Everyday Lions Blog

Finding routine, structure and consistency – BLOG 1

 BRUNY ISLAND ULTRA 64 KM

The month is December, the year is 2016 and I have woken up as hungover motherfucker.  Like I do most Saturday mornings I log straight onto social media and my newsfeed is clogged up with running friends doing the Bruny Island Ultra and team’s event.  

This was the first time I had come across this race and it really sparked my interest.  In the years following this event I always said that I would get there one day and for whatever reason this never happened.  I never lost my yearning desire to do this event and when it would rock around every year the FOMO was still very evident. 

Fast forward 6 years and I feel like I am ready and in a good place mentally to tackle this event.  I have never run any more than 44km in training run and have only ever ran 42 km in an official race. However, I have coached several runners to run distances over 42 km (ultra runs) and feel like I have pretty good handle on what works and what doesn’t.  

Over the next 24 weeks I will documenting my journey from currently being in low 17-minute form for 5 km right up until race day.

  I don’t have any times I want to run and the only goal at present will be to finish the race and have positive experience and hopefully have another crack of this event down the track.

The last 7 weeks I have increased my mileage from 30 km up to an 80 km.   The hardest thing I am finding is structure and routine while juggling family, being my own boss and running my own business.

  I feel like I have the right structure now and I am in a really good training space and just ticking the weeks off.  My weeks will include 1 speed session on Tuesday, 1 longer interval session on Saturday And Long run Sunday. 

As I get fitter, I will introduce a second longer run-on Wednesday, this eventually will become my longest run of the week.  I believe that if you are following a 7-day training cycle, then you can’t run any more than 2 harder interval sessions a week and all your other days should just be easy jogging.  This enables the you to recover and then you will be getting the most out of your body.   There are always times where your longer run will need to be faster with slight variations.

I know from experience that I get fit from bigger k’s, but in saying this I am not 30 anymore and my body might not like this bigger mileage.  It will be trial and error and I will soon find out if these old knees will hold up. 

Why I am doing this blog? I guess it’s a way to document my journey and be accountable to my goal. I train 80% by myself most of time and this accountability will help me to achieve this 64 km goal.   

Thanks for reading and happy running until next time.

Tuesday a.m.- 6 km

Tuesday p.m. –  6 x 300m hills on 300m jogs –  ( sub 3s gap )

Wednesday – easy 14 km

Thursday – easy 3 km

Friday – day off

Saturday –  30 minute tempo @ 3.38s

Sunday – 24 km easy

Monday – 10 km easy

Tuesday a.m. – 7 km

Tuesday p.m. – 15 x 400s.