Time is getting away from me lately. My twice daily posts have morphed into daily and now weekly posts. Life is getting in the way it seems. Although this may have affected my ability to get to the keyboard you’ll be glad to hear I’m still putting in the kilometres, some things really are sacred. After Darlington half last weekend I managed to drag myself out for a recovery run in the evening, after first posting about the race of course, priorities.

The recovery run on the same day as the event is normally an exercise in pain management and this one was no different. I struggled, and I mean struggled, to hold anywhere near 5min/k average and my right ‘hammy’ , which is as fickle as a Donald Trump voter, was threatening to let go the whole way. Luckily it survived long enough to get me home and immerse myself in deep heat. (Much to the kids disgust of course, some people just don’t appreciate the soothing smell of Deep Heat at the dinner table, these non-runners are a funny bunch?) The next day was no better with recovery run #2 at lunchtime, much to the amusement of Jon and Mike who recover a lot better than me obviously. Both of them look forward to the recovery run after a race as they both save something so they can tease me with a pace just outside what I can achieve before slowing down to let me catch up, before repeating the process. Got to love running humour ? This lack of pace continued until the Thursday morning progressive where I managed to salvage some pride with a half decent hit out before a similar run in the afternoon. On the second run I actually nailed a perfect 10k progressive for the first time in months. I’m blaming the company I keep on the Thursday morning run where we get to sub 4 pace far too early in the 14k distance leaving you nowhere to go at 10k but slower; well for me anyhow. It then stops being a progressive and turns into a 5k tempo. (I’ve written a few posts on progressive runs and their benefits, if you search on the word ‘progressive’ you should get access to them.)

After Thursday my confidence was restored and even ran a good double up on Friday  to prepare me for my first Park Run of the year. I have certainly advocated the park run on this blog many times and I firmly believe this is a must-have for all wanna-be runners of all distance. The 5k is long enough it will test you (and bite you in the backside if you go out too quick!) but not long enough that you can’t race it and still put in a good training week.

On Saturday I wasn’t expecting to much but with the help of my mate Andy went off like a rocket and managed a 3:09min/k first kilometre (when will I learn?). I did manage to hold 3:20min/k for the next 2k but let myself down a bit on kilometre four with a 3:29. I kicked for home and registered a 3:20 but the damage was done in kilometre four and I missed a PB by 8 seconds. No problem, I wasn’t expecting one and I felt good for the duration. A bonus was grabbing the Carine 50-55 age group record (from Andy funnily enough, remember him at the start!) to go with my 45-50 age group record. Also managed a top 10 finish nationally among all the ‘age grade’ champions for the park run courses. When you get to 50 it’s all about age grades and groups. (Sorry Mark Lee but it’s all us old timers have left to chase, quality twenty year old runners are now something we read about,  not catch!)

Sunday came and luckily we had decided in the week to go with the Mark Conway plan (which Mike is copying , you didn’t hear that here.) and run a 20k easy, for no other reason than we were all a tad jaded after Darlington and fancied a shorter-long run. Due to family commitments I couldn’t start until 6:30am so we all decided to meet at Yelo at that time and either start from there or at least meet the rest of us and continue (if you needed a few extra kilometres.) My 9 year old Daughter did find this amusing as the main reason for this delayed start was her and here were 10 runners changing their lives because of her. We’re a funny lot runners, but accommodating, thanks lads.

So off on the short 20k run we went, ten of us started which normally calls for road closures in Western Australia. (We did pass Mark Lee running in the opposite direction dressed like a Christmas Tree which amused the group greatly ..?) Ten is a good number because it takes about 10k before you actually run out of the ‘initial banter’, this can be stories from the week regarding anything the group would find of interest. Truth be told there are a few subjects which are mandatory of course. Jon’s height and weight are also discussed early as well as Mike’s VO2 max score, add in Mark C’s training plan from Matt Fitzgerald and you’re good for 5k minimum. We then discuss politics for at least 2-3k but lately because of Donald Trump this has started to last a bit longer and normally involves a lot more laughter than previously. (American voters, c’mon, it is a joke isn’t it…?) My training plans are then fair game and also discussions about possible posts. Add in a few Phil quotes and before you know it you’re turning around for the run home.

