This evenings run was one where I had a lot on my mind and thus before I knew it I had ran 15k and was back home after racing the sunset and generally just enjoying running. I am not one for headphones or any exterior form of entertainment when I run. For me when I run, assuming it’s not pace dictated when the Garmin calls the shots, I drift away with my thoughts and have solved many a work related problems on my lunch time run. If you need to ‘unclutter’ just go for a run and you’ll normally figure things out.

This evening was one of those runs. I’d planned for 10k but just kept on running with the sunset on my shoulder and the glorious coast below me it seemed a shame to stop and turn around. Knowing I was meant to be tapering, of sorts , I had to make a big effort to stop and turn around when the time came. Truth be told I think it was probably hunger driving me home, two runs a day with no real additional calorie intake has made hunger a constant partner in my life but the end justifies the means I suppose.

The evening runs in Perth for me are always racing a sunset and because we don’t have daylight saving the length of the day is pretty constant, give or take a few hours. This has the added benefit of early mornings in summer when you have to run early as forty degree days are unforgiving. Overall Perth has a great running climate. Winter is certainly not what I would call winter, from where I come from in England a Perth Winter we would call a ‘heat wave’ ! Spring and Autumn are perfect and Summer is glorious in the early morning and you just need to get up early, really early ! It’s a win win running in Perth.  I often wonder what would happen if I ever went back to Europe. I’d miss the endless bike paths, Kings Park, the 10k bridges, running around South Perth and the wonderful beaches and the Swan River runs. All things we take for granted but certainly not the norm. On the plus side there are some seriously beautiful places to run, proper mountains, lakes, coast and beautiful cities full of history. I can always buy a new running wardrobe if needs be, always keen to spend money on running equipment. That’s for my retirement, for the moment Perth is the place to be and I’m loving it.

Right back to the next race on the BK PB train, Fremantle half. Last year I ran the Peninsula 10k pre-Fremantle and must admit it affected my performance. I was running 5th at the halfway mark which was good for a medal (medals to 5th at Fremantle) but couldn’t hold on and finished 7th, 30-40seconds from the medal. I wonder if this year I’ll be able to hang onto a podium finish. Hope so, if not, no worries, it’s not a ‘goal race’ so to speak, but when the racing bib is on there’s no holding back. Racing is life, the rest is details…..

I found this article by Jason Fitzgerald, head coach of strength training. Compliments my thinking on distance being the key to unlock pace. That quote is mine. I think I proved over the last month or so that high mileage is the key to increased performance. I’m certainly convinced.

For a half marathoner or marathoner, the “base phase” of training (also called the introductory or foundational training period) is the first phase of a training cycle. It’s what prepares runners for the more challenging, race-specific workouts that come later.

And the top goal of base training is to increase endurance—or a runner’s aerobic capacity.

So, how do top coaches and athletes define the base phase of training?

Brad Hudson, coach to many elites and author of Run Faster, explains the base phase as:

“Priority number one is to gradually but steadily increase your running mileage…

Other priorities of the introductory period include establishing a foundation of neuromuscular fitness with very small doses of maximal-intensity running and beginning the long process of developing efficiency and fatigue-resistance at race pace with small doses of running in the race-pace range.”

And Bob Kennedy, the former American record holder in the 5,000m, explains, “There are three basic phases to a training cycle: base, strength and speed. The problem that most athletes have is that they think [the phases] are mutually exclusive. I think that the phase of training is defined by what you are focusing on during that phase.

But you always do a little of all of those things. There’s never a time of year when you’re just running mileage or you’re just doing speed. You’re always doing all of it, it’s just a matter of to what degree.”

Any base period should include three components: gradually increasing mileage, the critical long run, and of course, at least one faster workout per week.

Higher Mileage is Key
Mileage, or the total volume of a runner’s workload, is one of the best metrics for success. Simply put, the more you’re able to run, the faster you’re likely to race.

To build a strong aerobic engine, gradually increasing mileage during the base phase of training is necessary.

