Archives for October 2015

Workout of the Week: Ladder Intervals

Zoey · October 26, 2015 · Leave a Comment

Ladder intervals are a great workout for mental toughness. Because the intervals get shorter and shorter you are aiming for the pace of each one to be quicker than the one before, which is where the mental toughness comes in! Ideally you would jog the recoveries but you can absolutely walk the recoveries if you need to.

This run totals 6km so if you are newer to running – halve the intervals and do:

600m fast, 200m recovery

500m fast, 200m recovery

400m fast, 200m recovery

300m fast, 200m recovery

200m fast, 200m recovery

And that will give you a 3km workout.

Happy running!

What’s Next?

Zoey · October 23, 2015 · Leave a Comment

People often have a bit of a lull in their mood after races. A bit of a depression. Might be all that emotion that comes out on the day after all of that build up. Might be the idea of returning to the minutia of daily life. Probably both. And yes, when I come back from a weekend away it is deeply shocking to me that I have to cook for people. But as far as a post-race depression I don’t really get that. Because the end of one thing always means the beginning of something else. And I love beginnings. Beginnings are shiny and new. And I’m not thinking ‘it’s over’, I’m thinking: what’s next?

For me, nutrition is something that tends to fall by the wayside in marathon training. It shouldn’t but it does. And towards the end you are subsisting on a diet of pasta and anything with sugar in it. Which is less than ideal. But I did drastically improve from the last time I ran a marathon in that I didn’t gain weight. So I’ll just take my wins and leave it at that. So now I can get back to my nutrition. I’ll be honest, when I worked out my macros this morning there was an alarming lack of room available for wine and cookies. ALARMING. But still now i have a shopping list of what I need to buy to get myself into gear. And for me, short distance is a great time to be focusing on that because 1) I have heaps more time now that I’m not going for five million long runs every week and 2) I’m not so hungry all the time that I can’t actually think about what I’m eating.

I always think that summer is a fantastic time of year for 5km training. Because speed in the 5km translates into having a great base for a whole heap of other things and you don’t have to be out in the humid heat of death in the Australian summer for too long while you are at it. Last year, during marathon training I ran 5km in 24:55 and I could have just about died afterwards it was so hard. Admittedly it was on hills which can make it a bit harder, but not that much harder. But I’ve never really improved on it that much. And now I’m pretty sure I could do that on a flat course but on the hills I don’t think I could. So, although I have gone under 25 minutes it’s never been built on or turned into something that I could reliably do.

Sadly, I don’t have parkrun which would be an outstanding test ground for 5km training. But I can make do with what I’ve got. I have to keep up a certain level of distance because I’m heading to Kurrawa 2 Duranbah for the 15km run in December, but I’m going to be keeping everything during the week pretty short and snappy and also give my body a bit of a break from the rigours of marathon training.

I’m excited to start the next phase. And if you’d like to join me – I’ve created a program for you here.

Beginnings are awesome.

Run the day that you are given

Zoey · October 20, 2015 · 6 Comments

I wrote this piece just after running a marathon at the Melbourne Marathon Festival in 2015.

I read this advice over at Runladylike and it stuck with me heading into Melbourne.

There are so many uncontrollable factors in a marathon. Anything past 30km is pretty unknown territory and you have no idea how your body will respond on the day. You can train for it, but you never really know. And you can test out fuel sources but your body can chuck a bit of a fit on the day and you can have trouble. The weather can be unpredictable. Or you can just be having an off day. It’s easy to go into things with a certain set of expectations based on your training, but you can’t control what kind of day you get.

I had a couple of pretty aggressive timing goals, which let’s face it are totally arbitrary things. I know why people love going under 4 hours in a marathon or under 2 hours in a half, because I’m also a numbers geek and it’s a bit of a line in the sand. But that line in the sand doesn’t make 3:59:59 a brilliant run and 4:10:00 a crap one. The things that make a run great are your willingness to show up, the ability to push through the tough parts and giving it everything you have. Greatness is not contained in a number. But those numbers often do help us to push ourselves that little bit harder and that’s what I wanted to do.

On Sunday I was really nervous. I was nervous that all the work I’d done wouldn’t be enough to stop the injury from flaring up. Or that I would have to change my run to protect the injury. I had my period which always makes my stomach really upset. My glands had swollen up like golf balls in preparation for some kind of plague of death. And Melbourne in very un-Melbourne like fashion had come up pretty humid. And in a way, all of those less than ideal circumstances which might have affected my run or might not have kind of took the pressure off. Because I just decided to give it a good bash and see where I was at the end of it.

