Racing and learning
So it's been a while since I last posted. The past few weeks have been
pretty hectic with training, travelling, racing and school work so I've
been quite slack in keeping this up to date, but I'll try fill you all
in on the happening of the last month!
We
last felt off with my opener in Washington over 800, where I opened up
with a strong 1:49:66. The goal heading into indoors had always been;
run a few races, if I'm around the mark then we'll make a tiny assault
on trying to get to nationals. So we altered my training somewhat and
put in a few speedier based sessions to get the legs ticking over a
little more, to get used to race pace once again.
We headed to
ACC's at UNC and had a run in the 800m. The heats went well and I won
my heat in a sit and kick 1:53. The indoor track at UNC has the
tightest bends of any I was told and I soon realized this! The final
was run and won by Tim Harris who has pretty awesome speed. I think my
inexperienced indoors showed as I soon realized you can't sit back
indoors especially against quality runners like Tim. Although I
finished 2nd, I was happy I found a few gears in my legs late in the
race, which has given confidence I have my kick back, something that
was missing last season!
The next week, we headed north to balmy
Des Moines, where the pilot announce, welcome to Des Moines Iowa,
where it's a comfortable 12degrees. I figured, 12degrees Celsius, but
no...stepping off the plane onto a frozen tarmac I soon realized that
temperature was much closer to minus 12 decrees Celsius! Anyhow,
heading into the last chance meet in Iowa, I was ranked around 24 on
the NCAA list, with the idea somewhere around 1:48.8ish should make top
16 to nationals. The race panned out to be real disappointing as once
again my inexperience running indoors plus lack of true speed for this
stage of my prep showed. I had always planned to go out in 53flat a
pace where I knew I had the ability to kick in the last 200m. The race
went out in 51 which allowed me to hit pretty much spot (52.8) on my
goal pace however with 150 to go where I wanted to kick on I found
myself running into a wall of people out wide in lane 4. I finished
strong, but didn't run smart tactically and finished in 1:49.23,
missing nationals by 0.3sec. My indoor season however has taught me how
important positioning is especially indoors, with that first 200m
crucial to guarantee a winning position.
Missing Nationals is
always hard (injured last year), but when you don't run smart, it makes
its even more frustrating! All in all though, indoors from day 1 was
never the big goal, so I'm excited to have run in the 1:49's off
limited 800m work. I've since taken a few days of downtime post Iowa,
and now gotten back into the real stuff. We just finished a pretty
grueling week of 3 track workouts and a fartlek. It's seen fun to begin
doing some true speed sessions with the 400m guys, Wednesday we did
6x200 off 4min with a 400m tagged on at the end. All reps were around
24.5ish with the 400m at the end in 51.7. I'm glad it's the end of the
week though and I have a few days easy before we get stuck into next
week!
Now that we have a few weeks to stay put in Tallahassee, I
hope to keep this updated more often and fill you in on a few specific
workouts as they happen.
peace
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Washington recap
So washington turned out to be an all around successful weekend. Going into your first 800m race for the season is always a little disconcerting, especially when it's your first in 10months! It's always difficult to know, what pace should I go out in? Should I go out conservative or all out and hold on? Has all this mileage work in the past 6months actually helped make me stronger? Or have I lost my speed? To simple race can only answer these questions!
The race was an interesting one, the pace maker was to go thru 400m in 52flat and hit the 600m in 79, so knowing my training had not really prepared me for a first lap that fast my plan was to sit back and hit the 400m in 53point and then move through over the remaining 400m. This plan also allowed me to be more conservative and know I'd have some kind of kick over the last part of the race which would ultimately only help my confidence in my races later into the season.
The pace wasn't quite as fast as thought which meant sitting back I hit the 400m in 54.5, finishing strong I ran the last 300m in 41flat and finished in 1:49.66, which was a satisfying opener for the season. I'm still a little disappointed I didn't attack the race a little harder and got a time in to qualify for nationals, but that will come at the last chance meet hopefully, and my coach did point out it was my first sub 1:50 race since my 1:47.16 way back in 2006! So I've got to be satisfied.
