three weeks out from north face and it seemed like it was time to record something of the training highs and lows of the last few weeks as hopefully things come together over the next two. training has been a little haphazard this time around without a schedule or focus which i have enjoyed and while there appears to be a lack of quality sessions, hills and lengthy long runs in the memory bank (my high tech log book) i've finally rediscovered my passion for running.
i can't believe that i've been pushing myself out the door with a distinct lack of enthusiasm for these many months but driving myself towards lofty goals and the expectations of others took me over the edge. thankfully i'm now loving it at the moment and i plan on remaining in that state of being. the only thing that could get in my way to halt my enthusiasm and passion is racing and after north face i'm not sure if i'll bother to focus on another event and rather concentrate on finding some other goals (non-race) which i can work through in training. perhaps a long journey attempt or exploring new trails or maybe even an attempt at reaching a new weekly mileage personal best. these are the sort of things that excite me about being able to test my endurance, strength and fitness not just at the physical level but also across both mental and spiritual barriers. focus on increasing our awareness while out there on the roads and trails and we will discover so much more...
on to the weekly summary:
sun: 2h20 run - long angle gully-valley heights-winmalee-springwood-home
- ended up being rather ugly as i struggled over the final 5k.
pm: yoga
mon: 4h hike - leura to katoomba
- went up the mountains after lunch and enjoyed time with the family. kids can have so much energy and i started wishing that i could run the stairs like my six year old. i think he might be part mountain goat. their passion and enthusiasm was contagious and rewarded with a hot chocolate...
pm: yoga
tue am: 1h28 (21k) easy run - whitewater loop + river loop
- felt tired at the start and didn't expect a good run but felt good after about 5mins. ran into fred and chatted for a little before we departed ways. picked up the pace and ran strong around the river.
pm: 52' (13k) steady run - river loop + reverse loop to bridge and back via side streets
- pushed the pace but felt didn't feel laboured. timed the middle 3k at 3:50 pace and was running comfortably within myself. days like this are rare indeed but exciting when the occur. need to identify the ingredients which result in runs like these.
pm (late): yoga
wed: 1h15 (16k) hills + reps
- planned to run a hill session but wasn't into it. Ran 3 x 500m hills and then progressed into sets of 200m with decreasing recovery starting at 90sec and working down to 15sec between reps. 200s run in around 37-38sec. enjoyed this session.
thu: 1h05'57" (15.7k) - whitewater loop
- felt a little lethargic from yesterday's effort which added to the surprise when i got back to work a couple of minutes faster than normal.
fri: plan 1h30 with intervals or tempo - yet to decide
sat: relay for life
tomorrow's plan is to work all day and then take over the night and run/walk from 10pm to 10am
here's to making training fun again. ok maybe sub 10 at 12ft this year...
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
memory fog...
last week, this week?? can't remember where i'm at. thinking back to last week i can't remember what i did and the watch doesn't help as it only stores 5 or 6 runs in the memory. before everything fades here's what i can remember. so much for my commitment to keeping a training log this year...
training:
prior to friday (16 april): about 100km of running over 4 days
friday: rest day but concluded with a power yoga session (10pm)
saturday: 46km trail run (~5h30) – hellgate loop. great day but was emotionally crippled during the first half of the run and battled to find the energy or desire to run. finished feeling strong over the second half which provided a glimmer of hope.
sunday: recovery day spent cleaning house (not mine). concluded with a yoga session (11pm)
monday: 6am) 11k road run (49′36″) – underpass loop
4pm) track session: 28×400m w/ 45″ rest – 3k wu/4k wd – total 17k (1h21′). great session averaging 84sec/400 which was about 6-8 seconds better than last time i did this session. started out running 88-90sec and finished up the last 20min running 80-82sec. never felt like i was pushing too hard, breathing was easy and accumulating little lactic acid. even enjoyed listening to an audio book rather than needing something a little heavier to pull me through. a confidence builder…
tuesday: 16km hilly run (1h10') - ran from work and headed up into the hills. felt tired but still managed to find my climbing legs and make it back to work a minute quicker than last time i ran the loop. planned on running a second run later but stuff happens...
