I cough to clear my throat before writing, not because I have anything profound to say but because I have comedown with the sickness. After three intense weeks of training I’ve been forced into recovery by a virus. I’m not happy about getting sick but I am ok with a recovery week after a solid few weeks of intensity. I was planning on a de-load soon anyway.

I’d been locked into a routine of work, run, sleep, repeat and getting lots done. Putting in extra hours at work and focusing on hitting my training goals religiously. Now my cough is the most productive thing I’ve got going on. This update post is almost entirely a training log. Which may be more or less interesting for some, I guess this is a running blog after all.

The benefit of religious training is noticing my fitness soar to all new heights. My friend Dom likes to say ‘If I felt any better I’d be dangerous’, that’s how I felt before the sickness struck me down. So while I’m sidelined for now, it’s a good time to look back at what I’ve been doing over the past few weeks.

Training Plan

I am in the depths of the tempo block now. The training plan is simple. Back to back tempo and recovery runs make up the bulk of it. Simple and repeatable. I try to do all of the workouts on similar sections of trail to benchmark my performance over time. This helps me see improvements or declines.

This post covers calendar weeks 28 and 29. Below is the yearly plan and the micro-cycle plan for the past couple of weeks. As always the plan adapted as life panned out.

Week 28 – Deep in the Tempo Block

The week began in a usual fashion. Super easy recovery runs Monday and Tuesday before getting back into the hard stuff. These days were so unmemorable I can’t really think of anything notable to write about them.

Weds, Thurs – Tempo Time

I was back on the Nierinna Creek track on Wednesday doing a repeat of the 3x10m Tempo workout I did a week earlier. The familiarity of the trail made it slightly easier but I also knew how laborious the workout was going to be. Once I got going I fell into lock step and just did as I was told. I found myself alternating between being highly associative, fully focused on the effort and completely disassociated. Both good mental strategies for when things get hard on the big jobs.

Upon finishing I was surprised to see I stole a Strava crown from myself from the week earlier. I was certain that I felt slower than last week but Strava was telling me otherwise. This is where matched segments on Strava become a handy tool for trail running. These matched efforts are the reason I decided to replicate workouts on a the same route and why I pay for Strava. I have a great benchmark to compare each session.

As well as matched segments I have started noting down my ‘grade adjusted pace’ (GAP) and average heart rate for each interval and am comparing them. I don’t know how I am going to use this information yet but it’s good to keep an eye on these things. It’s a way to spot performance declines or de-coupling or HR compared to GAP which is be a redflag telling me to end the training block.

The following day I was back at Knocklofty to replicate another tempo workout. This time it was 3x8m on the new switchback track. Ziggy and I both love this track because we can do the effort running up then shortcut back to the base during the recovery interval. As such we have been trading places for ‘Local Legend’ status.

It was a workout that didn’t feel that special but yet again stole the Strava crown from my past self. There seems to be a common theme developing. The gradual improvement is motivating and makes me keen to get back and see if I can beat myself again.

Fri, Sat – Recovery and a Niggle

I went out for an easy recovery run on Friday and noticed a niggling pain in my right groin and top of hamstring region. My proximal hamstring tendon flares up from time to time, usually from fast road running but maybe the fast trail running is also razzing it up. It concerned me enough to note it down and think about adapting my training.

That evening I decided to bail out on the planned tempo run the following day. I won’t regret a missed tempo workout but will regret a hard workout that causes an injury. My alternative was a long run with Lauren. This turned out to be a nice recovery run for me and an arduous long run for her. She wanted to run the slides track from her house, so I plotted the shortest possible route which was still around 12km with plenty of vert. It ended up being her longest run since back surgery last year and her watch was pretty much pronouncing her dead by the end of it.

Still feeling energised I went for another run to the gym in the afternoon. After all of the physical activities were done for the day I started cooking up some homemade energy gels. All of the ingredients arrived during the week and I went to work with my first prototype.

I followed a recipe from this Reddit post. It is a replica of Maurten 320. It was super easy to make but I wasn’t so keen on the taste. I made enough to fill 4 gel flasks, so despite the uninspiring taste I was going to have to try it out properly to dispose of the stuff.