This of course is when the real running happens. The outward journey is social, we’ve generally not met since the previous Sunday so we have a lot to catch up on. I mean as runners we live very full lives. We sleep, worry about our weight, distance, ‘niggles’, pace, alcohol intake (well my group for some reason doesn’t seem to be too worried ?) and then, well that’s about it really but all of this needs to be discussed at great length. Add in potential races and I’m surprised we have time for anything else bar eating muffins, pancakes and drinking coffee.

So back to the journey home. I must admit without the T-train lately (he’s still injured from the ADU 100K in January.) the last 5-10k has been a tad pedestrian. Tony would always push the finish and we often found ourselves at 5k tempo pace at the end of a long run. Luckily this is considered one of your ‘go to runs’ (a long run, fast finish) but I always felt the T-train just enjoyed putting us all through then ‘ringer’ at the end of a 30k, lovely guy Tone. (maybe we don’t miss him?….) Today was no different and I up’d the pace and split the group as we all moved towards Yelo and the final goal, a berry and white chocolate muffin and coffee combo. (see below!)

Being it was only 20k the end came around sooner rather than later and we all continued the conversations we had started 90 minutes previously outside Yelo, The topic of conversation didn’t really change much, (and never does truth be told but that’s the point isn’t it?) Jon’s weight and Mike’s VO2 score were discussed and Phil came out with some more gems which funnily enough were mostly already on the internet. This brings me to the reason behind the post. (Finally I hear you all shout !) … The Sunday long run is more the one time when you can let your hair down (excuse the pun in my case!) and just run with good friends who love the same things you love and then at the end celebrate the whole ‘running thing‘ over good coffee and ‘tukka’. If it does you good as well then that’s a bonus but it’s not the real reason we all run long on Sunday, there’s something far more important , running with your mates. (It is also important to know Mike’s VO2 score and Jon’s current weight battles but that’s secondary, I think?)

After the weekend racing I certainly felt every year of my fifty on this planet. Monday and Tuesday were spent trying very hard to keep up with my training buddies and I was dropped on a few occasions even on our ‘easy to Matilda Bay and back‘ lunchtime 10k. The race itself was brutal and I needed the full 48 hours after a 10k to recover. Things improved Wednesday and come Thursday I was ready for another 14k progressive with the lads with the obligatory  post run muffin and coffee at Yelo. Surprisingly the 14k progressive went better than planned and I managed to pull a PB out of the hat which was a pleasant surprise, albeit I worked for it. Of course with Strava I was able to investigate my previous runs and even print out the history of the run.  In the image below you can see the gradual increase in average pace, bar one (9th February) where we decided to make a big effort to run a perfect progressive and this start slower to give us some leeway at the pointy end of the session. (I actually missed a perfect progressive by a few seconds on one of the last kilometres if I remember correctly? Still to hit a perfect 14k progressive.)

These sorts of graphics give you the little push you can sometimes need as you start another week of training. Marathon training is hard work and also hard work on a weekly basis, it doesn’t just end after a few weeks. Every Sunday you struggle to hit the weekly target and then Monday is all starts again and you’re back behind the eight ball.  Add in progressively hard sessions and towards the end of a marathon training session you can feel absolutely finished. Luckily you have a few weeks tapering and then 3 days carbo-loading before the big event. These two activities certainly help at the end of a marathon plan.

So back to indicator sessions and races. I can see from my progressive run finish times over the last few months I am making an improvement. This sort of information helps spur you on as you move towards your ultimate goal. A glimmer of light in the dark tunnel of marathon training. I mentioned in a earlier post marathon training ‘is a slog‘, natural talent plays a part but good old fashioned hard work can make as much of a difference, this allows runners like myself, who are prepared to put in an extra few kilometres, gain an advantage or at least level the playing field.

As I have mentioned many times, and it’s even one of my golden rules, you need to document everything and Strava (http://www.strava.com ) or even Training Peaks , ( https://www.trainingpeaks.com ) these need to be your weapons of choice. As you move along your marathon plan you see improvement in the pace and/or distance of sessions, this gives you the push you need to get to Sunday, add up your kilometres (or look at Strava as the days of adding up left us when Bill Gates invented Excel of course. Thanks Bill.) and then start thinking about Monday morning and starting at zero again. Constantly look for improvements as you work towards the marathon, these will also give you the mental strength you will need in the race, ‘trust in your training’ is one of my favourite running mantras and these small victories help to reinforce this.  Keep looking for these improvements , they do make a difference.

