I am back. The past, present and future.

What has happened since the Melbourne Marathon in October 2019. The following marathons were completed since then:

331	6/6/2020	BUMS Run For Steve	5:22:55
330	30/5/2020	BUMS Raccoon Run	5:56:00
329	16/5/2020	BUMS Raccoon Run	6:02:32
328	17/11/2019	Jervis Bay Marathon	5:45:59
327	3/11/2019	Carcoar Cup Running Festival	5:31:05
326	20/10/2019	Sri Chinmoy Mara-Fun Relays	5:23:30

In early December I retired from full time legal practice after 49 years. What were my feelings at the time. Many and mixed but none were sadness or regret. The retirement was decided sometime before and I was very accepting when the reality come. Have I missed it? No not really. There are other things to do in life. 

Part of the reason I had little regret etc is that I continue to lecture full time at the College of Law. That is mainly online and so has not been affected by Covid-19 as I have always worked from where I could log into my course with a computer.

I have a much better life balance at the moment. 

Recently my wife and I were able to travel to the Byron Hinterland to visit my son, his partner and our granddaughter,Nigella. She is now 16 months old walking and starting to speak. It was a wonder full time sharing time with the family and help around the pecan farm.

Our family

Nicholas and his partner, Matthew and his partner Ash and Nigella, my daughter Gabriella and her partner. Nigella's first birthday in early March when you could travel.

Pa and Nigella 

The pecans trees rising for winter 

The wonderful news is that they are expecting another daughter in late August.

I turned 71 in June and feel 51 !!!

The Canberra Marathon postponed from April to August and now to early November. Sydney marathon looks like it is going ahead, fingers crossed.The Melbourne Marathon might be possible but the current rise in cases in Victoria might cause the cancellation of the event. It all a wait and see situation and accept whatever is occurring as regards events as there is noting we can do.

It has had one positive I have been able to get in some huge trading without the pleasure bbq the immense disruption to training. There was always a taper (even though short) and a recovery but still disruptive to establishing a base and then having a focus marathon. It is rare these days with running so many marathons that I have a proper base building phase of training then sharpening etc all the aspects that go together to put you in the best possible shape for an all out effort in the focus event.

These days I run marathons more based on endurance with no ability to do what is a 'proper' focused training for a specific event until now and Covid-19.

What does that mean. I have had the opportunity to really focus on some proper base building. So far this year I have trained 2950k with April, May and June being over 700k each month. All of this has been aerobic training. There has been no anaerobic sessions at all. No short reps. All the running has been run firm and not at  'long slow pace' with a watch on heart rate and perceived effort.That is base building ! My focus race the SYDNEY MARATHON on Sunday 20 September.

That is 11 weeks from Sunday 4 July.. An ideal preparation time is 12 - 16 weeks but 11 weeks it is. That is okay because of the 3 months that I have been on the base building training.

I am a great beaver in the LYDIARD training system and approach. That is lots of base building training and then some very specific phases to peak for the focus event.  That is something I have not been able to do for years but Covid-19 has put me in this position.

I usually train myself but I have obtained a Lydiard based training program but it is for 15 weeks so I will have to drop a few weeks but in the circumstances it is what it is.  So come with me on the journey to the Sydney Marathon with each days set training and my thoughts when the days training has been done.

I have a focus half marathon on the 12 July and that will be a great indicator as to where I am at in preparation for the marathons in September. Last year I ran the same half marathon in 1.54.12 and I would expect to be quicker this year.

So what does the first week's sessions look like starting on Sunday.

I will be training at the longer distances and the quicker paces. So Sunday 21.1k @ 6.20 pace or better. I should be able to average it in 5.45 but lets see how that run goes and the journey to the 20 September.