Tough graft - Mount Solitary assault

This week has been a bit of an arse in terms of being able to get out and train. Mainly because I was recovering from Deep Space until Wednesday evening, Thursday I had a twinge in my left leg so thought it best not to head out, and then Friday was busy with work commitments. However I managed to get out yesterday with a few guys from CoolRunnings, for what I thought was going to be a nice gentle 40kms. Sweet Jesus, did that not turn out to be the case!

The run is know as the Mount Solitary 'run-up', and consists of a 40km loop around the Blue Mountains. The scenary is quite simply stunning when you're at the top.

I didnt start well, after only 4kms I rolled my right ankle pretty badly. One of those ones where I actually few over from it. I can normally keep my footing when I do that, but this was a pretty bad one. However I popped some painkillers and just carried on, although this morning it is pretty swollen and quite sore.

However on we go with the run, starting at around 1200m, and we decend right into the valley at around 200m I believe. What goes down must go up, and for the next couple of hours, we had an almight slog up Mount Solitary. The final 30 mins or so is literally hands and knees scrambling up the mountain face. I dont mind this, if I'm on a walk or climb, but on a run, I'm not so keen. Still the views at the top were well worth it. So along the ridge we went, before having some food, and then setting off along the ridge of the mountain some further, before decending. Boy was that an experience! Again hands and knees stuff and it was here that I managed to scrap my leg along a bush stump, opening it up quite badly too... things were not going well here!

So downt he mountain we came, before we hit the rainforest, and some beautiful running for around 10kms along the mountain ridge, just underneath it, and making our way back to Katoomba. Here we filled up on water from the fresh mountain stream, before hitting the 15kms or so back to the car at Wentworth Falls. Again soome more great runnable trail through rainforest where I picked up a few leeches for flavour too! And then at 38kms, the monster of all hills! This is not what you need having just climbed a mountain as big as Snowdoon already... however on we plodded, and again we climbed another 1000m or so I believe of just head down and grin and bear it. It was a hard slog that seemed to never end, but we got there and finished our 42kms (a slight detour earlier on added some) in a long, slow time of 8 hours 30 mins.

That was a tough one, especially off the back of last week, but it's again, good to do these long tough trails as they will increase the strength. I'm still shit at hills, but I'm getting better. I'm noticably good on the nice long flats of trail running, but I still need to work on those hills.

The ankle is pretty sore at the moment, but should be OK in a few days for some speed work and tempo training.

EDIT: Here's some stats on the run from one of the guys who had a Garmin on. I can see why these things come in handy now. I didnt wear a thing on Saturday, well clothes obviously:

Trip measured 43.99km with elevation gain of +2730 and descent of -2716. Climbing Mt Solitary, it is 3.0km from river (163m)to first level off (837m) with a gain of 671 metres. High point of Mt. Solitary is 955m. For the dreaded final climb it is +600m over 6.7km.

Nice little recovery

Despite feeling a bit achey still from the war that was the Deep Space marathon, I thought it best to get out and do an easy 4 miler just to get the legs going again. It actually felt really good, and although somewhat heavy, my legs felt strong - must have been from all that mountain climbing at the weekend. So much so that I tagged on 5 x 200m hill reps to the end of my run. I'm now going to do much more of these as I really want to increase my leg strength. The mountain marathon at the weekend taught me a good lesson - that I'm pretty shit at going up hills... (and coming down them). I really need to work the legs over and over again and make them feel the pain of hill sprints, given that I live on one of the steepest in Balmain, here in Sydney.

I also feel pretty good about the months ahead, now that I've made the decision not to try and crucify myself with really high and stupid unneccessary mileage over the next 3 months. This next stage was where I was really going to ramp it up, but I've decided not to. I want to be feeling fresh for the MDS, so manby people go into it with little niggles... I dont want that fingers crossed. I'll peak at around 70 miles a week I reckon, and the bulk of that will be made from doing back to back runs at the weekend of between 25 and 30 miles. That's what I'm going to concentrate on over the weekends over the next three months. Then I'll do my tempo and hill work during the week. I'm in a good place with all this running I feel... so much so that I totted up the miles today. Not that it matters, because it's not about how many miles you clock up, it's about the quality, but I'm now on 2,025 miles since I started training seriously last October... not a bad little total, which should probably reach just over 2,500 by the real thing me thinks!

But it's about the quality of those miles, and I dont want to be doing 'dead' miles in the coming months, it's be long slow stuff and high short intensity runs around the Bay. Although I do need to get that backpack on a bit more me thinks too... I'm fine with carrying 4kgs over 110kms odd... but need to up the weight too.

