2018 has nearly disappeared in the blink of an eye and I’m left with the 6 inch ultra trail marathon (December 16th http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com ) and 3 races I need to complete the WAMC 7 races to try and win my age group.  Considering I haven’t probably ran a sub 4 min/k kilometre since April I see trouble ahead. The Joondalup half ( https://www.wamc.org.au/major-events/joondalup-half-marathon/ ) next weekend will be the litmus test to see if my Plantar Fasciitis has finally given up and moved on to the next unfortunate runner. I’ll dose myself up with Voltaren pre-event and hope this will get me through it. Assuming I survive the half it will be the City Beach 8k a week before the 6 inch in early December and then the New Years Eve 8k on New Years Eve, funny that ?

Kings Park trails and the Elliptigo have been my salvation this year and I’ve managed to string together a strong last 3 months, albeit with more Elliptigo action than running.  From the last 7 weeks you can see I’ve managed to avoid a day off exercise and have tried to exercise there times a day in the week when I Elliptigo to work. This has certainly been challenging as I’m not a ‘cruise to work in lycra‘ kind of guy. When I get on my GO it’s on for young and old, I’m racing baby, be it the clock, average pace, the cyclist infront of me ; whatever. This means I get to work in the mornings and home in the evenings on the cusp of a heart attack normally and I wouldn’t have it any other way, I am in a ‘building phase’ and I’m building a cardio engine that will allow me to add a turbo to it (i.e pace) early 2019 and hopefully onwards to glory, that or an early grave and some rest in my box. ? I must admit ti feeling great, albeit tired a lot, and there’s even the chance the BK six pack is making one more appearance before it scurries off to hide behind some well placed toxic fat as I fade away into old age. With my Elliptigo I may be able to avoid that for a few more years and maybe even nudge a PB or two in the near future. The proof will be in the pudding so speak and if my PF finally leaves I have the chance to try this new cardio engine at the Australia Day Ultra in January, around Australia Day funnily enough ? ( http://australiadayultra.com ) It was at this event I set the AURA  ( https://www.aura.asn.au ) age group record for the 100k and I ‘d love to knock a minute or two off that but with the interrupted year this is highly unlikely.

Right to the point of the post, cross training can and needs to be a weapon in the arsenal of the competitive runner. Running twice a day every day, even with the second run an easy one, eventually catches up with you. I’m testament to that with my calf tear last year (thank you Mark Lommers and your Cappacino laced with injury !)  and a bad case of Plantar Fasciitis this year. On the plus side the previous 8-9 years I ran virtually injury free. Must be a fifties thing which I’m hoping to grow out off in my sixties ? With me I have found the Elliptigo gives me that runners heart rate and cardio workout without the pounding on the legs, supported by some big names in the running world albeit they’re sponsored so have to write good things about the GO. I actually love my time commuting to work now and I’ve found an extra 6-8 hours a week where I can give myself a good workout without affecting work or family time. The alternative is sit on a train with all the other commuters glued to my phone wasting my life away. I actually mislaid my train smart rider months ago and cancelled it before finding it again (Always the way?) Anyhow I’ve never actually been to Transperth and reactivated the card, no need I have my GO . As you can see from the Strava image above ( You have Strava right ? Everybody has Strava don’t they… if not , get it quick and feel free to follow me ; click on the icon at the bottom of this post)

Another point of this post is to remind everyone I’m still here. I’ve moved house in the last month and managed to fill seven garages full of ‘stuff’, it seems the Matthews family are hoarders ? ( I’m currently staying at a 4 villa complex I brought that i can’t seem to sell? The joys of being a property developer in your spare time, in  between running… ) This coming from a man who never throws out his running shows and probably has 4 boxes full of old pairs. They are like old friends to me and if you were to pull a pair out of any box I could tell when I wore them, what races , if any, I ran in them and probably how many kilometres I put in them. My Wife just shakes her head, actually everybody shakes their heads but they’re all special to me. Is that wrong , who knows? If i can find all the boxes in the 7 garages I’ll get them all out for a photo, it’ll need to be a wide angled lens if course !

I seem to have digressed , as is my way, but I’ll make more of an effort to post to the blog now I’m nearly uninjured, I have so much more to talk about when I’m racing of course. This weekend there may be a story or two as I’m running a recon run for the 6 inch ultra on Saturday. Even though I’ve ran the course nine times I’ve got lost three times and that’s even wearing two watches with a GPX file loaded to keep me on track. Needless to say I’m not the best person in the world to run the 6 inch with and the running joke , excuse the run, is when I tell people I know where we are you need to panic because you are then officially lost, harsh but true unfortunately! (Thanks for that Zac!)

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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.

After watching the Run Nation 2018 short film ( https://runnationfilmfestival.com/#home-section ) on the World Champion Triathlete Tim Don I have made a conscious effort to try and hit 15 hours exercise a week. The reason behind my target was Tim had been knocked off his bike on Hawaii a few days before the Kona Ironman. He woke in hospital with a broken neck but decided to go with a halo type contraption screwed into his head to aid recovery quicker, rather than lying in bed to heal for many months. ( https://www.on-running.com/en-au/athletes/tim-don ) What inspired me was even with a halo to aid his broken neck he still training for 15 hours a week while preparing to run the Boston Marathon only six months after the accident. He was hoping for a good sub-3 time which he achieved on only limited training, in his words, of 15 hours a week. In the end he ran a sub 2:50 marathon in atrocious  conditions.  I thought if a man with a broken back, albeit a World Champion, can train for 15 hours a week then there is no excuse I shouldn’t be able to match him.

While cycling in Kona as part of his final preparations, Tim was hit by a truck. The collision was serious. Scans revealed Tim had broken his neck. It was the end of Tim’s hopes of competing at the World Championships, but thankfully not the end of Tim.

