Canberra Ultramarathon & Run For The Kids

How good is Easter!!!  I can get up whatever time I feel like and then head off for a nice long run  :)  Managed to get in 24km in the last five days, might do another 8km tomorrow morning!  Clearly I've been doing too much running and not enough blogging as it's been over a month since my last blog – sorry Elise!!

In the first two weeks after my last blog, I ran a relatively modest 21km, then ran 50km in the pouring rain up in Canberra, and then another 14km under the Domain and over the Bolte last weekend...  And now ramping up the training for Mothers Day Classic  :)

I did the ultramarathon in our nation's capital last year and really struggled – this year I was again definitely questioning my sanity to continue after the 'finish line' at 42km and even more so when leg cramps kicked in at the 46km mark and but nothing was going to stop me from beating last year's time by 22min – VICTORY!!

Since few readers would have ever enjoyed the 'thrill' of running an ultramarathon, here's a 'race report':

The half-marathoners, full-marathoners and ultra-marathoners all started on the one gun at 7am - it was a miserable 5 degrees Celsius and rain was threatening. 1,229 runners completed the half marathon, 947 the full marathon and only 114 completed the 50km – the average time for the ultra was 4:37:48, which was quite miraculously three seconds faster than my time! The fastest was 3:03:08 – this is a sport that always has a way of proving that there is somebody in a different league!!

Now in my haste to make it to the airport check-in counter in time, I failed to purchase any GU gel  =(  So I bought a couple of Mars bars and a pack of Life Savers after dinner the night before and in the morning just whacked that in a plastic bag with an apple...  Now I didn't end up eating the apple because you can't eat an apple whilst running and the Life Savers got soaked by the rain and stuck to the wrapping so I couldn't eat those either - so stupidly I ended up carrying an apple in a plastic bag for 50km haha!!!!! (That's up there with one marathon that I forgot to wear a watch!!)  The Mars bars were gold though – after spending 2-3 minutes trying to open each wrapper with slippery fingers in the pouring rain!!!

I stayed overnight a ten-minute walk from the start line, which became a hasty five-minute jog as I ran through empty Canberra's street-scape to the main hall, located the bag drop and jumped the fence to start ten rows back from the pointy end of the field – must admit I'm the BIGGEST queue-jumper at running events  =)  Low-key start - nobody working the microphone, no Advance Australia Fair, just 30 second warning and 10 second countdown and GO!!

Got some serious pain on the balls of my left toes at about 10-12km – this has happened on more than one previous occasion, I just favoured my right foot for a while and the pain dissipated over the next few km...

En route I discovered more gold – GU gel on a table at the 15km and 30km marks!!!! Took two each time and honestly that made such a difference!!! The thing with long-distance running is you need a ridiculous amount of water but then you also need a ridiculous amount of carbs – GU is an acquired taste, just mix it in with lots of water  =D  Hit the wall at 28km: it was accompanied by a simple realisation that I couldn't maintain my pace for another 22km, just turned it down a gear and watched my placing progressively slip...

Crossing the finish line for the marathon distance was an emotional moment, everybody's cheering you on saying “ONLY 500 METRES TO GOOOOO!!!!!!!” and you don't have the energy to say “Sorry, 8.5km in my case” but the buzz of the crowd and the fellow runners help the adrenalin kick in, then you cross the line and the other runners look at you thinking "Jesus Christ, I'm completely done, I finished a marathon and that guy's off for another 7.805 km of punishment?"  One minute later there's nobody cheering you on and it's just you and the empty road ahead.

THEN my right hamstring cramped up at 46km and it was simply a matter of bringing it home, time was an irrelevancy, but unfortunately I had a noon booking for brunch with a friend at Manuka – well I got there at 11:58am and before her, haaaaa!  But I digress...

