Progress

Not much blogging, but plenty of running. I've been pretty happy with the training so far. I've been more consistent through the last two months than anytime over the previous year. There have been a few sessions that didn't go to plan. I've had to take an extra day easy every now and then. A little bit of mild illness cut down some kilometres. Yet it is all coming together.


The volume is creeping up, and I hope the 100km+ weeks become more of the norm. Also I am seeing some very distinct progress, both in the fast runs and the long runs. The fast repetitions for the 5000m are feeling more and more natural and I'm able to the hold the desired paces for longer. For the long run, while my paces aren't up where I really want them, there have been big improvements from run to run. The endurance threshold, or decoupling point is being pushed further with each run. If the improvement continues, even at a slower rate, I could just be where I want to be come the marathon in June.

While I don't run based on the typical 7 day week, and don't run kilometres just purely for volume sake, I think there is a good deal of improvement that comes from consistently hitting some high numbers in training. As long as you include the faster stuff in the mix too. My last eight weeks have clocked up the following running kilometres:

  1. 101km
  2.   89km
  3.   46km
  4. 102km
  5.   80km
  6.   45km
  7.   84km
  8.   81km
My last week of training went something like this:
  • Mon: 5x2km @ 10km race pace with 400m jog, went out too hard and each rep became a struggle. Total 19km due to an extended warm up with the wife.
  • Tue: 10.5km regeneration pace.
  • Wed: Track 5x400m @ goal 5000m pace, with 400m float + 2x200m sprint with 200m rec. Total 12km
  • Thu: off
  • Fri: Long 30km @ about 5:00/km, 1st half mainly flat, late stages undulating, finishing with a few hills.
  • Sat: 14km regeneration pace.
  • Sun: 15km easy run with 5x hill sprints

Comments

  1. Ewen17 March 2014 at 20:51

    You're going well Jason. What's the marathon you're aiming for? Gold Coast?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown24 March 2014 at 13:48

      I'm looking at Australia's longest established marathon, Traralgon on 15 June.

      Delete
  2. Miles of the Journey17 March 2014 at 23:54

    Good job Jason...

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sandy Point Half Marathon

Image
Any race that uses a picture of myself as promotion makes me think I should compete in it. Wouldn't want to disappoint the masses. Last year my race slow and cold over the same course. A time of 1:30:20, was disappointing and a kick up the backside to get to what really works in training. Since then I have put in a lot of consistent kilometres and have seen some improvement. I was definitely going to race faster this year. Based on my race results over the last few months the hope was to see if I could get down to near 1:24:xx. The weather was very different this year. Far from cold, in fact I think it was our warmest night in a few months. However, there was a Damaging Winds warning issued, with predictions of 65km/hr gales to slow things downs a bit. The winds hit, according to the weather sites: NNE averaging around 50km/hr with gusts of 76km/hr. That made for some interesting race tactics. Luckily the rain held off until after the race. For some reason I felt ready with only 1...
Read more

Fitting Together

It's interesting how easy it suddenly becomes to prioritise aspects of life. I have missed plenty of training in the last week, but for the first time in my life, it really, and I mean really doesn't matter. That's not to say I am throwing training on the back burner. Far from it. Of course I am finding it hard working out how life now all fits together, but I am thoroughly enjoying the process. Training is now just part of the puzzle. What was a very easy load a couple of weeks ago, is now just manageable. This is what I anticipated. As things settle down and I work out of few things the training load should again become much easier. At the moment it looks like I will be able to get in all the key sessions, so in reality it is going fine.
Read more

The Gorge

For work I am currently stationed away from my normal branch. This is a recent roster change that I am not too happy about due to a number of reasons that I won't go into here. The good thing is that it gives me different roads to ride on when commuting. Nothing like a bit of variety to break things up. One particular bit of terrain that I now get to cover is known as the Gorge. It is exactly as the name suggests. The road that takes you into the Gorge is simple. One side is a very wide bend, that could almost be thought of as a straight road. The other side involves a couple of reasonable bends, which wouldn't normally be an issue, but can be when hitting speeds of 60km/hr on the descent. I want to make it clear that the Gorge is far from the toughest of climbs, while quite steep on both sides it is relatively short. So what is it about the Gorge. For me it has provided a good bench mark for my cycling fitness. Back when I first started on the bike it took all my ef...
Read more