The epitome of a fighter, Tim’s thoughts quickly turned to recovery. Among several options for treating his injury, only one would offer Tim even a chance at competing with the best again: a halo.

Despite its angelic name, the halo resembles something from a torture chamber. A circular metal framework, the halo was fixed directly into Tim’s skull and supported on his shoulders. Two days after the crash, Tim was back home in Boulder, Colorado, with the halo holding his head in place for healing and a long and painful road ahead.

The following four months tested even an Ironman like Tim to his very limits, mentally and physically. When the halo was removed in at the start of 2018, it marked the end of the first chapter of Tim’s recovery and the start of his rehabilitation.

The steely determination that Tim showed since returning to consciousness after the crash now shifted to rebuilding himself as an Ironman. Less than half a year after he broke his neck, Tim was already in the gym with his sights on big goals. Remarkably, on April 16, almost exactly six months after the accident, Tim took on the 2018 Boston Marathon. Despite driving rain and temperatures close to freezing, Tim finished in 2 hours, 49 minutes and 42 seconds, just five minutes more than the marathon leg of his world-record-setting Ironman race in Florianopolis, Brazil in May 2017.

On July 29, 2018, Tim was back on an elite Ironman start line in Hamburg, Germany. A ninth-place finish marked an incredible achievement but was not enough to secure a return to Kona. Undeterred, Tim made another bid for qualification just three weeks later at Ironman Denmark in Copenhagen. Unfortunately, the race didn’t go to plan. After a strong start, Tim was forced to retire. Just as he was accepting that a return to the World Championships would have to wait, news came that one of the qualifiers had dropped out. Ranked just outside the qualification places, Tim would take his spot. The Man with the Halo is heading back to Kona. Check back for updates as Tim heads to Hawaii with unfinished business to settle. The Ironman World Championships takes place October 13, 2018.

 

Unfortunately with my old friend Plantar Fasciitis still hanging around I knew I’d need to find some cross training exercise to help me meet my 15 hours a week target. So with the aid of the Elliptigo ( http://www.elliptigo.com ) I set about achieving my goal with gusto. As you can see from my Strava details below ( http://www.strava.com ) I have managed to hit my magical 15 hours exercise only once in the last few months, and this is without a broken neck. Maybe the Halo makes exercising easier ? Note: the last sentence was humour at its worst and I do not recommend anyone going out and breaking their neck , putting on a halo on the possibility it may aid future exercise regimes ! The extra hours spent exercising has been challenging but i certainly feel stronger now that when I started this 6 weeks ago. The rides to work on the GO are still hard work and, combined with a lunch time run, I am certainly sleeping well at night. I can feel my body adapting to the extra hours and looking forward to 2019 I’m excited for what I might be able to achieve.

Of course this year has been written off from a competing stand point and this will be brought home again next weekend when I miss Rottnest , a marathon I have historically done quite well at. Five top five placings and two second places probably makes Rottnest my best marathon from a position only view point. Not my fastest due to the terrain and heat but definitely one of the hardest and this makes the playing field a little more level when you’re racing younger, fitter and faster marathon runners. As Rottnest is a four lap course on the last lap mental strength comes to the fore and you can sometimes find yourselves passing runners that normally you wouldn’t see for dust. If any Perth runners are reading this post and feel they are ready to tackle a marathon next Sunday I’d go book a ferry ticket and get over there, if not this year I’ll  see you next year for sure, need to win that race one day and at 52 , in 2019, I’ll be the perfect age ?

I seemed to have digressed again, it’s a curse you know. So back to cross training and how it can help you as a runner. If I tried to run for 15 hours a week I think I would be a physical wreck. I would normally average around 12 hours a week when I’m hitting multiple double days and around the 130-150k a week. This was my training in 2016 and early 2017 and I did achieve some great times but eventually injury came calling. With hindsight, so easy to type this two words, I should have cut the mileage early in 2017 and spent more time on the GO when I felt the onset of Plantar Fasciitis, there were early warning signs I ignored. This has come back to bite me big time with the biggest injury of my career. Lesson learned I hope and I will be making the GO a continued part of my exercise artillery. Of course the GO is not for everyone but , I hate to say this, a bike may be an alternative or joining a gym and just spending time on general aerobic exercise or body pump type classes, high intensity low impact. The only caveat to high mileage weeks is there is always the ability to achieve these if you drop the pace and run on ‘forgiving surfaces‘ i.e. trails or sand. I have running friends on Strava who run over 20 hours a week without getting injured but always run most of these kilometres on trails or at a very relaxed pace. If you add pace and asphalt to mileage you end up injured, trust me on this.

The GO enables me to get the running feeling without the high impact of running and also helps me avoid wearing lycra, which at my age is a very good thing for all concerned ! With the commute to work I have been able to hit 160k a week on the GO and that’s 7-8 hours I’d normally spend on the train idling my life away on my iPhone with the rest of the carriage. By commuting to work I am out-there living the life in the real world not through a 6″ high resolution phone screen. It really is a win-win situation, I even get to save a few dollars a day on the train ride, I’m sort of a professional commuter albeit a very poorly paid one. It also helps me find exercise time I can justify to No1 Wife and many Daughters as it doesn’t impact our family time , although I will admit to scuttling off to bed before my 10 year old these days due to being so tired after my three times a day exercise regime, a small price to pay I think ?

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Right a quick post on the 2018 man versus train race where we leave North Dandalup train station and run the 35k to Serpentine train station and catch the only return train back to the start. Miss the train and you have a 18k run on a busy road or a 35k trail run back to North Dandalup. !!

