Aussie Marathon Training

I listened to this podcast interview with Julian Spence. He is one of the trio who hosts the weekly Inside Running Podcast. The ungenerous take from the interview is Kristian trains double threshold to try break 2.20 and Mona trained his way in the 1990’s to go 2.08 (pre-supershoe). As hype for a training system goes up, marathon time gets worse.

What is the Aussie method?

Earlier in Julian’s (Moose’s) running career he trained in Ballarat with Mona’s group. They had a week structure and stuck to it through most of the year.

The principle is going hard (above threshold) 3 times a week, but limiting it to 20 minutes per time to control the intensity and keep the volume high (200k per week). There is also, similar to the Norwegian method limited periodisation, rather consistency week after week.

Monday — easy 10 mi + 8 mi pm Tuesday- easy am + Mona Fartlek (explained below) PM Wed — 20k / 90 min mid long run Thursday — Track 8 x 400 or kilometer reps Friday — easy double Saturday — 6 k hilly tempo or xc race Sunday — 30–40k “in the bush” 600m + elevation + race on hills, pm 30–40 min run

Total 200k, 3 workouts

My adaption

As I cannot handle 200k weeks, or have a highly driven group to keep me accountable, I cannot copy and paste this system. So I toned it down to test this for a week.

Monday — 3k (yes that’s it) jog. This was in Bali (high 20’s degrees C) and I’m coming back form sickness.

Tuesday — Mona Fartlek — 2 x (90 seconds hard, 90 seconds float) then 4 x (60 seconds hard, 60 seconds float), 4 x (30 seconds hard, 30 seconds float), then 4 x (15 seconds hard, 15 seconds float). This was post my flight back, so I pushed and went on feel, it woke me up so helped fight the Jet Lag. The floats were a bit easier than I’d have liked.

Wednesday — 90 min mid — long run. It was nice to get out, I’ve not pushed distance while in Bali, I got rolling with hills and mid 4.40 k’s for the most parts on the flat.

Thursday — 8 x 400m, 2 min stand. For this it was faster than I have moved in a session for a long time, averaged 80 for the 400’s and was moving well. I felt this helps my glute engagement and form, a skill I neglected.

Friday — 7k easy. Frosty morning, moved well.

Saturday — Tempo parkrun 20.08. I’d have liked to go faster, but it was -5 degrees and first continuous effort in 2 months.

Sunday — Long run. This is the cornerstone of their week. With no mates* to race up the hills. Hoped to get 2 hours, without ruining myself so I could repeat the next week. I did 24k in 2.16. It was an easy trudge through muddy fields. From the interview, the guides would have gone faster, but I wasn’t ready.

*in the area to run with — I have friends.

72k for the week. My biggest week in a while. I liked the structure and it didn’t feel like I was clocking up that many miles. I will stick with this for a few weeks at least. 19 weeks to Boston. I will post again I tick off more weeks on this plan. I feel it is nice to hit the speed regularly, but limit it to 20 mins a time, to not burn out.