Then finally with 200m left I could taste it, turned on the nitro (which in retrospect only increased my pace from snail to wombat) and saluted at the line in 59th place – managed to hold back the water-works but they weren't far off as I hadn't worked that hard for a good while just to finish  :)  Was that moment of pure joy was reward enough for maintaining the rage for over 4.5 hours?  Some brave guy in his 50s finished last in 6:04:50 – what motivated him to keep going for that many hours?  Now we all love a good story of triumph after suffering, and I simply can't compete with this guy: http://www.coolrunning.com.au/forums/index.php?app=blog&module=display&section=blog&blogid=422&showentry=8295

And just to finish off the Canberra experience, the other exciting from that evening was that I signed my mum up for Mothers Day Classic!!  Yes, Mother's Day will soon be upon us and what better idea than to have the present ready for your mum?!?  If you're anything like me, you normally leave it to the last Saturday afternoon, but she now she will remember this year's present forever  =D

It wasn't until the Wednesday that I felt normal again – the legs were still spongy last weekend as I borrowed somebody else's bib for R4TK – a late withdrawal, thanks for organising Cath!!!  So hence ANOTHER race report ;P

Picked up the bib before the race and met some her friends, and there she goes and blurts out that my pre-R4TK training consisted of an ultramarathon last weekend – immediately ostracising me as her weirdo friend.  After that set-back, we headed over to the bag drop and there was this ridiculous queue running literally about 200m and people cutting in about 5m from the start – so after a quick moral discussion with the angel (Good Damo) and devil (Evil Damo) who were perched on my shoulders, we cut also cut the queue.

Then headed off to the start line only to find a mass of humanity waiting, so I wandered up to the start line to find a couple of other runners waiting outside the railing for the last second before sneaking in – I managed to start five rows back from the front, out of about 30,000 competitors haha, what did I mention earlier about queue-jumping?  ;P  Note that Mothers Day Classic does not condone queue-jumping, just in case you're getting that impression.  You will be forced to carry large quantities of fruit if you are caught!

Enjoyed the run, split smack on 30min but faded to finish at 1:02:22... My high-school housemaster past me on the Bolte Bridge – last year was my ten-year high school reunion and in response to the “so what have you been up to for the last ten years?” question, I told him amongst other things that I'd been busy running marathons – he told me his PB and it was one frigging minute faster than mine!!!! GRRRRR  :(  So he's given me MASSIVE motivation to get a new PB, but when he went past me on the bridge, he didn't do anything to damage his title as my running archnemesis hehe  ;)

The other group that really annoy me are those 12-year-olds who cruise past.  Their legs are two-thirds the length of mine so their three strides are my two!!!  Are these kids the Tiger Woods and Martina Hingis of Australian running?  They had better get drug-tested afterwards because I'm very cynical!!  It reminds me of the demoralisation of being a skiier, when those 6-year-old midgets glide effortlessly past your twisted wreck of a body lying head first on the cold snow.

As I mentioned training is ramping up, only eight days to the Great Puffing Billy Train Race then 15 days to Mothers Day Classic!!  I hope you're all hitting peak training next week, lots of laps of Anderson St hill haha, even my dentist was telling me about his training regime, very disclipined!!

That's it folks, if you want to show your love, you have to write comments!!  Repeat after me: "Book MDC, Book MDC, Book MDC, Book MDC, Book MDC..."  Happy Easter, love to you all  xx

Still Alive (& Still Training)!!

Salutations to my faithful followers, many of you would have almost given up hope of a second blog but alas nearly a month later, I'm back  =)  March is flying past at the blink of an eye, with numerous commitments frustrating my blogging desires... However I ran 12km early this evening, the longest since January, which means that I've done exactly 42km of training since the last blog, and you would surely know is coincidentally a FULL MARATHON!!  =)

So in response to the sole comment to the previous blog - thanks Elise! didn't know that you'd posted that until you told me!  FARTlekking.  Yes it's Swedish for 'speed play' and while it sounds very funny, it is simply interval training that improves aerobic capacity - namely sprinting jogging sprinting walking faster slower etc etc.  Now all long-distance runners would agree that long distances are unbelievably boring, so fartlekking offers a fresh alternative when regular training is entirely within a runner's comfort zone.

Now I've never properly fartlekked but let me tell you why!  There are MANY things I do to break up training.

Different routes (duh) meaning different distances (my runs in the past month were between 3km and 12km), gradients (between pancake-flat and mountain-steep) and surfaces (training on grass or dirt feels so much better than hard surfaces) - also a little secret on that, I put two soles in my shoes since I weigh over 100kg... however unlike most people I have high arches so maybe that may not work for everybody but still it should make a massive difference on the jarring impact to the body from long-distance training - hopefully you can say farewell to knee problems and shin splints!!