The Serpentine train leaves North Dandalap at 10:20am so we decided this year to leave a tad earlier than previous years due to the various running injuries we were all embracing. Calf strains, Achilles issues, carrying too much weight (I’m not sure this is an injury Barts!)  and good old Plantar Fasciitis to name a few. Thus at 6:40am we set off up the scarp, mainly due to Bart’s insisting we get a move on as he really wasn’t ready for a 35k sprint to the finish. He had got lost last year when he was dropped halfway up the scarp and had to run a lonely thirty or so kilometres to the finish. This year he was determined to stay the course and refused to leave a key hidden on the car so if he got lost he knew I’d have to find him and my lift home. Little did he know I had arranged alternative transport if we ‘lost’ him.  In the end he made it and ran a large proportion of the run with us, complaining most of the way of course. I don’t think Bart’s like any hill in any direction, up or down, as both seem to set him off on a tirade of abuse. This from a man who loves trail running ?

The photo below shows the starting line up for 2018 taken at North Dandalup train station, funnily enough we were the only people about early on a Sunday morning in the country. I managed to persuade five  ‘newbies’ to join us and supplied all of these with a GPX file of the course as I didn’t want them to suffer the same fate as Bart’s from last year, bless him.

So  off we went up the scarp, which is a road section and probably one of the hardest sections of the run as you’re in danger of getting collected by mad country drivers cutting corners. Thankfully this year it was very quiet and I don’t remember seeing any cars, which is unusual, they were probably all still in bed after the West Coast Eagles, a local footy team, managed to sneak into the Grand Final the day before. As you can see from the elevation below the start is a challenge but the finish is ‘to die for’. It was a this point last year we lost Bart’s (the start not the finish.) and history repeated itself with Mark, a new runner from Brisbane, dropping off the pace early and, in Choo-Choo tradition, left to fend for himself. I felt a small amount of guilt but this was quickly forgotten when I realised the task ahead and I had supplied Mark with a GPX file of the course , so he had no excuse to get lost.

The conditions this year was perfect and we had given ourselves more than enough time to finish by leaving probably half an hour earlier than the year before. This certainly made the journey less stressful than previous years and we settled into a good rhythm with enough pace to complete the task at hand but not enough we couldn’t natter away discussing a plethora of topics and generally putting the world to rights. We as a group splintered early which seemed silly truth be told as it wasn’t a race and there seemed no point running a few hundred metres infront of each other. I ran with Jon, because he had the GPX route loaded into his Garmin 310, and Liam for conversation. (with Bart’s always a few hundred metres behind us complaining about something?) The three of us eventually caught up with the two Mark’s at the  ‘drinks stop‘. I say drinks stop in italics because there was no drinks. Simon had hidden a carton of water and a box of Gu’s behind a tree but it seems these country people are resourceful with good eyesight because there was no supplies to be seen. Not a problem though but it did the make the last 5k or so a challenge as we were into the ‘dead zone’ (over 32k) with little water and no nutrition, a good test of your bodies capabilities to survive on it’s won internal fat resources I suppose.  Luckily the last 10k is predominantly downhill so you can sort of ‘fall‘ to the finish line. ( It is to be noted this year Trish refused to bake for us which made the return trip to Dandalap a bit of an anti-climax as the reward of Trish’s baking (which is awesome by the way) would not be there to greet us, in the end we made do with McDonalds pancakes but thrust me they ain’t the same!, anyhow I digress.)

After regrouping with the two Mark’s the group of five set off to the finish and the conversation continued to improve with numbers. The highlight of the last part of the run was most of us falling prey to the only puddle on the whole course, how does that  happen ? Mark C,. attached it with gusto (he’s Scottish you know and use to large expanses of water !) and nearly went in, this made me more cautious but it was to no avail and I ended up in the same situation, soggy socks and shoes for the last 10k or so.! Once we started to descend of course it was ever man for himself and Mark C. probably set the record for the fastest kilometre with a 3:10 down the steepest part of the hill. He was very excited and reported feeling a runners high as he snowballed down the hill at speed, more probably he was just totally knackered as we had all just ran just about 35k on a few sips of water.

It’s hard to put into words the run itself as it really was just about the perfect day. A good distance, beautiful trails and great company rounded off with Brownes Mocha and a danish at the Deli. Chuck in a train ride where the guard announced to the whole train of our adventures as we boarded and departed and the day really couldn’t of got any better. Talk at the Deli (see below) centred on next years departure time as we had plenty of time to relax at the deli before the train, well most of us that is. If you remember at the start I mentioned Mark from Brisbane getting dropped at the 3k mark, you’ll see he’s not in the photo below. We all thought he was gone and I had even arranged at the Deli to let him know we’d drive back and pick him up, save him the 18k walk back to the train station. Well he made it with 3 minutes to spare, albeit the train was late as usual so he could have probably stopped at the Deli for a danish.

As you can see from the photo below taken at Serpentine train station Mark is back into the fold and happy to be there, he currently holds the record for cutting it closest to missing the train, probably beating Trailblazers record set a few years ago. I’m sure Jon can get closer with a bit of effort ? Honourable mentions must go to Allister Caird who set a course record running the route in 2hrs 27 minutes, thats a 4:11k average, sub 3 pace for a hilly trail run, Boom! He could have left nearly as hour after us and still made it. Nigel also went well considering he twisted his ankle at 15k and ‘hobbled‘ to the finish in good time, a big call as if the ankle had given way completely it would have been a long night on the trails. Of course Mark gets a mention for running the whole route by himself under the stress of a potential long walk back to the car. He looked relaxed when he finish and puts his time down to this was his first trail run back in Perth, he’s from Brisbane you know. Bart’s also went well after we dropped him just after halfway, we actually dropped him earlier but always made sure he could see us, sort off. At least this year he ran the whole course after his miracle run last year.

Right that’s the Choo-Choo for another year. I’ll try and drum up some more enthusiasm next year as if you live in Perth you really need to do this run. We all agreed we’d leave later next year but the departure time is personal to your ability and general fitness and also if you want that added bonus of really ‘racing a train’ and trying to cut it closer tham Mark, fromBrisbane’s,  valiant effort of three minutes to go. Up for the challenge ? All aboard…..

