What I Learned Running 100km In A Week

Hey my running mate! Goomorning, it’s Monday! 💪🏻 As always I hope your last week's went great!

This is a SPECIAL EDITION of The Running Week and for this reason it will be structured a little differently, I hope you like it and you can learn something from this email.

Since it is a special edition I ask you to answer the satisfaction survey at the end and letting me know if you liked this edition or not! Your opinion is very important to me!

In the previous issue I asked if you were interested in a more personal email in which I told you everything I learned in my first 100km week.

The "yes" won so here's the special edition you were waiting for...

But before we start...

😎 ENTER FOR FREE TO WIN A SOAR RACE VEST!

I've partnered with SOAR to offer one lucky winner a SOAR Race vest.

Starting from NOW until September 18th you can enter the “Summer's Last Lap Giveaway” directly on the Soar website simply clicking here for free!

It's completely FREE! Enter by clicking the button below, you can win a SOAR Race Vest worth ~$100!

Good luck to everyone! I hope you appreciate this idea, maybe in the future we could organize other giveaway and thanks again to Soar to support this community!

Now we can start with today’s issue…

What I Learned Running 100km In A Week

As you know I'm working hard to be able to run the half marathon on October 21th sub 1:20h – to achieve this goal, together with my coach we decided to run 100km in one week for the first time and this is what I learned that I think can be useful to all of you, even if you run less km a week!

Recovery is everything

If you want run a 100km week you have take the recovery seriously.

Even before I started, I knew my legs won't like the training load increase, so I followed a rigorous recovery schedule from day 1 to ensure I minimize the risk of injury as much as possible.

So I forced myself to always do a warm-up and cool-down before and after all my runs. Always! Plus during the gym sessions I started use the FOAM Roller, I hate it, but it’s very effective!

The only I didn't do was ice baths, something I really like but haven't got the capacity at home to do (If we can count ocean swims as ice baths then yes, I did that too!)

Eat, eat, eat

Running 100km in a week requires lots of energy which will inevitably mean lots of calories are burnt. You should not only eat enough food, but you should also be eating the right foods.

I usually ate carbohydrates before workouts and protein and healthy fats after workouts. Also, be sure to get lots of fruits and vegetables in alongside decent servings of unsalted nuts and seeds – I’ve already written about best fruits for runner in this issue.

Not eating enough food will not only mean inadequate performance during training but it can also lead to a tonne of other problems like low mood, anxiety and even depression!

If you take your diet seriously, your body will get enough of the right kinds of foods for optimal performance.

Porridge with red fruits is one of my favorite post run meal!

Change the routes

Taking on the 100km in a week is much more enjoyable and interesting when you have a variety of routes!

Luckily I live on a fantastic island and every day I can take a different route!

Before setting off at the start of the week, I’d recommend making a few different routes around your local area that you can use throughout the 7 days to mix things up and keep it fresh.

To make routes, you can use Strava’s route builder, Google Maps, or even the analogue means if you’re old school.

Here’s a tutorial on how you can create a route on Strava.

Trivia Question: What’s the most expensive pair of running shoes ever sold?

Find the answer at the end of this email.

Organize your playlist at the start of the week

Running is a unique opportunity to double down on both the benefits of exercise and listening to content.

Podcasts, audiobooks, music and more can all be listened to during your run.

Rather than spending time and energy before each run consciously making the decision as to what you’re going to listen to, make the decision ahead of time at the start of the week!

if you don’t want take your time to search for a playlist or a songs, I created a few FREE playlist your listen for during your runs!

Here’s the Spotify’s link:

• Easy Runs Playlist → Direct Link

• Tempo Runs Playlist → Direct Link

• Metronome Playlist → Direct Link

Make the right plan

If you divided the 100km in a week evenly across the seven days, you would need to clock up ~14.3km daily.

Depending on what kind of runner you are, plan how you will split out the 100km at the start of the week.

If you prefer to keep things nice and consistent, plan to do the 14.3km a day and ensure that you have routes planned to match this ambition.

Personally, I like to mix things up so during the 100 mile week I had a mixture of runs ranging from 8km all the way up to 25km in a single run!

Here's what my 100km week looked like:

1. Monday: AM 55min Easy + PM Gym

2. Tuesday: Rest

3. Wednesday: AM 12×400m + PM Gym

4. Thursday: 60min Easy

5. Friday: AM 18km progressive + PM Gym

6. Saturday: 90min Easy

7. Sunday: 25km Long Run

If you want see more stats about my run you can follow me on Strava simply clicking here.

The right running gear is essential

During my 100km week I used SOAR products and as shoes I used these:

• Nike Invincible Run 3;

• Puma Velocity Nitro 2;

• Li-ning Feidian Ultra 3.

When you run more than 50km a week I believe you should have at least 2 pairs of shoes, one pair for fast runs and one pair for slow runs.

Rotate your running shoes drastically reduces the risk of injury! Maybe I can go deeper into this topic in future publications if you are interested.

That’s it!

I think all these tips can be useful even if you run fewer kilometers per week!

Feel free to reply to this email sharing your thoughts or if you have any question, doubt, request let me know! I will be happy to help you!

Sub 1h20 update

Last week's training block was ~77km:

1. Monday: AM 50min Easy + PM Gym

2. Tuesday: Rest

3. Wednesday: AM 5×1000m + PM Gym

4. Thursday: Rest (worked all day)

5. Friday: AM 1h Easy + PM 40min Easy

6. Saturday: 70min Easy

7. Sunday: 20km Long Run

Nothing special this week except Thursday... I didn't get to train on Thursday but I spent the whole day creating cool running content for Instagram!

Very very soon I will start publishing actively on Instagram too (even if I don't like the platform very much) I will post content on my personal Instagram profile and on The Running Week profile! So be sure to follow me on both profiles!

I'm not a good influencer, so I'll need your help to grow on instagram! 😂 I hope you will like the contents that I will also publish on instagram!

Last thing before “Just for laughs” section, I would like ask to you to fill this short survey, it take 30 secs and it’ll help me to have more info about you so I can create more relevant topic! Click here to go to survey!

Just for Laughs 😂

Trivia Answer: A pair of Nike’s Moon shoe sold at auction for $437,500 in 2019! Full story here.

• Should You Run For Time Or Run For Distance? (Link)

• The Best Warm-Up Routine to Do Before a Run (Link)

• Best Running Motivation Tricks You Need To Know (Link)

• Everything You Need To Know About VO2 Max (Link)

• How To Recover Like A Pro Runner (Link)

And at this link you can find all the publications that have been published since the beginning!

Thanks for reading to the end. I hope you enjoyed this special issue of The Running Week and I would appreciate it if you take the time to help me spread the word by forwarding it to a friend or colleague! Or share the following link on your socials: https://therunningweek.beehiiv.com/

From your running mate that's it for today! I hope you enjoyed it!

Have a fantastic time on your run, and until next Monday and good luck for the giveaway!

I’m incredibly grateful for this little newsletter and community of The Running Week. Thank you.

Thanks SOAR Running for the support.

PS. Let's connect on Strava, here’s my profile

Matteo, your new running friend.