I feel the need for speed training

It is now four weeks out of Ironman Mont Tremblant (IMMT) and I’m feeling back to normal again. I allowed myself as much time to recover as I felt I needed over the last month, but now I want to get back to training again.  I was still doing some workouts over the last few weeks, but only short distances, 5-10km runs, 30min swim & spins, and some ultimate frisbee games.  No challenging weight lifting, just some demo work for my personal training clients.  I’m beginning to feel a little restless and feel the need to re-focus my efforts again. 

Thankfully, I have one more goal race this year, the Waterfront 5km on Oct 22, before officially entering the off-season on Nov 1.  Last year I did the Waterfront marathon (42.2km) but I just don’t have another marathon in me right now after IMMT on Aug 20, so I felt aiming for a 5km PB would be a more appropriate challenge.  (According to my Garmin, my current 5km PB is 22:46, pace 4:33min/km).  

Training for 5km is very different from the training plan that I’ve been following for my long course triathlon and endurance running over the last year, but the change is refreshing. It does allow me to get back to some of the running fundamentals that every runner needs to work on.  

Over the next month I’ll be focussing more on my form when I run, remembering the basic principles of engaging the core, keeping a straight back, slightly leaning into the run, swinging my arms to get power from my core and obliques, keeping my knees high, and landing on the front on my foot.  

And of course, the core strengthening exercises that allow proper engagement of these muscles.  That means lots of planks, curl-ups, Russian twists, bicycle crunches, low lunges into high knees, dead-bugs, bridges, clams and squats. Lots and lots of squats - weighted squats, split squats, jump squats, box jumps...

Finally, I’ll be spending more time on the track running.  I’ll be doing some more speed and sprint training on the track, as opposed to the long runs I’ve been focussing on this past year. Less time down in Tommy Thompson Park and more time at the Riverdale Park track, until Oct 22 anyway.  

Already this year I’ve gone longer than ever, now hopefully, after this month of training I’ll be running faster than ever.