Go Hard

Recovery from a big race? It's important, but what does it really mean? How do I decide I'm recovered? Take a day easy for every mile in the race is a rule of thumb, but that translates into 35 days. I've got a 100km race I want to be prepped for. Maybe I could just smash my way through training and keep going until my body catches up. What could go wrong? So on and so on, my head struggles with how to structure the days to week(s) after a race. To decide how to measure my recovery I need to know what my goals are. That's simple, to be at my best for the Wilsons Promontory 100km in May. To help with that I want to not only take the fitness I've built recently, but capitalise on the gains I've taken from last week's Two Bays Trail Run 56km . Now, how do I do that? Firstly, I move away from the term recovery . Instead I use  regeneration . For me it creates a better mindset. Recovery always comes across as a passive process, rest, sleep and not much else u...

My race reports for Two Bays over the last three years start with a mention of going in with big goals. Each time I certainly fell well short of those goals. This year I've tempered my expectations and changed my mindset. Even put in a few more kilometres and extended out some of the long runs. Process versus outcome focus should give me a better outcome. A big part of the process is getting my pacing right and not smashing my legs and falling apart in latter stages as I have done previously. As a result I had to get the balance right and try to avoid the initial fast burn with achieving the fastest average time over the 56km. The main strategy here was to choose the right gear. I needed the fast, but not too fast race outfit. Red was just too dangerous. Since red goes faster, it was going to be too fast. Rather than speed, the smarter move was to focus on first place and wear something more  maillot jaune . With the main colour sorted the next biggest influence is definitely ...

Over a week in, and it's time for my first post of 2017. Not one for big New Year resolutions, it's just an good reminder to have a review of where I'm currently at versus where I want to be. Of course this is an ongoing process and involves a bit of detail over a few days, but I'll spare everyone from that. It just seems extra self indulgent and boring. That leaves just the main details... My running is okay right now. I'm not breaking any records at the moment, but I'm fit and relatively injury free. I've got a bit of a base of general running fitness with some inconsistent volume behind me. It is definitely a good starting for the year. Better than I've had over the last couple of spins around the sun. The overriding general goal for the year is to end the year fitter and faster than I am now. This will require a much higher level of consistency than I have achieved in recent years. As a result I will need to focus on doing what it takes to keep...