Go Hard

About 2 to 4 weeks out from a goal race is an interesting time for me. This tends to be when I develop a good idea how my training has been. It also is the time to  target what will make the biggest difference on race day. I have moved away from labeling periods of training with start and finish dates as I find I work better treating training as a continual evolution where elements progress rather than suddenly change. Of course you see clear differences comparing 4 months out to 10 days out, but from a week to week perspective the change is blurred or intertwined. This approach gives me the freedom to be comfortable stepping away from the more typical periodisation that is found in most generic training plans. Of course to do this I also have the confidence in understanding how I respond to different styles of training. I've now reached a bit over two weeks out from the Two Bays 56km Trail Run. For a reality check my training over the last three months has been far from consistent...

This is the second half of the 56km course (or the complete 28km course). It's a brilliant course. Only a few weeks to go. Thanks to runforbodyandsoul for the footage.

Improving running performance comes down to creating a training environment where the sum is greater than the total of all parts. This is harder to do than most think. Many create a training situation where the sum is less than the total of all parts. We know the cliches. Trainers rather than racers. Don't leave it all on the training track. Here I look into the concept of getting the most out of your training to maximise race performance. Despite that being the main point of training, it is easy not to achieve. I've made plenty of mistakes and had a good number of successes. Overall I would say I tend to race at a higher level than my training indicates. Back when I used to participate in exercise studies which measured performance values like VO2, muscle fibre distribution, substrate metabolism, and power output my race results at the time were consistently above lab predictions. Here are my ideas on the topic. Know Your Target You cannot excel in every distance at...

Again there's been a lack of posts lately. The reason is quite simply I'm struggling to fit everything into each day that I want. I've missed more training than I like, but looking back it's just how it is. Needs versus wants have been in competition. That doesn't mean run training has been poor, but the level of consistency I want hasn't been there. I haven't been able to hit those extras that really give confidence 4 weeks out from a big race. Instead I need to have more trust that the benefits of training will appear on race day without proving them with one or two breakthrough runs leading in. On the other hand I've put in some good solid runs that with them ticked off the list I know I can complete the distance. The question is how fast? How do I get the most out of the few weeks during the stupid season?