Deep Space (Snow) Marathon

Well this one had caught my eye for a few months now, purely because of the location, and also the toughness of the course too. I'm not sure it's what my body needed two weeks after GNW, but the plan was to always take it pretty steady, although halfway up Mount Tennent, I realised just how steady I would have to take it!

So upon arriving in Canberra, and then the short drive south, one thing immediately struck me... how bloody cold it was! And it was set to get worse as it started to snow. All plans of staying in a tent went out the window as I pulled the seats down in the car and snuggled up into my sleeping bag which was extremely cosy!

I awoke at 4:45am to a couple of centimetres of snow on the car... in Australia, in the summer? What was going on? The snow was really starting to bucket down as we started the race, with a nice gentle 6kms of downhill. Well I say gentle, we actually descended a couple of hundred metres, which was made worse by the fact that I knew we had to come back up here in a couple of hours time. The first climb was literally a climb, as we headed up Mount Tennent.



Trail running is all a bit new to me, and I've learnt some things in the short time I've been doing it - that I'm pretty slow. It wasn't long before I found myself at the back of the pack, and we started the long slow 5km climb up the bloody thing. As we climbed higher, the weather got worse, and I really started to question what the hell I was doing out here. Higher and higher, wetter and colder it got. I arrived at the top to find a couple of inches of snow, and glad to have that done with, however I'm equally as crap going down mountains too. I'm very slow, and this is something I need to work on.

As we hit the road to come back, I started to get very disillusioned to be honest. My knee started to hurt, and for the second time in as many races, I was going to pull the plug. To be honest I thought it was going to get pulled for me as I was seriously close to the cut off. I mst have walked a great chunk of the 6kms back up the road and found it desperately hard. However I clicked my head back into place and told myself that I wasn't going to come all this way to run 25kms. I just about made the cut off (3hrs 10mins), and pushed on, and found the second half of the course a delight. Some more tough hills, and one serious 3km climb on the journey home, but things were looking better, and the last 3kms of downhill were lovely, running at normal pace to just about make the cut off, if not a minute or so out for a 5hrs 30 mins.

Overall, an enjoyable race, well the second have, but that was after I'd stopped thinking about 'racing'... I think that's the key for me... stop thinking about racing and just go along for the ride. There were some seriously good trail runners out there including one of Australia's best, and this was one tough course. But it's all good training and practice for the real thing. I need to get out on more hills and feel that pain so I can get better at them. Hill training is so key.

More quality... calf strain!

It's always the way... I do this hard stuff and I tend to push the boat out a little and strain my soleus muscle. It's the same one each time which really should tell me something, but hey I'm a man and I'm stupid! Still I wasn't going to go out last night and I set off and it was a little tender. I then stopped and thought about what I was doing... here I was going for a 'normal' run. They bore me now. Seriously, I find it very hard to motivate myself to go and and just run at a steady pace. I need some hills to sprint up, or do a tempo run, or smash along a trail. So I turned round after 1/2 a km and ran home to do some hill reps. I live on a nice big hill (about 200m long), so I did ten reps of them at between 60-70% threshold. Jesus by number 8 the quads were starting to hurt a little, especially after last night's tempo run. However 10 x 200m of that was far better than just knocking off an easy 10kms. I know I should do these sometimes, and it's important to do them as they 'rest' my body somewhat, but I'll do that on Friday I think.

I'm resting now tonight ahead of the Deep Space marathon on Sunday. I always had my eye on this one as it looked cool. Not only because of the name, but because it looks pretty tough too. It's also a small event, which I like and is a trail run over some nice mountains. The winner last year did it in 3hr 49mins, and looking back, he's a 2hr 50min marathon runner! So it's definitely a tough one. I'll be looking for somewhere around 4hrs 30 - 5hrs, depending on how hard I push myself. Being realistic, it's only 2 weeks since GNW, so more towards the 5hrs mark I think. People have said it's very similar to 6 foot track, so it will be a nice little test, plus I'll stick the camelbac on to carry a bit of weight too. Plus we can camp at the start line, so this one will be a nice couple of days in the outback, chilling. I like that...

Quality training

Tonight was the speed session, and it was 14kms of hard graft, but some really good quality training. So two laps of the Bay Run it was. The first was a hard tempo run, running at around 80-90% max rate, knocking that off in 25mins 50secs. Felt good actually, but there was some seriously stiff breeze knocking about also! The second lap was a slightly easier one, alternating between 1km slow and 1km quick, knocking that off in bang on 28 mins.

All in some good quality and pretty pleased given we're still only just over one week since the big one last week.

The joy of a new pair of trainers...