I had a pretty dream run for the first half. It felt pretty easy and it never felt laboured and I was comfortable the whole way. The best part was that my injury felt 100%. I was running really comfortably, there was no pain and I could just run. One of the pitfalls of so much training is that you can lose the love for the run just a bit. Especially when you are always running in the same places and I certainly did lose the love towards the end of my training. But I sure did find it down in Melbourne.

Things started to go pear shaped around 26-28km where my stomach was really not happy. I ducked off for a toilet break (best decision ever!) But even after that I was in a fair amount of discomfort and my non-injured calf muscle started cramping and continued to cramp until I finished. I managed to kind of hold on until 30km. At that point I still felt like I was on track for under 4 hours but by the time I got to 35km I was pretty sure it was out of reach. I felt fine but my legs would just not move any faster. And I kept having to stop to walk because my stomach was not placing nice. I really struggled in the last 5km. At one point I could see the 4 hour pacer in front of me but there was just no way I was ever going to catch up.

The most interesting part about it was that in that moment I was not disappointed at all. Not when I was out there finishing the marathon, not when I crossed the line and not afterwards when I looked at my run. I was really over the moon with what I managed to do. In preparation, I thought I would be disappointed if I didn’t make my first goal, but I was really happy to find that I wasn’t. Because I knew that on the day, I ran that the best way I possibly could have. I could not have possibly gone any faster and I don’t have any doubts about that. And that for me is where the pride is. In knowing that I gave it everything and there was no point where I felt like I could have done more.

That’s the great thing about training, it doesn’t just prepare you for the physical distance, it prepares you to be mentally strong enough to keep going when things get tough. It’s possible that I went out too hard but I did feel really comfortable and I could have easily still had those problem in the back half even if I’d gone out at a more moderate pace. And I got my second fastest half marathon into the bargain and to do that without feeling like I was really working that hard is a pretty cool thing.

All the achievement is in the training, but it sure is nice to get a fitting reward at the end of it.

Workout of the Week: The Hammer

Zoey · October 19, 2015 · Leave a Comment

You might remember the hammer intervals from a few months ago, and this is similar except it’s just one sprint with longer tempo sections. It is designed to particularly target the 10km – Half marathon distance. Ideally you would jog the recovery, but if you need to you can walk it.

This is 5km, but if you are looking for a longer workout you can repeat as many times as you like.

Happy running!

Finding the limit

Zoey · October 16, 2015 · 6 Comments

Most people probably don’t know this but I have a back scoliosis that makes the whole left side from my lower back to my knee really weak. The right side is the dominant side and takes over to compensate as much as it can. I have a leg differential that makes most people’s eyes pop. Because of that I have no hip stability to speak of. And most of the time whether it’s in running or strength work I have to work twice as hard for half the result. Because of my stability issues, I’m not overly suited to marathon running. Really, I should probably stick to things under two hours. My body copes relatively well with that.

But I just love the Melbourne Marathon. Melbourne is my favourite city. I love seeing the Spartans on the course. I could give up most marathons but I don’t want to give up Melbourne.

I worked really hard with what I’ve got. I removed a lot of the extra stressors on my body while training. I worked at Pilates on core strength and stability. I worked with my body when both sides of my body were having trouble – the right because it was taking on so much of the load and the left because it was struggling. And honestly, neither side is one hundred percent at this point but they are as good as they can be under the circumstances.

I have two tattoos. One is a phoenix on my weak side because I overcame it and the dis-ease of depression within my mind to run my first half marathon. And the other one is a compass on my right side, because all the strength, purpose and direction comes from my ability to run.

It’s true that with getting to know my body, in order to find the limit of what I can do sometimes I have to push my body too far and then I can take that knowledge and use it to work with my body better. After my injury, I learnt from that and within those constraints I have pushed my body as far as it could possibly go in this training cycle.

I probably won’t have the mental strength to do that next year. I will always run Melbourne but this will be my last race for awhile. It was a bit of bad timing really – being solely responsible for Operation Move while attempting this huge thing in my training. But you just keep on keeping on and you get through it.

And here I am at the end of the training. Which for me is where all the achievement and joy is. Those aren’t just words. That’s where all the meaning of the run comes from, in the training. It is always bittersweet when you come to the end of the training cycle. It is an ending, no matter which way you look at it.

There can be a bit of pressure to run a race that exemplifies your training achievement but there are just so many uncontrollable factors there, you can’t really do that. I’ve had an outstanding four months in my running. And I get to show up with that on the day – the rest is out of my hands.

I always set a few goals which is a good idea because if something goes wrong it gives you something to aim for. But really they are just numbers and they don’t matter that much. My only goal is to run strong. Because the things that you remember about a marathon is never the time on the clock.