Sun – Long Run Day

On Sunday I headed out on a solo long run aiming for 2 hours on the trails. I took a combination of my homemade drink mix and homemade gel mix as nutrition. The target was 70-80g/hr of carb intake entirely from homemade concoctions.

The goal was to drink 250ml of drink mix (40g) and equivalent of 2x homemade energy gels (40g or so) per hour. I was pretty much able to stick to the plan. The homemade gel flavour grew on me too. Only problem is it was too thick, making it hard to swallow without a heap of water. I thought I had emptied my flask but there was still heaps in there because it was so thick. Still got some work to do on the homemade gel recipe.

I flew down Old Hobartians track to finish which was so much fun! Also a great way to bash in the quads and condition them for long descents. The long run was a great way to finish the week. I felt strong and the niggles abated so I pushed the effort a little and impressed myself with the pace I held.

📝 Week 28 – Training Summary

• Weekly Focus: Tempo Run
• Training: 10h30m
  • Running: 101.7km +3405m
    • Workouts: 3x10m Tempo, 3x8m Tempo
    • Cycling: None
    • Strength: 1h57m total; Core strength with Lauren and Durability workout at Zap
• Injuries and rehab: Pain in right proximal hamstring tendon
• Compliance with plan: 110% of time goal, missed 1x tempo workout though
• Score: 8/10
• Summary: Reasonably good week of training, noticed some niggles developing so I modified the plan slightly to be on the safe side.
  • Pain in my proximal hamstring tendon on the right leg developed on my Friday recovery run, so I bailed on the planned Saturday tempo workout and did a long run with Lauren instead.
  • I am enjoying the simplicity of only focusing on one adaption at a time and doing simple workout structures. I have been trying to do the workouts on the same sections of trail to help me benchmark my performance and see when my performance declines.
  • Starting to develop enough fitness to feel dangerous

Week 29 – Tempo Continues

Mon, Tues – Recovery and Training Load Deep Diving

I started the new week with a decent dose of DOMs in my quads from the hard downhill finish the day earlier. Despite the soreness my Monday recovery run went well. No niggle pains and only the lingering fatigue of muscles that have done a lot of work and are now recovering.

I have been doing a lot of research lately on the many training load metrics and which are most relevant to trail running. The purpose of the research was for a presentation I gave on Sunday to the coaching syndicate. We decided that we’d take turns doing presentations on various running related topics and I wanted to get to the bottom of what all of the numbers mean. I spent many nights during the week researching this topic.

The deeper I looked the more metrics I found and I was soon overwhelmed. But eventually I focused back on what matters the most for trail running. I learned about the difference between internal and external training loads and how we should be tracking both. I am going to put my findings into a stand alone blog post at some stage.

The key takeaway is that we need to be monitoring an external and internal load metric and ensure they are progressing safely, gradually and in alignment with each other. The main metrics I settled on using are rTSS for external load and s-RPE for internal load.

Here’s a link to my presentation slides for anyone interested.

Weds, Thurs – Tempo Days

After a nice couple of recovery days it was time to inflict pain again. Wednesday arvos tempo run was back on the Nierinna Creek track. The only consolation is that I am reducing the length of the intervals to 3x8m. This is in alignment with Jason Koop’s method of starting each block with the hardest workouts then getting easier near the end after the fatigue has builds up.

It was another good workout. I didn’t feel particularly good or fast but somehow stole my strava crown again for the third week in a row.

Thursday night it was back to old faithful switchbacks on Knocklofty. This workout was fuelled by angst after a lunchtime discussion with a climate change denying co-worker. The thing that triggered me the most is that he thinks he’s smarter than the rest of us for holding an unfounded belief. He couldn’t explain to me what mechanism is causing the climate to change ‘naturally’ or provide any evidence to back up his claims. At least I was able to channel the annoyance into a good tempo session.

This ended up being the hardest I pushed on any tempo workout to date. I knew for sure I would get my Strava crown again this time. I was almost completely zoned out during each tempo effort yet somehow held such a consistent high intensity. The intensity got a little high at times. This was a great workout but once I finished and sat in the car I could feel the beginnings of my body straining under the load. A premonition of the sickness to come.