Focus on three metrics:

Increasing the long run by about a mile every 1-2 weeks
Adding 1-2 more runs per week
Adding 1-3 miles to weekday runs every 1-3 weeks
The end result should be a gradual, progressive increase in mileage that will help build endurance, injury resistance and economy.

Run Long to Build Fitness
The almighty long run has become nearly synonymous with endurance. To increase stamina, increase the distance of the long run.
Why? Well, the benefits are clear:

Denser mitochondria (the “energy factories” of your cells)
Denser capillary networks to deliver oxygenated blood
Mental toughness and resolve
Improved muscular strength
Enhanced running economy (efficiency)
More energy efficient
You’ll race faster!
No base phase is complete without long runs. No matter if you’re a miler or ultramarathoner, a veteran or a total beginner, the long run is an absolutely critical component to successful training.

Keep the pace of long runs mostly easy and add about a mile every 1-2 weeks. But every 4-5 weeks, it’s wise to cut the distance back to ensure you’re recovering and not increasing your risk of running injuries.

Faster Workouts
It’s a common misconception that base training doesn’t include fast workouts. While they’re not the focus, they’re still included to maintain leg speed and neuromuscular fitness (the ability for your brain to communicate effectively with your muscles).

While strides or hill sprints are valuable ingredients in the base phase (and any phase of training!), there are other workouts that will help increase your fitness and overall endurance.

Progression runs where you gradually speed up to about tempo pace at the end of the run is a valuable early-season workout.

Tempo sessions improve your body’s tolerance to and ability to buffer lactate (the byproduct of anaerobic cellular respiration). In other words, you can hold a faster pace for longer.

Fartlek workouts include pickups or surges of a few minutes with 1-3 minutes recovery. These are usually faster than the other two workouts mentioned, so use them only every 2-3 weeks during base training.

Without including faster sessions into base training, runners won’t develop nearly as much neuromuscular fitness, improvements to running economy, and preparedness for the harder and more race-specific workouts that are undoubtedly coming during the later stages of training.

When you combine higher mileage, increasing long runs, and smart workout progressions you’ll build a monster aerobic base that will propel you to new personal bests.

As I’m racing tomorrow there was no early morning run this morning. I am now wondering around lost. I have persuaded my Wife to get up early so we can drive to Yelo for a coffee and muffin breakfast (carbo loading for a 10k?) and after that I will return to my ‘lost’ state.

I’m a runner who loves to run and hates not running. Even now i’m making excuses for reasons why running today would be a good idea, not twice as that would be silly wouldn’t it? So my reasoning behind a run would be to loosen the legs (they aren’t tight), it’s not really a target race tomorrow (that is actually true, tomorrow is really a good hit-out pre-half next weekend)  or get rid of some pre-race nerves (I ain’t nervous) . No luck there, let’s face it the reason I want to run is I love running, plain and simple.

Tapering for my next marathon will be a challenge. The last one I ran 100k the week before and called that tapering as I was averaging 130k a week. I’m normally ok on marathon week as even I understand the need to rest. I normally only run twice in the week before a marathon and actually enjoy the calm before the storm, but for a 10k tomorrow, hell I should be running now not typing.

So will probably sneak out for a ‘relaxing’ 10k sometime today, c’mon you’d be mad not too wouldn’t you…..

A quick article on tapering below by Pete Pfitzinger, M.S. suggests a 7-10 day taper for a 10k, I’m thinking 7-10 hours.

Most performance oriented runners will do pretty much what they’re told in training. Run 8 x 800 meters at the track? Sure. Do a 40-minute tempo run? No problem. It’s when we’re instructed to scale back, run less and conserve our energies, that we balk.

Training provides long-term fitness improvements but produces short-term fatigue. Leading up to an important race, the challenge is to find the optimal balance between maintaining the best possible racing fitness and resting to reduce the fatigue of training. This is referred to as a well-planned taper.

