So Simple....

..it's gotta be 'complex'. Due to the impending birth of that little alien creature that will soon be inhabiting various moments of my life I came to the decision earlier this week that I need to take every bit of training and not completely focus on the 'big workout'. So i am approaching everything day by day.

Not the optimal situation, but probably essential for now. Therefore, I've decided to pull the old Australian 'complex system' of training out of the bag. For those who aren't familiar with the 'system' it is (with some slight personal variations) a system of training that advises some very lydiard long run concepts mixed in with shorter fartlek, hill and tempo sessions. It has been used by many of the good Australian runners over the years (Deek, Moneghetti, Wardlaw, Troop, etc...) has produced many other great results. Even now Craig Mottram is being coached by Chris Wardlaw (Mona's coach), who has been one of the main instigators in ti's evolution (often seen as beginning with De Castella's coach Pat Clohessy). In essence it's the same pattern of workouts week after week, with some variations to 'specificity' in training.


In general it looks like:
Mon 16km run
Tues: monofartlek
Wed: 20-25 km run
Thurs: hill session or track session of 8 x 400m off a 200m float
Fri: 16km
Sat: 7-8 km hilly tempo run
Sunday: 2-2 1/2 hr long run

Chuck in some 4-6 mile morning runs and that's it. You can see it's evolution at:
http://glenhuntly-athletics.com/assets/wardlawtraining.pdf

I forgot to post last week's training. it's been busy this week.

Mon: 1 hr 67 min run (felt great considering the Sun Run the previous day)
Tues: 16 x 60 sec hard off 30 sec jog and then 6 x 30 sec hard -30sec jog
Wed: 90min
Thurs: 10 x 3mins off 1min. I did it on my 'Mundy Park 1km' outside trail. I am not sure how far it is as I created it last yr when it was dark and i needed a place to run, but it measure out to approx 3mins of running so good enough. Consistent too.
fri: 66min run plus Bikram Yoga
Sat: 65 min quick run (same loop as Mon and Fri) PM 38mins
Sunday: see previous post for 'long fartlek'

Considering the Sun Run, my recovery and the various sessions I put in a very good week and the best part is that I responded to the training and recovery very positively