Right, Sunday almost finished, another 10k maybe and then it’s time to reset my weekly totals back to zero and back behind the eight ball I scuttle ready for another week of running, wouldn’t have it any other way really, I mean,  what else is there ?

Been reading about Arthur Lydiard a bit lately. An article below by Duncan Larkin dismisses the myth that Lydiard was just about distance and slow pace. He also believed in speed work, flexible training and training longevity to achieve true potential. I must agree with him on all three of his ‘secrets’ described below by Larkin.

His approach with speed work fits closely with the 80/20 split championed by Matt Fitzgerald ( http://mattfitzgerald.org ) and also a book I am currently working my way through by Joe Friel,  Fast after Fifty ( http://www.joefrielsblog.com ). Joe also advocates using high intensity work outs to retain fitness for the ‘older athlete’, rather than relying on long, slow, distance workouts. (LSD) Both these well respected coaches teach secret number 1 below. The second secret about flexible training is also a concept I would agree with. Each runner is unique with their own training threshold, be it distance or intensity, as well as their ability to perform a training program without the danger of injury. Each runner has different parameters that need to be monitored and to do this the coach needs constant feedback on the program selected. Finally Lydiard believed to reach their full potential a runner would need between 3-5 years. I’d hope it takes a little longer as I’m probably on year eight in my journey and hope to find a few PB’s before I start back to the chasing pack, we’ll see.

So it looks like all distance and no pace will not allow a runner to reach their trust potential. You really need to change into the high gears once in a while with fartlek, threshold, tempos and track sessions. These sessions do come with their own dangers but , as runners, we do enjoy testing ourselves and sometimes you just got to run as fast as you possibly can. I understand it can be painful but the feeling you get when you finish an intense session and reach your target is worth the suffering, and let’s face it running fast is fun.

As I near the end of my first week being 50 I am continuing to look forward and challenge myself to maintain or even better past performances. Can I set new PR’s (apparently a PR is a personal record and only achieved when your time is recorded, via a race etc, . a PB is a personal best and something personal to yourself, without the recording  bit i.e. not a race. I learned this from Facebook , what did we do before Social Media.? ) or new PB’s this year or am I being faced with a gradual (I hope?) decline as Father Time finally catches up with me.

To this end this week I have been reading a book by Joe Friel called Fast after Fifty :How to Race Strong for the Rest of you Life. So  far I’m upto Chapter 5 but it is encouraging albeit Joe seems to be a big advocate of intensity over LSD (Long, Slow, Distance, which is what Matt Fitzgerald champions, and remember in Matt we trust.) Thus I am in a quandary. For the last 9 months I have been following the LSD training with minimal intensity but according to Joe this can be a recipe for disaster. My VO2 max figure will lower and I will lose my fitness slowly over time. Joe describes tests and studies where, as you age, you need to look at intensity over volume. Must admit the front cover did worry me but he seems to have written the book for all athletes.

The only issue with the intensity training, as Joe rightly points out, is the constant fear of the death of all older runners, are old friend the ‘grim reaper’ , injury. I hate typing that word!  Joe suggests us ‘older runners‘ take longer to warm up than younger versions, and trust me Joe you’re right. Once warmed to ‘interval temperature’ we are normally ok to go but be mindful of the old Hammy’s and calf’s; two of our favourite things to break as older runners.  My right hammy is particularly susceptible to the odd twinge and typing this post I can feel the old girl twitching. She can normally be placated with my old buddy ‘deep heat’,  though I wonder sometimes if this is more to keep No1 Wife at bay. (Only joking Karen, it’s for the hammy honest!)

