Some thoughts...

Whilst this blog is about running, I do try at times to not make it a complete training bore! I do sometimes, like to pen some thoughts about my feelings towards things, albeit running, but it's nice to do sometimes. I often feel like a frustrated writer. I enjoy it, and do it as part of my job, but would and should try and do more really. I did actually start writing a book some years ago about my travels in 2000. I got about 20,000 words in and lost the lot when my PC crashed.

Anyway, so only 2 weeks now until I leave these shores I now call home and head back to the Motherland that is the UK. If I look back at where I wanted to be, it actually difficult to say where it is I actually wanted to be. I feel like I've achieved far more than I actually set out to do. Whilst I didnt realise it at the time, I am a relative running novice, and I think this comes from the circles you mix in. Over here in Australia, I'm middle of the pack, maybe even more towards the back of the pack. I don't like that, and when I've done the MDS (yes I am going to do this come hell or high water) I have a plan to really try and get myself towards the pointy end of the field.

What is it? Well, firstly I need to decide what it is I'm good at and what I enjoy. There's so many different forms of races over here, and I somewhat naively thought that a good marathon time would translate into a good time over 100km and 100miles. It so doesn't. So what do I want to do - well I'm a fairly decent marathon runner, so should I focus on that? Yes that's fun, but I really enjoy the longer distances too - particularly the 100km stuff on flats. I'm no hill man. I thought I was, but I'm shite at those and need to work on them.

I should get the MDS out the way first - and I'm getting very very excited about it now. excited because I'm back running again, albeit very small steps, but I'm running and I'm running in the way I want to, and thankfully not having to change my running style. There was a period when i was injured when we didn't really know what was wrong, and I was staring at the possibility of having to undo 18 months worth of work and changing styles. Thankfully the people advising me then were wrong and we got to the root of the problem and I'm running (what seems to be) freely.

As for the MDS... well the distance doesn't bother me at all. In fact compared to what I have done, that's not the worry. It's keeping the feet in shape and dealing with the heat. Heat and Feet as they say. I've got my bag down to a cool 8.4kgs now, including water. This is great and I'm very happy with this. I really didn't want it to push over 9kgs... 8.5kgs at a push.

Given the injuries day one and two will be taking it easy time as the pack will be heaviest then and I need to get into the groove. I'm hoping that day's 3 and 4 will see the big push. They say to finish top 100 you need to average 8km/ph. I'm not saying that I have the credentials to do this... but hey, I'm going to give it a shot :)