I have been reflecting on how fortunate I have been since moving to the mountains in regards to the smooth transition I've had with training. I've always enjoyed training in groups rather than by myself. In reality, a distance runner does enough training on his own so to have like minded people to run with on some of the 'other' days is a real bonus.
Of course I did have this with Woodstock while living down in the city, but I was worried that it would be a bit different when moving up here. How wrong could I be!
Since moving up here, I've hooked up with the Blue Mountains Joggers under the tutorship of Rob Spilling - a legend of the NSW distance running scene, whom amongst other notable achievenments has a sub 43 min City 2 Surf to his name. I used to read about his achievements in old running mags; he and a few others like Jamie Harrison and Paul Arthur used to dominate the NSW fun run scene. While Rob will be the first to admit that age and injury have caught up with him, his presence at training is worth more than anything else and his advice is invaluable.
So every Tuesday is intervals and Thursdays is a tempo run with the option of hooking up with them on Sunday morning for a long run. There is a core group of guys who really make great training partners - Wayne Bulloch, Jim Perrett and the O'Brien brothers to name a few. Complimenting these sessions is my regular Wednesday long run with Wayne and my week now pretty much looks after itself.
Just got to try and get along to a couple of BMMC training runs in the morning now to complete the week!