After last weeks success, I was keen to keep the ball rolling and focus on training.

There’s a lot of opinions on how best to train for an Ultramarathon and none of them seem to have much in common except the ultimate goal.

Some focus on workouts like speed sessions and hill sprints whilst others are all about trail running and race specific training.

I’ve had coaches in the past, some good, some not so good and I’ve had success to varying degrees with each.

This year I’ve also had my first major set back which has forced me to re-evaluate everything and really look at the training I’m doing.

That’s partly why I have decided to go without a coach for this next adventure. As much as I love Squadrun, their recent success has meant they are stretched too thin to worry about my little workout or if I did my squats this week. This isn’t a criticism of them at all, they offer excellent programs that they can tailor to you based on the info you provide and support on Facebook if you need but I feel I’m a bit too high maintenance for the weekly fee. I’d need more one on one support.

As you can probably tell I’m still emotionally invested in Squadrun and simply can’t pay anyone else! I would recommend them in a heartbeat.

So since I’m doing my own “program”, I’m going to be blogging here to keep myself accountable. I know no one reads it but the weekly review is more for my own learning anyway. If you are training for an ultra too, I hope you get something out of it.

Week 2: July 16-22, 40km

This weeks focus was strength. I started my week with my usual rest day on Monday as my long run is usually rostered for Sunday morning.

Tuesday was back to Flinders Peak for some stair repeats. I’ve been really focusing on hiking up the stairs and watching my foot strike as I come down. I’ve been trying to be more of a toe/mid foot striker to help absorb some of the impact and take the force off my joints and bodgy hip. I shaved 6 minutes off my time from last week.

Wednesday was an accidental rest day due to work commitments getting me home late and a general CBF attitude.

Thursday I was back in the gym for incline work on the treadmill. I maintained by 10km/h pace and varied the incline up to 8.5%, still running and without the support of the bars. I added a kettlebell workout of squats, split squats, swings and deadlifts to the end of the session.

Friday is a usual rest or cross training day as I call it “fat Friday”.

By now I was starting to be concerned about my weekly mileage. The unplanned rest day on Wednesday and the fact that I hadn’t made up for it, had me going into the weekend thinking I had to run a marathon to keep up.

I plodded out a slow and easy 10k on Saturday morning with intentions of maybe backing up that night but it wasn’t to be.

Sunday morning was another strength session, unusual for me. Sunday is usually for long runs only. I ran a lazy 9.5k around the MCG as I waited for my turn at the Stadium Stomp. Rather than spoil everything, I’ll leave all comments about that for the race review. So I ran/walked the 7300 stairs and added another 9km to my total.

Whilst I didn’t hit the 50k, I did increase my elevation by 300m (which is a lot for a flat lander) and gave my legs a good dose of what the NZ double might be like. I’m calling it a success.

Week 3 is going to be all about the slow and steady with a sneaky trail run on Sunday. I’m in Brisbane for work so looking forward to cruising around on foot.

I’m keeping it easy with just body weight exercises and maybe some jump type work. Will see how the legs recover after this weeks stair chaos.