Last year I wrote a post on my old mate the T-Train and his cross training adventures as he trained for a half-iron man (would a half-iron man be a ‘rubber’ man, or maybe ‘wood-man’..?)  He even had the cheek to turn up for a post Sunday long run pancake feeding frenzy wearing a triathlon top.  You can read all about it here : https://www.runbkrun.com/2016/12/04/cross-training-as-useful-as-cross-dressing-to-runners/  The subject of cross training has again become central to my daily activities as I continue to battle Plantar Fasciitis and I eventually gave up on just running and released the Elliptigo for a second time.

Long term readers of my blog (assuming I have any bar my Mum) will know I purchased the Elliptigo ( http://www.elliptigo.com.au/ ) last year to help me get over my calf tear.  ( https://www.runbkrun.com/2017/06/24/elliptigo-is-proving-a-life-saver/ ) As with all things , non-running, though the Elliptigo was forgotten once my calf tear was repaired and it was sent back to the garage to sit next to my very expensive Giant carbon fibre racing bike. (Much to my Wife’s disgust.) I merrily returned to running twice a day and all memories of the fun I experienced on the GO was quickly erased and any thoughts of continuing cross training disappeared faster than an avocado smoothie at a models convention.

So what changed and why this post. ?  Another long term injury eventually dictated I had no choice but to dust off the GO and start commuting to work as well as keep running lunch times. This served two purposes. First I was getting in three decent cardio exercise sessions a day compared to only one, secondly I needed to work more on my core as the last 3-4 months of inactivity (relatively) had not been good to the waist line and for the first time in many years my ribs disappeared and I started to see these ‘handle’ like growths above my waist. ! My Daughter and Wife even remarked that I was getting ‘a belly’  when I was changing into a t-shirt. Truth be told this was the last straw. I had suspected as much but when your 10 year old notices, much to her amusement, something had to be done. This made me scuttle off to the garage and dust down the GO as I decided I still didn’t really enjoy cycling enough to make another comeback. I feel with cycling you don’t get the same benefits for your running related muscle groups as you do on the GO and this was hammered home this morning when, due to a slow puncture becoming a fast puncture, I was forced to leave the GO at home and mount the Giant.  Cycling in I just didn’t get the same workout I experience on the GO albeit I was taking it easy for the first half of the commute as I got use to sitting down compared to my normal ‘loud and proud’ standing position. I know there’s the old saying about ‘as easy as riding a bike’  but it’s been over a year since I got on the Giant and it can be a tad unforgiving, add in a decent cross wind and my deep rimmed wheels are purpose built to dismount a ride at speed. (As I nearly found out this morning !)

Are there alternatives to the Elliptigo. ? There use to be an Australian product which was even more designed for runners in mind but this product was let down by Chinese suppliers (you can’t trust some people!) and unfortunately they went under.  They had designed a product to mimic running seamlessly and I had a test ride after I purchased the Elliptigo (always the way !) and was converted. Unfortunately No1. Wife wasn’t convinced and forbid me to buy another bike, for some reason she considered three enough and four was just a ‘bike too far’, I’ll never understand Women ?  The Bionic and Predator was built by an Irun.com but is no longer available which is a crying shame. Luckily for me one of my colleagues at work has one of the last models and I’m just waiting until he gets bored and decides he’ll never use it, I’m biding my time; just got to convince No1 Wife.

So as usual I have digressed. The reason behind this post is to highlight the benefit of cross training and recommend every runner makes an attempt to add some cross training time into their busy running schedule. It may be the difference between an injury free period or an interrupted period, and trust me I am talking from experience here. I know Meb Keflexighi is a big believer in using the Elliptigo for a good daily second workout the pounding another run would entail, he explains why in this YouTube video.  ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlTBE93OIlk )  I’m also a big fan of this method of grabbing your exercise high without the risk of injury. (albeit some car drivers may think otherwise, bless ’em. ?)  This weekend I have some GO maintenance planned and will be changing out the back inner tube and ordered two new tires on the interweb this morning. I can’t be doing with all this cycling for fear of ending up sitting in a café,  drenched in sweat , cocooned in lycra ordering a soya, light frappacino……..

Of course you don’t need to buy an Elliptigo to get a good cross training hit. Circuit classes at the gym are a good alternative concentrating on your core muscle group and high repetition, low weights. Alternatively there is another train of thought which recommends heavy weight, low repetition. Personally I tend to steer clear of these as I’m not really a gym fan and just prefer to get my exercise high outside, standing up at all times if possible.  Another avenue I feel is over looked by nearly all runners is the Pilates, Yoga type exercise.  ( https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/good ) Being an ‘older’ runner I can’t even touch my toes with hamstrings so tight you could probably perform Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony on them. I will eventually pluck up the courage and attend a Yoga class, probably. I know Mike K. swears by them and he is a lot older than me ! (Sorry Mike) My Wife has a Pilates Reformer which has stood idle for nearly two years, (due to my Wife’s bad back which is why we brought it in the first place ? A classic chicken and Egg scenario? Which came first, the Pilates Reformer or the bad back?)  maybe one day I’ll actually read the manual and strap myself in, so to speak. In the meantime it’s back to the GO for me because it really is just so much fun.

Footnote: Since  writing this post and before posting I had a weekend on the GO after rotating the tyres and putting in a new back inner tube, the joys of riding ? Anyhow I rode to Kings Park for a 12k trail run and then rode home afterwards. I’d done the same a few weeks ago and let me tell you it doesn’t get any easier. The GO-run-GO brick session is a killer and I backed it up this morning with a 20k Kings Park trail run with Damo and Mark L. ; I convinced them too leave the beach run for a week. Needless to say I am ‘cross trained’ out and can only assume this has done me some good. The last three weeks I’ve averaged 12 hours a week exercise with virtually a 50-50 split between running and the GO. It’ll be interesting to see how I go when I eventually get rid of this pesky PF and hit the ‘road’ , literally.

