One Big Week

Sleeps training notes for week commencing 14th September, more for my own use to check back upon later




Monday 14th (rest day)
AM sleep in
Lunch – 2k swim (ah bugger it I’m going to the pool)
PM easy 10k with a rest & stretch stop every 1,000m (10k is a rest isn’t it?)

Tuesday 15th (2nd rest day from the weekend)
AM easy 10k loop with scam, animal, skinner (BMMC sanctioned)
PM easy 18k tempo from home up Long Angle F.T to Springwood, back home

Wed 16th
AM swim 3k easy (psyching up for the afternoons key session)
PM 90 min run in the lab, survived 6.75 sprints, Holy #uck it hurt! (survived 5.5 reps week prior) Hardest I have ever run in my life!

Thur 17th
AM run 10 easy hills with animal and scam (BMMC sanctioned)
PM 24km 100min run in Nat Park, great run!!!
- 31 degrees, excited summer was back, loved the heat – shirt off, what chest I have was out
- 6 x 6 min reps on gradient up Oaks FT starting at the Iron barks
- 2nd hard day in a row, I don’t usually violate the “hard day, easy day” rule, but had to this week. Treated myself to Thai with Mrs Train

Fri 18th
AM swim 3k (2 x 1,000m tempo swims on 15min cycle)
PM easy 10k loop from home (3rd loop of Sun Valley for the week)
(easy day b/w two hard days (ie. wed, thur) and two hard-ish’ LSD days (sat, sun)

Sat 19th
AM Glen to Wood to Springwood, 36k hills, could still feel Thursday in the legs (1h53m to Woodford, 2h31m to home)

Lunch: Sleep 2hrs

PM 5k swim, 20x 200s on 3min cycle (holding 2m45s)
Mister G’s party, great catch up with Jogger Kev

Sun 20th
AM Mega LSD, 50+k:
- 5:03am start to beat the heat, Faulco point by 5:48am for sunrise – awesome stuff!
- Back to springwoods check point (now 2 mins behind previous week’s schedule)
- Out to White-cross and down to blue gum swamp, up Bees Nest Hill at 2.5hr mark
- Grose Head South L.O for a stretch, then back along my favourite bit to St Columba’s
- Still 2mins behind previous weeks PB schedule – no problem though
- Back onto Hawkesbury Rd, after pumping in the final Gel thought ah bugger it, this is the last LSD for a while, lets let fluffy off the leash for the last 6ks and get that 2mins back
- Finished 1 min quicker than previous week in 3hr 39mins (52ks)

Lunch: Sleep 3hrs

PM swim 2k (40 x easy 50s)

Totals
Swim 15ks
Bike - nil
Run: 181
Sleep: 5 additional hrs
Total time: 20-ish hrs

Hills, Trails & the Blue Mtns bush at its best

After 2 and a half weeks of felling either saw, or carrying a ham-string affliction, have started to feel good and mended.



Key sessions: all the same as last week...
Totals: 171k running, 9 runs - all on hills & trails (except 10k sprinting on a treadmill at 16% incline)
Swim: 12.3k, 4 swims - one HR set on Sat, same as last week
Ride 95mins on turbo spinning (2 rides)
Total time 19.5hrs
Mondays sleep in felt good

Other than the above it was a great week of training, most of which was in the bush running beside all the marvellous Australian natives flowering at the moment. My favourite at the moment has to be the Epacris Longifloria sp. in blooming abundance particularly along the Fire Trail out to Grose Head South from St Columba’s as seen on Sunday mornings LSD.
If nothing else running gives you an appreciation of the local bush and its beauty!

Sleeps weekly report

A reasonably good weeek training, no big miles but a few key sessions completed. Hammy was recovering well until Wednesday when it flared up again, with Thursday being another day off the road, albeit onto the bike.

Long run Sunday was Faulco-point, Springwood, Winmalee, Bees Nest Hill, Grose Head South, back to Springwood, approx 50k, happy with time.

Saturday, Glen to Woodford to Sprringwood following the BMMC full moon Woodford to Glenbrook. Decided to miss the W2G by night, however i did see the full moon on the G2W early Sat morning as the moon was very low in the sky, and still bright enough to impress in the pre dawn sky - beautiful Blue Mtns stuff. Saw all the footprints of the coolrunners/ BMMC who did the W2G only a few hours earlier.

Wednesday was in the BMMC Lab (see photo) to test out the gradient in Austria (1:5), where the hammy protested. One of the hardest 2minute sessions Ive ever done.

Totals: 142k running (over 5 days), swim: 11ks (5 swims), bike: 1hr on turbo, Total time 17hrs.

Sleep on Cross Training

The good thing about owning a bike and a pair of speedos is that when your ham string decides to blow it self up, and you still want to train, then you can no problems.

