MON 20 JAN
AM | 13.5km, 35m VG, 68min – easy road run + drills
+ REHAB ROUTINE

Relaxed pace road run. Included 3 x [15s backward running, 15s C skip, 15s backward running, 15s D skip] at around 50min mark. Finished with 6 x 30m barefoot strides. Hamstring feels pretty good after last week’s rest.

TUE 21 JAN
AM | 8.0km, 300m VG, 60min – easy group trail run
+ REHAB ROUTINE (NO STRETCHING)

Gold Coast Trail Runners’ “Trail Run Tuesday” run. We did the Tugun Hill Conservation Area stair loop which is a favourite local run of mine. There’s a lot of sealed stuff on this loop but the stairs make for fun running.

WED 22 JAN
PM | 13.8km, 400m VG, 85min – easy mid-week longer trail run
+ REHAB ROUTINE (STRETCHING ONLY)

Afternoon run on mainly the singletrack trails (except for the last bit as I had to get back). Kept the effort really easy, and really enjoyed the run. Was scheduled for a 2hr long run, but life got in the way this morning!

THU 23 JAN
PM | 11.7km, 270m VG, 60min – stairs/hill circuit road run
+ REHAB ROUTINE (NO STRETCHING)

Stair and hill circuit at Greenmount/Rainbow Bay. Another afternoon session that I quite enjoyed!

FRI 24 JAN
AM | 12.1km, 210m VG, 80min – easy group road run

20min easy solo running before Chisel Runners. Did two small sets of backwards running and skips mid-run.

SAT 25 JAN
REST DAY

Rest day, and I opted for beer and camping delights rather than rehab. I call it “mind rehab” – sometimes you just have to switch off!

SUN 26 JAN
AM | 27.0km, 270m, 2h 35min – long road/trail run

Very relaxed pace for the weekly long-run. It was a road/trail mix and some of the coastline trail sections were spectacular, but for some reason I wasn’t feeling the love on this one – there were some pretty lonely stretches out there and it was windy (not my favourite weather element!). I was scheduled for 3 hours but, as for the preceding weeks, I didn’t hit that time. It wasn’t due to soreness or anything like that this week; rather we were camping and I was keen to get back.

I spent the afternoon enjoying some 2013 vintage home brew back at camp!

TOTAL
Running | 86.2km, 1485m VG, 8hrs 30min
Cross-training | 0hrs 0min
Total time | 8hr 30min

My hamstring felt pretty good after last week’s soreness – both legs still feel tight but the extra rolling and drill work seems to be helping. I really enjoyed the change in time for a few of my runs this week…running in the afternoon instead of the morning was a good chance to mix it up.

I didn’t tackle a heap of climbing this week (which was intentional), but I plan on getting back into it after the scheduled rest week next week. Following that, intensity will start to increase a bit too (on top of the climbing) – my runs will be a little quicker and with a little more purpose.

I’ve resolved to add a video post to this weekly training blog, which will basically just be a brief summary of the week – much like this last paragraph. I’ll aim to start in the next week or two…

See you out there – Juddy

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REHAB ROUTINE

1 x DAILY (whenever I could steal the 15 mins)
3min/side – calf stretch (with towel under big toe to lock it)
3min/side – standard hip flexor stretch

3 x DAILY (generally pretty well spread out across the day)
20 reps – calf raise & lower (off a step, heel going below the ball of the foot)
10 reps – chair of death bodyweight squats (really emphasising sitting back)
10 reps – single-leg deadlift
10 reps – single-leg squat and reach
10 reps – push-ups
5 reps – pull-ups