keep it pretty chill anyway and just spin the legs at a pretty easy effort.
Pre run: 1 liter fluids, 650mg pack LMNT, 125mg caffeine, honey, 2 caps CurraNZ
Run: 1.5 liters fluid, 650mg LMNT, 500 calories of sourpatch kids.
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