To achieve your best when it counts, you can only afford to do a full taper before a few key races each year. If you race often and were to taper thoroughly for each race, you would have little time left for hard training. So you learn to “train through” some races. But for the big ones, you will want to go all out to achieve your best.

A recent paper published in the International Journal of Sports Medicine reviewed more than 50 scientific studies on tapering to find out whether tapering betters performance, and how to go about it. The review showed that there is no question tapering works. Most studies found an improvement of about 3% when athletes reduced their training before competition. This translates to more than five minutes for a three-hour marathoner or more than a minute for those racing 10K in 40 minutes.

How Long Should You Taper?

Several of the studies concluded that the optimal length of taper is from seven days to three weeks, depending on the distance of the race and how hard you’ve trained. Too short a taper will leave you tired on race day, while tapering for too long will lead to a loss of fitness. How do you find the right balance? Consider than any one workout can give you far less than a 1% improvement in fitness, but a well-designed taper can provide a much larger improvement in race performance. Therefore, it is probably wiser to err on the side of tapering too much than not enough. The optimal number of days to taper for the most popular race distances are as follows: marathon, 19 to 22 days; 15K to 30K, 11 to 14 days; 5K to 10K, 7 to 10 days.

Now I’m into my third week as a ‘blogger’ I’m starting to realise this is becoming as big a part of my life as running. This morning while running my go-to run for the 145th time (thanks again Strava!  http://www.strava.com) I was struggling to think of new topics to discuss on my morning blog. Best thing to discuss was maybe the whole blog thing. The reason I started this was two fold. First I was interested in the whole process of starting a blog and in a few short weeks have found out so much about how websites are built and maintained. I am now a WordPress black-belt where-as a few weeks a go I had no idea what WordPress was. ! I now have three domains registered with 3 different companies which means a load of different login passwords and user ids. I have to store these in my phone as there is no way I can remember them all. I have lost count of the number of times I have had to apply for a password reset lately ! Maybe a sign of old age, probably.  Second, I generally do enjoy discussing all things running and if I can help anybody with some of my ramblings then great.

Once you have a blog that is just then beginning. You then spend all your time worrying about how many views you receive each day, and the number of page visits per user or the number of people following you. It is exhausting.  On the bright side WordPress has some great plug-ins (geek talk) and one of them shows where , globally, your views are coming from. This is addictive. I am apparently quite big in Australia, Britain and parts of Asia but yet to crack America and Canada.  This is real time and of course all the historical data is captured. You could spend days analyzing all the information.

So the point of todays post is the world we live in is complicated. Even starting a blog can become all encompassing, we all need a release and running is that activity. This morning while running my ‘old faithful’ 10k for the 145th time I was able to drift away and think about ‘blogging’ , posts, how to crack Canada ! etc. etc.  and before I knew it I had finished my run and it was time to get ready for work.  The run itself was therapy and even though I may have had my mind on other things on a number of occasions I did look up and enjoy the sights and sounds the morning offered me.  The run through Star Swamp gave me a sunrise and the run into Carine Open Space was just about perfect conditions with the sun just rising above the horizon and lighting up the path in front of me with a golden glow. I even finished with a burst of speed into my street aided by gravity and a hunger for my weetbix and honey. All in all another good run.

So that’s it this morning. I’m off to think about ways to break into the Canadian running market, maple syrup anybody.

As a runner I keep an excel spreadsheet recording distance and race times. I have this from post my second Comrades campaign in 2009, so currently just over 7 years. My excel sheet is just about recording distance but my mate Jon, who is an accountant by the way, has taken it to a new level and his also has times so he can work out average pace etc. It is a thing of beauty with pivot tables everywhere. All these excel sheets are now really defunct as GPS watches and Strava combined to allow runners to store all their runs online and have all the data at their fingertips. Combine this with a software package like training peaks and what you can produce is incredible.

