January 2019
Yesterday I managed to run for the first time in nearly three weeks after successfully surviving the near death experience that is ‘man-flu‘. Please note this is something only men can understand because for some reason women, and especially my current Wife, do not understand this potentially fatal condition. I had six days off work which culminated in a 4am call to the mobile doctors and a request from them to go to hospital. They were thinking heart attack, I was thinking pneumonia, my Wife was thinking ‘it’s a bloody cold , get over it!’ (I told you , they don’t understand?) In the end I decided I didn’t want to bother anybody and there was probably really sick people at hospital and if I was going to check out I wanted to do it surrounded by my loved ones and also make it as hard as possible on No1 Wife to teach her a lesson. Luckily I managed to survive to run another day and so the rehabilitation began in earnest.
By rehabilitation I mean wandering about with a ‘woe is me‘ look on my face for a week and letting all interested parties , of which there was one, Mum!, know how I was lucky to be alive , no thanks to my current Wife. (I never did find my bell I used to summon her the first few days when I needed a cup of tea (as all men know a cup of tea cures all known ailments, and doubly quick if you make it sweet.) I had my suspicions to its whereabouts as I can hear it every time I ‘twerk’… ?) Anyhow I digress….
For my return to running I selected a run with the Northern Suburb Running Group (NSRG http://www.nsrg.org.au ) a social running group that has been going for longer than I can remember and is always welcoming to new runners, old runners or even runners who have survived ‘man-flu‘ and need some company. (and also someone to talk to about the experience in great detail.) I took Jon along because he always loves company and is still seeking his new Wife after jettisoning the old one. (For any runners who are looking for love Jon is available on tinder and would make a great mate. http://www.tinderdating.com.au For any of my readers (and my Mum!) under 18 please do not click on the tinder link.)
For the NSRG Sunday long run there was about ten of us and we all thoroughly enjoyed the company and the route taking in a local bushland loop and a lake before retreating from the heat to the local Dome Cafe for waffles and coffee; a runners post long run treat. Actually the conversation post run was probably as long as the run itself, I take this as a positive personally. For all runners looking to either start running or just wanting some great company the NSRG is the place to go, you won’t find a better bunch of runners in Perth. They also spend time in the company of the T-train and a few have jumped on board his coaching programs which seem to be going great guns. ( https://www.tonysmithruncoaching.com )
Feeling excited about running again I did manage a 8k second run that evening which started slowly, sped up in the middle and ended as it started. No problem, it was about getting out twice which I believe is a massive benefit and improves running quicker than a new pair of Nike Vaporfly 4%’s… (You all have a pair of these now don’t you ? https://www.nike.com/gb/t/vaporfly-4-flyknit-running-shoe-7R7zSn ) probably. Funnily enough at the end I thought I had a 5:18 average, turned out to be 5:38; ouch. Looking at previous runs on that route (thanks Strava) I was informed this was the slowest, ever, but quite a margin. Was I upset? No, it was never about pace , all about just getting out there on tired legs and putting some time in. I really enjoyed the run, bar the enforced Mark Lee toilet stop in the middle and it served the purpose it was meant to. Remember people Matt Fitzgerald 80/20, Arthur Lydiard and Phil Maffetone. The three wise men of running.
More news in the runbkrun assault on a potential marathon PB this year. I have added a new stand up bike to the stable. (Is two bikes a stable or a garage?) I managed to find a brand new (virtually) Bionic Gen1 from a friend on Strava and I pick it up tonight. I am more than excited as the Bionic (Gen1 and 2) and the Predator were stand up bike invented by an Australian Company (run4) which has since gone out of business due to dubious Chinese suppliers . It’s a pity because these bikes were well built and also built for runners specifically. I managed to get a test ride on a Bionic after I brought the Elliptigo ( https://www.elliptigo.com.au ) and was really impressed with the product. Unfortunately the company then went out of business so finding one virtually brand new is a real find. (I have also sourced a brand new Predator and aim to add that to my stable soon but the Wife is still not overly excited about me purchasing another bike so maybe purchasing another two bikes would push her over the edge? …maybe ? Women really are from different planets, maybe even different solar systems!!!)
Is there alternatives still available on the inter web ? hell yeah. https://cyclete.com This bad boy looks the business but is hand built to specific orders rather tham mass produced, that means it very expensive. It looks very, very good but the price is a show stopper for me. For any runners out there with some serious coin to throw about this bike looks very, very good. Unfortunately (I say that a lot when my current Wife is then also mentioned in the same sentence?) my current Wife would divorce me if I paid the $10k Australian needed to bring one of these into the country. I’ll get in touch them and see if they fancy sponsoring an old, balding runner with a beard and a blog supported mainly by his mother ? (Actually if you google ‘stand up bikes‘ and check out the images there are some really ‘out there‘ versions; and I mean out there!)
