As usual with training there are ups and downs, these two weeks combined both.

Week 13

Monday

Started off with the usual Monday gym session – 10 minutes on the cross trainer, rehab exercises and strength work. Done at lunch time!

Tuesday

My first taste of some faster paced running with a session of 10 min jog, 10 min pace pick up, 10 min jog followed by 5 x 60m strides. Carlton Gardens isn’t great for running quick around as it’s up and down. I decided to wait until after work and headed to my old favourite Princes Park which is an awesome training loop. It is a 3.2km soft gravel loop around the park and reasonably flat.

I jogged the first 10 mins at 5:40/km, the middle 10 mins at 4:38/km and the last 10 mins at 5:47/km. It felt great to pick up the pace, I’ve been grateful to be running again, but picking up the pace really makes it more enjoyable. I also found it funny that the old training paces naturally return.. 4:38/km was my exact target pace for Gold Coast half marathon which I did a lot of training at including around Princes Park. The 5 strides also felt good, pace was 4:22/km, 4:11/km, 3:45/km, 4:15/km and 3:57/km on the grass.

Wednesday

Double day Wednesday with gym and rehab exercises at lunch and an evening swim. Swam 1000m at 2:28/100m pace.

Thursday

Some more faster pace running today, again I decided to head to Princes Park after work for this one. 15 minute warm up averaged 5:23/km. 3 x 3mins at a higher tempo with 1 minute recovery. The 3 min efforts felt great, no target pace just running by feel. I ended up doing them in 4:31/km, 4:28/km and 4:11/km for the last one. While they felt great my legs did feel very tired in the cool down, basically felt like a post race cool down.. not used to running that quick obviously. Averaged 5:37/km for the 10 minute cool down.

Friday

Nice to have the day off work with the grand final public holiday. I did gym at home, skipping for the warm up (10 x 30 sec on, 30 off), followed by rehab exercises and strength work. 

Saturday

I headed to Werribee Mansion for a 35 minute easy run. I have to say my legs were feeling rather tired. Maybe from the faster pace training during the week plus I’ve gradually been upping my weights for squats and deadlifts. Anyway I averaged 5:42/km and felt a bit slow and heavy on this run.

Later in the afternoon I took Kip and Rusty for a walk who I looked after for the weekend.

Sunday

My Sunday session was 3 x 10 mins at the You Yangs. After the Saturday run decided it was best to keep this one pretty flat and easy. First 10 mins in 5:32/km, second in 5:30/km and last in 5:47/km. During the last 10 mins I was feeling some mild soreness through my left thigh, which is where my injury was. Which isn’t a great feeling and had me feeling fairly worried.

Week 14

Monday

I continued on with normal training with Monday gym session. I’ve switched to doing gym sessions at home this week so that my brother Alex can join in. My leg felt fine through all the gym exercises including “leap and land” and weighted squats so that was good.

Tuesday

I had another faster pace running session planned for today. But I had shot off an email and she thought maybe the combination of running, walking two kelpies who pulled me along and increase in weights just got a little too much. So the advice was to take today off which I did.

Wednesday

I had a physio appointment today which was already booked in from weeks ago, so great timing. It was decided for the next week to aim to keep some running load but back off weights and make sure I’m focusing on my postural cue.

In the evening I did gym with Alex, using the bar only for my deadlifts no added weight.

Thursday

15 minute easy run around Carlton Gardens. This run felt fine, maybe a little slow at 5:46/km average pace, but no issues.

Friday

I took the day off work to get some flooring quotes and furniture shopping. It also included re-arranging furniture and building flat pack furniture so rather big tiring day. So decided to skip the planned rehab and strength exercises.

Saturday

Beautiful weather today, I actually decided to wait until late afternoon so I wasn’t running in mid day sun – I get sunburnt too easy! This run was 3 x 10 mins (1 min walk). I did this one behind the rec centre, which isn’t too exciting but is a gravel surface a short walk from home. First 10 mins in 5:25/km, second in 5:20/km, third in 5:20/km. It’s dead flat but 5:20s are good, it’s a sign that I’m feeling good, in comparison to the 5:42/km pace the previous Saturday.

Sunday

My physio thought it was best for just the one run this weekend, which I do agree with. So I decided to fall back to the familiar Sunday pool routine. Completed a 30 min water run of 5 min warm up, mona fartlek, 5 min cool down, and a 500m swim.

Song of the Week

I like sharing aussie music where I can and really liking this new one from melbourne punk/hardcore band Clowns!

Coming up

So at the moment have had to deload which is hopefully just a minor set back. Next week I have a 30 minute easy run planned for Tuesday and 35 minutes for Thursday. Fingers crossed they feel alright.

The London Marathon ballot is being drawn throughout the week which I entered way back in April. It’s a very small chance of getting in and to be honest, it might be best if I don’t get in as I’m not sure I’ll be ready to run it! If I do get in it might be a holiday and a 42.2km jog.

Summary