Q: G’day Aaron thanks for taking the time to do this interview. So how’s training going at this point?
Training’s going well at the moment. I’m currently training for the New Zealand 10,000m champs in about ten days time so training has just started to ease off a bit but I’ve had a good build up in the past few months. It’s also prime NZ summer time and study break so I’m spending a bit of time travelling out to NZ’s best beach Whangamata where there are some good forestry blocks to run in.
Q: Sounds awesome. So what does a normal training week look like for you?
My coach Chris Pilone goes by ten-day cycles so I don’t really have a standard week. But in the 10 days I’ll have about three key sessions; a long run (2 hours+), a threshold run and a VO2 session. Every other day is usually a double day of two 40-50 minutes easy and then I’ll have one recovery day. And depending on the time of year I also do long tempo runs between 35-45 minutes and specific hill sessions.
Q: Do you have a favorite session?
8 x 1km reps with 60 seconds recovery or 8 x 400m with 40 seconds float between.
Q: That’s a great session. Is making the team for Rio 2016 a major goal of yours?
Yeah definitely making the Rio Olympics is my ultimate goal. My coach and I are still yet to figure out what my focus will be – either 10,000m or marathon, we will just see how my body handles the training over the next couple of years.
Q: What will be you’re first race for the year?
The NZ 10,000m champs will be my first race for the year and the last one for a while actually, I’ll be going back to base work for a couple of months before heading to California in April for a few races.
Q: Running highlight of 2013?
2013 wasn’t the best year for me race wise – I made small PB’s but they weren’t quite the breakthroughs I was hoping for. So I guess my running highlight is just having a whole year being injury free and getting a bit better at those 1% ers.
Q: Favorite movie of 2013?
Captain Phillips