The point of this post is twofold. First, I am recovering from time out from running and when you do this you need to think of recovery as a day by day activity with small progress, be it in pace or distance, the target not reaching the dizzy heights of where you were pre-injury (illness). Matt Fitzgerald summed it up when he stated he actually enjoyed recovery as the pressure of obtaining certain goals was not there. You can get back to the pure joy of running without the need to ‘improve bu hitting targets’. I always think of this when I return from injury and this is why yesterdays second run, with an average pace of 5:38min/k, is still seen as a positive and a small step forward. I loved the feeling of getting out there for a second time and just ‘running’ for the pure love of running, admittedly i could have down without the ‘Mark Lee‘ toilet stop.
Second I am again talking up the benefit of stand-up bikes. Trust me people these are the Nike Vaproflys 4%’s of bikes, forget the usual version, for a runner you need a bike built for improving your running not improving your cycling. (Unless of course you are a triathlete reading this post by mistake; remember its runbkrun not swimrunbikekbrunswimbike.com !) These bikes really do work and I cannot wait to get on my bionic and see what benefit I can gain from this compared to the Ellipitgo. Does this mean I’m selling the Elliptigo? Well I may have mentioned to my Wife I was going to sell the Elliptigo to pay for the Bionic but I suspect this may not happen and I may keep both, funnier things have happened.
As I was taken down with the dreaded man-flu a week out from the Australia Day Ultra I will leave the race report to my usual partner in crime, Jon ‘swipe right’ Pendse. Jon is a marathon and ultra marathon running machine and it has been a honour to run with him over the last 10 years or so, after meeting in out office changing rooms.
In the early days Jon was a lot quicker than me and I regularly ran with him for the first 10-20k of a marathon before dropping off the pace. It wasn’t until the City to Surf Marathon of 2011 when I was able to pip him to the finish line by a few seconds after we both discussed finishing together. Sorry Jon but white line fever got the better of me !! Since then we have ran most events together and a large proportion of my training runs.
Anyhow I digress, Jon has written a great race report on the Australia Day Ultra which is certainly worth a read and it’s fitting he should be the first ‘guest writer’ for the blog as he has been involved with most of my posts in some manner and had to put up with man hours of BK putting the world to rights, which, truth be told has normally been a two way process… Enjoy.
Coming in to this year’s 100km ultra (http://australiadayultra.com/) I felt I had done my apprenticeship having completed the previous 3 years of ADU (having ran 8.53, 8.56, and 8.06), and this year was to be my first year ‘racing’ over 100km. This is a ‘race’, not a long training run right?
Although I had a breakthrough result in 2018, I didn’t really feel I was ‘racing‘ the distance at that time. Off the back of a consistent year with plenty of k’s in the legs (around 6,300 clocked up over the year), 2018 completing 7 marathons, 3 ultras, 5 half marathons, I felt I was ready to push for a sub8 hour 100km, given 2018 I only really aimed for sub 8.30 and managed 8.06!
Going in this year I set the following Goals; A sub 8 hours, B sub 8hrs-30, and C sub 9hours. Hmm an hour difference between an A goal and C goal, only races over 100km could you get away with such a large variance!
So here are my race splits;
Lap splits (12.5k) of 55, 57, 60, 67, 80, 80, 72, 64
25k splits of 112, 127, 160 (ouch), 136
Spoiler (it’s a very long race report!): I finished in 8:58:53
What I didn’t really consider was ‘racing’ in humid warm conditions, ok, even if its 18-20 degrees, the sun isn’t out so surely it’s not that bad? After all I’ve ran the previous years before in similar conditions (although I guess I treated those as long training runs), whereas this year I was going out at race pace, basically 10-15 minutes slower than a 50k race time.
To make things harder, my wingman & ultra-extraordinaire BK (www.runbkrun.com) narrowly avoided pneumonia only 2 nights before race night and gallantly chose to DNS rather than risk a death sentence.
So, this race was set to be a solo time trial. This is not a Sunday stroll! 😊
Unfortunately, I came undone in the 4th lap where I knew I was working way to hard and dropping too much time. 8 laps and sub 8 hour target even my 8-year-old can work out the pacing strategy… 1-hour laps or less and repeat x 8, easy?
Well the first lap was quick, but I felt good (probably due to the taper) and more importantly I felt in control. Second lap slightly slower but 57 was about spot on to where i needed to be (57-58), knowing I would need close to 10 minutes banked by 50k for the customary slow down on the second 50k. The plan was to hit 50k in 3.48-3.55 (which is 12-20 minutes slower than 50k race pace).