My goto intensity session is the old faithful Mona Fartlek. A 20 minute session where you can really ask yourself some serious questions and embed yourself in the ‘pain box’. It is one of my favourite sessions and one I have been avoiding lately as the end of the year was all about ultra running and LSD. With the new racing season just about on me it is time me and Mona spent some more time together.  RFYL magazine describes this beast of a session below :-

What: “Mona Fartlek” was developed when Chris Wardlaw (a.k.a. Rabs) suggested that Steve Moneghetti (Mona) go out and do 15-20 minutes of fartlek. Mona, who is just a little bit obsessive-compulsive, and who likes to do things exactly to the letter, delved for a few more specifics. Rabs suggested that he should do 20 minutes, and off the top of his head offered two 90-second efforts, four 60-second efforts, and four 30-second efforts, all with equal recovery. Mona replied that this only totalled to 18 minutes, so Rabs added an additional four 15 second efforts to the end. This is the Mona Fartlek and the story of how it was created.

When to use: Similar to the quarters sessions outlined in Issue 3, this session can be used all year round, and there are a large number of elite Australian runners who will do this session at least once a fortnight at any stage in the year. Given it is a “fartlek” session, it is easy to manipulate the intensity of the session to suit your needs and the time of year. It is a great session to assist in sharpening up for the next competition, but can also be used as a “rolling” session during weeks of high volume or intensity.

What pace: Mona Fartlek is most popularly run with a float recovery, rather a jog recovery. A “float” is a pace that is slower than your effort, but still much faster than what you could term a recovery jog. A good, solid float would be run at close to your half marathon or marathon pace. Depending on your goal from the session, the pace of the efforts will vary from your 1500m pace (if you are after a high-intensity workout) to your 10km pace (if using it as a “recovery” session). At times, Mona Fartlek has been criticised by some coaches as being too short; but when run strongly, it is a great session to assist in building your speed and endurance.

Event best suited to: This is an ideal session for 5km through to marathon and for road, trail or cross-country running. It trains you to run at a good tempo with minimal recovery between efforts. In a race situation, it will allow you to increase your effort on hills or for surges and then be able to recovery with minimal or no decrease in your pace. It can also add some great quality for half marathon and marathon training. The session was originally developed to be run in an unstructured way where the distances of each effort were not necessarily recorded, but if the session is conducted over the same course, comparisons between the total distance covered can make for a good litmus test of your current form. The session can be used on grass fields, roads or trails.

Personally I still like to race as part of the open category and if I can pick up an age group win as a secondary option I’ll take it. These days my podium time is dictated more by runners who don’t turn up than my performance. I have certain times I know I can run and if that is good enough for a top 3 finish great but my window of opportunity is getting smaller as my times slowly increase and the ‘pack’ starts to catch up.  I will then start to look at those age group wins as more of a primary target rather than secondary, and that is fine. I’m hoping with Matt and Joe in my stable I can hold off the pack for a few more years, we’ll see.

On that note I managed to grab another WAMC (West Australian Marathon Club) age group award on the weekend. A nice piece of bling to add to my small collection. These awards are the reward for a hard year racing and a time to reflect on the past year ,while looking forward to the new one. It’s an exciting year 2017 as I move up an age group, it’ll be nice to be the ‘young thing’ in the 50-55 age group, albeit for a year or two only.  These age group wins keep me honest and a world of new records have opened up to me in 2017. I will certainly now be returning to the Australia Day Ultra (http://australiadayultra.com ) in January 2018 to try and grab the AURU 50-55 Australian age group record of 7hrs58mins and I’ll be keeping an eye on the 55-60 WAMC Perth Marathon age group record currently standing at 2hrs59mins in a few years. (I’m hoping it’ll be lower by the time I get to it as my good friend Mike ‘sick note’ Kowal is making a run for it in June as he turns 55 just before the Perth marathon.) There’s also a 50+ age group trophy at the 6 inch ultra marathon this year as well. ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com )

Actually this getting older ain’t as bad as everybody makes out, it could be an opportunity to turn my small bling collection into a large bling collection. Right back to Joe and chapter 5 in his secret of racing into the fifties and beyond.

This morning, on the week anniversary of the Australia Day Ultra (ADU) , I was running a 10k easy but feeling fatigued to a point I was finding maintaining 5min/k average a struggle. It was just about 8am , the exact time a week earlier I was finishing the last kilometre of the 100k in about the same pace. This mornings run I was well rested the night before and, truth be told, had an easy week recovery. The legs though were struggling to maintain the last lap pace of the ADU. Fatigue had come to pay a visit and it was time to take an afternoon off.