This morning while I ran my ‘old faithful’ 10k for the 144th time (thanks for that Strava.) and started to think about how a ‘normal’ week for me has morphed from 50k as I started my journey in 2009 to nearly 200k last week. I remember thinking 100k was a massive number and one I would never aspire to (at the time Jon would be running that distance regularly, we all though he was mad!) Over the years as I have ran more and more chasing new PB’s the ‘norm’ has risen culminating in the last 3 weeks running twice a day and 100 miles becoming the new ‘normal week’. Is this sustainable,  probably not but the real issue is I am still loving my running and now consider a two run day normal. So what is next, three times a week, 250k a week total ? I know these sort of numbers are achievable by professional athletes but not us ‘normal’ (am I still normal?) runners.  There has been a number of days recently where I could have ran 3 times but on principal stopped myself, I do not want three times a week becoming the new ‘norm’!!

So back to my ‘what is normal question’? Is it normal to run 14 times a week and over 100 miles? No, not really, and not in the running community at large if the truth be told. There are many different levels of runner who participate for so many different reasons, be it weight loss, general wellness, happiness, for the love of running, to improve their racing times, to spend quality time alone with their thoughts, the reasons are endless. For each one there is a ‘normal’ week of running. This may be one 10k a week, a few jogs around the local park, moving up to 2-3 runs a week and then eventually all the way to twice a day. I have moved through these levels and I am as excited about my next run as I was about my last. Addicted, hell yeah but I feel in a good way. Only problem is would all addicts say the same thing. ?

I’ve attached a good article by Nicole Radziszewski , founder of Mama’s Gotta Move  ( http://www.mamasgottamove.com/ ) to highlight this addiction that is running…

Jenny Shepherd, 39, had always run to deal with stress. But when postpartum depression struck after the birth of her third child in 2011, Shepherd ramped up her coping strategy. The more she ran, the more she depended on it—to the point where taking a day off left her feeling anxious and depressed.

“I’d squeeze in the miles whenever I could. Even if I felt tired, I’d rather suffer through an uncomfortable workout than deal with the guilt of not doing it,” says Shepherd, of Oak Park, Illinois.

This past January, Shepherd committed to a 200-mile challenge through her running group, and ran herself into an ankle injury and a boot. When the boot came off, Shepherd’s doctor gave her clearance to run one mile. She ran four. “I couldn’t seem to stop myself,” she says.

There’s a fine line between being a dedicated athlete and being addicted to running, but experts have come to recognize exercise addiction as a legitimate problem—akin to alcoholism, binge eating, and other addictive disorders.

Shepherd’s story illustrates some of the telltale signs, one of which is running through injury, says Heather Hausenblas, Ph.D, a health psychologist at Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Florida., who has studied exercise addiction for more than 20 years. “When you are injured, are you able to stop and take time off to heal? People who are addicted cannot—or if they do, they experience withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, depression and trouble sleeping.”

“Another sign is that running becomes all-consuming,” says Hausenblas. “Someone who is addicted will give up all other activities in their life—family, friends, work—to get their runs in.”

“The Truth About Exercise Addiction” by Katherine Schreiber and Hausenblas (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, February 2015) elaborates on the signs of exercise addiction and offers insight into the risk factors and treatment. The book includes the Exercise Dependence Scale, which Hausenblas helped develop. The scale looks at seven factors to determine if an individual is addicted to exercise:

Withdrawal effects:

• Do you experience withdrawal symptoms when you stop?
• Continuance: Do you continue to exercise despite recurring problems?
• Tolerance: Do you feel a need to always do more to achieve the same effect?
• Lack of control: Are you unable to control your exercise habits?
• Reduction in other activities: Are you spending less time doing other things?
• Time: Is exercise consuming all of your time?
• Intention effect: Do you exercise more than you intend?

Based on scale responses, an estimated 25 percent of runners suffer from exercise addiction, compared to about 0.3 percent of the population in general, Hausenblas says.