Weird... I was weary and my knee hurt yesterday. The today I go and smack out a pretty quick 10kms. All very strange. I wasn't even going to go out today as my right knee is giving me a little jip. Probably just a slight ligament strain, as it feels very similar to how the left knee felt a few months back. But I thought I'd head out even if only for a nice easy 7kms. However I was feeling so good I extended it to just under 11km and it was a great little run. I wouldn't have thought that only a week ago I was on trail doing 100km+. Anyhow, a nice bounce back week, totally 50kms and a good back to back yesterday and today.

I feel my training is in a very good place right now as we lead into the last 3-4 months ahead of what I've been working towards for the last 18 months. Training will really ramp up now in the summer, and I have some fantastic places to go out and train now that I have the car. I've decided that in February I'm going to attempt 4 weekends of 50kms each Saturday and Sunday on some of the toughest terrain on the GNW. That will be awesome preparation for the MDS. It will mean 100kms at the weekends, and then I can keep things ticking over during the week. To be honest thinking about the training more and more, I don't quite understand those people that try and knock off big distances during the week. I personally think that at my peak at the end of February I'll be doing two 50kms at the weekend, and then 3 x 20km during the week - 160kms peak for two weeks is more than enough. I don't see the point in making up distances during the week. This race is about 6 x 40kms (approx). so training should be geared towards that. However just my opinion I suppose... each to their own! Quite excited now about all of this training ahead. Fingers crossed I'll remain injury free over the next 3 months and I can gradually ramp up the mileage slowly and peak at the end of Feb. Jesus, that's only 3.5 months away!

Back on the trail...

In hindsight a good decision not to carry on last week. Up at 5:30am today and off for a 25km trail run back on the Great North walk, however a little nearer to Sydney on the 'Beyond the black stump' route. This is a nice and fairly easy little run and it was good to get that distance under the belt, only a week after the 113kms last week. Admittedly I was a little weary, but it was pretty good to be honest, and whilst there were some hills, to be quite frank they were nothing compared to some of the stuff we had to do last week! I went along with a guy called Keith (one of Andrew's friend's) and we had a nice little jaunt. One of the stretches is a tough 2kms uphill also, which we decided to run, and the quads were certainly feeling it in that last 500m! But again, all good, and some great training. I think I'll make this one of my regular routes.

I'm also looking forward to getting back onto the GNW proper and doing some of the serious hill stretches ahead of the MDS. The 3rd stage between Congewai and the basin, as well as adding in a bit more towards Yaramlong is simply fantastic training for next March. Anyway, back to the grind now, one or two more races lined up, but for now the focus is on big mileage at the weekends. Consecutive runs of 40-50kms is what's required now. Really does make me think what the during the week runs are all about now, more a case of keeping things ticking over I think. The benefit is in the big long stuff at weekends.

In the cold light of day...

It's really hard reading all of the race reports and seeing how happy everyone is after the GNW at the weekend. What hurts is not being part of that club and not finishing. But it's OK, I'm OK with the decision I made as I have to keep the long term goals in mind. I don't know what kind of a state I would have been in had I done the lot, but that's done with now and I can only focus on what's ahead, and that is to try for a top 150 place at the MDS. This is my goal and I need to focus on it - rather than trying to do too much all at once. Once that is done (hopefully!), I have some serious goals set aside for 2009, namely three very big ones. I'm a bit superstitious, so I don't like to broadcast what they are, but they involve three of the biggest ultras in Australia, and I want to do them. There is a lifetime of opportunity ahead for me and running, and I'm so glad that I found this wonderful sport early. I look at some of the veteran generation and the guys doing this and you look at them in awe and what they do. So much respect for them. At the weekend, I learnt about respect for this and certainly the GNW race, and I thank my lucky stars that hopefully, I'll have many many more years to run this wonderful race.

Anyway's enough of GNW - that book is now closed for this year, and I now have three and a half more months of some serious high mileage training to do. So, back on the wagon I got last night with a gentle 4 miler. At some stages I was running pretty quickly, given that I'd run about 113kms on Saturday - I think it was retribution for my mind and letting myself slip. I'll be out again tonight, and my focus is now unrelenting for the MDS - I'm going to smash it and smash my body for this one, really putting it on the line.

It's also exciting to see what races I'll do in 2009 after the MDS. The Canberra marathon is a must, not only because it will be my first year anniversary of running, but because one of the guys who I see week in week out and is quite frankly an amazing person to look up to, will be running his 100th marathon - simply awesome and inspiring in my book. Although he thinks what he does is everyday, I know a lot of people look up to him as a role model and as an inspiration. Certainly, I've been following his blog and he's inspired me to push myself even further beyond my limits than I probably would have done, I need that kick up the arse sometimes. He's also given up his free time to talk to me and run me through his thoughts, and in some respects I let him and myself down at GNW, but that's done (as I said!)...

