Short For Long?

A sizable gap between posts. Doesn't mean there's been a gap in the training. Over the last week there really hasn't been anything outstanding in my running. It's just been a matter of getting the base training done. The very easy runs have been covered comfortably. The hill session feels a little bit easier. The moderate long and the actual long run can be ticked, but they didn't feel as comfortable as I would like. Which is a little bit of a worry since I will be running the Maroondah Dam 50km in just over a week. The tendons & muscle around my right medial ankle are intermittently still giving me a bit of grief.

So where does that leave me as I head to the end of my base building?

Well, I do have a half descent bank of kilometers in my legs. Due to a few missed runs around the start of January, the level of my long runs didn't progress as quickly as I hoped for. That is likely to mean a significant amount of risk by really pushing the pace and/or distance on the longer stuff. To ensure I can move into the next level of training I need to keep a lid on the amount of threshold work and how hard I take the long runs. As far as the Maroondah Dam 50km goes, I am really going to have watch the early pacing. With the climbs and downhills, not to mention the distance, it is an event I could really hammer myself. So I need to stick to my plan, of it just being a harder than usual long run. A test of what I need to do to progress to the ultramarathon world. In guiding my pacing for this day, I have a 22km planned in three days that should give me a proper indication of where I really am at. Otherwise, the rest of my running will be the usual 1 hour (short) stuff.