Note : The reference to cross dressing in the title was purely to get your attention and for all the readers who have struggled through this post in the vain hope of some juicy cross dressing information I can only apologise. So sorry T-Train.

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What started as an inconvenience has all of a sudden become a really big deal. Plantar Fasciitis (PF) sneaks up on you because it’s one of those injuries that doesn’t stop you running, as such, it just eats away at your daily, weekly and monthly schedules until you finally give up and take to the Elliptigo, you do have an Elliptigo don’t you? ( http://www.elliptigo.com )

Last week I rode 173km on the GO, mainly due to commuting to and from work. At 19kg the Elliptigo is not light and due to the standing position when you’re faced with a strong head wind you are in for a serious physical examination ! Luckily for me last week was a particularly bad week for weather in sunny Perth so I was beaten back on many occasions during the week, much to the disgust of my ‘man made’ traffic jam of irate drivers wondering initially what the hold up was and then as they passed me what the hell that was ?  The Elliptigo is still a relatively new item for the Perth streets and I certainly made an impression. I’ve found children, professionals and women like the Elliptigo,   ‘tradies’ (tradesmen) not so much !

I’ve now had four treatments of Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) so far but am still suffering with PF to a point I still cannot run on hard surfaces. Luckily for me I have Kings Park less than 500 metres from my office desk and am blessed with trails of sand or grass that allow me to exercise without doing damage to my PF injury. (I’m assuming?) This has been my salvation for the last four months but unfortunately I have not been able to shake PF to allow me to scuttle back to the asphalt and bike paths that I love so much. This has cost me two marathons this year and currently is looking like taking out Rottnest as well.  This will be a huge disappointment as I ran second at Rotto last year and was targeting a good time this year. At the moment I’d say it would be a Lazarus like recovery to be ale to run Rotto in October as the last four months has eaten away at my fitness levels and I’m not prepared to start ‘running’ marathons just yet in my running career, for me it’s all about testing yourself and racing the bad boys.!   I’ve got plenty of time to ‘run‘ marathons when I mature as a runner, remember I’m only 51 years young?

Rottnest Marathon has got to be one of the most scenic marathons in the world and I highly recommend a visit if you ever come to WA.  ( http://www.rottnestisland.com/ ) I could spend hours posting pictures of what I consider to be paradise on earth but I’m biased as I always spend a week after the marathon recovering on the Island with my family and these memories we create  I cherish.

There’s also a few more target runs and races I have to try and get fit for coming up this year. First off the ranks is the ‘Choo-Choo’ run on Sunday September 23rd. I’ve written a few posts on this run and all are welcome to join us in the Perth area. Of course you are always welcome to fly over for it but it’s not the biggest event in the WA running calendar so probably not worth it. For those Perth runners who are reading this I highly recommend this run and I’ll see you on the 23rd either at the start , North Dandelup train station, or the end, Serpentine train station. ( https://www.runbkrun.com/2017/09/15/choo-choo-run-2017-man-against-train/  or https://www.runbkrun.com/2016/11/15/the-choo-choo-run-an-exercise-in-living-on-the-edge/ ) You’ll need to buy your ticket and get the 10:20 from Serpentine to North Dandelup, if my memory serves me well; there’s only one train down to Bunbury and one back per day so choice is limited. (Australind  timetable for those interested in joining me on the 23rd.  https://www.transwa.wa.gov.au/plan-your-journey/the-australind )

Then there’s the 6 Inch Ultra Trail Marathon on December 16th, funnily enough my 10th in a row. After missing 10 in a row for the Perth and City to Surf marathons it’ll be nice to actually run this ? Again if you live in Perth, or even Australia, this race is a must-do. ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com/ ) So many good times running this race at the end of the season, more about the challenge of the course and running with good friends rather than time, although under four hours is a target. (You need to keep yourself honest people ?)

Final goal race of the year is the shortest and certainly one of the funniest. The infamous St. Georges Terrace Running Club Beer Mile. Never been a race where I ever expect to podium mainly due to the fact I probably drink more in this one mile than I do the rest of the year. I’m famous for pouring most of it on my head as I reckon natural evaporation drains beer quicker than I drink it ! Certainly no records are set but its a nice way to recover after running the 46k 6 Inch Trail Marathon the day before  ! Of course all of these could be null and void if I can’t get rid of this pesky injury, why does running have to be so hard ?

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As most avid readers of my blog will know ( Assuming I have any avid readers apart from my Mum of course?) I’m a big fan of distance. Distance unlocks running dreams, assuming you can first of all lock up dreams but you get the idea. Phil Maffetone, the guru of slow aerobic running constantly with some speed work closer to a goal race ( https://philmaffetone.com ) is a big influence on the way I train. I also follow Arthur Lydiard who took normal runners and turned them into champions, it is well worth researching both of these methods for improving.

“It’s not the best athlete who wins, but the best prepared.” The mantra of legendary New Zealand running coach Arthur Lydiard, whose training methods are as relevant today as they were almost 60 years ago when he first sprang to prominence.

During the 1950s, Lydiard formulated a systematic approach to athletic conditioning that propelled New Zealand to the top of world middle distance and distance running and produced 17 Olympic medallists. Aside from his central claim to fame as the founder of what was to become the world-wide phenomenon of jogging, Lydiard’s logical and fundamental approach to conditioning still forms the foundation of many of the programmes top level athletes in sports as diverse as running, swimming, figure skating, cycling and American Football, use today.

