Ewen wasn't always this slow

There's been a bit of discussion on the ACTrun group about ageing and injuries. Trevor Jacobs is often described by John Harding as 'evergreen' which is apt as Trevor holds his own against twentysomethings in mountain and ultra running. John then went on to 'expose' a few of Trevor's secrets...

Such as:

1. The fitter you are, the faster you recover. Trevor (and Emma Murray) are extremely fit and both recovered quickly from this year's 6 foot track.
2. Running lots of hills and not bashing the legs too much on bitumen.
3. 'Recovery sessions' in the form of cycling to and from work and slow recovery jogs when taking the dogs for a run.
4. Cross training with mountain biking, 12/24 hour rogaining and mountain bike orienteering.

This got me thinking that I need to become fitter. Pretty obvious really. I had a chat to Flashduck last weekend about what to look for in a mountain bike. My ancient Apollo 15-speed badly needs upgrading. I don't ride it much as it doesn't even have such basics as quick release wheels. I'm worried about having to push the thing 20 miles home if a flat tire stops the fun.

I also need to realise that I should back off a tad on the speedwork while getting my base fitness back to something half decent. This will be a bit of a sacrifice as I like running fast - especially in my luscious Nike Frees. I hope improved fitness will have me recovering faster.

At the moment I'm taking two days or more to recover from a hard training session. Back in the old days I could recover with just one easy day. When I think about it I was running nearly twice the kilometres per week back then - 80 to 100 compared to 55-60 right now. My aerobic fitness was helping me to recover quickly. The body would say to itself "there's a hard session coming up in 48 hours you'd better bloody well recover".

My fitness will receive a big boost this weekend with a 25km run Saturday morning followed by a 10km bike ride and 20km 'recovery run' along Range Road Sunday morning. I hope I don't fall asleep in the car on the drive home!