Section 6 Finals
1 71 Brown, Ryan Asics 1:47.94A
2 538 Elliott, Kevin OTC 1:48.45P
3 98 Jensen, Keith BYU 1:48.85P
4 541 Smith, Christian OTC 1:48.99P
5 9 Hawkins, Kevin Air Force 1:49.52P
6 307 Krumins, Andrew Florida State 1:49.66P
7 61 Barbosa, Nectaly Arizona State 1:49.87P
8 1961 Jackson, Bruce Club Northwest 1:50.20P
As for the next 2 weeks, we have this weekend off, where I'll get 3 quality workouts in before ACC championships at the end of the month, then I'll sharpen up and head north to Notre Dame and hopefully punch a ticket to Nationals.
Keep you updated on how my workouts go as the week progresses.
pce
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"race week"
So it's the start of another week and as it's the week leading into my
first 800m race of the season I thought I'd give a little update on how
it's all going.
After taking it easy for a few days coming off my two races at Nebraska
last weekend, the body was finally right to get back on the horse and
onto the track. Having only run on an indoor track once prior to
Nebraska, the body had a few aches and pains especially from the 4x4!
Tuesdays workout was the first 800m based session Ive done this
preparation, a bunch of 400's all a tick around 55'sec off a short
recover, just to get me used to that speed and lactic sensation you get
in a race. As for Fridays workout we went back to some more
volume/miler based stuff (800/600/400/200/200/200/200) just to keep
that part of my training going forward, as at the end of the day, the
big goal is outdoors and thats still a number of months away, so just
the one 800m based session leading into Washington. A session that has
pretty much become pretty stock standard leading into an 800m race for
me is 600m/2min rec/200m. Although this session is normally left for
the later part of the season when I'm try to peak, we decided to throw
it in at the beginning of this week, just to see where I'm at in terms
of the base/threshold work I've done. Plus as the other small group of
guys/gals traveling to Washington to run the 3km did a 2km time trial
on Saturday (by the way look out for them in the 3km this weekend,
ballin'), I felt I didn't want to be underdone myself for Saturdays
race! The workout felt alot better than I had hoped considering I
hadn't done anything in the territory of race pace 600m, and I finished
off with a 25.4 200m which was a needed boost of confidence.
As for the rest of the week, I'll have a light workout on Wednesday
then fly out to Washington with the team on Thursday. Just hoping to
stay healthy till then.
pce
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"back into racing"
I left off last blog in the lead up to this past weekends race. The
week leading up to the Nebraska meet went relatively smoothly, but had
a few minor issues, not with the removal of my wisdom teeth but just
the tightening of my left abductor. After getting a load of treatment
of it, it loosed up enough to allow me to feel comfortable running on
it and managed to get a few easy 200's done before I jumped on the
plane to Nebraska last Thursday.
As
far as the 1000m race goes, it didn't quite pan out as I had planned
it, the goal pace was to go through 800m in smack on 1:54 then kick on
for a 2:22/2:23, but the pace slowed and I went through 800m in a tick
over 1:56, meaning any chance of a fast mark was pretty much over. I
finished up with a 2:25low and walked away from the race, knowing that
had it been an 800m race I could have kicked down the last 200m and
done a substantial negative split. It's actually quite funny but my
time was in fact an Open Australian National record, but a soft one at
that! The thing is, Australia doesn't have an indoor track, so aussies
rarely race the indoor season, let along run the 1000m indoors, but hey
a records a record, I'm just disappointed the pace didn't provide me
with opportunity to lower in further. Next time!