When fatigue comes calling the best thing to do is rest. I have posted before about running on tired legs and the benefit of this but I feel fatigue is the next level and probably needs to be approached from the ‘rest is good’ angle. You’ll know the difference between fatigue and tired legs because there is more of a mental feature involved in fatigue. It’s not just the legs that are normally tired, it’s you thinking you ‘just ain’t feeling it’.  Even after the 1k (always go for at least 1k before deciding to pull the pin on a run, most times things begin to improve in k2) which you normally use as a tester you still can’t seem to pick up the pace. You can normally finish the run if it’s less than 10k, anything more and you need to reconsider and probably turn early.

Rest is good solution to fatigue but it depends on your workload, in my case I didn’t run in the afternoon , saving my legs for Sunday’s long run with the boys. I’ll make an effort to run within myself tomorrow but must admit if the boys decide to go hard I’ll have to go with them, it would be rude not to. The fatigue I’m feeling at the moment will pass and listening to my body I realise this is a small road bump on my freeway to PB land and one that will be negotiated. The afternoon was spent blogging and drinking tea and eating the odd biscuit, not a bad way to rest in my view. Running really is the sport that keeps on giving, when your body feels it needs a rest you get to drink tea and eat biscuits, I mean what  other sport gives you that option. (Tomorrow is another bonus day for us runners, the post long run pancakes. Running really is the sport of the Gods.)

Since June last year I have doubled up most days and I certainly feel my body is now use to the two runs a day, albeit normally easy runs. This extra workload culminated in many PB’s in the final few months of 2016. When something is working there is no point changing it so for the foreseeable future it will be double up days , continuing to build up the foundation from 2016. The only issue with my master plan is really I haven’t factored in rest. It is something I’ve not done in the last 6 months and even now do not intend to have rest days moving forward. That is not to say this is the right thing to do but I’m enjoying my running so much lately a day off is not something I aspire to. So it’s time to roll the dice again and see if I can persuade the body that the workload is achievable and the end result justified. I’m confident I can, until then I got time for one more cup of tea and maybe a digestive or two…

The article below from Jenny Hadfield from Runners World gives a few reasons for fatigue and solutions. Worth a read.

I have seen this in my athletes, and in most cases if you look at the following variables, you can identify the culprit and modify your plan to preserve your training season. The first step is becoming aware, so you’ve already been there, done that. Let’s move on the step two and see if any of these apply to you.

Progression load. It can be tempting to improve the progression rate or volume of your training when your goal is to improve, but if you do so without a proper base to support the load increase, it can drain you. When trying to improve time, it’s best to change volume and intensity workloads based on your training recipe and what’s worked in the past, as well as where you were fitness-wise when you began the marathon-training season.

For instance, if you ran a 3:50 marathon last year training on four days per week and two 20-mile long runs, you could improve that by adding in speed workouts and progressive cutback runs. Some try to add a lot more 20-milers or 20+ milers to the mix, thinking they’ll cover the distance more efficiently, but it can end up draining you. If you dramatically changed your training plan or added a lot more to your core plan, this may be causing your body to break down. The good news is it’s not too late, as you can revamp, modify and make more gradual improvements this season to allow your body time to adapt and get stronger.

The elements. It’s no secret that it’s harder to train in the heat, and the country has been in a heat wave the past few weeks. Training for long-distance events in extreme heat can suck the life out of you and require a lot more recovery. Take a look at when your symptoms started. If that timing correlates to the heat wave, your tiredness may be due to chronic dehydration, heat-related stress, and general fatigue from the greater demands of training in the heat. I’ve shared three ways to train safely in a heat wave here and nine tips for keeping your cool here.

Training by pace. My coaching philosophy is based on training by the body rather than by pace because when you listen to your body, you’re in the optimal training zone for the purpose of the day’s workout. Training is about doing strategically placed, purposeful workouts in a progression to apply just enough stress to the body that it adapts and gains fitness. Often the missing link in training plans is tailoring it to your body, your life, and your fitness.

