Workout Wednesday with Ken Murley

Ken Murley is one tough dude and he has a winning age group record to prove it. Check out the Australian’s favourite workouts that have helped him to four age group world titles, two of which he earned in the men’s 65-69 division and another pair in the men’s 70-72 division this year.

HOW DID YOU GET INVOLVED IN TRIATHLON:
I had always dabbled in competitive sport. At school I competed in athletics, played football, cricket, swam, etc. Post school I played football, then competed in the professional ranks in track and cross country until I was about 40 years old. After that I did very little for 20 years during which time I came down with a bout of cancer. Post recovery (without any formal treatment) I decided I needed to get back into being a bit more active. So, six years ago I did an Xterra race which was great fun. After that a friend of mine talked me into getting serious about competing in triathlons. So I did.

HOW OFTEN DO YOU TRAIN:
As a general rule I would do between 10-13 sessions a week with a rest day every 3rd Sunday. That volume would be reduced by a couple of sessions if I have a race coming up.

WHAT MOTIVATES YOU TO RACE:
Despite my 20 year break from competitive sport I have always been a very physical person and the 3 sports feed my current desire for hard exercise. I am lucky in that I have had a lot of success, including 5 world titles and 2 seconds, over the Sprint, Olympic and 70.3 distances; winning both the Gatorade and Start To Finish series in Melbourne 5 years in a row, plus numerous Australian and State titles in both Triathlon and Duathlon. That helps a bit with the motivation. Apart from that though, I love every aspect of the sport – from the way it is administered, to the friendships you make through racing and training, to the fact that anybody, whatever ability, young or old, can get in and have a go.

HAVE YOU ENCOUNTERED ANY TRAINING OBSTACLES? HOW HAVE YOU GOTTEN OVER THEM?
The only obstacles I have encountered in training are through injury. Apart from the usual niggles everybody gets I had a major bike accident 3 years ago that resulted in 8 broken ribs, a punctured lung and snapped all the ligaments holding my right shoulder together. After a week in hospital and the insertion of the usual plate to put my shoulder back together, I was sent home with the specialist’s instruction not to train until he gave me the all clear. According to him that would take at least 3–4 months. That was a major obstacle to say the least because I was scheduled to compete in the ITU World Championships in China in six months time.

This is how I got over it.

After getting out of hospital with my arm in a sling and in a lot of pain, I could do nothing but sit around home. Two days later I got sick of that and decided to go against the doctor’s orders and get back into training. I started with a slow, painful 10k walk and each day I increased the pace until I was jogging – my arm still in a sling. I had also set up my stationary bike at home and did a one handed session on that every day. However, the hole in my side from the punctured lung was a bit slow healing and I that prevented me from getting back in the pool for about 2 months. When I did, I couldn’t straighten my right arm for another month and then I had to work on getting a full range of motion back. Each stroke I took my shoulder would click, but I persevered and did make it to China where I came 2nd. It wasn’t until many months and probably a million clicks later that an x-ray showed one of the screws holding the plate on my collar bone had completely come out. I think I might have done too many pushups trying to strengthen my shoulder.

WHAT TIPS DO YOU HAVE FOR BALANCING RELATIONSHIPS, WORK AND TRAINING:
With the volume and level of training I do it is difficult to maintain a proper balance. I leave home each day by 5.00am to get the morning training session completed by 7.30am and then I go to work. Evening sessions are usually completed by 7.00pm, but I sometimes do those at lunch time so that I can squeeze in a bit more quality time at home. Weekends are difficult because the usual bike/run sessions go for up to 5-6 hours on a Saturday and 3 hours on a Sunday. If I am racing locally I am usually home after the race by mid-day, then have a sleep for an hour or so.

At 70 years old I still work full time and with the schedule I have, life is pretty hectic and tiring. I am lucky and grateful, that to a major extent my family, my friends and my job fit around my training and racing, rather than the other way around.

FAVOURITE SWIM WORKOUT:
200-400k warm up, including some drills and then 15-20 best effort 100m with 15 sec rest between.

FAVOURITE BIKE WORKOUT:
15 minute warm up. Then, 6 x 5k @ 90% MHR repeats, with 2k spin recoveries at an outdoor velodrome.

FAVOURITE RUN WORKOUT:
I like most of my run workouts, but if I had to pick a favourite I would chose something like, 2k warm up jog, followed by 6 x 80 metre strides, 3-4 sets x (800 metres @ 82-85% MHR, 500 metres @ 85-87% MHR, 300 metres @ 87-90% MHR, with a 90 second recovery jog between each) and a 2 minute recovery between sets.