Fone a Friend

I am at the pointing end to my training for TNF 100. The race is a bit over 3 weeks away so I am in the final stages of preparation. Just as a recap my campaign started in August 2011, some 37 weeks ago. It is certainly is a long time to be training and focussing on one event.

This week is my “last big week”. What exactly is a big week?

Before all of this craziness started, my big weeks consisted of about 60-65km of running. I ran 30km on a Saturday, 5km recovery on a Sunday, 10km of Speed Work Tuesday and 15km on Thursday. That was it. I had never run more than 68km in a single week, I also started to get injuries when I ran near 65km.

Now I don’t mean to use this blog to brag, but my big weeks now are in the range of 115km to 125km. This week will be my last 125km week before I taper.

Now before you all head out the door for double session days, 45km long runs, or triple Mt Archer summits there is a few key things that I have done to get me to this point.

1.    I went and spoke with Glenn from Vector Health. http://www.vectorhealth.com.au/ This is again a plug for the Strength and Stability program he put in place for me. Doing it solid for 16 weeks BUILT me a strong body to handle the kms, and it keeps my gait from deteriorating on those long runs when your body and mind are tired. I also complete a maintenance program to keep me tuned up.

2.   Slow down. I am training to COMPLETE a 100km Ultra Marathon. No speed work. Just lots and lots of steady km’s. I spent months not even worrying about how fast I was going, I was running for distance only. So for you that might be going up to 60-90 seconds per kilometer slower than what feels doable. This helped me build a huge aerobic base, it also taught me to enjoy the running. This is also a key running principal, you shouldnt increase both intensity and distance at the same time.

3.   Be consistant. By backing off the pace, it didnt matter that I was tired or fatigued, I just headed out for more miles. I kept logging them. Some runs were junk, others were awesome. Some weeks I ran doubles (two runs per day), other weeks I got up earlier and ran big mid week (25km), just to show my body I could. This was a change in perspective for me, no complaining, just do the work.

4.  Love Hills. Yep I used to hate hills. I run them now for fun. That includes double and tripple summits of Mt Archer. In one week I ran Mt Archer 5 times. I have worked hard on my hill form and also trying to have a really positive outlook of hill running, "I Love Hills" has became one of my favorite sayings.

The last point is to "Fone a Friend". That is I go and seek constructive feedback from people who will be honest with me. Here is a great visual example. These photos are exactly 12 months apart, Bel and my sister Monica think I look great in both of these photos. Thank god love is blind!

From one photo to the next I am 9kgs lighter. The top photo is King of the Mountain April 2011, 1 week prior to me running the Canberra Marathon. When I returned dissapointed with Canberra, Jason said "lose some weight". Enough said. I worked hard on dropping weight and this year have continued to lose more. The bottom photo is from last Sunday's King of the Mountain - 9kg lighter, I ran 9 minutes 10 seconds faster than my 2011 time!

Benny also has provided some good old honest feedback. You need to be running more - he said. Sounds silly - but in the past I was always trying to get by on running less. Mainly because I thought I was time poor. It was just an excuse. So I just invested more time to actually running and less time to sleeping in and dreaming about it!

Fone a Friend is also useful to gain positve feedback or to shape your weekly sessions. I have had a couple of rushes of blood and wanted to ramp up the training, Ben has said a couple of times "no need to do that - you are doing enough work". Which is reassuring. Pete has also been endless source of positive feedback - especially regarding the phases to my training and getting the right mix to my training.

The point of this blog is that I think you should regularly seek honest feedback to improve your running, it might be a visit to Glenn at Vector Health or a podiatrist like Anna to assess your gait, or just talk with a running coach or Fone a Friend about your goals and current training plan. By regularly assessing where you are at, you can identify keys to unlocking your running potential.

P.S - Speaking of last weeks King/Queen of the Mountain (which is a 7.3km race up Frenchville Rd &Pilbeam Drive with a 550m gain in elevation to the top of Mt Archer) - a big congrats to Jen Taylor for winning the womens event. Jen has not been well since running a Boston Qualifying time at Gold Coast last year - it was great to see her back running strong. She smashed it!

Thanks to the weather gods for the cooler weather finally today!

Pex