If you’re training by a calculated pace based on a formula or a race you did four weeks ago, you’re likely to over- or under-train, as your body is never in the same place daily. It’s like guessing the winning lottery numbers. The body knows effort not pace. For example, a common mistake I see runners make with long runs is to base them on planned finish time or just bump them up faster than last year’s training pace because the goal is to improve. That’s fine until you start running in your anaerobic zone because of the heat, lack of sleep, or the fact that it’s early in the season, and your fitness doesn’t support the planned pace. You end up struggling to finish or completely wiped out when you do. If you continue on this trend you can accumulate too much stress and end up in a continual state of fatigue, unable to recover from the greater demands of training along the way. One sign that you’ve overdone it is if the fatigue doesn’t subside after a few weeks.

It’s actually easier if you let go of pace as a guide and run with the flow of your body and the purpose of the day’s workout. If your plan calls for a Tempo Run, the goal is to run at a sustained effort at—or slightly above—your threshold. That is not based on a pace but a metabolic system in your body. If you train by the purpose of the workout, your pace will vary throughout the season (that’s the fun part). Read How to Run a Tempo Run in the Heat. The goal is to train first by the purpose of the workout, and then by the body. Let your pace be the outcome of the workout. That way, you can have fun watching your body progress as you run longer, cover the miles more quickly, and become comfortable with how varied pace can be day to day and week to week.

Sleep, rest, fuel and life stress. When you’re asking your body to train hard for a marathon, all of the other variables need to be in balance to support your efforts. Elite athletes are known to sleep 10-12 hours a day, plus a nap! They treat sleep as a recovery tool and invest in it to perform at their best. When your body is lacking quality sleep, fatigue is the first symptom, followed by other negative consequences like hormone imbalance, which can dramatically affect your energy, health, and performance down the road. Your body will require more sleep when training for a marathon. Train like an elite runner, and invest in getting your Z’s.

Getting in enough complete rest days and easy running days is also key. I was shocked to learn that an elite runner friend of mine ran 8:30 pace for his easy recovery runs—that’s a whopping 3+ minutes slower than his harder running efforts. If you run your easy days too hard (which is very easy to do), you don’t recover and carry that fatigue forward to your next workout. Running with a slower friend and cross-training at easy-to-moderate efforts are great ways to assure you’re truly going easy enough and bridging the gap between your long and harder runs. Invest in at least one complete rest day weekly to balance the demands of expenditure with restoration. This is especially true for those that lead busy, hectic lives.

Lack of calories is a biggie when it comes to energy drain. Take an inventory of your expenditure by using a free log like Fitday.com, and make sure to refuel with enough calories via high-quality carbohydrates, proteins, and fats. Everyone has a unique metabolic system, and what works for me may not work for you. This is why keeping a log for a month will help you tune into how much energy you need, identify the balance of ingredients (carbs, proteins, fats), and allow you to see whether your recipe is fueling you well. You can also experience the same energy drain if you’re not taking in what your body runs well on. For instance, some do well on a traditional higher carbohydrate diet (C-60%/ P-25%/F-15%), while others shine with a mixed diet and a more equal blend (C-40%/P-30%/F-30%). Keep track, tune into your body, and take note of your energy and emotions after you eat. It’s an easy and effective way to find out what kind of fuel your body prefers.

Whether you’re starting a new job, in the middle of a snarky divorce, or moving, life stress has an effect on your overall health and requires energy to navigate through it. As best you can, try to eliminate the drama and stress from your life. Sometimes just identifying what drains you is enough to motivate you to remove it from your life. If it’s inevitable stress, find other ways to reduce the toll on your body (sleep, down days, fewer running days, meditation). The idea is to remove the environmental stress to make room for the demands of your training.

Read the label. Take a look at the side effects of any medications you’re taking. Some list fatigue and other unfortunate side effects that, when blended with a demanding marathon training season, can suck the life out of you and your legs. It is also common for endurance athletes (especially women) to have low iron, folate, and other B vitamin levels which can have a profound effect on your energy levels and life performance overall. In many cases this can be resolved by a properly balanced diet and adequate caloric consumption. Some runners need to take additional supplements to achieve balance. The key is to know what you’re putting in your body, go with clean foods with few ingredients, and your body will reward you with improved health and energy.

Finally, you’ll be surprised at what you can accomplish by tuning into your body and life. You may find it’s as simple as changing your focus from pace to effort or adding a few hundred more calories to your day. The great news is you identified the fatigue, reached out for help and guidance, and now have the tools to assess why you’re feeling this way. In many cases, with a few tweaks to your routine, you’ll be back up and running at 100% in a matter of days or weeks.

