👟 Less running and more mountains

A deload week for training, followed by a trip to the mountains of north Vietnam.

June 29, 2025

While I’ve had a fairly easy week training-wise, I’ve not felt better for it. The last 24 hours I’ve felt decidedly under the weather, almost as if my body knew it was a rest week.

I’m back on it again this week, mixing up my training in Sapa with some hiking and mountain trail runs. It’ll be completely different to the traffic in Hanoi, and I’ll try to get a few Instagram stories out over the next few days.

June has been solid, but unspectacular. I feel like it’s set July up to be key in both training and logistics. By the end of the month, I should have a solid idea of a route, some plans for getting support along the way, and be comfortable with running 100-mile weeks in training.

🚂 Training Summary

It’s been a deload week this week. That means doing less training than normal, to let my body recover. I’ve still done two strength training sessions and almost 75 kilometres of running though. I actually feel more tired this week than usual, I’m not sure whether that’s because my body has sensed that I’m not pushing as hard, or whether it’s build-up from the previous weeks. I’m hoping to get re-energised by these mountains though.

☀️ Photo from the Road

Arrived in Sapa and the first stop after a seven-hour bus journey was an egg coffee 😊

🗓️ This Week I Have Mostly Been…

🎵 Listening to: Three Little Birds - Bob Marley & The Wailers
📚 Reading: Hiking articles about Japan - by John Rucynski who’s also given me a few tips for this trip.
🎥 Watching: projectrunvietnam’s stories of their 2000km journey from HCMC to Hanoi

📺 In Case You Missed It…

I went to get acupuncture to help with my shoulder and leg aches.… I came out looking like this:

🚀 Next Up

A week in the mountain trails around Sapa. We’ll see what the distance ends up being, I’d like to push on a bit with some higher mileage, but I’m also in new running shoes, will be doing a lot of ascent, and training at around 1600m which just about counts as altitude.

🏁 Finish Line

The wifi here is abysmal. While there's a chance the next video will appear on YouTube tomorrow, there’s an equal chance that it won’t. I’ll try to upload it as soon as I can though.

I hope you all are having a great weekend, and thank you for reading and for all your support.

Take it easy,

Phill