This week we had our longest cross country race of the season – 16km run around Cruden Farm!
Cruden Farm XC
While double the distance of Wandin Park; Cruden Farm is a much more enjoyable course with rolling hills. Some minor course changes this year meant that the mud puddle wasn’t AS bad but still tricky and there was no way to avoid it.
Overall I wasn’t totally happy with the run. My legs felt heavy from the beginning and my calves were tight and sore. From 6km onwards I dropped off my target pace and just maintained best effort I could which was around 5:00/km pace. However given the high mileage training at the moment and not being a target race I guess it’s ok!
Finish time was 1:15:36. Shout out to team mate Tom who finished only 9 seconds behind me! I definitely did a head check coming in to the finish to make sure he wasn’t going to get me!
This week
A repeat of the new standard Tuesday track session 4 x 2km. Found the session difficult coming off a big weekend but got through it. Still need to improve my rep times.
Wednesday marathon pace session – 5km at 5.00, 2-4 min jog recovery, 5km at 4.55,2-4min jog recovery. This went fine, ran from home after work, and got fed well afterwards by Mechelle! Thanks!!
Thursday was an easier run, well meant to be. The plan was 8km at 4:55-5:20 pace. I ran from work and wasn’t completely sure where to run, so I ended up zig zagging through Fitzroy Gardens. Inspired by @pbdownunder who I saw do a similar run. But Fitzroy Gardens is NOT flat, turned out to be quite a solid hill work out with 100m of elevation gain.
Sunday a shorter long run to recover after cross country racing. Legs pretty tired so it was 94 minutes easy pace and mostly flat running, one small hill up the back of turn table.
Running
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Rest |
| Tue | 2km warm up Drills and strides 4x2km at 8.40 with 400jog recovery (8:45, 8:50, 8:51, 8:43) 2km cool down |
| Wed | 5km at 5.00, 2-4 min jog recovery, 5km at 4.55, 2-4min jog recovery (avg 5:00/km, 154bpm) |
| Thu | 8km @ 4.55 - 5.20 (avg 5:13/km, 152bpm) |
| Fri | Rest |
| Sat | XCR'17 Rd 3 Cruden Farm Cross Country - 1:15:36 (4:59/km, 165bpm) |
| Sun | You Yangs recovery (94 mins, 5:36/km, 144bpm) |
1%-ers
| Day | Details |
|---|---|
| Mon | Shoulder posture exercises (11 mins) |
| Tue | Foam rolling (38 mins) |
| Wed | |
| Thu | Stretching (30 mins) |
| Fri | Hip routine for runners (25 mins) |
| Sat | Foam rolling (15 mins) |
| Sun | Cold bath (15 mins) |
Coming up
- 10 June – Ben and Sharon’s Fun Run (15km time trial)
- 17 June – Bundoora Cross Country (10km)
- 2 July – Gold Coast Half Marathon
- 8 July – Sandown Road Relays (6.2km)
- 16 July – Albert Park Road Race (10km)
Summary
| Week | Phase | Runs | Km | Hrs | TSS | Fitness | Fatigue | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36 | MARATHON | 4 | 59.2 | 5:17 | 426 | 61 | 73 ↑ | 23 ↑ |
