Comfortable

I'm now into my second cycle (my version of a week) of low intensity base training. While I am a lot slower than I would like, I am now starting to feel more comfortable with the concept. Part of that may be that I now also feel more comfortable running and cycling at the lower heart rates. Based on my experience as an athlete, a coach and through study I know that this approach works. This is where my confidence in the approach comes from.

Now that I'm feeling better about the base training, I have been thinking about where it is going to lead. Knowing myself, I need to have some goals. At this stage I am going to stick with improving my running. In the longer term I will likely aim for the Police & Emergency Services Games at the end of March next year, and possibly look towards a marathon later in 2009. These aren't set in stone, but at least give me a rough focus and timeline to guide what I am doing now.

Right now I really need to get back to my base. Most importantly I need to redevelop my aerobic conditioning that I let erode and get replaced with a dominant anaerobic metabolism from the previous few months of training.

So the plan now is to follow a period of 7 cycles finishing with a 100km bike ride in the Around The Bay In A Day in October. Each cycle will consist of:

• Long Run @ 60-75%: 1:15, 1:20. 1:25. 1:30, 1:35, 1:40, 1:30
• Medium Run @ 60-75%: 1:00, 1:00, 1:00, 1:10, 1:10, 1:10, 1:00
• Long Bike 60-75%: 2:00, 2:15, 2:30, 2:45, 3:00, 3:15, 2:00
• Medium Bike 60-75%: 1:00, 1:10, 1:20, 1:30, 1:40, 1:50, 2:00
• Intensity: alternate between Run 8.4km MAF test (80%) and Bike 2-3x4km steady hill climb

The rest will be 2-3 strength/body control sessions plus low intensity endurance/technique work.

I know I will lose my top end speed and speed endurance during this period. It is more important to build a very strong aerobic machine where I can add the extra speed stuff onto at the right time.