Due to my ongoing battle with Plantar Fasciitis I have embraced my beloved Elliptigo of late and added this ‘weapon of mass destruction’ to my running armory. The plan is to commute to and from work as well as run lunchtimes to aim for 15 hours a week exercise time. That should break down into around 7 hours on the GO and 8 hours running. The GO time is non impact so allows me to crank up the hours without the risk in injury. The 15 hours target is due to Tim Don  ( https://www.timdon.com/ ) who managed to achieve this while training for Kona with a broken neck wearing a halo drilled into his head ! My logic is if Tim, a world record Ironman holder,  can train 15 hours a week with a broken neck then I , an ageing runner with Plantar Fasciitis,  should be able to replicate that. ( https://www.runbkrun.com/2018/10/13/when-cross-training-takes-more-time-than-running/ ) Tim successfully returned to Kona a year after breaking his neck and ran well under 9 hours for the Ironman. Inspiring !

So far I have managed to maintain my cross training and running targets but must admit to feeling fatigued daily and I’m hoping this is just the phase I need to go through to build the ‘engine’ that will power me to a successful 2019 and beyond. Not sure how much ‘beyond’ I have in me as I’ll be 52 next February and even with the best intentions I realise my time near the front of the pack is limited and eventually I will be dragged, kicking and screaming, back to the chasing pack. Of course there are a few more years , I hope, of running sub3 for the marathon and protecting my 27 in-a-row current sub3 streak. It would be nice to nudge that close to 50 before I eventually succumb to Father time, we’ll see.

The whole point of this cross training program is to allow me to build my engine now for 2019 and not waste this time. I understand that PF has limited my training, and that is an understatement, but like Tim Don I have found a way to keep moving forward and adapting to my injuries. Of course a mild case of PF is not a broken neck but myself and Tim have both felt the devastation of injury and the fear of slowing down. Tim was 39 when he broke his neck after setting a world record for the Ironman, hitting forty we all realise he is going to struggle to maintain that intensity long term and his , like mine, time in the sun, at the front of the pack, globally in his case, is limited. This is why he chose the halo compared to  less painful option which would have probably killed off his triathlon career, certainly at his level. He considered the three months of pain a small price to pay for the future glory of still being at the top of his game. Personally if someone offered me the same choice I would take it , three months of intense PF pain but with the caveat that after three months the PF is fixed and you can continue on. Currently PF has been hanging around for 5 months and still I cannot run on my beloved asphalt, it’s better but not 100% yet.

This is why the Elliptigo has become so important to me, that and my Kings Park trail runs. Between the two of them these exercises allow me to ‘scratch‘ my daily exercise itch and , I hope, still maintain my running fitness. In-fact I hope that my three times a day exercise regime may even allow me to return even stronger and fitter than before I was so cruelly cut down at the Australian Masters in April. How I regretted that event that may have earned me 8 gold medals (4 State and 4 National) but destroyed my 2018. Not only did it decimate my racing calendar,  worse than that it made me totally reliant on trail and grass running which, socially,  just about made a running leper. I’ve never spent so much time running alone. No more Sunday long runs with the boys and , worse than that, no post-long run pancakes  or waffles.. ! This is another curse of being injured, you miss your time with your friends because most dedicated runners over time lose any friends who don’t run. It’s hard to balance training with social events and I’ve mentioned many time No1 Wife has created a whole social life for herself without me. I’m the stay at home baby sitter while she goes out with her friends , who I’m assuming are similar middle aged Wife’s with Husbands who prefer the couch to the bar. Actually I should take more of an interest because she did mention the other night she was out with the pool cleaner and we haven’t got a pool ? Only joking , current Wife does have a good group of lonely Wife’s who together cobble together a good social life while leaving me to watch Netflix films on all sorts of sport and the kids of course.?

Right, after digressing yet again for most of this post the point is two fold. First, make cross training a part of your training program  and second always keep looking forward. Ok 2018 is a write off for me but I’ve reset the goals and am determined to make 2019 a special year to make up for the disappointment of this year. The Elliptigo will help me clock the hours training without risking an injury because half the training hours will be on non-impact equipment, while still aiding my running as the GO is as close to running as you can get, IMO. (Now the Bionic has stopped selling due to the company folding.) I’m hoping these extra 6-8 hours a week on top of around 100k of running will build the aerobic engine enough that by early March next year I can start to add pace, the classic Lydiard training program. I’m about half way through the initial ‘Conditioning‘ phase. I’ll then start to move up the pyramid which should stand me in with a good chance of going sub 4 hours finish time at the 6 Inch Ultra in December, assuming I don’t get lost for a fourth time ! ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com Any trail runner reading this in Perth or Australia, you need to enter this event quickly, it’ll sell out soon.)

Lydiard Basics

The principles of sound training that Lydiard developed in 1960s––based on experimenting on himself and a small group of local New Zealand runners––have stood the test of time as the scientific studies have caught up to validate his approach. Many of the principles that are part of the Lydiard system are found in coaching and training systems in use today, and nearly every successful athletics coach or athlete consciously or unconsciously emulates Lydiard’s training system by laying an endurance base and making use of periodization for peak performance.

Initially, this culminated in sending Murray Halberg, Peter Snell and Barry Magee to the medalist’s podium at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Subsequently, too many runners to mention have used Arthur Lydiard’s approach to achieve an impressive array of Olympic medals and race wins throughout the world.

Lydiard based training is based on five critical principles:

1. Conditioning – At the start of any Lydiard training cycle, there is a long phase of aerobic running to build endurance and lay the base for a strong performance on race day.
2. Response Regulated Adaptation – Trying to run at training paces that are not aligned to your current fitness level is not a recipe for success. Lydiard plans adjust your effort levels based on how you are responding to training stimulus to optimize your fitness improvement.
3. Feeling Based Training – Learning to accurately interpret the language of your physiology allows the runner to stretch the training envelope while avoiding the perils of overtraining.
4. Sequential Development – Unlike many running plans that seek to develop multiple facets of running fitness at the same time, Lydiard training is based on a philosophy of developing the building blocks needed for a good race day performance individually over a longer training cycle to allow optimal fitness development.
5. Peaking – The later phases of Lydiard training are designed to guide and sharpen the runner to a point where they are in peak condition on race day in an excellent position to run the best race possible.

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The Lydiard Training Pyramid

A typical Lydiard plan includes five distinct training phases over (ideally) 24 weeks.

While it is a longer training cycle than what you may be used to, the length of the cycle allows the safe development of running fitness as each phase builds on the previous one. The individual runs are not significantly different from what you might find in another training approach; it is the overall structure and flow of the plan that sets Lydiard apart.

Aerobic Base Building – a period of aerobic runs (run by overall time, not mileage) at a variety of paces to develop stamina and a base of conditioning.

Hills – Develops the leg power and flexibility that will be needed to support faster running while continuing to develop the aerobic base.

Anaerobic Development – Adds faster running (tempos and intervals) to prepare the runner to be able to handle race pace.

Integration – Race distance specific tuning and sharpening including shorter distance time trials.

Taper – Final preparation for race day.

Time to pay the Piper? … no way baby, plenty of time left in the BK running machine…look out 2019.