| 35 | Taper | 4 | 41 | 3:32 | 314 | 61 ↓ | 55 ↓ | -1 ↓ |
| 34 | Marathon | 4 | 62.1 | 5:26 | 450 | 64 | 76 ↓ | 6 ↑ |
| 33 | Marathon | 4 | 63.4 | 5:34 | 467 | 64 ↑ | 82 | 2 ↓ |
| 32 | Marathon | 5 | 70.7 | 6:23 | 502 | 63 ↑ | 82 ↑ | 7 ↓ |
| 31 | Marathon | 4 | 48.4 | 4:13 | 367 | 61 ↑ | 68 ↓ | 8 ↑ |
| 30 | Marathon | 4 | 63.9 | 5:43 | 462.1 | 62.7 ↑ | 78.3 ↑ | 4.0 ↑ |
| 29 | Marathon / recovery | 4 | 58.4 | 5:06 | 426.2 | 61.8 ↑ | 77.3 ↓ | -0.6 ↓ |
| 28 | Marathon | 4 | 66.5 | 6:06 | 486.1 | 61.6 ↑ | 82.5 ↑ | 3.6 ↑ |
| 27 | Marathon | 4 | 66.5 | 5:50 | 482.1 | 60.1 ↑ | 79 ↑ | 0.5 ↓ |
| 26 | Recovery | 4 | 54.3 | 4:54 | 386.3 | 58.1 ↓ | 69.5 ↓ | 3.5 ↑ |
| 25 | Build | 5 | 64.9 | 5:51 | 454.6 | 58.3 ↑ | 72.0 ↑ | -2.3 ↓ |
| 24 | Build | 5 | 64.5 | 5:41 | 482.6 | 56.8 ↑ | 64.6 ↑ | 3.1 ↓ |
| 23 | Build | 4 | 46.9 | 4:07 | 340.5 | 54.9 ↓ | 51.8 ↓ | 7.3 ↓ |
| 22 | Build | 4 | 43.6 | 3:55 | 307.3 | 55.9 ↓ | 52.1 ↓ | 11.1 ↓ |
| 21 | Half Marathon | 4 | 41.8 | 3:31 | 311.1 | 58.0 ↓ | 55.0 ↑ | 20.5 ↑ |
| 20 | Taper for HM | 4 | 37.5 | 3:10 | 304.9 | 60.1 ↓ | 52.4 ↓ | 14.6 ↑ |
| 19 | Recovery | 3 | 41.6 | 3:39 | 302.6 | 63.0 ↓ | 59.8 ↓ | 10.5 ↑ |
| 18 | Half / Marathon | 5 | 71.8 | 6:03 | 541.4 | 66.6 ↑ | 86.0 ↑ | -7.4 ↓ |
| 17 | Half / Marathon | 4 | 66.5 | 5:47 | 490.2 | 64.3 ↑ | 79.7 ↑ | -3.2 ↑ |
| 16 | Half / Marathon | 5 | 64.4 | 5:32 | 479.2 | 62.9 ↑ | 76.0 ↓ | -7.7 ↑ |
| 15 | Half / Marathon | 5 | 71.4 | 6:09 | 527.1 | 61.7 ↑ | 77.8 ↑ | -7.8 ↓ |
| 14 | Speed / Half | 5 | 63.8 | 5:38 | 460.2 | 59.0 ↑ | 70.3 ↑ | -1.0 ↓ |
| 13 | Speed / Half | 5 | 59.1 | 5:20 | 419.4 | 57.5 ↑ | 60.9 ↑ | -3.7 ↓ |
| 12 | Recovery | 4 | 39.1 | 3:21 | 288.2 | 56.9 ↓ | 54.8 ↓ | 6.5 ↑ |
| 11 | Speed | 5 | 59.1 | 5:14 | 421.8 | 59.6 ↑ | 70.4 ↓ | 1.7 ↑ |
| 10 | Speed | 5 | 61.6 | 5:23 | 460.3 | 59.3 ↑ | 71.8 ↑ | -1.9 ↓ |
| 9 | Speed | 5 | 58.0 | 5:06 | 436.1 | 57.9 ↑ | 67.8 ↑ | 3.4 ↑ |
| 8 | Recovery | 5 | 49.7 | 4:18 | 395.8 | 56.8 | 61.5 ↓ | -1.3 ↓ |
| 7 | Base | 5 | 54.2 | 4:44 | 417.0 | 56.8 ↑ | 64.4 ↑ | 2.3 ↑ |
| 6 | Base | 5 | 51.3 | 4:33 | 392.3 | 56.1 ↑ | 61.0 ↓ | 1.5 ↓ |
| 5 | Base | 5 | 52.5 | 4:32 | 421.5 | 55.9 ↑ | 61.7 ↑ | 2.2 ↓ |
| 4 | Recovery | 5 | 46.5 | 4:03 | 353.7 | 55.0 ↓ | 54.5 ↓ | 4.4 ↑ |
| 3 | Base | 5 | 50.4 | 4:22 | 381.7 | 55.7 ↓ | 57.1 ↓ | 1.2 ↓ |
| 2 | Base | 5 | 50.2 | 4:23 | 381.2 | 55.9 ↓ | 57.4 ↑ | 5.9 ↓ |
| 1 | Base | 5 | 43.9 | 3:52 | 334.3 | 56.0 | 53.4 | 8.3 |
Your welcome for tea anytime Ben. I am sure I will need more help preparing the newsletter. Great running Ben.
Thanks Mechelle appreciate it! And likewise to you, great running this weekend!
Tough course Saturday Ben – you did extremely well (don’t think I would have coped with another 2 laps!)
Cheers Sharon but I’m sure you would have!! You ran a great time, sub 36 minutes on that course is flying!