All in all I
was happy the 1:56 split felt easy, especially in racing flats and was
just the race I needed to blow some cobwebs out of the legs that
haven't raced for over 9months now. The best part of the meet was
actually probably backing up in the 4x4, I don't think I've run a
quarter faster than 57sec yet in practice, yet I was happy to split
50.02 in flats, which gives me confidence leading into the next 2 weeks
which will focus on getting sharper for my first 800m on Feb 16th in
Washington Seattle.
As far as workouts go, the next 2 weeks I'll
focus more on 800m pace work and from here on in jump in once a week
with the 400m group, which is pretty nasty, with PR's ranging from 44.6
to numerous guys under 46's! Speed is the KEY!
Anyhow, thats
about all for now, I have a REALLY hard 8 days of training ahead,
trying to fit in 3 track workouts TUES/THURS/MON plus one light hill
session on Saturday before I begin to go lighter in the lead up to
Washington.
Keep you updated as the week progresses.
pce
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January's Wisdom
Well I’m well and truly into the Spring semester here at FSU, with a load of midterms and class quizzes lined up in the coming weeks. I’ve finally got the routine back in place of sleep/eat/run/study!
I’ve been back in Florida for exactly 3 weeks now and managed to get a solid 2 and half weeks of workouts in this past month of January here at FSU. After knocking out a new PB workout for the 1000/800/600/400/4x200m session hitting 2:35/2:02/90/56/28/28/27/25, something happened which has been playing on my mind for quite some time. About 2 years ago the dentist told me I needed to get my Wisdom Teeth out at some stage because one tooth was impacted and the others had just limited room to grow. So after putting it off for close to 2 years the first few weeks of 2008 brought them out of their dormant state and now fully active! So last week I made the decision to have them pulled just so that they don’t bother me when we get down to the business end of the season during outdoors. I’d have had them out during my down periods of a month each year after the season ends, but that’s the only time I get back in Australia generally and I didn’t want to waste precious time nursing 4 lost teeth during my visits home. So I got them out on the weekend and it really isn’t all that bad, other than just dealing with the sleepyness of the drugs they put into your system whilst your having them out! Think I looked like a Zombie on morphine for the first 48hours but it’s got progressively better. I did a workout midweek and managed to finish it looking strong, but just lacking a little zip and spring I had prior to the surgery. So I’ve just been told to keep my fluids up and continue to wash the medication out of my body and I should be back close to 100% for my first race in Nebraska next weekend. I’d had big hopes to post a fast mark in Nebraska over 1000m and still think I can providing I can get through this week and regain some spring. We have a bunch of 200m repeats scheduled early this week, so that will be a good indicator as to how I’m getting over the high dosages of medication I was given last week!
As for after Nebraska, I’m scheduled to run my first 800m for the season at the Husky Invite in Washington Seattle on the 16th Feb. The 800m was pretty fast there last year and I’ve been told there will probably be a bunch of Oregon Track Club guys there running an 800m so it should be quick once again! We also chose this meet because of the oversized track and it should be kinder to my legs having never run an 800m indoors before.
Anyhow, I’ll give an update as the week develops
pce
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Talla to Tally
Well although I'm back at school and enrolled in a bunch of subjects that still have nothing to do with my overall major! It's good to be back. This past week has been pretty frantic, settling into classes, paying utilities bills that are a month overdue (don't know how our house didn't get the electricity turned off) and also settling back into training whilst overcoming some jet lag. It's good to be back in Tallahassee. We have a pretty cool set up here where we live, living with a bunch of the sprinters, jumpers and European contingent that make up crème of our distance squad, 7 All American's for outdoor track in all.
I've taken the first few days relatively easy whilst I get used to the time zone again. This week also coincides with a recovery week deliberately after a hard 3 week phase back in Australia, so I've basically had close to 6 days of easy running with 2 days being non impact on the underwater treadmill. We did a light speed session on the track Wednesday, just rolling 12 easy 200's off a 100m jog, with coach wanting us to break each 3 reps into easy/medium/hard, basically, 32's/30's/28's. This is pretty much a bread and butter session for the team on a Wednesday during track season, with the idea of getting down to 29/27/sub26 as the season progresses.