Also living near the beach (yes be jealous haha) provides great opportunities to mix up the running surface.  Sand is both soft and hard and running barefoot on sand is a beautiful feeling that strengthens the calves and Achilles.  My 12km run this evening was along the cliff, down the stairs, along the beach, up the stairs, along the cliffs etc etc, that mixes up the surface and makes me work hard as a run up the stairs two at a time!!  I counted eight ascents and eight descents - basically at every access point down to the beach...  Just NEVER EVER RUN DOWN STAIRS more than two at a time, eventually you'll roll an ankle and it's just not worth the three or four seconds that you saved each of the other times you zipped gracefully down!

Also I touch the ground with one hand and then the other hand AFL-training style whenever I pass a bus stop, which can be quite frequently along main roads!  And when I run on familiar backstreets at night, I run backwards which is a great workout: God forbid anybody see me!!  They'd think that I was a nutter!!

And as I mentioned in the last blog, I always time my runs to race the clock against my previous time on the same route, even if only by one minute!  Nothing beats post-run endorphins combined with knowing that training has improved my fitness level - SO ADDICTIVE!!  =)

Many of you would know that I'm also an avid cyclist, and while I haven't ridden a bike since early Feb (oops!) that stoppage was after riding up Baw Baw, Falls Creek and Buffalo in January!  My point is that training across multiple disciplines is an excellent way to develop both strength and endurance - last week I went rockclimbing which does wonders for the forearms and fingers - swimming (yeah I can only swim to avoid drowning) is also a great all-round workout, both muscular and cardio.  Currently my favourite cross-training is getting to the end of my run and then heading down to the local primary school and doing a 15-minute circuit: bridge, leg curls, push-ups, chin-ups plus stretching the Achilles and hamstrings (both of which get damn sore after a marathon) - short and sharp but I try and do a couple extra reps than the previous circuit to build up strength.  It's perfect at the end of a session because I'm already tired and can really feel the burn!!

So this blog was meant to be all about fartlekking but you must realise that with that much variety there has never been any real need!!

Now there's only seven weeks left until Mothers Day Classic so sign up, get fit and make sure that you're supporting such a worthy cause.  And if you don't feel up to 4km or 8km around the Tan on a beautiful autumn morning, you can find the donations link on my blog...  I assume one exists!  The lovely people at MDC will probably point it out haha  ;)

So a question for you, the faithful follower who has read this far: I just rely on my handy stopwatch and then Google Maps post-run to calculate the route distance - what technology do you use to track your time, GPS, gradients, heartbeat etc etc?  What's good for somebody use loves running and would like a simple way of keeping track their runs?  I might get one if you can convince me!!!

Eagerly awaiting new blog subjects - what do you want to know about me and about running?  Livestrong peeps!!

Hello!

Hello Mothers Day Classic friends - hope you will be joining me on Sunday 8 May - this is really exciting since I've never done a blog before and have no idea what to write about!
It's never too early to start training: I went for a couple of jogs the weekend before last: 4km in 17min and 8km in 42min.  Then on Sunday I ran 8km again and got down to 39min - and I want to go faster again next time!
Trying to beat your PB is one of the joys of running - another is running with friends, please follow my blog so that we can turn it into a virtual running group - then we can organise training runs  =)
A bit of background about me: I've always loved being outdoors and active, and got into running five years ago when a colleague dragged me along to a fun run.  Did my first marathon later that year and now I'm up to 16!  My target is 50 - haha still a very long way to go
I'm doing a couple of ultramarathons (48-50km) in April followed by a couple of shorter events (13-15km) in the final weeks leading up - so will need to add some faster short runs in as part of training
Then Mothers Day Classic is the BIG ONE and my goal is to break 32min - 4 minute splits!
Please send in your comments: questions, goals, trashtalk haha - I'd love to hear about other people's stories and make this blog as interactive as possible
So find a friend, work out a plan together, then get out there and enjoy the challenge - and more importantly follow me here on Blogger and send in your comments!!
Ciao Damien