A Day In The Life

Speedygeese at the Gold Coast this Sunday:
Marathon - CJ, Strewth, Roger, David Webster
Half Marathon - David Baussmann, Allrounder
10k - Ewen
Best wishes! May the sea breeze push you to a fast time!

Cooling down at Ainslie



Training runners for 3000m
Some say “work” is a 4 letter word, but isn’t “play” also a 4 letter word?

Even though my life is all play, I stick pretty much to a routine still, which makes it easier to get everything done. Specially the running.

A typical Thursday consists of Thursday morning (a) reading and writing, (b) running for an hour or so in North Belconnen. Thursday afternoon (a) a break: doing the crossword, having a nap, watching a DVD, whatever; then (b) writing up the run, and (c) more running out in North Canberra, ending up with a (c) coaching session at Dickson oval. Then dinner and a glass of wine...

I read the news today. Oh Boy.

Because my target racing distance is the 3000m, I try and run between 90km and 120km each week. My week is a careful balance of hard training, tempo training, easy training, and rest. And because I am an M60, the rest is an important part of training, as important as the training sessions are.

I can train as hard as anyone, but more recovery time is essential.

Not a lot more recovery; everyone needs recovery; it's important to plan recovery days and active rest whatever your age and ability.

And because I need longer recovery, I do about one less long run a week, and one less speed session a week, than I used to thirty years ago.

I also have a couple of longish breaks each year. One is in July: next week I will do little or no running (but lots of walking). So my weekly total next week might be 10 or 20k instead of 100k.

The other break I have might be around Christmas or January. I leave some flexibility here to have the break at the hottest week of summer; or to coincide with a trip away, although in recent years we have stayed in Canberra over the holiday period and family have come here.

I like the sentence in http://championseverywhere.blogspot.com/2008/07/7208.html today: "Schedule your recovery or your body will schedule it for you." That's it!

Despair #1
(For your amusement over the next few weeks)