wednesday: 10k easy run - easy run to work felt not so easy. haven't slept well since news of death. funeral today...
training:
prior to friday (16 april): about 100km of running over 4 days
friday: rest day but concluded with a power yoga session (10pm)
saturday: 46km trail run (~5h30) – hellgate loop. great day but was emotionally crippled during the first half of the run and battled to find the energy or desire to run. finished feeling strong over the second half which provided a glimmer of hope.
sunday: recovery day spent cleaning house (not mine). concluded with a yoga session (11pm)
monday: 6am) 11k road run (49′36″) – underpass loop
4pm) track session: 28×400m w/ 45″ rest – 3k wu/4k wd – total 17k (1h21′). great session averaging 84sec/400 which was about 6-8 seconds better than last time i did this session. started out running 88-90sec and finished up the last 20min running 80-82sec. never felt like i was pushing too hard, breathing was easy and accumulating little lactic acid. even enjoyed listening to an audio book rather than needing something a little heavier to pull me through. a confidence builder…
tuesday: 16km hilly run (1h10') - ran from work and headed up into the hills. felt tired but still managed to find my climbing legs and make it back to work a minute quicker than last time i ran the loop. planned on running a second run later but stuff happens...
wednesday: 10k easy run - easy run to work felt not so easy. haven't slept well since news of death. funeral today...
Monday, April 12, 2010
settling into a pattern...
two high-intensity, high-volume weeks and i was feeling very tired at the start of last week. i decided at the start of the week that i would throw out the schedule and run an easy week to absorb the fitness gains, rest, restore and get ready to build again. still managed to hit 155km (97 miles) for the week. thought about going out and running 5 more kilometres to hit that magical figure of 100 miles but decided that numbers are irrelevant and put the feet up to enjoy the rest of the weekend.
training over the last few days has been great and without a schedule i haven't been stressed when runs planned the day before are missed or altered due to other life events. i have noticed though that i have fallen into a either of two patterns of easy day-intervals-tempo-long run repeat or easy runs-hard run-long run repeat. on days when i have been thinking of dropping a run i've subconsciously headed to the local grass track and run some repeats. last sunday was such a day and when i eventually got out i put in a good long warmup of about 7-8k before hitting the grass track for what turned out to be some 800s. feeling tired i didn't want to go out and cruch myself but just wanted to loosen up my legs and hips and feel good running a little faster than normal. ran them all at what felt like tempo effort and then put in a hard 400 before heading home for the evening. finished up with another good run...
the runs...
fri pm: long 2h06 (29k) blaxland east-glenbrook-np-euroka (via singletrack)-bennetts-oaks-home - smashing run, felt strong running threshold effort all the way from euroka to the oaks then maintained a strong effort all the way home. passed james and andy lee on their runs...
sat pm: 1h03 (14k) warrimoo-highway-glenbrook pool-lagoon-home felt crappy and so decided to cut the run short heading down attunga for a short loop back home. felt ok about 5mins later so hit the highway down to the pool and back home via the lagoon.
sun am: driving duties for the NSW mountain running champs
pm: 1h11 (16k) 5x800m + 1x400m intervals 7-8k warmup and then 800s with short rest of 1-2mins in 2:52,51,47,46,42 then 400m in low 70s. 15min cooldown home.
mon pm: 2h22 (~31km) rangers gate-oaks-helipad+10min-return after a tough climb out of the wier felt great and easy up to the oaks gate (in 39-40') and kept going up past the helipad feeling strong on all the climbs. thought about going all the way to woodford but it was starting to get dark. smashed it on the way back running quicker than marathon pace. thought i would pay for it but climbed strong to the top. awesome run but sore after... (need to work on my core strength)
tue noon: 1h11 (15+km) nepean river-lapstone station (via trail)-knapsack-mitchells-emu plains started out feeling sore (back) and stiff and thought the hills would sort me out but climbed well and ran steady from the knapsack bridge back to work. consumed a record number of apples in one go!
