Back in cold Netherlands

November 27th 2004 - After a nice holiday / training camp (not sure which of the two is more applicable!) in Portugal, I have returned to The Netherlands, where it was freezing and foggy when we arrived. Tomorrow I will run my first race, a cross country in Tilburg, on the course where the European Championships will be staged next year. It will also be the qualification for this years EC, but I will not run these even if I qualify. I just don't feel the shape is there to do well. I have attached a few pictures of Portugal below.

I got many questions lately on how I train, some people suggesting that this might be secret "as I am a world class athlete". I find secracy around training rather stupid - even if someone trains exactly like I do, it will not lead to the same performances. The training might not fit the person - or the person does not have the same didication in the rest of his life that I have. It is not easy to dedicate oneself mentally so much to a few top races a year! My mileage in winter is about 120-160 a week (avg 130), and many of those miles I run rather slowly around 4.00 min per km. I might accelerate up to 3.40, but only fartleks and speedier workouts go faster than that. I think many athletes wear themselves out too much with hard temporuns every day.

A typical week in November (where I just start training) and one in May is shown below.
November:
Monday: a.m. 1 hour easy running, pm 1 hour stability / weight training
Tuesday a.m. track 10x1000m p:1min t: 3.10 p.m. 30 min jog + 5x100m
Wednesday a.m. 50 min easy run with last bit faster p.m. 1 hour flexibility / hurdling
Thursday a.m. tempo change run 16 km 2km 4.10 2 km 3.30 ... p.m. 35 min jog + 5x100m
Friday a.m 80 min easy run p.m. massage / rest
Saturday a.m. Forest hill/fartlek training p.m. rest
Sunday rest.

For May:
Monday a.m. 15km tempo change 1km-1km-... 4.05-3.20 p.m. 1 hour stab/weights
Tuesday: a.m. 10km run at 3.50 + 10x100m p.m. 6x1000m + 5x300m with 2 hurdles per lap P1:2min P2:8min t: 2.47min, 42sec
Wednesday: a.m. 18km easy with last 3km fast p.m. 1 hour flex / hurdles technique
Thursday: a.m. 4x400, 4x300, 4x200m P1:90sec P2:8min t: 64-44-26sec p.m. 10km + 10x100m easy
Friday: a.m. 20km easy run p.m. 20min stability exercises + massage 45min
Saturday: rest
Sunday: a.m. 1 hour hill workout training p.m. 20'stability

Note that there is also many weeks where I do substantially less than the above, especially towards races!!! This is always the danger of people quoting there training weeks, they always search for 'a nice solid week of training'........ Cheers!!

Pictures

Reactions on this newsitem

Your reaction on this newsitem