Monday 29^th July: Strength and Core exercises + 60 min cycling

Easy spinning on bike

I was feeling a bit sore in my quads and calves from King of the Mountain so I took today fairly easy. Exercises at the moment include quite a bit of hopping and jopping.

Tuesday 30^th July: W/U exercises + 75 min

27.5min speed work on grass oval + 20min barefoot

DOMS  struck today to remind me that I’m not use to these shorter/faster races. I just rolled through the session to still get in a bit of quality work despite the muscle soreness.

Wednesday 31^st July: W/U exercises + 90 min

Up Lookout bike track-down Honeyeater track-along Bellbird trail -return along same route + 20min barefoot

The soreness in my legs has started to ease up so I’m getting the spring back in my legs.

Thursday 1^st August: Strength and Core exercises + 60 min cycling

Repetitions of front side of Sir Samuel Griffith Drive

My legs were feeling pretty much back to normal so I headed up Mt Coot-tha on the bike today , which felt really good.

Friday 2^nd August: W/U exercises + 2 hours

60min worth of tempo running – repetitions of Lookout bike track + 20min barefoot

Feeling well and truly recovered from the weekend’s race after a massage yesterday with Craig. Felt strong, which put me in a good frame of mind for the big exam at uni today.

Saturday 3^rd August: W/U exercises + 4 hours

Up Lookout track – down/up Chapel Hill Rd trail – down Reservoir track – up Kokoda Track – down/up Jacksonia track – down Highwood Rd trail – down Moggil Rd trail – up/down powerlines – up Moggil Rd trail – up Highwood Rd trail – along Eugenia circuit – down/up Simpson falls track – along Stringybark Track – up to summit of Maculata track – return along same route + 20min barefoot

Felt like it had been a while since I last did this run, so I really enjoyed being back at it. Felt good the whole time and I’m looking forward to building up towards Surf Coast Century.

Sunday 4^th August: W/U exercises + 2 hours

Progressively getting faster throughout run – up Lookout bike track-down Honeyeater track-up Jacksonia track -return along same route +extra bit of trail to/from Russell Tce + 10min barefoot

Pulled up well from yesterday and finished with plenty left in the tank.

So I started off the week with some soreness in my calves from the hard uphill at Pomona and in my quads from the fast descent. All the soreness was gone by the end of the week so I finished the week feeling strong again. The emphasis in training is temporarily shifting from hill work to focusing on improving my speed on flat and undulating terrain. While I would normally choose running in the mountains over a grass oval, since it’s been so long since I did anything resembling track work it actually isn’t too bad (in moderation). Hopefully it pays off on the flat Surf Coast Century course. As always, my training program was created by Andy Dubois at Mile27 Personal Training.

Here’s a great video from Jamin Philip from Pomona that really captures the emphasis they put on each and every runner.