Back in to full training after a lighter week last week and a trip out to Ferny Creek for the Western Athletics pack run.

Ferny Creek long run

Being across the other side of town I only visit Ferny Creek once or twice per year. But it is one of my favourite places to run. With it’s wet and muddy forest trails it’s just a lot of fun and I often feel like I can run for hours out there… so this weekend I did.

During the week I researched what route to take by reading about the traditional Ferny Creek long runs started by Ron Clarke and also looking at commonly run routes on Strava.

What I worked out was a 16km loop of Sherbrooke Forest which would have a couple big hill climbs including “aeroplane” hill. I made the route using Strava route builder, then uploaded it to Garmin Connect to sync with my watch. This way I was able to use the navigation feature on the Garmin FR935 and not get lost!

The run was wet (raining), muddy, slow going and had some monster hills. A total of 630m elevation climb which is the most I’ve ever done. Having said that it was a lot of fun and a good challenge. If I do it again I will change the route a bit – one section was what I would describe as an overgrown goat track and honestly not run-able, and I would also like to check out “two mile” hill.

Recovery efforts

Since I had been pretty fatigued the last couple weeks I have boosted my “1%-ers” and basically doing pretty much whatever I can to make sure I’m recovering well. This included doing a big healthy grocery shop last week and improving my diet – I have actually been making all of my meals believe it or not!

And have added back my full stretching routine. I have been a bit slack and just been doing a few quick stretches after runs. But I am someone who is definitely not flexible and my muscles seem to tighten up easy. I have a bit of a theory that muscle tightness could have been contributing to my fatigue during thresholds.. if muscles are tight and resisting it’s more effort to get the range of motion needed when running at faster paces, right?

Also giving my iron intake a boost as it can often be a problem for distance runners especially in heavy training periods. My iron has tested on the lower side in the past.

This week

Last week I wrote about having tired legs but this week was much better after having a lighter week. Back into full training load and going well.

Tuesday step down reps at Altona Hill hit the pace targets and float recoveries were controlled sitting on 5:30-40 pace for the recovery.

Wednesday back to the usual lunch time run. Completed 10km at 5:20 average pace and noticed hear rate was better than usual sitting at 150bpm average.

Thursday is the half marathon training run 10km split into two paces. Went well except for some bridge works along the Yarra river meant I had to divert and finished further away than planned oops.

Saturday and Sunday sessions swapped so I could do my long run at Ferny. Sunday morning I did my threshold run at the You Yangs. Which despite my calves being tired from the hills, overall my legs felt stronger than they have in recent weeks, so I think the lighter week has helped.

Running

1%-ers

Coming up

• Next week – Wandin Park cross country
• 27 May – Cruden Farm cross country
• 2 July – Gold Coast Half Marathon

Summary