We're getting to the business end of the year. By my reckoning there are only two more races definitely in the pipeline to achieve the sub-90 half marathon; Sydney and Melbourne. There's also a West Sydney half marathon, but I'm working so it's just a maybe.
Before thinking about the races still to come (in addition to the above there's at least one 10km and probably a few park runs) I wanted to mention training.
It's pretty obvious that you need to prepare for racing. We're all aware of tapers, carbohydrate loading, and rehydration and it makes complete sense. I've had it hammered home this year by performing significantly worse when under-prepared compared with when preparation has been tip-top. But what about preparation for training?
It's also obvious that to race well you need to train well. In order to train well you need to be in good condition, particularly for your quality sessions. Go out too hard on a "rest" or "recovery" day and you won't get anything like as much benefit from the quality session. This is analagous to the taper. You need to think about being suitably hydrated and well nourished. Big nights on the beer will harm your performance the next day.
Not performing to your best on one or two training sessions is unlikely to cause a huge problem, but get it wrong too often and you'll be in Struggle City, performing your mayoral duties.
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