Ben Duffus – Training diary: 23rd February to 1st March

Saturday 23rd February: W/U exercises + 4.5 hour Mt Coot-tha run including 20min barefoot
This was a great, last long-run for me before the Nerang 50km on 10th of March. I felt strong the whole time and had almost exactly even splits over the first and second half. Given the weather over the last few weeks, it was a bit of novelty for it to not be raining! This was my longest training run for the year and I am really noticing what a difference consistent long and hilly runs have made in terms of improvements in strength and endurance. One of the key factors that has enabled me to train (way) more consistently is that I have (at long last, listened to my physiotherapist and) started receiving regular sports massages from Craig Smoothy at All Sports Physio Indooroopilly. Craig seems to have a knack of finding (and then getting rid of) tight spots I didn’t even know existed, which always leave me feeling more invigorated in future workouts. It’s also an added bonus that he’s great to chat to, so the sessions seem to simply fly by! Regularly seeing Craig has allowed me to avoid the many niggles that use to plague me and the massages seem to return a bit of spring into my stride during blocks of heavy training. I think a real testament to the benefits of getting regular massages with Craig has been that if I miss a massage then my legs tend to feel heavier during long runs and I feel like I like lack ‘zip’ during speed work.

Homeward bound trail

Sunday 24th February: W/U exercises + 2.5 hour River run with the last 30 min faster and including 10min barefoot
I headed out around midday, so was sweating profusely by the end of today’s run! I was just focusing on keeping the legs turning over after yesterday’s long run and was surprised at how comfortable I was feeling. I am definitely getting use to the idea of surging at the end of these runs and no longer view the final 30 minutes with dread and instead look forward to seeing what I have left after a solid couple of days of training.

Monday 25th February: Strength and Core exercises + 60 min easy cycle
Today was another strength and cross training session, with my routine of exercises continuing to progress to include some plyometrics as well now. I’m hoping that these will help to ‘downhill-proof’ my quads by the time Kokoda Challenge comes around! Today was also the first day of uni classes for the year, so I’m really excited for what this semester has in store for me!

Tuesday 29th January: W/U exercises + 90 min including about 30min of uphill reps and 20min barefoot
Speed work today was classic hill reps with a hard effort uphill then jogging back down for recovery. I was feeling pretty good but my legs must have still been a little bit fatigued from the weekend as my times were all a little bit slower than I was hoping for.

Wednesday 30th January: W/U exercises + 90 min Mt Coot-tha run including 20min barefoot
Just an easy recovery run today and I pleased that I was actually feeling pretty good the whole run.

Thursday 28th February: Strength and Core exercises + 60 min easy cycle
Same session as on Monday, but I felt better in this session after yesterday’s recovery run.

Friday 1st March: W/U exercises + 90 min including 3 x 20 min surges and 20min barefoot
Another speed work session today which involved doing multiple tempo runs on a combination of hills and flat sections.

Overall this was another great week of training and (so far) I have been really enjoying all my subjects at uni. As always, my training program was created by Andy Dubois at Mile27 Personal Training. I will back off a bit to freshen up for the Nerang 50km (10th March), which will present a great opportunity for Caine, Dan, Dave and I to race together on bits of the Kokoda course.

Happy running!