Melbourne Herald, 1 February 1973 |
In my late twenties, when I got really serious about my marathon running, I realised that injuries in other sports and events risked derailing my ambitions and I began to focus strictly on running. I confess that I now question the value of time devoted to other types of training, such as cycling or cross-training, and particularly think they should not be substituted for running training for the serious runner. But, everybody is different. I always raced best when running a very high mileage (200km -240km per week) which didn't leave much time for other training when working full-time, but I know of others who have successfully used a different approach.
During my preparation for the Melbourne Marathon over the next four months, I have decided to stay away from my bike and kayak, just in case they are incompatible with the running. I decided, however, that playing golf had lower risk, but after this morning am not so sure. Not only did I play my worst round for a long time, but I could feel tingling nerves in my lower back and some stiffness from yesterday's track session. The two are probably connected. Hopefully, I will feel more flexible for tomorrow morning's run with Terrigal Trotters during which I hope to run hard.