By Friday I was well rested and eager to get into some serious track work. Fridays session was 1000m/6min/800m/5min/600m/4min/400m/3min/200m/1min/200m/1min/200m/1min/200m my coach has pretty much put this into my program every week for the past month, so it has been a good yard stick to measure my improvement in fitness over this time. Yesterday's session went pretty well hitting the times my coach had asked for, 2:37/2:03/90/57/28/28/28/26 but I was happy more so with the way in which it felt, as I was able to roll a pretty effortless 26 at the end.
Looking forward to putting my head down and settling back into my routine over the next few weeks and start to get excited about the approaching season!
pce
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A new year brings a new beginning
Okay so I'm sitting in a hotel room in LA waiting for my parents flight to come in later this evening, so bored! I've had a few issues with my layover so I'm now just staying in a hotel over night before I fly back to Tallahassee tomorrow. Mum and Dad are on vacation in the states for a month, so it will be good to hopefully show them later on this month my new home away from home in Tallahassee.
The weather in Australia last week was ridiculously hot, I don't think the thermometer ticked under 40 degrees which is well over 100 Fahrenheit. This made training pretty interesting as most of the time I tried to train earlier like 8 am, but even at that hour it was still 30 Celsius degrees and climbing, not to mention trying to do my double later in the day! I managed to finish off my training stint in Oz however confident knowing I'm where I want to be for this stage of my preparation.
It's interesting on my run this evening in the rain through the streets around LAX, I was thinking to myself it was a year from today when I was about to catch my maiden flight to Tallahassee to attend FSU. Only this time around I have 5 month of base behind me, rather than 3 weeks of jogging after surgery on my Plantar Fascia! So I'm pretty excited to be going into a season fit and in good health!
I've also had my coach map out my next 3 months of training taking me through to the end of March, the program looks sickening, but I'm pretty amped to begin it! The plan entering this indoor season is to run a 1000m race on the 3rd Feb at Nebraska, followed by an 800m race two weeks later. We're still undecided at this stage on how many indoor races I will run and a lot depends on how well my 800m race goes mid February. If my body has adapted to running the tighter bends of an indoor track (only seen an indoor track once!), pulls up well and my times are competitive then we will endeavor to make a run at the 800m at indoor NCAA's. However if I feel this may compromise the big goals for outdoors then we'll just pull the plug on indoors and continue on training for outdoor.
I've got a pretty easy beginning to next week which will give me close to a week to get over jet lag before Fridays first major track workout of the new program (1000m/800m/600m/400m/4x200m). I'll give more of an update once I get back into a routine with school, training and sleep!
peace
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Last week's of '07
Have an hour before I head into Olympic Park to do a workout so thought I’d give a quick update on the past two weeks. The weather here in Australia has been up and down, although the forecast for the next 7days before I head back to the US is back to a typical aussie summer of 35deg Celsius which in Fahrenheit translates to mid 90’s! The heat doesn’t bother me too much because I’m now so used to training in the Florida heat that I’ve now become accustomed to it.
I had a great Christmas, being back home with the family; you have to make the most of these times especially as next year I will be away for close to 11months this time around. Other than spending time with the family it’s been hectic fitting in my training along with trying to hang out with my friends as much as I can.
As for running the past 10 days of 2007 have probably been the hardest phase I’ve had in this past 5 month preparation. I’ve managed to get in two quality track workouts last week and have my 3rd later this morning, so it's a good feeling this time around being able to step into 2008 feeling fit and healthy, which wasn't the case last year! Monday’s workout was a huge slog; we had 10x400m off 1min recoveries, but managed to hit my coach’s goal times by going 61.0/61.0/60.9/61.1/61.6/61.0/61.7/62.8/61.6/60.2=AVE 61.2. This session took a lot out of me though and needed a few days to recover!
