Go Hard

It's been about two months without a genuine long run. I did get in something a bit over two hours on the trails, but it was stupidly slow and involved more walking than I liked, so in my book it doesn't count. At the moment it looks like everything is back on track for some consistent training. The knee is good. Life is balanced. I have my systems going. The chance of another snake bite is very low. This training week, I've got in the key runs of aerobic conditioning and hills. There was only one day with no running as I skipped an easy run due to working an extra night shift. The runs were all as expected. Mentally I'm struggling with the slow speeds, but I'm sure if I speed up now then that will lead to some holes in my consistency. So mainly slow running is where I am. It's allowing me to back up each day. This week has given me 7 out of 8 days of running. The target for my long run was 2 hours with the majority in my endurance/aerobic conditioning r...

To get the most out of my running I need a plan. Working rotational shift work (8 day cycle) and not living off a typical 7 day week forces a different line of thinking. It isn't as simple as writing a repeatable week that covers 8 days. I have to take into account the commitments that are related to the Monday to Sunday world. For example, day 2 of my training week may be a Wednesday or Sunday. The competing interests of the rest of my life will be very different depending on which day it is. Over the years I have tried a few approaches. Many mistakes have been made. There have also been a few successes. What follows, is the starting point of my next major stint of training. Goals Currently I do not have an exact race in mind. That doesn't preclude me from setting some strong goals. I've been tossing around the concept of running a couple of trail ultramarathons next year. I'm looking around the 50km-ish mark. Exactly which ones and at what level I'll compete i...

Following my post, Training Zones , Rob Smith asked, "how much training do you do in each of the zones?". This will be my attempt to answer that question. Mainly it will explain why I can't just give a, 25% in this zone, and 33% in that zone , answer. As a refresher I outlined my heart rate training zones as: Aerobic 132-154bpm (70-82%HRmax) Threshold 155-166bpm (83-88%HRmax) VO2 167-188 (89-100%HRmax) To understand how I apply these zones, I need to explain some aspects of my training philosophy. Firstly, training and racing fit into my life, and shouldn't compromise other aspects. Therefore, what I choose to do in training isn't always structured around what makes for best training practice, it is often dictated by it is what I can fit in . Recovery is highly variable, and as a shift worker, with two young kids, my recovery, especially sleep is quite often compromised. This can have a big influence on what I do within a session. Second, I am no longer a believe...

"Find your zones, and stick with them" - very common advice. I have definitely followed this in the past. I had some good results, but plenty of times I didn't as well. There are a lot of problems with establishing and sticking with training zones, whether they be based on speed, heart rate, power or perceived exertion. The most obvious is you are making a lot of assumptions. These include, you get certain predictable responses from working at a certain level for a certain time, the way you established the zone is accurate, it doesn't vary over time ad plenty of others. Now plenty of assumptions may be accurate, and I am definitely not recommending against the practice. For me following the same guide over a full training program. What do I do? I establish the requirements of my event, versus my own fitness and from there work at defining some training guidelines. These guidelines vary over time as my fitness changes and/or I discover I need a different stimulus. In t...