Go Hard

Some good timing for the family holiday. With Winter highlighting its arrival with some very cold mornings it was time to head to a warmer climate. This part was purposefully planned. The timing had nothing to do with fitting into my ankle rehab plans. Yet this part also fitted in quite nicely. Relaxation, pools, beach, sun, heat, drink, food and no work drew us out to Khao Lak, Thailand. Amongst the usual holiday stuff I continued the progression in my ankle. On holidays I usually enjoy getting up early and exploring the area with some morning runs. Obviously this wasnt happening this time. No problem and surprisingly to me, not too disappointing. So far the mornings involve an early rise without an alarm. Down to the beach for some breathing exercises, meditation and yoga plus some exercises for my ankle with some walking. Then into the resort's gym for strength training. There's a good amount of walking interspersed throughout the days that there's no need for a dedicate...

The disorganised scar tissue of fats cells, fibroblasts, inflammatory cells and loose connective tissue should be at the stage where it has been coaxed along to become something more functional. My ankle ligaments feel much stronger than they did a week ago. It's now at that stage that defines whether it stays as a mess that holds together, but without most of the elastic qualities a good a ligament has, or it becomes a functional ligament again. So this means training to encourage the remodelling process. There should be plenty of collagen now, and after the week and a bit of basic movement exercises most of it should be aligned in the right direction. The fibres will be type 3 collagen which are significantly thinner than the dense type 1 fibres which make up the majority of a healthy ligament. Into my fourth week post injury and I am running on the assumption the strength of my ligaments is at best 10-20%. It's a dangerous time. Without loading it will stagnate, but load als...

Two and a half weeks brings me out of the moonboot and a physio review. The body is doing what it's meant to do. I'd prefer if it would heal faster. At least now I'm I've moved on from the immobilisation phase and started some exercises. The extreme difficulty I had in doing a single leg calf raise and the almost non-existent balance on my left leg beat down my ego. At least the physio was amused by the amount of muscle wastage that occurs in two weeks. Thanks Camila. Low grade strengthening and proprioception development is this week's fun. The endurance challenge is just walking around to get things done. No extended walks and no running. I'm definitely not tempted to try it out. It is clear the ligaments aren't ready yet. Basic walking requires a good dose of concentration to keep the mechanics right. There is a laziness in the coordination and a tendency for too much inappropriate movement if left unchecked. Need to do what I need do. So far I...

Over more than two decades of endurance racing and I've had relatively few injuries. In my younger days I would stress about lost fitness and get frustrated when I was injured. Now I've chilled a bit more. Which is handy since my ankle injury is taking a good chunk of time out from running. It's easy to say it's just running and there are more important things in life. It's true there is. That approach never seemed to take the disappointment and frustration away when forced out of action. Maybe I'm getting older and wiser, or I don't care as much, but I'm definitely in a better mental place than with previous injuries. It's a bit of a chance to focus on other things. It's been over a week and for the most part I'm comfortable with the situation. Complaining won't get me anywhere, and self pity is only detrimental. Plus my wife had did more damage to her ankle earlier this year. At least we get to share moonboots. Best just to focus on ...

After taking a break from blogging I'm back. No break from running in that time. I just wasn't getting what I needed from posting. Not a lot more to it. I'll skip all the ins and out of what I've done and get right into my most recent adventure. On the weekend was the Wilsons Promontory 100km . Included in the event were 44 and 60km options. If you don't know anything about the Prom I'll sum it up as one of the most spectacular places on earth, filled with amazing views and Australian wildlife. It is also the southern most part of the Australian mainland. Do yourself a favour and get down here. Quite a number of work friends competed, and to steal a term from one of the group, it appears we must be a bunch of freaks . All distances were covered. Shift workers and ultra runners made for a massive party house with all in bed by 9pm. The house we were staying at was in Yanakie and that had us about 30km out from the race start. Which sounds like a long way, but if ...

One of my favourite things about training hard is when you hit those moments where you reach a clear next level in fitness. Improvement in running is never linear. There can be an ebb and flow, mixed with a sometimes unpredictable performance in the day to day runs. This is why I like to take a medium to long term view for most of my training. Running rewards consistency over an extended period of time . Over the last couple of months I've tried to push out the envelope. This has resulted in a few ups and downs during that time. However, it has now brought my fitness to a new level. I'm not at my best ever race fitness, but I am potentially on my way there. What is this new fitness level? My body can now comfortably handle 100km training weeks. I haven't been at this level in a long time, and I haven't ever really sustained that level for long periods. So if getting a solid 100km training week is relatively comfortable, then it sets the base for some substantial i...

Three months left of dedicated training for the 100km. I'm happy with my preparation so far. However, it is really just preparation for the real training. I've been training to train. What happens next? It gets a lot more event specific. 100km is a long way so the biggest element of focus for February is volume. Both for the long run and for the overall week. Typically the true endurance adaptions take the longest, so this is what gets hit first. Supporting this will be a lot of strength work. Building a hard to kill body in order to handle the bigger training runs and eventually the race itself. This strength training will be a mixture of hill sprints, other hill drills, and weights work. The volume and strength combination should see a marked drop in the spring and freshness I like feeling in my legs. There will be a need to remind myself this is necessary to bring out my best later on. As a dressing over the main meal I will want to practice pushing hard. The best way t...