You recently won the Noosa bolt. Are you happy with your current form?
I feel like I’m heading in the right direction with my fitness. Leading up to the Burnie10 and Noosa Bolt I was doing heavy base work with only one threshold session a week but lots of longer running. So to get a win and a 2nd is a good sign for when I start getting into full training.
PHOTO: Susan Kuijken and Brett Robinson have crossed the line together in the 5km Bolt as the men chased down the women.
Can you talk us through your highs and lows of 2014?
There has been a lot more lows than highs this year. I struggled with ITB problems through the start of the year, but I was still hoping to make the Commonwealth Games, so I pushed to get back to fitness, but was cut short again with some swelling near my Navicular. This evidently brought my European season to an end. Since then things have started to get better. Coming back home to Australia I started to work a lot with Nathan Heaney, the S&C coach at VIS to help me hopefully become more robust, building my training back up. Burnie10 and the Noosa Bolt have all been positive outcomes. Now hopefully I can continue improving into my 5km leg at the Ekiden Realys next week and then the 10,000m at Zatopek.
Hows the Ballarat Project going?
Dave Mcneill has just joined the Ballarat Project, he is actually going really well at the moment, we have been training and racing together the last few months. He beat me at Burnie but I’m hopping to get one back on him at Zatopek. This year Ryan Gregson and I have decided to spend a bit more time in Melbourne. We are both in the VIS and living in Ballarat made it hard to use the facilities in Melbourne. We both have had a few injuries the last few years so we decided that staying injury free was the first priority, which is the main reason for the move. The Ballarat Project will still be training together throughout the summer plus we’ll be together at training camps like Falls Creek, Mt Laguna and London.
Can you talk us through a typical training week?
At the moment a typical week looks like this:
Monday AM: 60min and Gym PM: 35min and Strides
Tuesday AM: Grass Track session e.g. 8x1km PM: 35min
Wednesday AM: 90min and Gym
Thursday AM: 10km+ Threshold PM: 35min
Friday AM 60min and Gym
Saturday AM: Hilly Threshold PM: 35min
Sunday AM: 2hours over hills
Favourite/key workout?
I like long runs. I do 2 hours pretty much every Sunday. I think doing long runs over hills is pretty important, you get a lot of extra strength work that you cant get while running on the flat. I think places like Ferny Creek in Melbourne, Stromlo in Canberra, Belair National Park in Adelaide are all perfect long runs and you will get much more benefit at these places compared to somewhere flatter.
What NB shoes are you currently rotating?
Right now I’m wearing New Balance 1260s and 870s. I use the 1260s for my longer runs because they have a lot of support and cushion in them. the 870s I use for my shorter runs and my thresholds. They are lightweight and are perfect for thresholds when I don’t want to wear flats for 10kms.
Favourite movie this year?
’22 Jump Street.’ Ice Cube has the best angry face, that movie has me laughing the whole time. I’ve watched it a couple of times now and it’s still not old. I’ll add my worst movie of the year, ‘Maze Runner.’ I thought it was a running movie, it wasn’t.
Thanks Brett and all the best.