I’ve mentioned both these topics before but they are important enough to warrant another post as in the last few days I have seen for myself how these two runners traits manifest themselves. First on Sunday after our long run we were all blown away when,  at the cafe afterwards over the obligatory pancakes and coffee , Jon’s order turned up and it was a fruit salad. There was a hush around the table before some light hearted banter about Jon’s last minute effort to ditch weight for the upcoming Australia Day Ultra. (http://australiadayultra.com ) I must admit I feel Jon is probably leaving it a bit late but the sacrifice was there and although he made a good effort in disguising his disappointment it was obvious to all.

Runners need to make sacrifices almost daily to ‘be the best they can be’. Every meal needs to be planned , organised, researched and digested. This can be a daily battle if we are thrust out with our comfort zone. This happened to me recently when I was on a family holiday and had to visit restaurants and then faced with menus not designed with health and well being in mind. I had to scour the menu and find the meal that, in my view, would do the least about of damage to my body. On both occasions I was saved by Salmon and mash potato with dill sauce and asparagus, which I think is a ‘super food‘, apparently. ? The garlic bread was justifiable as it contained carbs and as runners we love carbs. Sweet was a definite no-no as the portions were far too big and I remember thinking I would have to go long the next day in an attempt to cancel out some of the calories I would be digesting.

You wonder why most runners have no social life. I personally am just about tea total , though will admit to one glass of red wine over the festive period. Note,  I did run a record week on Christmas week which is probably sad but made me feel good about myself. I suppose this really is a case of only a runner knows the feeling. ?

What sacrifices do I make. I have a sweet tooth and as you’ll see in most posts my running can sometimes seem like an excuse to eat pancakes at Clancy’s in City Beach or Muffins at Yelo in Trigg. (I highly recommend both by the way.) I can semi-justify both of these are being ‘running friendly’  in the fact that they can aid the recovery process and we normally eat these after a run. (Never tried before a run but after my Christmas Day nightmare when I ran a few hours after a full Sunday Roast I suspect it really would be a bad idea. It seems cyclists are the only true athletes who can stop in the middle of a ride, drink soya light-frappacinos in lycra and then continue as if nothing has happened? Go figure ?) Tea and biscuits are another weakness of mine and only eaten as a treat after a marathon. I have been known to destroy a packet of dark chocolate digestives with a good cuppa’ but insist on running a marathon first. Again sacrifices, a runner can never really let themselves go and enjoy the ‘good things in life’ , these ‘good things‘ are different things to different people but as runners we are all in the same boat when we are usually denied them. Otherwise I suppose it wouldn’t be a sacrifice. ?

Another important runners trait is routine. I bumped into Nic Harman this morning at the traffic lights, I invited Nic along to our Thursday morning Yelo progressive run. (We could probably keep up with Nic for the first 4-5k until he would have got bored with our pace and turned on the afterburners!) Nic turned down my invitation as he had a tempo session Thursday evening and would need to be fresh for that . (Truth be told a 14k progressive with myself and the BK posse would not test young Nic and I’d be surprised if he managed to move to third gear.)  Either way the point of this story is the routine is there and it is not to be wavered from, even being tempted by Yelo muffins and my company would now sway Nic. (Maybe he doesn’t like muffin’s, what other reason could it be ?)

So is all this sacrifice and routine worth it ? You lose most of your non-running friends, your wife will start to organise a social life alone and her friends will start to see her as single with no ‘significant other’, you’ll be first to rise for your morning run with the sunrise and also first to bed after reading the 9 year old her bedtime story. Alcohol and restaurants will become no-no’s and weight will be a constant niggling voice in the back of your mind as you move towards the sweet stall or hover in the chocolate isle at your local deli. Routine dictates you wake every morning, no matter how fatigued, and stumble out of bed and up to the top of your street before turning on the GPS function on your watch and heading off on anther 10k to go with the previous hundreds you’ve already completed and knowing there are probably thousands still to do.

Is it all worth it ? Of course it is. When you get one of those runs when it all comes together and you make a time you thought  beyond you everything pales into insignificance. Sacrifice and routine are just two pieces of the jigsaw that make up the whole picture and when it all comes together it can be a wondrous thing to behold.

