Training Mon 1st Sept - Sun 7th Sept

It’s hard for me to contain my excitement at how well my running seems to be going at the moment. Having followed my coaches' training schedule religiously, the slow and steady build up of distance and intensity of each session is now reaping the rewards. My body is stronger than ever thanks to gently increasing the workload, enabling me to cope with the stresses of each session better and leaving me ready for more.
For me a sure sign of this, is in my gym workouts. I've only really flirted with the gym in the past. I'd put a consistent weeks work together, then the stain of trying to do everything would get too much, and the gym would fall by the wayside to allow me to complete the more important run sessions. But now I complete my workouts regularly and to a higher standard. Now that I have my body into the routine of incorporating regular gym sessions into my training plan I don't think they'll be cast aside so easily again.

I was a little surprised to find that this week’s track session was to focus on our speed. With the track season over for me I was expecting to see a gradual increase in the distance covered, and so a slight reduction in the lap speed of each rep, rather than the reverse. But my coach is keen for me to keep my speed, after all getting faster is the name of the game. The rest of my week saw a marginal increase in total mileage as I had expected, the track session kept us all on our toes and I actually had a great run. Seven sets of 400, 300 and 200 metres. I was knocking out good times even though there was a reasonably strong head wind into the home straight. Psychologically I was dealing with the session well too. I would lead both the 400 and 200 reps and take a rest from pace making duties during the 300 without compromising the times. Once each 400 was out of the way I knew the rest of the set would be a breeze, and so it proved. My consistency hit an all time high. Each rep was covered in an identical time. Never before have I set myself time targets and hit them 21 out of 21 times. That sort of pacing bodes well for racing.

For my lonely speed session this week I took myself of to Box Hill. (The scene of one of my all time hardest workouts that had left me dazed and confused. So tired was I by the end that I had no recollection of how many times I had run up the dam hill.)
Thankfully, this time I was more in control. My body was more than capable of handling five hill reps, each lasting three minutes, up the steepest, lung-burning, leg-buckling hill in the South. I felt great and was spurred on by the strange looks given to me by ramblers and school kids on their field studies. Why would anyone run up that hill once, let alone five times? Because if there's no pain, there's no gain!

For the rest of the week my legs were very tired, but it was a good kind of tired. I was not so tired that I couldn't complete my training schedule. I was even able to put in a good session on Saturday, which for the first time I was not looking forward to because of its length. But once I was into my running I completed the ten-minute tempo well, ran the 30-second sprints strongly and hauled my body up a minute long hill ten times without losing the will to live! I was just tired enough to let me know I was working hard. It was a satisfying tiredness. I was tired enough that as soon as my head hit the pillow each night I was snoring in double quick time, but when I did, I had a big smile on my face!