I’m back to the blog, I wasn’t sure if this day would come or not but here we are. It has been nearly 5 months since Melbourne Marathon, so I’ll start off with a short summary of what’s happened since then and then jump into the latest week of training.

What’s been happening

Melbourne Marathon was huge! Breaking 4 hours and a 30 minute PB… it’s something I’ll always remember and the highlight of my running journey to date. But there’s no denying that kind of effort does take it’s toll on the body.

After the marathon I took a full week off, no running at all, and then a slow build back. My weekly kms were 14km, 24km, 30km, 33km, 40km.. it wasn’t until that 40km week that I started doing any kind of faster training session. It was difficult coming back, paces that felt easy during marathon training now felt so much harder.

December 16th I did a 1500m race and I’d rate it as my worst 1500m race ever. I ran 5:52 which is quite slow for me, it felt HARD and I had runner’s cough that you get after a short hard race. A long way off good fitness.

The end of December, start of January I went up to Falls Creek for our annual altitude training camp. This is when I started to get some fitness back. Most of my training up there still wasn’t special, but towards the end there was a 5 x 1km rep session where I trained well and surprised myself. That’s when I knew I was starting to come back.

The following week back at sea level I had a 5000m track race and I felt great. My stride felt smooth, breathing felt good and I was able to run 21:15, only 2 seconds off my best 5km time. Then the next week I ran my final track race for the season a 3000m and managed 12:00 flat! Very happy to finish a short track season with a 4 second PB.

Following that I had 4 weeks of training building for Wangaratta 10km and unfortunately seemed to go down hill a bit during this period. It wasn’t all bad, I was still having some good sessions but also a lot of sessions where I wasn’t hitting my times too, often due to tired and sore legs. On reflection it was probably too many hard sessions combined with a fair amount of the training in hot weather also adding extra stress. I also ended up getting a runny nose which turned into a sinus infection and around that same time pulled up from one session with a sore quad.

When I got to Wangaratta 10km I ran poorly, and also pulled up very sore. Which leads us into…

This week

Monday instructions were to run 8km at 5:20/km pace but I took it very easy. With pulling up sore from Wangaratta I treated this is a recovery run. Putting very little effort into my stride. I average 5:43/km and I think this was the best thing I could of done that day.

Tuesday I dropped into Pure Physio for assessment and treatment. I had release done through my back, hip, glute, hamstring and shin, which was helpful. Physio advice was that it’s still ok to run and we’ll manage it. Keep on top of foam rolling and stretching and introduce a new flossing exercise for my left leg. That afternoon I did 4 x 1km at 4:37/km with 60 sec floats. Felt sore warming up but fine during the session.

Wednesday not much training wise since I was finishing part 2 of level 1 recreational running coaching course. 15 minutes of “anti-sitting exerises” plus the flossing exercise that night.

Thursday after some discussion with the coach we decided it was best to replace two running training sessions this week with cycling. I went and did a 45 minute spin class, which was enjoyable actually. Then later that night spent an hour on release work.. foam roller, rubber ball, flossing exercise.

Friday another cycling day – took out a Melbourne Bike Share bike during lunch for a 55 minute ride around Melbourne. 45 minutes of physio strength exercises in the evening.

Saturday a day off training. I spent an hour doing various foam rolling and stretching picking what I thought would be most useful. Also a short ride commute to and from a friend’s place for dinner!

Sunday I had Wyndham Fun Run 10km with instructions to run at 5:20/km pace. I averaged a little faster at 5:13/km and felt pretty good. Still a bit of soreness warming up but fine during the 10km. Post run massage for my lower back.

Starting this week my training has been changed to a 2 on 1 off structure, which served me well during marathon training. This is part of the strategy to prevent fatigue issues by enabling recovery every 3 days.

Running

1%-ers

New Goals

Get the body good

Carrying a sore left leg at the moment so my main priority is to get the body good again. That mean’s a) treating the current soreness and, b) getting the right routine/structure in place to prevent injury and fatigue issues.

Break 1:40:00 at Gold Coast Half Marathon

If you followed my original blog for Melbourne Marathon you might remember I had a shocker at Gold Coast last year. So I’m returning this year to give it another shot. I’ve never run well at Gold Coast so I’m not super confident but we’ll see how we go.

Have a good XCR season

Last year with being so focused on the marathon training, I didn’t get to give the Athletics Victoria cross country and road racing season a fair crack. This year I’m hoping I can have a much better season and get some good results.

Coming up

Wednesday I have Round 3 of the Sunset series at the Tan. Not running this one as a race but it should be a bit of fun incorporating it into the weekly training.

Otherwise a pretty standard week of training ahead with some more physio treatment and lot’s of work on the “1%-ers”.

Summary