Going the Distance

To be properly prepared to do the New York marathon a more structured training plan is required so that I can achieve my goal. Prior to my spinal cord injury in 2013 I competed in the Wellington City marathon in 2007. I allowed myself 6 months of training prior to running in this event. I used a training schedule suggested on the marathons website which was structure with 5 runs per week. The midweek runs were shorter sessions of varying intensities. At least one of the weekend runs was a longer and generally low intensity. This training schedule concentrated on gradually increasing the length of time you trained, it did not worry about the distance you traveled. 

With this type of training schedule in mind I will be trying to do at least one longer push each week and at least two other pushes for my 2025 training. In additional I will continue to use my rowing erg to keep improving my aerobic fitness. If I can keep up this schedule the number of training sessions should exceed 110 pushes.

Today's push took the same route as all my previous, today however I headed up Mitcham Road for the first time and turned around at the first bend. I tried not to go out too hard as I talked about in the training schedule above. We headed out around the middle of the day and the weather was rather unusual with very little wind and plenty of cloud cover. The session went well although I need to ease back on my pace to look after my old body. The push was my longest to date at 18.5 km taking just over 1 hour and 18 minutes.

Looking at the my pushing technique in this video I am not giving the pushrim a full push which is the most effective technique. Having researched racing wheelchair technique on YouTube I am now trying to incorporate this in my future training. My gloves should be starting contact with the rim at about 2 o'clock and as the stroke pushes down the glove should roll inwards retaining contact with the rim and finally giving the rim a flick as you bring your arms back up for another stroke. Yvonne might have take some more video for technique analysis.