Lydiard discovered running for sport when, unfit and middle-aged, he struggled to run five miles with a friend. For the next 10 years during the 1950s, he used himself as a guinea pig, experimenting with his training to formulate a system, perfected over the following decades, that would conquer the world. Central to his plan was periodisation – the importance of training in phases and peaking for races. For Lydiard, running to your potential was about having a substantial mileage base and not overdoing your anaerobic training. Most importantly, there were no shortcuts. It was a simple premise – the more mileage you got under your belt, the greater your stamina and aerobic capacity. Simple, but devastatingly effective.

According to Lydiard, any successful training programme must culminate in a goal, race or event, that means planning months in advance, and dividing your training into sections for base conditioning, hill training, speed development, sharpening and tapering. His programme is certainly not for the faint-hearted, but the principles are sound for runners of all abilities. So if you are serious about preparing for that 10K or half-marathon, start counting down those weeks with the Lydiard training system below.

“It’s not the best athlete who wins, but the best prepared.” The mantra of legendary New Zealand running coach Arthur Lydiard, whose training methods are as relevant today as they were almost 60 years ago when he first sprang to prominence.

During the 1950s, Lydiard formulated a systematic approach to athletic conditioning that propelled New Zealand to the top of world middle distance and distance running and produced 17 Olympic medallists. Aside from his central claim to fame as the founder of what was to become the world-wide phenomenon of jogging, Lydiard’s logical and fundamental approach to conditioning still forms the foundation of many of the programmes top level athletes in sports as diverse as running, swimming, figure skating, cycling and American Football, use today.

Lydiard discovered running for sport when, unfit and middle-aged, he struggled to run five miles with a friend. For the next 10 years during the 1950s, he used himself as a guinea pig, experimenting with his training to formulate a system, perfected over the following decades, that would conquer the world. Central to his plan was periodisation – the importance of training in phases and peaking for races. For Lydiard, running to your potential was about having a substantial mileage base and not overdoing your anaerobic training. Most importantly, there were no shortcuts. It was a simple premise – the more mileage you got under your belt, the greater your stamina and aerobic capacity. Simple, but devastatingly effective.

According to Lydiard, any successful training programme must culminate in a goal, race or event, that means planning months in advance, and dividing your training into sections for base conditioning, hill training, speed development, sharpening and tapering. His programme is certainly not for the faint-hearted, but the principles are sound for runners of all abilities. So if you are serious about preparing for that 10K or half-marathon, start counting down those weeks with the Lydiard training system below.

PHASE ONE (10 WEEKS)

Developing aerobic capacity
The first phase in the Lydiard programme, and the most important, is about building an aerobic base, the foundation on which you develop your distance running. The 10-week period is about getting miles under your belt, and as many of them as you can manage, in order to increase your aerobic endurance. The capacity you develop determines the success of your programme. As Lydiard explained: “The bigger the foundation, the bigger and higher the house can be built.”

He suggested starting out with out-and-back running to learn how to even your pace (10 minutes out, 10 minutes back) and increase the duration of the run every second or third day. The goal is to return in the same time or slightly faster. If it takes longer for the second half of the run, you have paced yourself too fast. ‘Train but don’t strain’ was another of Lydiard’s favourite sayings. The object of these runs is to be pleasantly tired – it’s likely your cardio will develop quicker than your poor old body, leading to injury, if you push yourself too hard, too soon.

An ideal training week during this phase, or marathon conditioning as Lydiard called it, would include two or three long runs, and shorter, easy runs in between. Start with times or distance you are comfortable with and gradually increase the length of the run until you can go for two hours without collapsing in a sweaty heap by the kerb.

PHASE TWO (4-6 WEEKS)

Hill circuit training/ leg speed
Hill training – tw0 words to strike fear into the heart of every runner, but a necessary evil to boost power and flexibility in your legs, improve your range of motion and start activating anaerobic metabolism.

Lydiard used three different exercises – steep hill running, hill bounding and hill springing – in order to produce a more economical running style. Ideally, you should find a hill with a flat 200 to 400 metre area for sprints, a 200-400m slope for bounding and a moderate downhill section for recovery. Failing that, you can work out on a treadmill, adjusting the incline for each section of the circuit.

Warm up for 15 minutes before bounding uphill with “a bouncing action and a slow forward progression”. The slower the forward movement, the more resistance will be felt. Once you reach the top, jog easily on the spot for three minutes before running downhill with a fast, relaxed, springy action. This will develop leg speed and also stretch the leg muscles. At the bottom of the hill, include several sprints, ranging from 50 to 400 metres. This marks the end of one complete circuit. Lydiard suggested including the sprint sections every 15 minutes, so that you don’t overdo the intense anaerobic training. Go through the circuit again until you have been working for an hour. Do this hill circuit three days a week with the alternate days used for leg speed running.

For leg speed training, Lydiard recommended 10 sprints of 120-150 metres on a flat surface at three-minute intervals. Run with a normal stride but try to move your legs as fast as possible. Warm down thoroughly afterwards for 15 minutes.

PHASE THREE (4 WEEKS)

Track (anaerobic) training
Lydiard described the anaerobic training phase as “the icing on the cake”, but it’s necessary if you want to race well. The objective is to develop big oxygen debts which stimulate the body’s metabolism to battle against fatigue.

Basically, during this phase it doesn’t matter how much you do or how quickly you do it, as long as you finish the session completely and utterly knackered. However, as a practical guide, Lydiard advises fast running for a total of about three miles or 5,000 metres, i.e 12 x 400m, 6 x 800m, 5 x 1000m etc with a recovery jog of an equal distance in between. Perform these sessions at the track or on flat ground three times per week for four weeks. Use the remaining four days for a long run, leg speed work and sprint training drills to develop strength, form and speed.

PHASE FOUR (4 WEEKS)

Coordination
You have now developed all three elements of your running make-up (aerobic, anaerobic and speed), but that doesn’t mean you can race well. Phase four is about combining these three elements so that you can run distance efficiently and smoothly by simulating race situations.