I arrived home to find new shoes had arrived. They were my prize for winning the instagram reel contest at the GPT training camp (Award winning reel) . I opened the box and was surprised to see they were full on pink. Looking back at my emails it turns out I had agreed to the colour, it just didn’t look that pink in the photos they sent through.

I guess pink is analogous to red which goes fast. And these are particularly fast shoes. They are the Asics Metafuji Trail, complete with a carbon plate. Essentially a trail running super shoe. It wasn’t my first choice but I am interested to see how they go on the shorter faster stuff.

Fri, Sat – Recovery Days

Mid way through my Friday recovery run I ended up sitting in Banjos sipping a Chai latte. This is a strong indication that I was coming down with the something. The tickle in my throat made me crave the sweet honey of a chai to sooth it.

On Saturday morning I went out on a long run with Lauren again. Her long run and my recovery run. We met up with Tim (my future 100 mile pacer) and ran a little way with him. It was my first time running in the pink super shoes and they felt ok. The stack height and springiness makes them feel a little unstable on technical stuff. It was a nice cruisey run for me but I knew my fate was sealed, the sickness was coming for me.

Later in the evening we had a household sauna session. I struggled and lasted about 20 seconds in the cold plunge before I finally admitted defeat. The sickness had got me and the sauna and cold plunge were not in my best interests.

Sunday – Snow day and Coaching Syndicate Meeting

My plan was to close out the week with another tempo run on trails. I was hoping to get onto the Tolosa half course to do the the tempo intervals for a bit of race replication. But I woke up feeling not great and could see the mountain covered in snow. I knew my body wouldn’t handle the rigors of a tempo effort but couldn’t resist getting out for a run in the snow. Probably not the wisest of choices.

My compromise was to go out and run the Tolosa half course but at a more leisurely pace. The snow was down incredibly low. I was encountering it below Junction Cabin. It was a brisk run and I could feel the sickness brewing but I have no regrets.

I spent the whole run listening to the audiobook version of From Here to The Great Unknown, the memoirs of Lisa Marie Presley. A random book choice I know, but I loved Elvis as a child and found the book super interesting and incredibly sad.

Later in the evening, Justin, Ziggy and I headed to Smick’s place for our monthly training syndicate meet up. We began proceedings discussing our past month of training, then I presented my training load deep dive. We heard race reports from Justin, Smick and Ziggy about their respective recent escapades. Then we were treated to a succulent Chinese meal compliments of Smick. It was delicious and I ate way too much dessert. It was a great way to round out the week.

📝 Week 29 Training Summary

• Weekly Focus: Tempo Rum
• Training: 9h 24m
  • Running: 100.3km +2881m
    • Workouts: 2x 3x8m Tempo
    • Cycling: none
    • Strength: none
• Injuries and rehab: Got sick at the end of the week
• Compliance with plan: 113% of time, missed final Tempo workout though
• Score: 8/10
• Summary: Another good tempo run focus week
  • Both workouts I felt so strong and was able to take my crowns from myself for the third week in a row
  • Feeling super fit and fast on the trails at the moment
  • My perception of the week is a bit skewed from getting sick at the end but it was good all through till Thursday
  • Was planning on continuing the tempo block but my body has decided it’s over. Focusing on recovery this week to both recover from the hard training and get better from the virus

Wrapping Up

So, here I am, coughing my way through a forced recovery week. At least I have free time to get this post written. I am going a little stir crazy though. It’s now day two of no running and it’s a struggle. I did a little run earlier in the week but it felt rough with a chesty cough so I am being wise and resting a little longer.

Hopefully I will be back to usual programming next week. I am looking forward to racing the Tolosa Half the following weekend. It will be awesome to see how my fitness is trending after this dedicated tempo block. Then a couple of weeks later I am visiting my sister in Cairns and running the Kuranda to Port Douglas Ultra, a 60km event on backroads and trails. That will be another testing ground for my fitness, heat and cassowary tolerance and the homemade nutrition experiments. Lots of exciting things in the pipeline.

Thanks for reading!