BEAM Running

Very few race builds go exactly to plan.

If yours has been interrupted, it’s easy to reach race week thinking about the sessions you missed.

But race day still needs to be based on the fitness you have, not the fitness you hoped to have.

Use the training you completed. Start controlled. Fuel as planned. Adjust if you need to.

That isn’t giving up on the race. It’s giving yourself the best chance to run it well.

Send this to someone heading into a race after an interrupted build.

Missed sessions happen.

But I don’t automatically move every missed run to another day. Sometimes that just crowds the week and creates more fatigue than benefit.

I look at why it was missed, what else is planned, and whether completing it still serves a purpose.

A training plan should provide direction—not become a list of sessions you have to repay.

Neither of us ran a PB at Ballarat, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t run good races.

My time was well off my PB pace, yet I came away really happy. I felt like I executed the race well based on my current fitness and the conditions on the day.

Dylan also missed a PB, but ran very close to it in tough conditions—a strong result and a good reflection of his training.

Finish times matter, but they don’t tell the whole story. I also look at the preparation, the decisions made during the race and whether the performance matched what was realistically available on the day.

Sometimes a race can be slower than your best and still be a very good race.

Good coaching isn’t always about adding another session, increasing the kms or finding a way to fit everything in.

Often, the most useful decision is what not to do.

That might mean holding the training load where it is, removing a session that no longer fits, changing the purpose of a run or giving an athlete more time to recover.

A training plan provides direction, but it shouldn’t be followed blindly when the circumstances change.

That’s where coaching judgement matters: looking at what has actually happened, understanding the wider context and deciding what makes sense now.

Sometimes progress comes from doing more. Sometimes it comes from knowing when not to.

A couple of mid race shots from Lakeside:10 on the weekend 📷

A brilliant result for Dylan, running a new 10km PB as he continues to build towards Melbourne Marathon. It’s great to see his consistent training translating into another strong race performance.

Swipe across to see the coach out there getting it done too!

Some great results over the weekend!

Maryanne with a 70 second ‘old’ PB and second in her age category for Run Melbourne 10km.

Dylan with a strong half marathon at Run Melbourne. Aiming for sub 1:25 he ran 1:24:37 for his second fastest half.

And Marc ran his fastest 5km for the year at Jetty 2 Jetty!

Bundoora 10km XC ✅
Typical cross country conditions - cold, mud, rain, wind and hills! Tough but good fun!
Thanks THRIVE Squad for the photos!

New training tees from PERENE have arrived!
Took mine out for a threshold workout today and can confirm these are fantastic to run in! Very comfortable and breathable.

Well done Lisa completing the historic Blaydon Race, a 9.5km (5.9 mile) race in North East England. The race first took place in 1981 and is inspired by the iconic 1862 folk song by George Ridley.

This year it was a freezing morning with rain, at least the popularity of the race meant some warmth being close together on the start line. There is a significant hill just after 2km in (see 3rd image) which Lisa was able to tackle well and finish in a great time of 50:04!