Go Hard

Leading into the Australasian Police & Emergency Services Games, I was a little conflicted with how to lead in. I want to race at my best, but I know if I went in with a full taper then my preparation for the marathon to follow would suffer. Not because of any lost training sessions, more so because if I hit a true peak in performance, then there is very likely a slump to follow. So I took an approach that hopefully still has me performing well without carrying undue fatigue through my races and still has me improving in the weeks afterwards. As usual, what went on paper ended up a bit different when it came to putting the runners on. This is what the previous two weeks of training has looked like: Sat: 4x2km at 10km pace, with 400m jog recovery. Total 17km. Sun: Easy 18km. Mon: An attempted interval session, but realised I was getting sick (thanks to a sharing family), realised it wasn't going to happen. So ended up taking it easy for 12km. Tue:  Easy 11km Wed: Fe...

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...

I've well and truly gone past the point where I can add any fitness. I have what I have, now all I can do is make the most of it to get the best result race day. The plan for the last couple of weeks was penned with the proviso: Naturally the plan will change if it needs to (and it probably will) Of course it did, and what I did put on paper was a bit too much. So I listened to my body, and I think I got that in the strange period that is a taper. Anyway, as of 14 days out the training went a little something like this... Trail Run 44km with race kit, race nutrition at race pace. All went to plan, plus I felt great. 90min @ race pace 1h45min @ race pace, maybe a little quicker over the last 30min Easy relaxed run to and from track, with 10x80m building strides. All relaxed and comfortable, took 60min all up Planned 4 hour trail run, but legs felt heavy and I felt tired, so just a very light 60min Day OFF. Legs still heavy, and I was wondering if I am fighting off the c...

One week between the 10km cross country and the half marathon. To get the peak right, this is where experience and the art of training really comes into play. There just isn't enough science to give definitive guidelines here. That leaves me working from a subjective base. This is not a typical training week. I have built all the fitness I can. Instead, the training and resting is only about being able to get the most out of myself for a top half marathon on Sunday. Rest hard, recover and spike the system to prevent a loss of form and grease the groove to feel natural on race day. Sounds almost like a near meaningless mission statement. Time for what really happened. The 10km cross country, was run within my abilities. Even with a fast surge for a bit over 1km, I didn't overly extend myself. That combined with a mixture of gravel and grass for half the course, meant my legs weren't too beaten up. I pulled up with just some moderate tightness and no injury concerns. So ...

The final week before the Emergency Services Games. No more killer sessions. The hard work in training has been done. No hard runs will add to my fitness now. Instead this week is about ensuring I am recovered enough from the previous weeks of training and making sure I am primed to run fast on race day. The taper is a mixture of art and science. This is what mine looks like. My taper is seven days. Sunday to Saturday inclusive, with my first race, the 10km cross country being the following day. The half marathon will be exactly one week later. Getting out of bed on the first day was painful. The accumulated stress of the 5 weeks of training had come to a head. The 10 hill repeats up the 245 the previous day certainly added to that. My usual tibialis posterior difficulties were showing up. Adding to this my left leg and foot had some new flare ups. The tibialis anterior was fairly tender, but my worry was the pain across the top of my foot. The extensor tendons were sore, there was...

Time to talk about the taper for the marathon. As with just about every single element in training there is way too much information available on the topic. There is a science behind the taper, but there is also an art. My approach doesn't agree with a lot of the general consensus out there on the blogs and running forums. However, there is a lot of reasoning and I think, solid justification in my approach. My Taper: Last long run (33km), easy, building to near marathon pace and held oer the last 12km with some increased efforts on the final hills. 11 days prior to race day. Taper then starts 11 days out. The focus will be almost entirely recovery. Just a very small amount of faster running thrown in to keep the feel in my legs. My approach this year compared to previously will be to take everything even easier. So most days will consist of a 30-60 minute run, performed very comfortably. The aim is to have it feel as active recovery, where I increase the blood flow, lubricate the ...