It will be interesting to see how this mornings workout (1000/800/600/400/4x200) goes as the body is well and truly beginning to feel the toll of the past 10 days, but once it’s done I have a few days down time over New Years Eve and will then get one more quality workout in before I fly back to Florida on Friday.
Thought I’d post the past 2 weeks;
Mon: AM 30min PM 45min
Tues: AM 30min PM 8x400m (grass) (1min rec/61-62’s pace)
Wed: 45min easy 5x100m
Thur: AM 30min PM 1000/6min/800/5min/600/4min/400/3min/4x200/30sec) (2:40/2:05/91/59/29/29/28/28)
Fri: Rest
Sat: 25min 6x1km (1min rec) (faster than 3min km pace)
Sun: 60min
Mon: AM 30min PM 10x400m (1min rec) (AVE=61.2)
Tues: AM 30min 10x100m, Christmas day
Wed: 30min 4x100m
Thur: AM Tan 3.83km Trial (11:50) PM 30min 8x100m strides
Fri: 45min steady
Sat: 1000/800/600/400/4x200m (Doing session later this morning)
Hope you all have a great New Year’s Eve and will probably update when I get back to Florida after the 6th Jan!
pce
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Summer Time=Business Time
So I finally made it back to Australia, after 38hours in transit. The trip normally takes a little over a day to get home, but a few delays and a 6hour layover in LA, made the journey a little less desirable. But I’m back down under and it’s so good to be home.
I’m never normally one to get a great deal of jet lag after a flight, especially as the journey home for the US you travel with the sun which I find makes it easier to adjust to the new time zone. Whenever I come back from Europe though it gets to you a little more because you travel against the direction of the sun meaning you finally land and your body feels like its been hit by a train and day feel’s like night!
That said however my coach has told me to run easy for the first 4 days and my program kicks off on Monday 17th Dec. Being home though for the first time in 4months I’m making sure I make the most of my time here. Normally I would come back to Australia during the US summer after a quick vacation in Europe, but next year I’ve decided to not come back until Christmas. This is because I hope to continue to race after the college season by heading to Europe. So when I say goodbye to everyone this time around it means for 12months!
As far as this training phase in Australia goes, I’m going to continue to build up my workouts on the track with the hope of being on the track twice a week by the time I get back to Tallahassee. This is necessary as I plan to open up my tiny indoor schedule on Feb 2nd in Nebraska. The Australian track season started about 2months ago however there always seems to be a lack of races in the lead up to Christmas, so my plans of getting a race in over here have disappeared. My coach has a few time trials (3.8km) planned whilst I’m back though on Melbourne’s famous “Tan” running track, where I hope to get well under my PR which I think is around 11:40. To give you an idea, the record used to be held by Kenyan Cornelius Chirchir (3:30 1500m) in 10:19 but Mottram destroyed it in 2003 by running 10:12 and I’m sure he’d have wiped it clean again after his bomb dropping 2005 season.
Well not a lot else to report from down under, but I’ll keep you updated on the training and Christmas festivities as they happen!
Pce
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Aussie homecoming
So I've just done another 14 day block of hard workouts after my easy week which coincided with thanks giving. Was great to get a few days off over thanks giving and get my mind off track for a while, so my girlfriend and I headed down to Orlando over the break. It's amazing how refreshed and rejuvenated the body can become after simply not thinking about track for a few days, so getting out and enjoying a few theme parks in Orlando was awesome.
I discusses with my Australian coach that I really wanted to get a good fortnight of training in before I headed back to Australia on the 11th dec, this is because due to the travel and jet lag you get acclimatizing back to aussie time, I'll have to take 4-5 days easy when I return, so it was important I get some hard works in the two weeks prior. We had initially decided not to get on the track before I got back to Australia but that has changed and I've managed to get 2 quality volume workouts in on the track last week. One ladder session 1000/800/600/400/200/200/200/200 and my last workout before I head back, which I did today being 2x10x200m all done just under 60sec quarter pace off short jog recoveries. Whilst getting back on the track I've still been able to keep going with the vessala hill workout, fartlek and threshold runs so I'm pretty happy with how the legs have responded to getting on the track. I can now breath easy and travel back to Australia knowing I can pretty much jump straight in with my training squad back home with no problem.