So, full steam ahead now for the MDS and some serious training. Next up I'm going to be pacer/crew for some people up at the C2K, as that will be a good chance to get some big distances under my belt also!

Mental Demons...

Well, it was always a possibility and this weekend it happened - the dreaded DNF. What happened? Well loads of things were wrong, I felt sick, my feet hurt, my achilles was killing, but hey, all things that could have been sorted out - I just let the race get to me. I think also I wasn't in the right head space for this one either - I really questioned my own desire to finish. I wasn't gearing up the this like a lot of other people - this was their big goal. For me, this wasn't a big goal or even a race I'd considered doing until 2 months beforehand. So really, I don't think my heart was 100% in it, and as a result it showed in my decision to not go past 103kms.

It didn't helped getting lost for around 2 1/2hours. I missed a right turn at around 65kms and shot about 2.5kms downhill on a road, only to realise that I was fooked, so had a nice slog back uphill. Then the cardinal sin, getting lost at the basin. I told myself time and time again to be careful coming in here. The reality is though that having "lost 5kms", I was really flying to make up time. I did a 5.5kms section in 30 mins, which in hindsight was stupid. I blew myself out a bit. I then made the mistake of following a marking, not a sign to the Basin campsite and then proceeded to wander round for over an hour. In total I lost 2 1/2 hours. I was devastated and moral was massively low.

I then left the basin feeling like absolute crap, sickness, dizzyness, delusional... so much so that I actually started to run off-course into the bush until I saw some lights about 50 metres uphill and realise that I'd buggered up. The next leg of 20kms was relatively easy downhill and road and I pretty much got through in just over 4 hours, walking a lot of the way. That made my feet hurt like crazy, and by then I'd chucked in the towel.

I keep thinking about why I did this, and I really think it came down to the desire to finish this race. My ultimate goal is the MDS next year, so this was in the back of my mind too. I wondered if I had carried on, would it have wrecked me physically? Certainly the thought of another 70kms did make me think I would take myself out of training for 2-3 weeks, which at this stage I didn't want. My feet were a bit of a mess, I didn't want to have those few weeks recovering, when really I need to get back on the training wagon in the next 3-4 days.

However it all came down to desire - I simply didn't want this race bad enough, and I think that if I had my time again, I would have probably made the same decision. Will I go back? More than likely, but with a real focus on this race. It seems strange to say it but I have to really be in the right head space for these things and totally focused on it all. For this I wasn't. At Glasshouse I was, I'd targeted it as something I really wanted to do. For this one I wasn't even nervous, which is wrong in my opinion - that tells me that I wasn't that bothered. I'm bothered by my lack of mental focus though, but I'd rather this happened now than in the MDS. They say you always learn from these things too, and I will. I remember Steve Waugh once saying you always learn more from your defeats than your victories and I will on this occasion. I learnt loads from Glasshouse and put that into practice at GNW. Here though, I learnt about desire (or rather lack of it). Looking back I know that I should have entered the 100kms, I entered the 100 miler because other people were doing it, not because I wanted to do it - and that is about desire.

However you must draw positives - it was another ultra under the belt (well 113kms-ish), and 19 hours on my feet. Maybe I'm trying to do too much in preparation for the MDS. The GNW is a massive race, and personally I think that it will be harder than the MDS. Doing 175kms straight through is a huge ask with all that elevation too, and I have the upmost respect for those that do. One of the guys I run with, Andrew put in a huge effort, coming in 6th at 29 hours. He put in what was quite simply an amazing effort and beat some extremely good runners in the process - I have massive respect for him and his desire to do this. Maybe next year I can repeat what he did, but for now I know my place and what I want to achieve. I'm OK with the decision I made. Of course it would have been great to finish the race, but I can't change it now and I will remain focused on my goal of the MDS. Next year my priorities will be different and my goals too. So one to learn from, not dwell on and get on with it.

Getting ready

So yesterday was an easy 9 miler. I've actually decided to do more taper than planned. The idea was to make the last mile of the GNW 175km the 2,000th mile of my training. However I realised that doing nearly 35 miles the week before a 108 mile race is probably a little stupid. To that end, I only did 9 miler on Saturday, which was 4kms warm-up, 6kms fairly hard at 4:40km pace and then 4kms gentle coming home. Today I did nothing, despite having a 5 miler planned, but thought better of it. Instead I went for a lovely massage, and will probably head out tomorrow for a casual 4 miles easy to break in some new trainers, followed by one more very slow run Tuesday/Wednesday to keep the legs ticking over me thinks.

Most of this week will be spent getting ready, sorting out the maps and the food and generally pooing myself about spending the whole of the coming weekend running in the bush... awesome. Can't wait.