Lydiard called this process, ‘sharpening’ – testing for your strengths and weaknesses as you prepare for your race. There are three workouts in this phase, as well as some speed work. The first is an anaerobic session done at a greater intensity but lower volume. Lydiard recommended five laps of a 400m track, sprinting 50 metres, then easing off for 50 metres – effectively interval training with 20 sprints. The workout sharpens your anaerobic capacity and gets you into racing shape without exhausting your body.

The second workout is a time trial at the distance which you are training for – so if you are preparing for a 10K race, run 10K. Ideally, it should be done on a track where you can record every lap to determine your weaknesses.

Add sprint training sessions and a leg speed workout (120m x 6, after warming up and exercising) on another day before completing the third workout at the end of the week, a long run, done at a nice relaxed pace.

PHASE FIVE (1-2 WEEKS)

Freshening up
You cannot train hard and race well at the same time. According to Lydiard, the 10 days before your race is when you should be freshening up – reducing your training load while preparing mentally and physically for the competition ahead. The length of freshening up depends on the individual, so train every day but keep the faster running low in volume and the longer runs at an effortless pace. It is important to realise that you have trained for the race so you need to stay fresh and sharp. You can’t be race-ready if you’re still doing hard repetition training.

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Since April I have been struggling with Plantar Fasciitis, what I consider one of the worst injuries due to the fact there is no light at the end of the tunnel, let me explain. With a good old fashioned sprain, tear, fracture or even a break there is normally a set period of recovery, a tear may be a few months, a strain even less and even a break a number of months; with all of these there is always , well normally, guaranteed improvement with time and a set ‘return to running‘ date to aim for. Plantar Fasciitis is different, it can linger for a very long time and has been know to finish the career of many good runners. I suspect it is out of frustration that eventually a runner just has enough of running round in circles , on grass, in the dark, alone. Trust me people I’m there at the moment as you can see from one of my Strava runs below. (Remember, if it’s not on Strava it didn’t happen…probably,  http://www.strava.com ; follow me on Strava with the link at the bottom of this post)

What is worse with Plantar Fasciitis is you really need to protect the foot and so are constrained by running on grass or trails; which is fine but lonely as most of your (mine) running friends are on the beautiful asphalt ; and who can blame them ! ?  Thus I have been having lots of ‘Kev time‘ lately. A positive is my new headphones supplied by Jaybird which arrived just as I started out on my injury journey. (Link to my post on the wireless headphones, built by runner for runners is here : https://www.runbkrun.com/2018/07/21/do-headphones-make-you-run-faster-or-smarter/ Please make sure you check these out as the more hits from my blog the more chance I get of getting more free gear. Note: they really are very good wireless headphones and, if you are in the market for a pair,  these bad boys are the ones to get!) I digress…

So to the point of this post reference the drugs being the answer, what was the question ?. As a newbie runner I really had no idea that most of my running buddies were as good as professional drug dealers. Truth be told I only found out the day before my first Comrades run in 2008 when my fellow runner, who shall be known as Phil (as that is his real name) dragged me down to another runners bedroom (known as Richard, for that is his name!) where he was handing out high quality Voltaren tablets to all and sundry. Unbeknown to me these anti-inflammatories were the staple diet of the ‘older Comrades runner’ so I put out my hand and wolfed a few down, just to be on the safe side. This tradition has continued for most of my marathons from that time on , probably more of a placebo but I justify it as, at the end of a marathon block of training, there must be something, surely,  that needs some help becoming un-inflammed. (Is that a word?)

As I’ve got older I find I am certainly more open to taking as many tablets as possible and on a number of occasions have helped myself to some of my Wife’s better, prescription, anti-inflammatories. In for a penny , in for a pound type attitude. This came back to bite me on one occasion where, unbeknown to me, there was also a tablet to be taken with the strong anti-inflammatories to help with any possible side effects. These said side effects were eventually embraced by me which meant a very long toilet visit and an upset stomach. My Wife found this very amusing.

Of course I am  not advocating ‘popping pills‘ for no reason but merely advising that as a runner you will get niggles or sprains and rather than suffer in silence get yourself down to the local chemist and get some anti-inflammatories, these really do what they say on the packet. They also have their place to really help with a known area of concern by blitzing the problem before/while  embarking on remedial exercise; short term of course. I’m by no means advocating long term NSAID use, that would be silly,  although there have been studies advocating using aspirin daily but that helps with heart conditions etc, as with all thing medical Dr.Google has the answer.

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My running friend Nic Harman is a man going places, quickly.  I first came across Nic when he first started his running career and was fortunate enough, at that time, to be able to race with him and finish in similar times. This didn’t last long as his running progressed under the guidance of Raf Baugh, our local celebrity trainer and owner of the Running Centre, http://www.therunningcentre.com.au .  Over the years I think Nic has taken all my Strava segment records as we both use to live very close to each other.( http://www.strava.com Remember if it’s not on Strava it didn’t happen! Both Nic and I can be followed on Strava though I’m probably running times more achievable that young Master Harman. His times can sometimes be confused for ‘a ride’..!) ) Please note I was able to seek out one of Nic’s Strava segments a few months ago and take it off him, albeit I was probably at my maximum effort and Nic would have run his time at a tempo at best. !

Nic epitomises what you need to be successful in running, he is driven, consistent, loves what he does and, above all, motivated on a journey which will one day take him to the Olympics.  With Raf guiding him I am sure he’ll one day compete for Australia in the Marathon and maybe even give Deeks’s Australian record a tilt.

The article below was published on the Runners Tribe website ( http://www.runnerstribe.com ) and Nic highlights four key sessions that have helped him on his journey to running super-stardom. Keep an eye on this young man, as I mentioned earlier,  he is going places, and usually very quickly !!