training over the last few days has been great and without a schedule i haven't been stressed when runs planned the day before are missed or altered due to other life events. i have noticed though that i have fallen into a either of two patterns of easy day-intervals-tempo-long run repeat or easy runs-hard run-long run repeat. on days when i have been thinking of dropping a run i've subconsciously headed to the local grass track and run some repeats. last sunday was such a day and when i eventually got out i put in a good long warmup of about 7-8k before hitting the grass track for what turned out to be some 800s. feeling tired i didn't want to go out and cruch myself but just wanted to loosen up my legs and hips and feel good running a little faster than normal. ran them all at what felt like tempo effort and then put in a hard 400 before heading home for the evening. finished up with another good run...
the runs...
fri pm: long 2h06 (29k) blaxland east-glenbrook-np-euroka (via singletrack)-bennetts-oaks-home - smashing run, felt strong running threshold effort all the way from euroka to the oaks then maintained a strong effort all the way home. passed james and andy lee on their runs...
sat pm: 1h03 (14k) warrimoo-highway-glenbrook pool-lagoon-home felt crappy and so decided to cut the run short heading down attunga for a short loop back home. felt ok about 5mins later so hit the highway down to the pool and back home via the lagoon.
sun am: driving duties for the NSW mountain running champs
pm: 1h11 (16k) 5x800m + 1x400m intervals 7-8k warmup and then 800s with short rest of 1-2mins in 2:52,51,47,46,42 then 400m in low 70s. 15min cooldown home.
mon pm: 2h22 (~31km) rangers gate-oaks-helipad+10min-return after a tough climb out of the wier felt great and easy up to the oaks gate (in 39-40') and kept going up past the helipad feeling strong on all the climbs. thought about going all the way to woodford but it was starting to get dark. smashed it on the way back running quicker than marathon pace. thought i would pay for it but climbed strong to the top. awesome run but sore after... (need to work on my core strength)
tue noon: 1h11 (15+km) nepean river-lapstone station (via trail)-knapsack-mitchells-emu plains started out feeling sore (back) and stiff and thought the hills would sort me out but climbed well and ran steady from the knapsack bridge back to work. consumed a record number of apples in one go!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
no schedule...
just typing the title for this post is liberating...
i've decided to forgo the schedule and start running for the enjoyment of it. i'm still trying to get fitter and improve my performances over the long trails but i think i can do that by focusing on the everyday rather than looking forwards up to my next race date and planning backwards. peak fitness will be whatever i arrive with on the day...
i want to start blogging again on a more regular basis but i would rather focus on my daily thoughts, experiences and life lessons that i'm confronted with while putting one foot in front of the other. i think i'll even try running with a camera and try and capture some of what i experience on my everydays and expose my journey through this environment...
as always i leave everything to the last minute (including my fitness) but on monday i finally got around to ordering a new race pack. i was going to go with the go lite vo24 like the one i borrowed from mister g last year and what i hailed as the "best running pack ever" but when i finally went online and ordered one i decided to go with the inov8 15 race elite. maybe it was the colour which pursuaded me... black! ok and it was cheap also - i'd rather throw my money elsewhere and contribute to a worthy cause like health, cancer, obesity, poverty, etc.
i have been attracted to the colour black (or lack of colour?)... perhaps without colour i'll be able to fly under the radar and have a good race in may. i'm not focused on position, just time... an hour faster would give me some peace and satisfaction. i felt like an imposter on the podium last year but was consolidated with the thought that i could have run faster on the day if all went well - slow start, missed nutrition, flat torch batteries etc.
yesterday during a hilly loop run with some of the spectacular bmmc crew (scam, the looking good and training hard vstar, james) i started feeling a little pep on the climbs which has left me feeling inspired to keep up the volume. i was worried after last monday's effort (which included a long run at close to 3hr marathon pace) that i'd pushed myself too hard but with a few easy days of running i'm definitely feeling better. maybe i've achieved supercompensation... (but not superheroe status)
i'm sitting here (at work) looking forward to two or three long days of training on some local trails. weather's looking cooperative also...
