Go Hard

Being at the end of my first training cycle, it would be time to take of whole I am responding to the training. The eight days ended up only involving running. No time for the extra swim or bike ride and not even a go at the weight room. It was hard enough managing to fit in the runs. Choosing the my heaviest rostered work work to start, I should have anticipated this a little more. At least I am used to modifying the training according to how I pull up from work so no big deal. The Week That Was Just to confuse those working a normal 7 day, Monday to Sunday lifestyle, I started my week on a Friday and continued for 8 days to include the following Friday. Friday (number 1) Up at 5am to drive straight to work, from which I complete my morning run. Just grabbing the gear and food I prepared the night before, allows me to sneak out of the house without waking the little one and my wife so early. If I'm efficient enough I can get in a 40 minute run. Today I hit a hilly course, over mos...

My first structured run back was simple. A hilly circuit before an early start at work. Nothing much to it, just 40min of running. It felt great to be back in official training. The run did point out that I have lost a a fair amount of fitness, including specific strength, flexibility, basic workload tolerance and of course pace. All of this was to be expected. I'm aiming to keep the plan simple. The aim at the moment is to build up a high level of base for the rest of the year before I work out where I really want to go with my running. To that end I am working on having key sessions on 8-9 day cycles against a back drop of sustained aerobic running, a couple of strength sessions and optional swim or bike ride. The key runs will be: Long Run (2 hours) VO2 max Threshold Speed/Agility The rest will be interspersed with steady aerobic running, and if needed replaced with much easier recovery style sessions. The amount of high end could be considered minimal to begin with. Performin...

No blogging for over a week reflects my lack of running. It has taken a lot more to shake what turned out to be a sinus & upper respiratory tract infection. I have definitely been missing covering the kilometres out on the trails. Finally on the mend, still with some antibiotics on the go, I am finding my energy levels are again picking up. I am keen to start training properly again. With the extended lack of training, I will have to accept that have entered detraining territory instead of simply recovery post marathon. The first few weeks of training will have to take this into account. It will be easy to train beyond my current fitness capabilities. The solution will be to have a few days simple running, to ease back. No heart rate guidelines, no set speeds or paces. I will just go out for a run each day. Vary my normal routes and hopefully finish each run feeling refreshed and ready to do more. From that platform I will gauge my response and develop a more formal program.

One of the many infective bugs attacking Melbourne has changed my plans on getting back into training over these two weeks. A ridiculous cough has interrupted most of my sleep and combine this with more than plenty of extra work hours, the time, energy and health just isn't there to train well. In fact, attempting to catch up on sleep is really my goal at the moment. Needless to say, I'll be missing the Eltham fun run tomorrow (plus I'm now working an extra shift instead). At least I've some extra time to sort out where I want to head with my next training plan. More on that later.

After the false training start, I took a few more days off. Ate more food, drank plenty and finished off the last my non-training lifestyle. Even so, I still snuck in a couple of runs. I needed to get my head around what I wanted to achieve in training, plus needed another reminder of what it is like not living my usual healthier life. I'll give myself about a two week break-in period which will include running most days. I'll stick in a local 10km race, a longer run and maybe something else faster, but the rest will be around steady aerobic and as long as I feel. In between I throw in some strength training, a couple of bike rides and a swim or two. Once I get an idea on how my body is responding, then I'll nut out a more structured plan.