Don't Stop Believing....(or training).

Well, Hello there! 

It's been a while.... 

...Since my last post, but rest assured I'm well and truly on my way to fit (and working hard to avoid the fat). Since my last post I've been overseas on my honeymoon with the wifey, joined my new ship (based in Sydney at last) and I've been preparing for the first milestone run of my running season - The Sydney City2Surf (C2S). In 2 weeks time, I'll be running alongside the wifey, hopefully in my new ship's team colours.

Preparation....

The key element for any event is the preparation. I've been working on endurance and distance, clocking up the kilometres for most of this year, so recently I've been working on speeding things up. I've been gradually pushing my 3km running time down and just yesterday I pushed it down to 13 minutes. I'm not sprinting the 3km, I'm striding it out running at around 4:20 min/km. I'm doing this to increase my running power. 

I've also been doing quicker 10km runs (its 10k from my house to my ship), which demonstrates how the speed training is helping too. I've incorporated more legs into my compound gym routines. Until recently I've been unable to train everyday, or even regularly in the weights room, so starting this week I'm applying the pressure (on myself) to finish work a little closer to a normal time, hit the gym and either run or cycle home...in fact I'll probably alternate between the rides and the runs... My gym workouts are more intensive, but i'm not 'building' at the moment, I'm burning the fat, tuning my muscles up for the running and having fun with my workouts...I'll keep you posted. For example, yesterday I managed a shoulder burnout and a good chest workout, with some abdominals weaved in too! I wanna try and keep my workouts during the week under 60 minutes - the plan is to keep moving all day, work my muscles in the gym for an hour then run (another hour) or cycle (around 30 minutes) home, this is intended to given my body a feeling of working at different levels for extended periods, so come long run days and marathon event day my body doesn't burn out too soon. I am trying to train smart, not just running and burning up all the muscle mass. I'm trying to strengthen with gym and diverse sports activities, create muscle memory and strength through a variety of runs to have more muscle control and endurance to go the distance at BSM. 42km is a long time to keep running, and I want to be prepared.

This also means learning to fuel myself before, during and post activities to allow my body's output to remain consistent for the duration. I'm still sampling liquid/gooey gels, and solid gel blocks for during, I still supplement with protein and glutamine post training, but I've been avoiding pre-workouts since I left Cerberus. Now, I just try to eat better and stay hydrated - I'm working on balancing electrolytes and loading with healthy carbs (quinoa, corn cous cous, rice and GF pastas), which is really helping!

My new ship has lots of stairs, and is a very large vessel (approx 200m long). I reckon that I'm ascending and descending the 12 deck levels, and covering literally tens of kilometres just walking around the ship! My quads and hammies are getting a really good workout and stretch, which is helping to add the 'hill climb' element to my training - albeit by means of walking intervals.  

My current daily activity

Planning....

I'm using the C2S as a training event for the Blackmore's Sydney Marathon (BSM) in September, and I'll be ramping up the distance, adding hills, speed and timed intervals to prepare for the marathon. It's T minus 8 weeks until race day, thats 56 days. I'm hoping to set up a link to get some sponsorship (for a charity I'll nominate soon), so look out for that.

14 Days until C2S, and 56 Days until BSM. There plenty more time to prepare, but time is certainly flying by. I've not been posting because I'm trying to maintain focus, and keep my training moving. In terms of preparation and training, I actually have less than 56 training days left, so its more like 40 training days, incorporating 2 rest days per week. Time to knuckle down then...

This kinda sums up winter run training....