Following the decision to ignore a mild dose of DOMS on Mon, Tue and Wed, the body decided to make its own decision to take a rest via imposing a small hamstring strain (niggle), no big deal in the grander scheme of things, but a lesson I should know by now.

Public Note to Self: Dont be an idiot and abuse your body when trying to train.
(now I feel better)

So some running was replaced with 14ks of swimming and 3 bikes rides totalling 140ks last week in order to rest left hammy. Its good to have arms tired as opposed to just legs. I must admit I really enjoyed being a triathlete again this week.

Notable runs: 6 x 6min efforts on Wed out faulco-point(where left hammy goes out on strike in protest)
Swims: Saturday, 4.5k swim @ HR, main set: 15x200s on 3mins, ave b/w 2m40s- 2m27s/per 200m (use to be able to hold this set on 2mins40secs)
Ride: Saturday in rain to richmond, turf farms, penrith, lappo, home: 80k
weight 70k, run 70k, total time training 15+ hours

Sleep quoting Self Pity poems

While you may be entirely happy with a race (given what you know intellectually about your body, its recovery, your training, conditioning, race prep, timing, periodisation, carb-loading, the F.I.T.T principle, the possum that woke you up etc) we all have Egos that rarely accord with any logic or reason.

Take for example Saturdays Willy to Billie run. I was extremely happy with the run and the time given ceteris-paribus (Latin for 'all other things remaining equal’). But, another part of you hates being beaten (your ego), regardless of some 16th century proverb by a Latin economist.

Or maybe it’s just that I had run much harder than I was planning on Saturday just to keep up with the Greyhound Alex (due to my ego), and my legs are severely suffering now as a result.

Well, the only thing I have to say about ego-centred self pity is better quoted by my favourite poem (it may even be a haiku) titled: SELF PITY that you may recognise from a scene in the movie 'G.I Jane' featuring Demi Moore.

SELF PITY
by DH Lawrence

I never saw a wild thing,
feel sorry for it self,
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough,
without ever having felt sorry for it self.


Week:
Mon: swim 2.2k, run 13k
Tues: run 10k, run 16k (4x6mins effort to max, hilly trails)
Wed: swim 2k
Thur: run 10 hilly, run 17k (4.5x 6mins effort to max, hilly trails)
Fri: swim 2.5k, run 5k
Sat: 35k hard hills (Willie to Billie, 2h14m)
Sun: ride 40k, swim 1.5k

Totals: swim: 8.2k, run: 105k, bike: 40k
Magpie attacks: 1
BMMC Pizza nights at club house: 1
Blogpost: 1
Weight: 71k
Weeks to race: 7
Days in the week: 7

OK I will stop counting random things now

First week back: easy

A good routine building first week back, with all but one session completed (Sunday’s easy swim or run missed due to BMMC commitments).

First tempo run back was a very ugly experience on Thursday arvo, with a 20min effort on the trail almost killing me, as I blew off some cob webs.
Saturday morning was a pleasant run in Nat Park out to Nepean L.O with Rod the Hornet and Sailaway, as pre-arranged by Scam and Dr Phil (who both disappeared after 30mins).

Sunday was another glorious Blue Mtns late Winter morning run from Glen to Wood with the Gargermiester. Strangely enough including what has to be a top 3 run time: 37 mins to Oaks, 62 to Helipad, for an accumulated 1hr52mins 9 seconds to Woodford.
Weekly totals: 103k run, 4.5k swim, 45mins bike (RPM class)

Looking fwd to an easy run over the Willie to Billie this weekend, and to Mr G’s show down with the Sleep trains better half, actually better three quarters.

Note: if you are an affiliate BMMC member, actual BMMC member, run in the W2Bille, or just interested in talking running this Sunday night, then you must attend the W2Billie post race Pizza Night at Victorias Restaurant, Warrimoo. Pizza starts 6:30pm. - $15 per head. (Sunday not Saturday night). See you there

Next Race: LDMRC - October

After the Swine Flu aftermath of the M7 Marathon, including 2 weeks recovery from this cruel cruel disease, it’s time to get back into training for Race 3 of 2009 – the World Long Distance Mtn Running Champions in Austria on October 10.

Now only 8 weeks away, it’s funny to be focussing on a race I didn’t even know existed until January this year when Angela B told me about it on our Australia Day run over 6 foot track. I guess Austria will be as nice a place to go as any!

So next week it is back onto the holy trails and hills of God’s Country (the Blue Mtns) for my beloved hills, none of this running around in a 400m circle anymore, just lung busting vertical-ness.

Anyway, may attempt a photo diary next week for the kids at home.

PS thanks for all the entertainment while I was sick with “Sleep Train the Next Deek” thread on Cool Running – its kept me very entertained.

Why someone would be so interested in starting a thread about me every time I race I’m not sure – but it’s good to have groupies out there and it’s a form of flattery I guess.