Episode 146: Mini Training Camps, Making Intervals Fun, and Gratitude for Movement

In this week's episode, we talk about how to turn a regular vacation into a DIY training camp by leaning into the terrain, time, and tools you have available, and why a change in training stimulus can build fitness while keeping things fresh. We share ideas for making intervals more fun and less structured, from segment hunting and landmark fartleks to letting hills and trails dictate the effort, plus some thoughts on balancing fitness and specificity when moving between road and trail. We also talk about easing into fall training as cooler weather arrives, paying attention to whether you are actually absorbing your training, and the importance of gratitude for simply getting to move. Finally, we dig into mental toughness, celebrating the small moments when you choose to keep going, and building up a cookie jar of resilience you can draw on when things get hard. Check it out!

Insights

Katie

Reflections from mini vert camp!

Just got back from ~10 days in Maine which turned into a mini “vert camp”!

• Terrain availability there is very different from in Boston -- miles of very technical rooty/rocky/rugged trail running in the local state park, punchy hills all over for biking 

• Over many summers there I’ve realized that it’s not the best place in the world to optimize for, e.g., flat speed work, but it can turn into an awesome place to do a targeted but unstructured “camp” approach to training

Goals for the week: 

• Optimize for what I had in Maine: biking out the door, trails out the door, and social time

• Structured workouts less important, but still can push intensity with organic intervals (see next insight!) and/or Strava segment pushes 

• Accumulate more easy base volume than usual and let the hills do the work of strength building

Takeaways:

• SO fun to switch it up and kept things very fresh

• Excited to see that fitness from my mostly flat road running + strength lifestyle in Boston did translate back into feeling powerful on trails → muscle memory?

  • That said, a bit more cautious on the downhills and will need more time to get really comfy sending it on super technical terrain (I also am more cautious in general with a baby at home who needs me!)

• By the end of the trip, excited to return to structure → my body tends to feel better with 2-3x lifting per week which I had de-prioritized while on vacation, and I was surprised at how quickly I started to get creaky. More data that strength and mobility is so important going forward!

• Social time was *really* nice too and makes it easier to get bigger volume days in -- miles truly fly by with a friend 

• In general, great to optimize for the tools/terrain/time that you have in any given place/life stage etc., which may mean mixing in mini camps and getting creative when life allows that!

Organic intervals ideas inspired by recent trail time

Keeping fun/joy in workouts by keeping intervals a little bit looser than the standard X time things. I’ve been doing this a bit by trying to map structured workouts on trail terrain and have found it’s more fun to keep things flexible 

• Landmark fartlek: Pick a tree/mailbox/telephone pole ahead and run hard to it; recover until you feel ready, then choose another

• Random-cue fartlek: Surge when you see a dog, a blue car, another runner, someone wearing a certain color, etc. (choose the rule before you start)

• Song fartlek: Hard for every chorus, easy for verses; alternate hard/easy songs; shuffle a playlist and let song length determine the interval

• Trail-choice intervals: Every time the trail turns uphill, hard; every technical section = controlled/easy; every smooth runnable section = fast

• Choose-your-own-duration: Instead of 8 × 2 min, do ~20 minutes where each hard effort can be anywhere from 30 sec–3 min, where the only goal is accumulating roughly 12–15 min hard

• As always, Strava segment pushes 

Easy as an endurance athlete to be a perfectionist about workout execution. 6 x 2 mins on/off *feels* like a serious workout whereas accumulating 12-15 mins of hard work over varied terrain when you choose it can *feel* less serious. But often the physiological adaptations are basically the same!!

5K race reflection on mental toughness from an athlete:

“It was 82* and 72% humidity, so awful racing conditions. Legs felt a little stiff from biking yesterday. Took a caffeine gel 30min before start. The first mile felt okay but mile 2 was very hilly and I was nervous every time my HR went close to 190 so I didn’t look at pace just went by feel and slowed down if it got high. I felt like I wanted to quit every hill because of the heat and being scared of heat stroke but just kept telling myself I’d reassess after the hill and always felt better. My goal quickly shifted to just finish the race without walking and sprint at the end so I was glad I got that done. I realized one part I feel very invigorated by from the racing experience is the moments when you feel like you’re gonna quit and you choose not to. There’s something about choosing to be mentally tough. That’s my favorite part of all endurance sports I’m realizing. So I actually feel like I learned about my motivations and how to have fun today. It was really nice to share it with my boyfriend, even though he was way ahead of me and altogether a very good experience.” 

• Great example of focusing on positives when conditions make racing really tough!

Elena:

• Reflecting a lot on the idea of gratitude for movement in general. Jenny Simpson ARVC story– very scary but impressed by her takeaways of gratitude to be here and adaptation to what life will look like for her while acknowledging the grief of losing movement

  • Leaning on her support network who “walked her gently to that understanding”

  • Focus on the feelings movement gives you and use that as the motivation to get out– take a moment to really reflect on the physical and emotional sensations of movement

    • For me: a certain kind of fatigue that differs by sport– lungs more in swimming, legs in biking, both in running, a muscular swelling in lifting. 

    • Emotionally– the feeling of accomplishment, of having experienced the world, of having carved out time for myself, and often of having connected with people

  • Related: dealing with health anxiety. This is where building a performance team that you trust can help tremendously

    • Having clear boundaries and warning signs

    • Focusing on the feelings that are good for you

    • Naming it, grounding it, and moving forward

• Fall fitness! Athletes are starting to taste the lack of humidity/heat fitness! Soak in the joy of more comfortable movement. Fall is a good time to start building a little more volume or intensity. A reminder on building— one at a time, not both! Patience is key and check in with your body’s signals about how well you’re adapting to training:

  • Sleep is ok? 

  • Mood / motivation is ok? 

• The power of big Z1/Z2 days as level up opportunities

  • Adventure races

  • Long long explore rides with lots of stops

  • Backpacking

Challenge of the week

Katie: Organic fun workout with ideas above!

Elena: A play it by ear adventure route! Many different options to decide upon as you go

Gear pick of the week 

Katie: Naked running belt (bc I found mine after losing it for a while!)

Elena: NYT Cooking app

• Recipe Katie mentioned — honey mustard grilled chicken