Go Hard

The second race in Salomon Trail Series varied a bit from expected. First up I had been looking forward to the two river crossing across Plenty River. However, the water level had been rising pretty much weekly for the last couple of months. Changing from some simple rock hopping where you could keep your feet dry to thigh deep last Saturday as in the video below. Plenty of rain this week saw the water level rise to chest deep with a strong fast flow. Too dangerous to send 1100 runners of various abilities across. So the coursefile://localhost/Applications/Utilities/DigitalColor%20Meter.app/ had to change. A description of the change is best quoted from the Rapid Ascent site: The new courses will still start and finish at the Yellow Gum Park with short course runners completing a single, 6.9km lap through the park, and long course runners completing 2 laps (minus a bit) to end up with a 13.4km course. We believe the new courses are of a similar quality and style to the orig...

Out of the Base training and into the more specific training of the Focus phase. The first week actually quite comfortable overall. Admittedly I was skipping the harder hill run to allow for the increased mileage of the longer runs, but it felt easier than thought it would. The Pace run gave me 26km in a bit under 2.5 hours. The heart rate was up a little and speed was appropriate, it just felt right while running like this regardless of what terrain I was on. Absolutely no flat spots in energy either. Consuming a bit of maltodextrin throughout definitely gets me some better training quality. The Speed session was performed in groups of four. Plyometric hill reps, uphill sprints, downhill high cadence sprints, all taking 15-20 seconds each with about 2 min in between. In the end I felt ready to hammer a fast 5000m. The Long run got me 5 hours 20min. The first 20km was mainly non-technical and was covered in 1:40, a bit quick. This did catch up with me as I got into the much more ...

My original thoughts and guidelines for my training program for the Surfcoast Century are covered in Detailed Training Plan - Surfcoast Century . Now having completed 8 x 8-day weeks of base training, I am at the point where I shift my emphasis towards more specific race preparation. The basic principles I outlined at the start still apply, but there needs to be some changes in the details to get where I want to be. Training is more than just how far and fast you run each day. Especially when you put yourself on the rivet to get the greatest amount of improvement possible. Risk management needs to be applied. Each hard run should be geared towards improving race performance. The risk is that there is always a recovery requirement that includes musculoskeletal, central neuro-cardiovascular-respiratory and health factors. It becomes about optimising the balance of all the above which is strongly affected by all other aspects of life and work. I still want and need to function and enjoy...

I toned down the intensity for my basic runs to see what effect that had. The result was one of my best training weeks. My key runs were all performed very well. The total volume was the highest so far at over 130km. Plus I generally felt good. Not like my body was at breaking point. Other good points were that I handled sub-zero without any real problems. Even when it rained it was good. Plus I shared the terrain on all but one day with plenty of kangaroos. Then finishing with a long run of 37km, hills and a few more hills mixed with lots of beautiful single track topped off the base training. Tomorrow I start my Focus phase of training. I've been training to be ready for this next stint of training. At the least the next stint will now be training to race. Details to come.

Volume. This was the main focus for the week. After a low number of kilometers (despite some of them being quite fast) last week and an average a bit below than what I really wanted for the first few weeks, I need to expand my endurance. My faster running is good, so I know that isn't being sacrificed. I wasn't too concerned with pace this week. Instead I looked for ways to get in extra distance and not drop a single session. Day 1: Basic run 60min. Up early, short drive to work from which I start the run before the day officially starts at 0630. The run felt slow and comfortable so I was surprised to find my turnaround point at 30min substantially further than usual. Day 2: Backpack on and 90min over the trails in the dark to work. I started feeling really good after getting past the hour mark. Usually a good sign that my endurance is improving. Day 3: Another early start to fit in 2 hours. I made a point to keep the pace up throughout. "This is not a picnic....