it’s taken a while, but this morning i finally realised the full degree of my stagnation. having ripped a pair of jeans and struggled with a 6km easy pace run at the weekend, the tightness of my once-loose work shirt this morning was the final straw.
since reaching brisbane in september, i have steadily slid backwards into some kind of lazy comfort zone. yeah sure there’s a certain amount of rest and recovery that was needed after travelling across australia on foot, however far too many excuses have been made, and too many false re-starts have been encountered.
the weight has stacked on, good habits have slowly slipped away and bad habits have come creeping back, morbidly picking over the carcass of the good habits and settling back in like they have never been away.
the good news though is that i am not the person i used to be, i have no intention of heading back to where i was before, and i know what is/was wrong – there was no real plan.
time to create a new plan
i’ve already decided to keep away from the longer distance stuff (for a couple of months) and focus instead on getting my pace (and cardio fitness) back on track with some shorter, faster stuff. the overall plan is to follow a sub-60 10k plan, have a bit of fun, and then commence my 100km ultra training in july. there’s a couple of variations being thrown into the mix and the resultant schedule for the next couple of months looks like this:
| w/e | mon | tue | wed | thu | fri | sat | sun |
| 10-Apr-16 | rest | 5km easy pace | rest | 3-5km easy pace | rest | parkrun | 10km Bunbury |
| 17-Apr-16 | rest | 3 x 1km @ 5:00 and 60 seconds rest | rest | 5 x 1km @ 6:00 and 60 seconds rest | rest | parkrun | 5km Easy Pace |
| 24-Apr-16 | rest | 4 x 1km @ 5:00 and 60 seconds rest | rest | 6 x 1km @ 6:00 and 60 seconds rest | rest | parkrun | 5km MAWA |
| 1-May-16 | rest | 4 x 1km @ 5:00 and 60 seconds rest | rest | 7 x 1km @ 6:00 and 60 seconds rest | rest | parkrun | 10km MAWA |
| 8-May-16 | rest | 5 x 1km @ 5:00 and 60 seconds rest | rest | 8 x 1km @ 6:00 and 60 seconds rest | rest | parkrun plus 22km Rotary Walk | |
| 15-May-16 | rest | 3 x 1km @ 4:45 and 60 seconds rest | rest | 8 x 1km @ 6:00 and 60 seconds rest | rest | 5km Time Trial | rest |
| 22-May-16 | rest | 4 x 1km @ 4:45 and 60 seconds rest | rest | 8 x 1km @ 6:00 and 60 seconds rest | rest | parkrun | 12km HBF |
| 29-May-16 | rest | 5 x 1km @ 4:45 and 60 seconds rest | rest | 9 x 1km @ 6:00 and 60 seconds rest | rest | 10km MAWA | |
| 5-Jun-16 | rest | 4 x 1km @ 4:30 and 60 seconds rest | rest | 4 x 1km @ 5:45 and 60 seconds rest | rest | rest | 15km MAWA |
| 12-Jun-16 | rest | 5km easy pace | rest | 3km easy pace | rest | rest | 21.1km Perth Marathon Relay Leg |
the 10km in Bunbury is definitely for fun only and will be a slow pace. some of the parkruns will be walked (or a very slow run) with my son. The 15km MAWA event on Jun 5th will be run as a 10km time trial (sub-60 goal) plus a 5km recovery run.
back to ultra mode
overall i am very happy with the plan until mid-june – it provides a contrast to the longer stuff i have been doing, should be fun, and most importantly help me get back on track. i know that having a schedule and some goals really helps in all other areas, so i’m very much looking forward to it.
after perth marathon, i will spend a couple of weeks just doing a few easy runs per week. early july sees the start of a 30 week program that will take me up to the 100km event at the 2017 “australia day ultra” in australind.
it is my intention to include a couple of events as part of the 100km training – notably the marathon event at the world masters athletics championships in november, and possibly one of the distances at this year’s city to surf.
you can of course keep track of progress via this journal 🙂
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