The past week though I've just basically been hanging out in Tallahassee training and waiting to take my only final, a math's exam tomorrow morning, which I wish I could have taken early, and given myself another week home in Oz, but with some professors, rules are rules, and I had to stay till the actual final! It also means I wasn't able to run the Zatopek Grand Prix in my home town of Melbourne on the 13th as I'm now not getting into Australia until the morning of the race. But I'm pretty amped to be heading off home to Oz on Tuesday but dreading the 38 hours of transit! Getting back is going to be a bitch!
Okay well that's it for now, I'll try to give a few updates whilst I'm back home on how the workouts are going under the aussie summer sun! And we begin to count down the days to when the indoor action begins!
pce
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November rain
Well this next blog brings me through the month of November, and although it might not be raining alot, the days here in Florida are begging to get cooler. So I’m looking forward to getting back to Australia for a month of summer time!
As I stated in my last blog, we decided to postpone getting on the track just for now and instead keep the longer interval and hill sessions going for at least another month before I head back to Australia for a month over the Christmas break.
The past 3 weeks have proved to be another great training block averaging 55-60 miles p/w and managing to get 3 quality workouts in each week. This month was also helped by being able to work my training in with the xcountry team as they prepared to sharpen up for their run at nationals this past weekend. They were reducing their intervals to 1000’s which worked out well for my 2x4x1000m workout , 90sec b/w reps, 3min b/w sets all in around 2:55 pace, it’s amazing how much stronger you feel training in a big group, I find it allows you to just switch off in reps and put yourself on auto pilot, instead of always having to push the pace yourself.
My Vesala Hill workouts have also continued to improve this past cycle. I’ve always found hills is a sessions which you just constantly get better at as your body seems to adapt to the nature of the workout. I’ve seen my times for each hill drop by close to 2 seconds and by my third week of this cycle the body is now feeling relaxed and comfortable at this new speed, so we’ll see what next month brings!
I’m actually really looking forward to getting back to Australia and into my old environment for a month. It will be interesting to see where I’m at in relation to the lead up to my break though 2006 season. So my coach back home has got me planned to do a few workouts this December that we can then look at and compare to my ’06 season. The plan is to continue on with the longer reps but begin to get on the track and run them at a more specified pace. We’ve also waited to get back on the track in Australia so that I can see my masseur on a regular basis if the legs find the transition a little difficult.
We’re now in a recover week which coincides with thanksgiving, but I just got back last night from Indiana where I went up to watch the NCAA xcountry championships. After watching the incredible battle in the men’s race and my girlfriend get 3rd in the womens 6km I just want to go hard again this week instead of easy. But I have a plan and I’d best stick to it and get the necessary recovery for next month’s stint back in Oz. I guess it’s just more an excitement thing of watching a championship race or just any race for that mater. I haven’t been in a race since mid may now, close to 6 months so I’m just excited to get out there and toe the line.
It’s thanks giving this week, so I wish you all a happy one. I’ve never had a thanks giving before as we don’t celebrate it back home in Oz, but I’m getting the week off school so it’s good enough for me!
peace
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Octoberfest of training
So I thought I’d update this blog and give you an insight into what’s been happening this past month training wise. But first I’d like to give a big shout out to our cross country girls who won their first ACC title this weekend, and who are now ranked in the top 3 teams in the country, flllying!
Okay since getting back to Tallahassee for the fall, I found it took me close to a month to slowly build up the body and get into the full swing of training again. Coming off a stress fracture in my 2nd metatarsal I made sure the first month I didn’t go to crazy and get sucked into doing the monster workouts the cross country team were doing. Instead I just slowly built up my mileage and intensity of my workouts each week and that has brought me through to the beginning of this past month.
