Training and Racing Summary 2021

I spent nine months rebuilding the training and racing base from March after my final track race for the 2020-21 summer. That track race was a 5000m in 16:59.93 where I was paced by Jacob on a rain saturated track. There were no more races for 2021 aside from Parkrun, the odd local event and a couple of half marathon. I trained through it all averaging 117.6km/week for 2021 despite two low volume months in January and February. My biggest month was 150km/week. From August I started to prepare to find racing form again. My local Parkrun is slow on times due to two dead turns on the course and a fair whack of gravel and grass. Parkrun was also Covid cancelled for a period. I started running time trials (usually solo) and sessions on both grass and bitumen at alternate suitable venues. In all I ran 16 x 5000m time trials in the months August to December. 11 of those were 16 minutes something, two of those in 16:38 as my equal fastest for the period. I used the same training preparation as I did in April to May 2020 where I ran 5 x 16 minutes something 5000m runs with a best of 16:31. This training preparation I first did back in 1988 as a way of finding a peak in form. Basically a mix of short intervals and time trials followed by a goal event. In 1988 It went like this(off a base of 140km/week): Day 1: 3000m TT 9:07, Day 2: 4 x 200m 28-29,4 x 400m 63-65, Day 3: 3000m TT 8:45, Day 5: 10000m 31:10. I'll continue this process through to the end of January while maintaining high volume. From February to April it will be a festival of turning 60yo, chasing track, road and Parkrun age or age graded PBs. With some fingers crossed we will be able to run at Australian and World Championships in 2022.