If you are new to this blog, thanks for visiting. Please take a moment to read this post explaining the training diary format. I hope you find something enjoyable, interesting, challenging, and/or amusing in these pages.  Dave :)

Gym Session - Physiologic Gym.

• Hex Bar Deadlift 4 sets of 3 reps @120kg
• Superset with double leg jumps and single leg hops 3 reps each.
• Core circuit

Legs a bit stiff from Mount Barney climb yesterday, our Kokoda Challenge team reunion.  Happy to hit a new max on the deadlift.

Rest Day
Took an extra day off today as legs pretty trashed from the Mt Barney/heavy gym session combo.  As we are nearing the end of 2017 I sat down instead to write down my training goals for 2018.  It is really important to set yourself clear goals at the beginning of a training cycle to help keep you motivated, to keep your training specific, and to reward yourself with a fun or challenging event. Here are my goals for the first half of 2018:

• Run UTA100. Sub 11 hours.  I last ran this race in 2011 when it was still called The North Face 100 and ran 11h35m.  I always thought I could have gone quite a bit faster as that year I was injured in the lead up and had very patchy training in the last 3 months prior to the race (basically running on my base fitness). I am now a little older, a little slower, but hopefully also a little wiser and am definitely very motivated for this. 
• Fight Centre Epic MTB 90km race. When I did this event this year, it was my first MTB race for about a decade and boy did I feel it! I got a flat tyre in the early stages, pushed hard to make up places for about 20km but then ran out of legs and had to drag myself home on the second lap.  A great course and a great weekend with the family means I definitely want to go back next year and have a decent crack.
• Deadlift 150kg.  This is a somewhat of an arbitrary goal, but 150kg is roughly 2x my bodyweight and a nice goal to shoot for.
• Balance a handstand for 30 seconds. Random yes, fun yes!

Road Ride
I only had an hour so did the ride up to the top of Beechmont Road and back. Love this ride, so close to home and such a fun road.

Gym Session - Home Gym
3 rounds of:

• Single leg squat +4kg on bench - 5 reps.
• Ledge pull ups, deadhangs, heel hooks - 60 seconds 
• Wall handstands - 60 seconds

Speed Session/Fitness Test
3x1.1km on a slightly hilly road circuit.  3:54/3:55/4:00 (Ave pace 3:40/km).  Very hot middle of the day.

This is a session I repeat often during the year. I know that when I am in good shape I can do the intervals under 3:30 for 5 reps so clearly I have some work to do in the coming months.

80 mins
​Hellfire pass with Caine. a good run of only 12km but with 700m of elevation, so making it a pretty solid effort.  We were welcomed by an afternoon storm for the final climb, offering some cooling rain. Felt motivated to push the pace a bit on this final drag to the finish.

Handstand Workshop
Amanda and I took advantage of the Active and Healthy program here on the Gold Coast and attended a Handstand Workshop hosted by the amazing Morgan Rose Moroney from AMPM. Flexibility and gymnastics skills in general are something I love and have always wanted to be able to do, but honestly have always really sucked at. I think years of single plane of motion endurance sports have taken their toll. I am really enjoying challenging my body and mind in this new direction. 

This blog is a great place for me to connect with people, whether they are physio clients, coaching clients or other people who have stumbled upon the site.  In the past I have been guilty of not updating the blog regularly and this is something I want to rectify in 2018.  I have decided the best way to do this is to make a weekly commitment to post on the blog. To keep me accountable I am going to make the blogs in the form of a training diary, outlining my own training, showing my philosophy of training and how it continues to evolve, and showing that I do (try to) practice what I preach. Each week I will focus on one aspect of the training week and include a longer piece about this.  This could be on any topic - injuries, training, nutrition, recovery, event reports, interviews, key exercises, training sessions - basically anything that occurs to me or I get questioned about during the week. In this way I hope to keep the blog fresh, interesting, personal, and above all useful. I really welcome feedback and if you would like anything specifically covered in a blog post please email me at: [email protected]

Happy Running! Dave :)