FOR THE LOVE OF RUNNING – 4 KEY SESSIONS FROM LONG DISTANCE ATHLETE NIC HARMAN – COACHED BY RAFAEL BAUGH

My name is Nic Harman and I am a 22 year old long distance athlete currently training with Front Runner Athletics Club led by Rafael Baugh and Ben Green in Perth, Western Australia. Before writing any further, I would firstly like to express the privilege I have been given to feature in the workout series for Runner’s Tribe who contribute greatly to a worldwide running community.

Funnily enough, what first sparked my passion for long distance running was when I competed in the 2009 Perth City to Surf at the age of 14. I entered the 12km walk and ended up running the whole way. As a result of the experience, I began training twice a week with a local triathlon club that was coached by Matt LaSpina and began infrequently participate in various local fun runs conducted by the West Australian Marathon Club throughout the year.

Compared to most, I only recently began taking an interest in competitive running. At age 17, I joined the University of Western Australia athletics club under the guidance of David Leeder and made my first State Cross Country Team. The following year, I transitioned to Front Runner Athletics Club and to this day I am coached and mentored by Rafael Baugh.

Over the past 5 years at Front Runner AC, I have seen consistent progress through implementation of key training principles and specific training blocks that build towards targeted races. Since 2013, I’ve seen my 5000m and 10,000 m times drop annually down to current PB’s of 14.26 & 29:46 and my Half Marathon time recently lowered to 65.50. Other than simply being motivated just for the love of the sport, an exciting indicator for the years to come is in the gradual progression in training load and volume having a direct correlation with improvement as I transitioned from Junior to Senior level. It is this progression that I am immensely grateful for and in the coming years I aspire to be able to present myself as a candidate to represent my country in the World Half Marathon Championships and ultimately Olympic Games in the Marathon.

Regardless of the distance I am training for, training sessions and mileage remains fairly constant at about 140 – 150km per week. I will always have a track session on Tuesday, Threshold work on Thursday and Saturday will be a Tempo session sometimes over hills or on somewhere flat depending on the time of the year.

Track Session:

Location: West Australian Athletics Stadium.

Track sessions vary week to week but always involve maximal efforts that encourage leg turnover and assist in building VO2 max which is central to my athletic development at this stage.

Deeks Quarters – a well known track session invented by Rob De Castella and tackled weekly by the greats of distance running. This session is performed by my training squad every month and a great way to benchmark levels of fitness for each individual athlete. This session is normally performed on a 400 meter athletics track where an athlete performs a 400 m effort that is slightly faster than 5, 000 m pace followed by a 200 m float that is at Half Marathon (Tempo) pace. This session is exactly 4, 800m long and can be used as a predictor of 5, 000 m race time when at peak fitness. I find that this session is a great way to build and test fitness, as the 200 m floats don’t allow the athlete a full recovery from the hard 400 m effort, rather than the recovery being static or easy.

Threshold Session:

The Threshold sessions always take place on a flat and sealed footpath around Herdsman Lake or Lake Monger. Many of our Threshold workouts are continuous meaning that there’s no standing or jog recovery with the exception of 1 kilometre and 1500 m repeats. Most commonly our Threshold sessions will consist of an effort at Threshold then a short float at Tempo pace to recover. Examples of these sessions are 2 minutes at Threshold with 1 minute float or even as long as 5 minutes at Threshold with 2 minutes float. Similar to what was mentioned in the Deeks Quarters session, the challenge with these Threshold sessions are that the floats don’t allow the body a full recovery ahead of the following effort. I believe this mimics the fatigue that is commonly felt in a race.

Gregson Threshold – made famous by Ryan Gregson, the national indoor and outdoor 1500 m record holder, this 30 minute Threshold session is fantastic in how it simulates the fatigue felt in a race. This session is broken into 3 parts each fatiguing the body in different ways.

Part 1: 10 minutes at Tempo. I quite like how this first effort helps the body ease into the session and feels like a 7/10 effort.

Part 2: 10 minutes alternating 1 minute that is slightly above Threshold (9/10) then 1 minute at Tempo (7/10)

Part 3: 10 minutes at Threshold (8.5/10). This final effort in the session is the component I find the most challenging, but the most beneficial as it forces the body to run at Threshold despite already having 20 minutes worth of fatigue in the legs which simulates the feeling of the back end of a race.

Tempo Session

Location: King’s Park for a hilly course or around the river foreshore for a flatter course

Tempo sessions are the sessions that I tend to look forward to despite the early start. I prefer Tempo sessions because they are more aerobic in nature and build fitness for the longer distances that I prefer to compete in. Tempo sessions will always be more than 30 minutes in duration, sometimes continuous and at other times a short 2 minute jog or static recovery. A key session that I perform ahead of a Half Marathon is a flat 15km progressive Tempo. This Tempo session acts as a pace run the begins slower than targeted Half Marathon pace (3:20 – 3:15/km) for the first half and then for the second half is run at desired Half Marathon race pace (3:10 – 3:05/km). This session normally occurs 2 weeks before the event and is excellent for simulating the fatigue felt in the final 5km of a Half Marathon.

Long Run

Location: From home over rolling hills along the coastline

This run takes place on the Sunday and for me is equally as important as the previous sessions I have described. My long run is always 1 hour and 45 minutes in length but when I am tapering it can be 15 minutes shorter. In terms of the pace I will begin running at over 4 minutes per kilometer and then progress to 3:20 per kilometer in the late stages. This long run can average out under 3:40 per kilometer depending on how my body is feeling from the week of training. I consider the weekly long run as a staple in my training program as it allows me to establish rhythm and feel strong as the run progresses.

I hope that these insights into my weekly training schedule have been of some value to those reading. I would again like to again thank Runner’s Tribe for presenting me with the opportunity to be able to write for their website and to encourage every single runner out there to continue their great work simply for the love of the sport.

Running regards.