When I heard this Trailrunner Nation podcast, they were speaking about me! How to become a “slogger” over time by not doing enough interval and strength training. My pace has slowed from a 7:30 mile to over 10:00 mile over the last 4 years and it is frustrating. They also talk about how it feels like a ton of effort even going slow!

EP 597: You Don’t Have to Run Ultras To Be a Trail Runner

In retrospect, when I was strong in 2019, it came off of a strong crossfit background and I had been more consistent in interval training. So although we had strength programming (DL, squats, bench) over a month, I am simplifying and just going back to the box!

Last week – I went 5 times to crossfit- a record! So perhaps I have gained some durability over the last few years.

I am changing my routines up:

• Doing crossfit at night/7pm so I am not at home eating because I am bored! This worked as I lost weight back in 2018
• Trying to lose 30 pounds (again). Rejoined StrongerU so I have a community for support – great facebook group. Struggling doing it alone although I am a macro expert!
• In the morning, I am spending time doing Pliability wod and meditation.

This is my plan for the next 2 months. I am already feeling like running is easier – I did a mile yesterday that surprised me! The theory is that if you focus on strength and form (through doing strides – Pose method form), you don’t need to do as much long distance training to do the long distance events. I want to try out less training volume focused on power and see how it goes this year.