Finally, if nothing else, it allows us runners to eat pancakes and the odd muffin to aid recovery and that in itself is enough for me, the rest is a bonus.

Part of running is establishing a training program that works for you. For a running tragic like myself this normally encompasses running twice a day , every day,  minimum. Add in a progressive run with the boys Thursday morning, with the obligatory Yelo muffin as reward, a long run with the boys Sunday with a Clancys pancake as reward and at least one fartlek somewhere in the week and you have a routine.  Repeat this for a minimum of ten weeks and you have a ‘foundation stage’ which becomes the springboard for your target goal race distance.

Lydiard called this the base conditioning stage and was all about developing your aerobic capacity. Lydiard believed that although every runner has a limited anaerobic (speed-building) capacity, that limit is largely set by one’s aerobic potential—the body’s ability to use oxygen. Thus, the aerobic capacity that you develop determines the success of your entire training program.

The foundation of Lydiard-style base conditioning is three long runs per week. These are steady runs done at more than recovery effort. To determine your pace, choose a relatively flat course and run out at a strong pace for 15 minutes, then run back. The goal is to return in the same time or slightly faster. If it takes you longer for the return trip, you paced yourself too fast. The objective of these runs is to be “pleasantly tired,” says Lydiard. Running slower will produce positive effects, but the results will take longer. Do not run to the point of lactic-acid buildup.

An ideal training week during this period includes a two-hour run and two one and one half-hour runs. On the other days do short, easy runs; one run with some light picking up of the pace; and one 5K to 10K tempo run (below lactate-threshold pace). Decrease the times and distances if you don’t have the mileage base to start at such high volume, then build gradually.

The foundation stage needs to become routine and runners need to be able to go-through the motions daily, weekly and monthly to get through this stage before tailoring their plan to their goal race. As a runner you need to be able to know daily what is expected of you and reach each daily goal,  with the end goal always in sight. Personally I need to have a goal to work towards and as soon as I achieve that goal I’m onto the next one.

My year consists of normally 3-4 marathons,  (Perth, City to Surf, Rottnest , Bunbury (sometimes) ) 4-5 half marathons, 4-5 10k’s , a smattering of 5k’s (mainly park runs) and at least two ultra’s ( 6 inch marathon and the Australia Day Ultra). Having so many races in a year has two main benefits. First it helps me maintain my 80-20 Matt Fitzgerald training regime. The 20% running at pace is normally taken care off by adding a bib to my chest and racing. Secondly I always have a goal to work towards and it’s normally on the horizon pretty quickly. This helps keep me motivated, not that I need much encouragement truth be told.  Another benefit, or a curse?, is that I’m always training for a specific race which is normally on me pretty quickly. There really is no time for the odd day off or a down week when I just ‘wasn’t feeling it’.

This is when routine comes into play, when I can run though the sessions in a ‘zombie’ like trance and just ‘get them done’ . Ok maybe not quite as bad as zombie like trances but I have the ability to know what is expected, not hit the snooze button on the alarm, and just get out of bed and put on the trainers.  Adding group runs to the routine is a big motivator as you don’t want to let your fellow runners down and for me it’s the social side afterwards that make these runs more enjoyable than the solo run. (No one likes to eat muffins and drink coffee alone do they ?)

Another option is to join your local running club. As well as meeting like minded people you will also get to work with coaches who will help you be the best you can be. Here in sunny Perth we are lucky to have the Running Centre overseen by Ray Baugh, an ex-top duathlon  champion. ( http://therunningcentre.com.au )Raf has put together a team of coaching superstars  who live and breath everything running. Their passion is infectious and this certainly helps entice you from the bed to the track or park.

The last thing you could do of course is to meet runners over the years in changing rooms all around your local city, band together, get the same tops with a professional design and then run together every lunchtime. The St Georges Terrace Running club can normally be found outside the Woodside building most weekdays at midday. After the obligatory pre-run banter, normally involving either weight issues, injuries or the latest stock to lose money on, we scurry off on one of our many loved running routes before skulking back just before 1pm and returning to the pod where we busily upload our lunchtime run to Strava. Now that is a routine I look forward to every weekday….