Promoting a top event

Normally I am hesitant to provide any endorsements of events over others through my website, but on this occasion I am going to make an exception and do a blatant plug for my friend Wayne Larden’s new event in The Sydney Harbour 10KM.

The event takes place this Sunday and the course is extremely flat and fast and the chance for those who want to run a personal best, but also run on a flat course along an interesting stretch of Sydney Harbour.

There is still time to enter - visit the website and support the event which is a great new edition to the Sydney running calendar.

Running together (while supporting new events) - Stride for stride on a life changing ride! -- Sean Muller

Old school training

A friend of mine has improved in massive leaps and bounds in the marathon over the past year and curious as to know the reasons behind his success, I chatted to him about it today.

His ideas while seeming simple enough on the surface, actually would be quite hard for the average person to replicate and certainly one would have to take things very easily at the start if one was to try.

He has embraced some old school Emil Zatopek style training during one of his sessions in the week. During this session he pretty much breaks all of Noake’s rules about repetition training. His crazy session (done every second week) comprises a mind boggling 25-30 x400m at a decent clip with a 45 second jog in between and then 10x200m with a 40 second jog in between.

All of this off of a 3km jog warmup and then jog warm down.

This he feels has helped him to maintain power and speed throughout the later stages of the 42KM race. Can’t argue with his dramatic improvements, but as he has said to me ‘Sam you will need company for the initial sessions of this nature as they are brutal.’

Running together (while embracing old school training) - stride for stride on a life changing ride -- Sean Muller.

The first long run back

This morning was the first of my longer runs back. I had intended it to only be around 15KM, but once I got going, I found that I was feeling so good that I decided to press on and make it an even 21K. Not at all fast, but just content to take in the great day around the harbour. Nothing beats a clear winter’s day around Sydney harbour. The sun was shining and just a hint of a breeze but safe from the sometimes stifling heat that occurs through the summer months.

This sort of weather is my favourite to run in. The wind clears the head and you can really just zone out of life and press on.

Ah Sydney - it really is ‘no worries’.

Running together (while enjoying the winter sunshine) stride for stride on a life changing ride. -- Sean Muller

Back into the gym - promoting injury free running

Now that I have been getting back into the training slowly but surely, I always believe in building the body in the repair stage. Not only is nutrition extremely important during this phase - lots of protein and general fresh foods, but the gym really comes into its own during this stage.

Granted I do gym work all year round to supplement my running and to keep the body fit, strong and injury free in general, but this is always secondary to my running. Over the next few weeks I intend to build the mileage slowly again while focusing more on strengthening and stretching. I have also fallen in love with the tapping out of the cortices since being introduced to it by my lovely massage therapist, but more about that in a later piece.

It amazes me how people think that because one is able to train and complete a hard ultra marathon, that one is bullet proof and should be expected to be up and training hard again the next day. THIS IS WRONG! And will not only cut your running career short, but will also ensure that you spend a lot of time recovering from injury.

Even when reentering the gym, I am reluctant to go massively overboard and will only stick to the routine and amount of repetitions that I am comfortable with.

Asked about a very simple weights routine that is good for running, the below is what I do year round - generally setup as a circuit and performed 4 times with 10 - 15 reps in each set:

1. Warm-up through stretching and dynamic stretching and about 15 minutes on the bike.
2. Decline pushups off of a gym bench (or chair at home) - sometimes I do these as Spiderman pushups.
3. Alternating leg lifts (seated on a bench) to encourage full range of motion in legs.
Tricep bench dips
4. Bicep curls with light weights (runners don’t need bulk)
5. Bicep arm swings with light weight (in the motion of running) - concentrating on the backwards thrust yields best results.
6. Full range situps performed on the exercise ball.
7. One legged squats off of the bench - these are my favourite for building balance and preventing the dreaded ITB injury.
8. Warmdown again through stretching and dynamic stretching.

I also perform full range calf raises on the calf machine (3 sets of 10) and hamstring curls using the Swiss ball or the machine.

Used intelligently and in conjunction with your running, this simple program can and will help you to remain strong and injury free.

Running together (while staying injury free) - stride for stride on a life changing ride! -- Sean Muller