Injury condition
The planter fasciitis is coming to an end. Have been stretching the hip flexor, calf and many many other muscles that may possibly help relieve the situation. The most important correction is the changing of running form. I found myself was not engaging glute at all, and actually using my lower back to do the push off, which consequently led to the ITBS few years ago and planter fasciitis now. I am still fixing my running form by utilizing my glute and core, and the situation is getting better and better in which I find myself is having large chance of finishing HK4in4 this year.
Training philosophy
Last HK4in4 training focused on mileage the most, which I neglected the weekly (or even daily) climbing/elevation. The weekly structure of the training was basically 5 days of flat running plus 1 day of trail running, so the build-up of mountain legs was heavily rely on that single trail running session every week. Although I could still survive the first 3 days, but my legs were definitely suffering. I think that I neglected the need for building mountain legs to get used to the up and down.
This year, I change the philosophy to time base training, which neglect the mileage but include climbing in most of the sessions. The real training phrase started from July. There are 3 phrases, road base, mountain base and peak. The 4 weeks of road base is simply getting the running leg. Then the transition to mountain base takes the most time, from August to mid November. I am trying to add the elevation into daily run as well as increasing the time to about 10 to 12 hours per week. Then the peak phrase will last for 3 weeks aiming for above 14 hours of activities per week. Lastly it will come to a 2 weeks taper.
Nutrition is another topic that I learnt a lot from these few months. I read the video and articles from few athletes such as Petter Engdahl, Stian Angermund and Hayden Hawks. I realize the importance of taking fuel consistently, particularly intaking at least or around 80g carbs per hour when racing at moderate or high level of efforts. This is very different from my practice before, even in the last attempt of HK4in4, I think I was only taking about 40g carbs per hour on average. So, increasing the number of energy intake is crucial to enhance the performance (if I plan to push a bit).
Target
Again, HongKong4in4 Challenge will be the only challenge this year. 9Dragon 50mile in February will be first race since… and the Big Boar’s Backyard Challenge in April seems interesting to join :P