My base training

I won’t do this at the end of every week. I just thought it might be a good idea to start the process. When I step up from this phase to the next I’ll maybe give some reflection on how base went and then how the first few weeks of the next phase are going.

Oh, an important part of my new ethos is analysing everything so that the tell-tale signs of overtraining don’t get missed. In the past I’ve been quite dogged with my training and no matter how fatigued I’ve been, I’ve tended to just get on with it. I’ve found that too much of that can lead to as much as a two-month backward step!

So part of this new regime is taking a resting heart rate measurement as soon as I wake every morning. At present it is 45. I regard this as a clear indication that I am not in shape. When I was 26yrs old my RHR was 38. This was when I was at my fittest – in terms of overall fitness. Ironically I did a lot of upper body strength training then and as an indication of how my training priorities have changed, in the 9 yrs since then, my biceps have shrunk by 3inches in circumference. I would say though, that all of this has found its way to my quads!

My weekend trail runs have not been factored into this week or my heart rate measurements:

            Monday; (RHR 45)

            6am – walk 30mins with 40llb pack on.

Ex military folk might call this a tab. My mate asked me this week if there was any real benefit to the CV in doing this. Na, none really BUT this base phase is all about conditioning. For me, I am prone to niggling Achilles problems. I see this as a basic was of keeping the muscles and tendons ticking over. Also, due to my circadian cycle I really struggle with CV at this time in the morning.

            Lunch – 4 miles easy run.

            Tuesday; (RHR 45)

            6am – same walk as above.

            Lunch – cross train for 30mins.

I do this in the changing rooms at my work; some step ups, some lunge walks, depth jumps, calf raises and then 10mins of core training. This session is actually quite heavy on the legs and simply adds to my ethos of ‘conditioning’.

            Wednesday; (RHR 45)

            6am – 4 miles easy run

            After work – leg strength training for 25mins, and,

                                    4 miles run with 16llb pack on.

Wednesdays are classed as one of my priority sessions, of which in base I have two per week, the other one is on Saturdays. What I find odd about this is that my 4 miler with pack on is run at about the same time as my morning run, if not quicker!

            Thursday; (RHR 46)

            6am – walk as above.

            Lunch – 4 miles easy run.

I always run with an emergency go-gel in the pouch of my shorts and in the last mile of today’s run it was needed. I think this is another indication of how out of shape I have become recently.

            Friday; (RHR 47)

This morning I decided for the first time in my life to listen to my body – it was a bit tired and my resting heart rate confirmed this. I was due to do some x-training at lunch time and then go for a 6.5miler after work.

            After work – 4 miles easy run.

It would’ve been a bit more but marley was frothing at the mouth. It was a tad warm.

            Saturday; (RHR not recorded)

            Am – 12.5 miles easy run

I was in a bit of a bad mood this morning and did not want to record my RHR incase it gave me an excuse not to train. This is one of my priority sessions after all and I did more or less take the day off yesterday. What was with my mood? Ace (my 3yr old son) had quite a restless night sleep which meant I too suffered the same fate. I must’ve seen every half hour through the night.

Anyway, I went into the run with quite a bit of negative energy which only started to dissipate towards the end. I ran this in 1hr 49mins. The route was very hilly though. I’m not concerned about the slow time. In fact I’m actually quite happy with how disciplined I was at focussing on time on feet and not caning myself.

My heart rate averaged at 142 for this run which confirms how easy I was taking it. I would expect to take around 90secs a mile off this pace for the same effort in around 6 weeks of this type of training.

            Today; (RHR not recorded)

            Am – 1hr 45mins on the bike.

I had hoped for this to be an easy spin but half of my journey was back into the wind. Straight after this I got the foam roller out and did about 20mins on the quads which were feeling, as I call it, blocked.

So that’s it, a week’s training. I’m quite happy with myself for binning the planned sessions on Friday. Next week I step it up slightly and then cool the jets in the following week. I have another 5 weeks of base training.

I listened to a podcast the other night which was an interview with Geoff Roes, winner of the 2010 Western States. What struck me was that this guy just runs i.e. he does no strength training, cross training or Plyometrics. I think that if I didn’t have to work I’d pretty much just do the same as him.

He trains in the mountains around where he lives in Alaska. This, as I found in the build up to my BGR, is by far the best type of training. It’s all aspects rolled into one. For the time being though, I’m going to continue to condition my body in preparation for the rigours of my next event.

This won’t get me finishing anywhere near the front but as I’ve stated before, I have to be realistic with my expectations and progression through this type of sport. In around 3 or 4 years time, when I’ve fully conditioned myself, I’ll start to focus on just running, alone. It is then that I expect to start motoring through the pack!   

Am I naive?

I started off my last blog post by suggesting that I would be naive not to listen to the specialist reference the NHS refusing to operate on me and take care of my long standing injury.

On discussing this with a friend yesterday she informed me that the NHS have now started refusing people for operations where only last year they would’ve been given them. This is no rumour or story but apparently fact and was reported as such in the national news only last week!

Why so? Because of cut-backs; there is the hope that many of us will turn to private healthcare in the face of this dilemma. I can’t help thinking this is similar to the situation with NHS dental care! This does little to help me though. I wonder how helpful my National Health Service would be had I not taken care of my body (well, mostly) and tried to do the right thing throughout my life........

You know this situation is similar to something my wife and I found astonishing the other day; we were watching one of those Police, Camera, Action programmes when one of the scenes was of a woman chasing a man down the street brandishing an axe. She had a bit of a drug problem and was already well known to the police. Guess what she got for that escapade? Zilch!

What would happen to one of us?

Are the ordinary law abiding folk of this country just going to keep getting shit on?