Week 8

On its own day, with no run before or after it. For when the gym is out of reach. At Osaka your heart rate averaged 144 against a zone 2 ceiling of 146, and you still lost 32 minutes in the second half. The engine was never the problem. The legs stopped absorbing landings, and no amount of extra running fixes that. This is the session that does.

1. 1

   Squat

   3 × 1260s rest

   Feet shoulder width, toes pointing forward. Sit down between your heels rather than folding forward at the waist, and go as low as you can keep your heels flat. Knees track over your toes; do not let them fall inwards. Three seconds down, one second up.

   Quads and glutes — the muscles that absorb every single landing.

2. 2

   Reverse lunge

   3 × 10 each leg60s rest

   Step backwards, not forwards, and lower until the back knee nearly touches the floor. Front shin stays vertical, chest stays tall. Push back to standing through the front heel. Step back rather than forward because it is kinder to the knee.

   Single-leg control through a long stride, which is exactly what a hill demands.

3. 3

   Glute bridge

   3 × 1545s rest

   Lie on your back, knees bent, feet flat and close to your backside. Push through your heels and lift your hips until your body makes a straight line from knee to shoulder. Squeeze at the top for two seconds. Do not arch your back to get higher.

   The glutes, which should be driving you forward and mostly are not.

4. 4

   Clamshell

   3 × 15 each side30s rest

   Lie on your side, knees bent about 90°, heels together, hips stacked. Open the top knee like a clamshell without letting your hips roll backwards. Small movement, slow, two seconds up and two down. It should burn on the side of the hip.

   The side of the hip — the muscle that stops your pelvis dropping each stride.

5. 5

   Calf raise

   3 × 1560s rest

   Stand on the floor, or with your heels over the edge of the mat's thickest fold. Up over one second, hold at the top for one, lower over three. Hold a wall for balance; go one leg at a time once 15 is easy.

   Calves and achilles — your push-off, and the first thing to cramp at 35 km.

6. 6

   Plank

   3 × 45 seconds45s rest

   Elbows directly under your shoulders, hips level with your shoulders, ribs pulled down, glutes squeezed. The moment your hips sag or your lower back arches, the set is over — 25 honest seconds beats 60 collapsed ones.

   A trunk that does not collapse late in a race, which is when your form goes.

• Warm up for 5 minutes: march on the spot, leg swings, ten slow bodyweight squats. Not a run.
• Bodyweight is lighter than the machines, so make up for it with tempo: three seconds down, one up, on every rep.
• Stop each set two reps before you could not do another. If it feels easy, slow the lowering to five seconds or go single-leg.
• No gym day this week otherwise, so treat this as the week's one leg session — but keep it a notch gentler than the machines, since Thursday is a run.

Run — 7 km @ 8:10–8:45/km

No reps here — set a Pace Zone alert for this band on an Outdoor Run (or a single-block Custom Workout named with this) so the Watch buzzes if you drift outside it. That is what keeps an easy day easy.

1. 1.7 km
   Warm-up8:10–8:45 /km14:00

   Easy and unhurried. Arriving at the first rep already warm is what makes the first rep honest.

2. 0.7 km
   Threshold 1 of 57:00–7:15 /km5:00

   Comfortably hard. Two or three words at a time, not a conversation.

3. 1:30
   Recovery jog8:10–8:45 /km

   Keep jogging, however slowly. The recovery is easy running, not a rest.

4. 0.7 km
   Threshold 2 of 57:00–7:15 /km5:00
5. 1:30
   Recovery jog8:10–8:45 /km
6. 0.7 km
   Threshold 3 of 57:00–7:15 /km5:00
7. 1:30
   Recovery jog8:10–8:45 /km
8. 0.7 km
   Threshold 4 of 57:00–7:15 /km5:00
9. 1:30
   Recovery jog8:10–8:45 /km
10. 0.7 km
    Threshold 5 of 57:00–7:15 /km5:00
11. 1.2 km
    Cool-down8:10–8:45 /km10:00

    Slow. Let the heart rate come down before you stop.

Paces are the Bangkok-heat bands. The same efforts in Kyoto cool will come out 20 to 35 seconds per kilometre quicker on their own.

1. Warm-up — 14:00, 8:10–8:45/km
2. 5 × 5:00 @ 7:00–7:15/km · 1:30 recovery, 8:10–8:45/km
3. Cool-down — 10:00, 8:10–8:45/km

Apple Watch has no file import for custom workouts. Build it as a Custom Workout on the Watch or Fitness app — Warm-up, then a Repeat block, then Cool-down — and paste this name in as its title.

Run — 7 km @ 8:10–8:45/km

No reps here — set a Pace Zone alert for this band on an Outdoor Run (or a single-block Custom Workout named with this) so the Watch buzzes if you drift outside it. That is what keeps an easy day easy.

Run — 20 km @ 7:55–8:25/km

No reps here — set a Pace Zone alert for this band on an Outdoor Run (or a single-block Custom Workout named with this) so the Watch buzzes if you drift outside it. That is what keeps an easy day easy.