my new training schedule... train hard when fresh and then recover hard!
almost time for yoga...
run summary (dumped from brain memory bank):
thu - 2 runs (intervals + easy hour run)
fri - 1 run (11k loop hard, 2-3min faster than previous best time)
sat - intervals (2000-1600-1200-2x800-2x400) started out at 86"/400 and finished up at 78"/400 followed up with some 100m hill sprints before heading home
sun - 25km run (58min out/48min back) felt great
mon - 2h40min run hard - kept waiting for the wheels to fall off but didn't. made i can walk deals with myself but pushed on past...
tue - 50min run w/ 6x20sec strides - sore to start out but loosened up
wed - short run + spin on bike - very tired // 16km run (70min) // short run w/ strides, light strecthing + strength (full & single leg squats)
thu - 11k w/ tempo (46min) // 50min hilly loop run w/ bmmc
- i'm thinking threshold is the best area to focus the training on to get fit quickly. could be wrong...
i've decided to forgo the schedule and start running for the enjoyment of it. i'm still trying to get fitter and improve my performances over the long trails but i think i can do that by focusing on the everyday rather than looking forwards up to my next race date and planning backwards. peak fitness will be whatever i arrive with on the day...
i want to start blogging again on a more regular basis but i would rather focus on my daily thoughts, experiences and life lessons that i'm confronted with while putting one foot in front of the other. i think i'll even try running with a camera and try and capture some of what i experience on my everydays and expose my journey through this environment...
as always i leave everything to the last minute (including my fitness) but on monday i finally got around to ordering a new race pack. i was going to go with the go lite vo24 like the one i borrowed from mister g last year and what i hailed as the "best running pack ever" but when i finally went online and ordered one i decided to go with the inov8 15 race elite. maybe it was the colour which pursuaded me... black! ok and it was cheap also - i'd rather throw my money elsewhere and contribute to a worthy cause like health, cancer, obesity, poverty, etc.
i have been attracted to the colour black (or lack of colour?)... perhaps without colour i'll be able to fly under the radar and have a good race in may. i'm not focused on position, just time... an hour faster would give me some peace and satisfaction. i felt like an imposter on the podium last year but was consolidated with the thought that i could have run faster on the day if all went well - slow start, missed nutrition, flat torch batteries etc.
yesterday during a hilly loop run with some of the spectacular bmmc crew (scam, the looking good and training hard vstar, james) i started feeling a little pep on the climbs which has left me feeling inspired to keep up the volume. i was worried after last monday's effort (which included a long run at close to 3hr marathon pace) that i'd pushed myself too hard but with a few easy days of running i'm definitely feeling better. maybe i've achieved supercompensation... (but not superheroe status)
i'm sitting here (at work) looking forward to two or three long days of training on some local trails. weather's looking cooperative also...
my new training schedule... train hard when fresh and then recover hard!
almost time for yoga...
run summary (dumped from brain memory bank):
thu - 2 runs (intervals + easy hour run)
fri - 1 run (11k loop hard, 2-3min faster than previous best time)
sat - intervals (2000-1600-1200-2x800-2x400) started out at 86"/400 and finished up at 78"/400 followed up with some 100m hill sprints before heading home
sun - 25km run (58min out/48min back) felt great
mon - 2h40min run hard - kept waiting for the wheels to fall off but didn't. made i can walk deals with myself but pushed on past...
tue - 50min run w/ 6x20sec strides - sore to start out but loosened up
wed - short run + spin on bike - very tired // 16km run (70min) // short run w/ strides, light strecthing + strength (full & single leg squats)
thu - 11k w/ tempo (46min) // 50min hilly loop run w/ bmmc
- i'm thinking threshold is the best area to focus the training on to get fit quickly. could be wrong...
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