Shelley set for break ahead of the Games

CHRISTMAS will come early this year for leading Australian runner Michael Shelley.

The experienced marathoner will take a three-week break from mid-October to freshen up for final preparations for his Commonwealth Games gold medal defence in April.

Shelley will run what will almost certainly be his last preGames marathon in the coming weeks, with the location of that race currently under wraps – event organisers will soon unveil the 33-yearold as a drawcard entry.

From then, he will briefly enjoy putting his feet up before ramping up his mileage through the festive season.

“I’d like to have a quick little break, so that in a way is like Christmas break,” he said.

“I will run through Christmas to make sure I am still fit coming into next year.”

Shelley says such breaks are imperative in order to keep motivation high and is planning to be a spectator at the Gold Coast 600 next month as part of his timeout.

“You need that (downtime) after a marathon,” he said.

“If you keep training through, you can tend to become a bit stale … it usually refreshes me and I am good to go for six months.”

Shelley has already clocked an impressive qualifier time at the London Marathon in April, his 2:11.38 only 23 seconds off the personal best time that took him to gold at the 2014 Glasgow Games.

The nearest Australian runner in 2017 is relatively light years behind, being Brad Milosevic’s 2:16.24 at Hamburg. Nonetheless, Shelley will be cautiously watching the times set in marathon season, with the high-profile Berlin event being held this weekend.

The Gold Coaster is riding a wave of determination heading into the Commonwealth Games, having placed 47th at the Olympics last year after being hampered by injury.

“I want to be here representing my country and my home city,” he said proudly.