Brick by Brick

Welcome to Build Week #1, team.

After a well-earned Recovery Week and a King's Birthday weekend that made the week feel about two days shorter than normal, it's time to get back to work.

Not panic. Not cram. Not suddenly decide you're preparing for the Olympics.

Just get back to work.

Recovery Week exists for a reason. It allows the body to absorb the training stress from the previous cycle, freshen up physically and mentally, and prepare for the next phase. If you've followed the program as prescribed, you should be arriving at this week feeling refreshed, motivated and ready to build again.

And that's exactly what we're doing.

Build Week #1 isn't about heroics. It's about laying the first brick.

The athletes who improve year after year are rarely the athletes who produce one incredible training week. They're the athletes who string together dozens of good weeks, month after month, season after season.

📅 The Extra Sessions Are Back

One of the things you'll notice on the timetable this week is the return of our Build Week bonus sessions. These sessions are deliberately scheduled during Build Weeks and deliberately removed during Recovery Weeks.

That's important.

More on that shortly.

Why We Don't Run These Every Week

There's a reason these sessions appear during Build Weeks and disappear during Recovery Weeks.

If we ran them every week, they would lose much of their training benefit.

More importantly, many athletes would simply accumulate fatigue faster than they can absorb it.

Fitness isn't created by doing everything.

Fitness is created by doing the right things at the right time.

The temptation is always there to think:

"One more session couldn't hurt."

Sometimes it can.

Recovery Weeks aren't empty space in the calendar.

They're part of the training.

Respect them.

⚠️ The 10% Rule (Or: How Good Intentions Become Injuries)

This feels like a timely reminder.

Over recent weekends we’ve see situations that many endurance athletes have experienced at some point in their sporting journey.

An athlete was feeling good.

A group was heading out for a longer run.

The opportunity was there.

The enthusiasm was there.

The FOMO was definitely there.

Unfortunately, so was an overuse injury waiting to happen.

The reality is that the body doesn't particularly care how motivated you are.

It responds to training load.

One of the most widely accepted guidelines in endurance sport is to avoid increasing volume, distance or load by more than approximately 10% at a time.

Why?

Because connective tissue, tendons, ligaments and supporting structures often take much longer to adapt than your cardiovascular fitness.

Your lungs might feel capable. Your heart might feel capable. Your enthusiasm might feel capable.

Your ITB, Achilles or plantar fascia may have a different opinion entirely.

The challenge for many athletes isn't a lack of motivation. It's having the discipline to stop when enough is enough.

This is especially true when training with others.

Sometimes the biggest training mistake isn't being lazy. It's getting swept up in somebody else's session.

Listen to your body. Trust your program. Remember that the goal isn't to win Sunday.

The goal is to keep training consistently for the next six months.

We'll dive deeper into this topic in a future article because there's plenty more to unpack.

📈 The Next Phase Begins

As coaches, we're always looking several months ahead.

Which means while some athletes are only just noticing winter has arrived, we're already thinking about where we want you to be in spring.

Over the coming weeks you'll notice a gradual shift in training emphasis.

We've spent a significant period focusing on:

✅ Base fitness

✅ Technique development

✅ Movement efficiency

✅ Aerobic foundations

Now we'll begin introducing more endurance-focused work.

Not dramatically.

Not overnight.

Just gradually.

As always, the objective is to prepare you for what's coming next.

And what's coming next is our next strength-focused block.

Every phase builds upon the one before it.

Nothing is random.

Nothing is accidental.

Trust the process.

⏱️ You Can't Manage What You Don't Measure

A huge congratulations to everyone who completed last Thursday's Time Trial.

Whether you ran a personal best, had an average day, or simply showed up and got it done, well done.

Time Trials remain one of the most valuable tools in our annual training structure.

Not because they tell us everything. But because they tell us something.

Athletes often focus solely on the final time. The coaches are looking at much more than that.

We're observing:

How you performed.

How controlled you looked.

How your pacing unfolded.

How you recovered afterwards.

How you responded compared to previous testing periods.

Conditions change. Weather changes. Course conditions change. Life changes. That's why the number itself is only one piece of the puzzle.

The bigger picture is understanding whether you're progressing over time.

As the saying goes:

"You can't manage what you don't measure."

And that's exactly why we keep measuring.

🧁 Squad Recovery Secrets

Last week we shared our article on recovery nutrition and asked the squad a very important scientific question:

What is your go-to recovery food?

As expected, the responses did not disappoint. Can you guess who these athletes are?

XXX

"Mmmmmm recovery muffins - savoury."

Even included photographic evidence. And honestly, they look pretty convincing. If muffins can contain vegetables and still count as recovery food, we're fully onboard.

XXX

"Cottage cheese with kiwi fruit has been my go to forever post swimming or Kakadu plum smoothies after a recent bush tucker workshop I attended."

This is easily the most sophisticated answer received.

XXX

"Bone broth vegetable soup, chicken breast and brown rice. Could be completely wrong in the recovery department but I see hydration, protein and carbs all in one meal. And it's EASY."

This athlete may not realise it, but she accidentally described a very solid recovery strategy.

We also suspect the following recovery methods are currently being employed somewhere within the squad:

🥪 The emergency servo ham sandwich.

🍕 Two slices of leftover pizza that somehow become four.

🥛 Chocolate milk consumed directly in the car park.

🍳 Eggs on toast while standing in the kitchen because sitting down feels like too much effort.

☕ A coffee and a promise to eat something later.

🍟 "Carb loading" that suspiciously resembles hot chips.

Whether you're Team Smoothie, Team Muffin, Team Pizza or Team Cottage Cheese, keep the suggestions coming.

We're learning a lot about our athletes. Possibly more than we should.

💛 That's Enough for One Week

Build Week #1 has arrived.

The extra sessions are back.

The endurance focus is beginning to creep in.

The next phase of the season is underway.

For now, keep things simple.

Follow the program.

Trust the process.

And remember that the biggest gains rarely come from one spectacular session.

They come from hundreds of ordinary sessions completed consistently.

Brick by brick.

See you out there,

💙💛

Team TA