What a difference a week makes

This week I was hoping to report on another successful week of training. My ambitious goals for this week were to run for 8 hours on Saturday and to record my first 200km week.

Unfortunately I was unable to achieve either. The idea of this blog is to keep an honest record of my run training and racing. It is easy to record the good times only and to gloss over the failures and not-so-good times. This week has been mixed in terms of overall training but it is not about failure as such. Although I didn't achieve my goals I am trying to train smarter.

After last week's mammoth effort and with this week's lofty goals I continued to push myself at the beginning of the week. I ran an undulating 16km on Monday and headed up Mt Archer for my regular Tuesday hill session covering 30km for the day. Wednesday was another undulating 16km and on Thursday I ran 26km taking my total to 89km in four days and 170km or so since my last day off. Last week I felt strong for every session whereas this week I was feeling sore, tired and I was starting to develop some hip and leg issues on the Wednesday run. I was becoming increasingly concerned with my legs as they felt more tired than usual. On Thursday I ran for 16km after work before joining the Rocky Road Runners for another 10km. I had planned to run at least 30km but couldn't find the motivation to knock out another 4km. Friday was a day off work and I decided to treat myself with a trip to the movies and some sushi for lunch. At the beginning of the week I had planned to run 10km on Friday as a recovery session before the big effort on Saturday. Because my legs were still feeling very tired I decided to have a rest day. I was still focused on running 8 hours on Saturday and the goal of achieving a 200km week was still possible.

With only four weeks to go until the Glasshouse 100, this week was going to be my last big week before tapering off, which is why I was so focused on logging 200km. Endurance running can be very addictive and maintaining an adequate work / life / running balance can be difficult. After some soul-searching and trying to take an omnipotent view of my training I decided to take the Saturday off training. It was a difficult decision and I spent many hours deliberating in my head before ringing my mate Geoff and announcing my no-show for the morning.

I know that I made the right decision. Looking back on my training, my long runs for the last 6 weeks have consisted of: 44km, 27km, 45km, 51km, 45km, 68km. Additionally, even though I have taken two days off this week, including my long run, I have still managed to run over 100km. Funnily enough, in my former running life I would have considered my two medium runs this week of 30km and 26km to be tough workouts. To give myself the best opportunity to run well at the GH100 I need to be fresh, there is no point doing all my best running in training.

I have now got quite a few books on running and regularly scroll through many of the ultra running internet sites. When it comes to training for an ultra marathon there seem to be two main view-points when it comes to volume. Perhaps the most common view-point is that it is not necessary to log over 100 miles a week and to instead focus on the key sessions and inparticular the long run. My most recent book purchase is: Relentless Forward Progress by Bryon Powell. Bryon runs the iRunfar.com website and is an accomplished ultra runner himself. Bryon states that regularly running up to 70 miles (112km) a week is all one needs to comfortably complete a 100 mile ultra. Before making my decision to abandon Saturday's run I had a flick through the various chapters of his book which reinforced my decision to train smarter not harder.

Monday - 16.26km - 1hr 25mins 02secs - undulating run
Tuesday - 30.05km - 2hrs 37mins 58secs - hill run including Mt Archer
Wednesday - 16.60km - 1hr 24mins 31secs - undulating run
Thursday - 26.24km - 2hrs 13mins 40secs - medium run
Friday - Day off
Saturday - Day off
Sunday - 12.05km - 1hr 01min 58secs - run with Sunday group

Weekly totals - 101.20km - 8hrs 43mins 11secs

Sunday's run with the group brought me into triple figures for the 5th week in a row which demonstrates a consistency in training that I have not previously shown. To ensure that I perform at my best for the miler I will now begin to taper off my training. My training next week will depend on how much I have recovered from this week and if my legs are still tired and sore. I will still have two medium runs of between 20-25km a week, I will add my last Mt Archer hill session and my recovery runs will be shorter and less taxing. I am still deciding on what my long run will be next week but at this stage I will aim for my last 45km run. From there my training will show a marked decrease in overall volume with additional rest days to assist with recovery.

Sunday's run turned out to be a little more than I expected. The aim of the run was to run with the group and test out my legs, to see if there was still some muscle soreness and determine if the two days of rest aided my recovery. After the run I felt pretty good, no major soreness and there was no tiredness at all. I still have a little niggle on the inside of my right shin just above the ankle. It is nothing to really worry about, however, I am more concerned about my muddy shoes. The run was progressing reasonably well until about 8km when I saw a police car driving around some of the shops on Musgrave Street before heading into the car-park of the Stockland shopping centre. I then saw one of the officers running and the patrol car sped off deeper into the underground car-park. I said a quick "I better go, I'll see you guys at the end" and sprinted off to support my colleagues. As I entered the car-park I saw an officer (whom I have worked with before) chasing a juvenile, that I recognised as a well known offender here in Rocky. Further ahead I saw the patrol car stop and another colleague, who I have worked with, get out and begin to chase him as he ran through the open end of the car-park and into the nearby river.

As I entered the river in "hot pursuit" I immediately sank to my knees in thick mud. I was making up ground quickly and continued wading through the river and through the sections of knee high mud. With heavy shoes and socks coated in thick, foul smelling mud, I called out his name and told him to stop. He looked back but carried on. I yelled out that I would catch him and a few hundred metres later, on the other side of the river, in the Hungry Jacks car-park, I did. One of the officers caught up and we walked him back to the road where the second officer arrived with the patrol car. I have been involved in a number of foot pursuits over my 9 years in the job and I know how difficult it is in uniform and carrying all of the 'tools' of the job. I've often thought that it would be much easier in running gear and today, with an 8km warm up, I found that I was right, it is much easier. I know it's a bit silly but I couldn't resist talking a bit of trash to the kid and told him that I run marathon's every week and there was no way he could get away from me. After a quick chat with the police I ran off into the sunset, leaving stunned onlookers to wonder who was that masked man.

Actually, I wasn't wearing a mask, or tights, just a bit of poetic licence there. I ran off and met the rest of the group to recount to them the latest instalment in the adventures of Rockhampton's newest superhero, Run Benny Boy Run. Sorry, getting carried away again. Back to running.

I'm really excited about the upcoming challenge of my first 100 mile ultra and will start working on a race-plan including all the variables and logistics required for an event of this magnitude.

Keep running.