Why is this number so much higher for runners? For one, it’s socially acceptable. “It’s okay to say, ‘I’ve got to do my 16-mile run today because I’m training for a marathon,’” says Hausenblas. “You get praise for doing it. It’s valued in our society.”

There is also something to be said about endorphins, which have been linked to improved mood. “People who are exercise-dependent need this, or their mood is strongly affected,” Hausenblas says. While various forms of exercise result in an endorphin boost, it tends to be greater with running and other forms of cardio.

For the nonexerciser—and even for someone who is exercise dependent–addiction to running might not seem like such a bad thing. But the consequences can be serious.

Physically, these include an increased risk of injury, exhaustion, and even cardiac damage, says Emilio Landolfi, Ph.D, a kinesiologist at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, Canada, who has researched exercise addiction. While these are similar to the effects of overtraining, a person who is exercise dependent would likely continue to exercise when overtraining symptoms begin to appear. “Consequently, the damage is potentially much greater in the exercise addict versus the overtrained athlete,” Landolfi says.

If you believe you are addicted to running or exercise in general, Hausenblas advises keeping a diary of your workouts. Set reasonable goals to gradually decrease your mileage or time spent exercising, and talk to a close friend to hold you accountable. If you still can’t stop, seek professional help.

If you have a friend who shows signs of exercise dependence, carefully bring the issue to her attention, says Hausenblas. Make sure she is aware exercise addiction is a real condition. Don’t accuse her of being addicted, but instead use “I” statements to express how her behavior makes you feel.

For more advice on dealing with exercise addiction, check out “The Truth About Exercise Addiction.”

As I move towards my third 100 mile (160k) week I must admit to looking forward to the next block of training which is more race focused, with 5 races in 6 weekends. This will allow me to drop some of the double days (currently on a 18 out of the last 19 days doubling up streak) and concentrate more on shorter faster tempo/threshold runs. I have enjoyed the last 8-10 weeks of high distance running, and even the last 3 weeks of constant double up days, but it is time to drop the mileage.

As a runner with a job, 3 Daughters, Wife, dog, budgie and many goldfish juggling my time these last 3 weeks has proved challenging. I run every lunchtime and then either before work (which means you’re tired in the evening) or after work (which means family life suffers). Running high mileage can be done but you have to sacrifice a few things including any thought of a social life (which is fine), sleep (which is not fine!), TV (I gave Foxtel away !!) and some family time.  Also it means you cut corners on some important aspects including stretching or maybe even diet as you are time constrained.  On the up side you feel invigorated and your body does adjust to the second run as long as its kept nice and easy; and as I’ve said before the second run has no real objectives bar time on feet so you can really ‘chill’ and just enjoy the freedom of running,

I can see why the Kenyan runners do very little bar run, eat and neither sleep or relax. The extra time recovering would certainly aid the extra running but for us mere mortals we have no time for that extra ‘power nap’ or just sitting around with your feet up taking in the world…. this is why we as normal runners find the double up workload eventually unachievable.

No worries, a few more days and then maybe a day off before a 10k race I have planned a week Sunday before a half marathon the next weekend, a weekend off before another half and then a 5k before the Masters Worlds Marathon November 6th. Looking forward to getting on the old racing bib because nothing fires you up more than competition. It’ll make the last 8-10 weeks worth every minute….

Finally running double days always reminds me of one of my favourite Sebastian Coe quotes about running a double up day on Christmas Day because of his rivalry with Steve Ovett .

“It was a harsh winter (harsh enough to bring down a government) but I ran 12 miles on Christmas morning. It was a hard session and I got home, showered and felt pretty happy with what I had done.
Later that afternoon, sitting back after Christmas lunch, I began to feel uneasy but was not quite sure why. Suddenly it dawned on me. I thought: “I bet [Steve] Ovett’s out there doing his second training session of the day.” I put the kit back on, faced the snow and ice and did a second training session. I ran several miles, including some hill work.
Not long ago, over supper in Melbourne, I told him the story. He laughed. ‘Did you only go out twice that day?’ he asked.”