I’ve been a little slack with the old blog lately, so as part of my 2020 New Years Resolutions, you can now expect something from me each Sunday. It could be a weekly training recap, a race review or just some random thoughts on food, running, trails or whatever takes my fancy to be honest!
The aim is the start with once a week and work up to twice a week.
Over the holiday period, my countdown to the Old Ghost ultramarathon ticked over to 60 days to go and then 55 and then 50.
I’ve been pretty consistent with my training this year and have seen some great improvements in my overall running and fitness (more to come in my year in review post- coming soon, yes I know it’s already the 5th!) but something about that number, 50 days to go, really sparked something in the back of my brain.
Part panic, part terror and part excitement, the blender of emotions in my brain responded by planning.
50 days is essentially a month of great training and a taper. I don’t really taper, mostly because I don’t do enough training to justify it but maybe that is also part of the reason I always under perform.
I’ve been unusually strategic with my training lately. I have a plan from the team at SquadRun that I follow loosely. My work sometimes make it hard to do the exact workouts of the week but Kerry and Ali usually provide a few weeks at a time so I tend to mix and match as best I can, keeping their priority system and adding in double sessions where I can for extra distance.
I love this phase of the training in a lead up to the race, mostly because base building and random speed work is gone and in comes specificity, like hiking, hill repeats and stairs. All the fun stuff!
But even with the specific sessions that don’t always add up to a lot of mileage, I have been making sure I am consistent, Running 5-6 days per week and building slowly. As you can see from the pic above, my last block I did 56-58km per week.
Here’s this weeks breakdown:
Monday– rest day
Tuesday– 25km trail run, hiking the uphills and smashing the downhills. Was meant to be 50km but my knees started clicking so I called it a day
Wednesday– 6km puppy run
Thursday– 6km puppy run in the early AM (4am!) and 1km swim in the evening
Friday– 6km puppy run in AM
Saturday– 7.5km run in AM, 5km in the PM
Sunday– 15km trail run
Total: 70.5km, 8hrs + half an hour of swimming
For new folks joining my training, a “puppy run” is a slow 3km trot with my lab Freddo who usually hovers at around a 6-6:30 min/km (although his longest is like 7:30!) followed by a 3km sprint (barely stops to pee!) with my kelpie Charlie. She averages 4:45-5 min/km. It’s a shorter version of a 30/20 SquadRun workout!
Unfortunately I also picked up quite a bit of random rubbish at the You Yangs regional park during my run this morning. Clearly people are having way more fun on the trails than I am, really people condom wrappers!!!! I hope a snake bites your balls next time! At least take your wrapper with you, you filthy animal!
Anyways with less than 50 days to go, I’m focusing on adding mileage and specificity to the training and really sharpening my diet. Hot x buns in the shops is killing me but I’ve vowed to put them in my drop bags at Old Ghost as a reward to keep me from eating them now!