This past month I’ve really managed to get my 3 quality workouts in each week. My coach back home has always periodised my 4 week training program so that I have 3 weeks hard, 1 week easy and I’m continuing to do this here at FSU. In this stage of my preparation my hard weeks are consisting of an interval session each week, which is usually anything from 5x1000m, 6x800m or 1200m 1000m 800m 4x600m. Then midweek a light speed workout such as 4x4x300m or 4x4x200m done on the grass in a tick under 60’s pace. Then my favourite workout which I feel is the most important aspect of my training. My coach back home calls the session Vesala hills, named after the Finnish 1500m Olympic gold medallist Pekka Vesala. Back home in Australia we do this session on Melbourne’s famous tan running track (where buster owns the record for the 3.8km loop in around 9:09). Here in Florida I’ve found a perfect hill to do the session on at our cross country course at Miccosukee Greenway. The session involve running up a hill that has a steady incline which takes around 1min to the top (at approx 80% effort), you then jog steadily down the other side of the hill, turn around and sprint back up for around 40sec (at 95%). This month we’re doing about 5-6 sets of these with idea of getting close to 8-10 come December.
Let me say at the end of last week I was stoked to finally have my easy week. My easy weeks basically consists of one day in the pool aqua running (say for instance 6x8x2min) with every second day just getting a steady 45min run and 10x100m strides in. Saturday morning however I was felt like gold, so decided to go 75min, we went out in 40min and come home in 35. Then managed to get a nice 18 holes of golf in on the Seminole course, shooting 44 for the last nine, ballin’ for me!
This next month of November we had originally decided to get on the track once a week and begin getting the body used to spikes. We’ve now decided to repeat my October program and get another quality 3 week of intervals and vesala hills in and also push my long run out to 90mins each Saturday morning, bringing my mileage close to a measly 55-60 a week!
Anyhow that’s it for the time being. I’ll keep you updated over the coming weeks.
Pce
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The building blocks!
Okay so here is my first post on Trackshark! I was told about this web site when I first arrived here at Florida State from Australia late last year. A few of my training partners from back home in Australia suggested it would be a good way to keep my training squad back in Oz and those interested up to date with my progress and program now I’m basing myself out of Tallahassee competing for Florida State University.
Since arriving here at FSU in the spring I kind of went straight into racing mode and having not had any base behind me due to foot surgery back in Nov of last year, it made my 2007 season one I’d rather forget individually. As a team though we became back to back national champions, which was an amazing team achievement, however missing nationals with injury and not contributing has made me even hungrier to succeed next season.
After a vacation to Europe and a quick return to Australia I’m now in the midst of a 5 month base building block which both my coach back in Australia and coach Braman have put together which focuses mainly on aerobic power. We decided not to run cross country this season and instead make the focus specifically on developing the aerobic power for an 800m. I’m doing my longer runs and easy days with the cross team but trying to place the emphasis of my workouts as an 800m runner and not a 8-10km cross country runner.
Since arriving back for the Fall I’ve kept my weekly mileage between 45-55miles a week and are still yet to begin doubling. Not being a high mileage runner we decided it was important to focus more on speed endurance and aerobic power a point we really emphasised during my 8 month preparation before the Commonwealth Games season of 2006. I ran a 4 second PR of 1:47:16 at Mt Sac Relays almost 2 months after the trials, so I know my body responds well to this type of base training.
Anyhow, I’ll try to keep this blog updated as much as possible but at this stage I’m just doing the base building thing through to late November, so nothing all that interesting! I’m heading back to Australia early December to hopefully run the Zatopek Grand Prix in my home town of Melbourne. This will just be used purely to remind the body of racing and stir the competitive juices in my body in time for the beginning of indoors in early Feb.
Untill then, I just hope to stay healthy and continue on doing what I’m currently doing, training hard!
Peace
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Recent Entries
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