6.22 km · 55:24 · 8:54/km · HR 114 avg / 140 max
Execution: plan 60′ Z2 → ran 55:24 (-8 %) · HR 114 avg (Z2 cap 145)
Saturday’s long run, moved to Thursday (weekend conflict) and taken to the trails — where it became part run, part orienteering: lots of stops to find the track.
The coach’s read
The deload long run, relocated to Thursday and taken off-road — where it turned into an orienteering session: repeated stops to relocate the track kept the average HR at 114 with 93 % of the hour in Zone 1, never even brushing the Z2 ceiling. For a deload, that’s not a bug: 55 minutes of time-on-feet on varied terrain at near-zero intensity is exactly what an absorption week wants — and honest UTFS prep besides, since that race will also be about terrain management, not pace. The 8:54/km means nothing; the 150 spm cadence says plenty of walking, which the climbs and the map-checking explain. Week 3 closes around 25 km of a ~28 target. The morning told its own story though: the first clean post-needling read came in at 3/10 — both feet, the highest of the block, after the plan’s densest stretch of consecutive running days — and the right arch murmured at 0.5–1 through the run. Friday’s rest lands well; the weekend mornings decide whether week 4 opens at full prescription.
Part of week 3 of the 30 km build.