The 4th lap blowout meant I hit 50k just on 4hrs, at this point i knew sub8 was off the cards.
Suddenly I hit the dreaded marathon wall around 53k and was soon reduced to a walk/jog strategy… problem being hitting the wall in a marathon and you might have 10-15k left to go (I’ve hit the wall many times in marathons) … but this time around I still have 47k to go! I remember thinking how the f**k am i going to run the remaining 47k (which is the 6-inch trail marathon distance minus the hills). I was walking and could barely run. This km split was around 10minutes! Doing maths at this pace I’d be lucky to finish before noon! I should have been finishing around 8-8.30am.
This was never part of the plan, what the f**k can I do… (Please note Runbkrun does not condone this language but in the context of this post it is allowable!)
I did have a few positives going for me though… 1. Yes, I’ve hit the wall but it’s very early and only around 4.30am, the sun hasn’t even come up yet. 2. the chase pack (Margie and Chris) will very shortly be approaching 3. I wasn’t cramping or injured, so it was ‘possible’ I could regroup and rebuild.
So once Margie and Chris joined me, I soon found out they were in quite a similar state having hit a similar wall not that much earlier…
All 3 of us ran several km’s together, running low 6-minute k’s.
At this point I was happy just moving along and ticking of a few more km’s.
Margie told me she’d been running through a couple of niggles/injuries and was now seriously considering stopping. It was here I also agreed and said I’m seriously thinking of making it to 75k and calling it a day. Only in Ron’s race can you stop at any shorter distance and still claim a finishers medal albeit a shorter distance. (There was that famous DNF from Rhys a few years earlier when he stopped at 25k thus winning the race 3-4 hours before it had even started!) Besides 75km is still an ‘Ultra’ marathon and you get a finish time. That’s still a good day out in my books, and an experience to learn from for next time.
So, at my slower pace laps 5 & 6 I managed 80 minutes each, but usually in a marathon you get slower not quicker, and so after some more maths i was staring at 90 minutes for lap 7 and +90 minutes for the last lap… that would put me around a marginal sub10 hours.
This was all in the back of my mind, I’d now been dropped by Margie and Chris, and was heading back to complete my 5th lap.
It was here I saw Mick Francis on the middle aid station (must have been about 59km), and I quickly stopped for a brief chat, I heard he had to withdraw earlier with injury! But was still out supporting those remaining in the race, what a champ! [Mick’s our local legend and ultra-marathon god (he’s run more than 100 marathons and if that wasn’t enough has also ran more than 100 ultra-marathons), I’ve known mick for many years now, good mate and many races completed together], perfect place now for me to pick Mick’s running brain;
I told Mick I’d hit the wall at 50k and i could probably just make it to 75k and what’s the ultra-etiquette for pulling the pin…? Surely no point me running the extra 25km just to finish, that could be an extra 3hours in the sun walking and jogging! Besides I’ve run the 100km three times previous so have nothing to prove, surely he would agree and say yes stop at 75k call it a day recover and look for the next race, or try again next year.
Mick said it so simply… Jon are you injured? No. Then get back out and do the job. You’ll get respect and will teach you something you can’t read about. (Wise words from the man known as ‘Yoda‘ in the WA running community. A real , true blue Aussi’ Icon; Mick not Yoda.. please note I am assuming Yoda is not from the WA?)
Well the way he said it I was like why did I even ask, ha-ha. I knew the answer already, but I was also seeking acceptance that it would have been ok for me to stop. (Obviously I still could have stopped, but ultras aren’t for the faint hearted, those out there have something regular runners don’t have and many will never experience – no offence, but wait until you’ve done 100km, it will teach you many many lessons – I’m still learning).
This gave me a bit of a mental boost, and I continued my marathon shuffle at 6min k’s.
Margie was still a good 6 or 7 minutes ahead, I was stoked to see she went back out for the 6th lap which meant she’d make at least 75km, and likewise I went back out to start my 6th lap.
Meanwhile T-Train express had been setting a blistering pace in the 50km, well in front of his counterparts… he went on to win and smash out a PB and run 3hrs-27, wow!
But when T-Train was coming back on his final lap I yelled out to him phone BK at the finish line tell him Jon’s f’d, reckons he won’t break 10hours, can he do a quick poll in the BK Run Group and get the opinion on stopping at 75km?
I needed at least one person to say stop if anyone would the BK Group would… surely better to claim a 75km finishers medal than the +10hour potential finishing time (please).. Besides 75km is the point of no return, once you run past 75km there are no more finishers medals left other than the next barrier at 100km.
So, if you’re going to pull the pin, stop at 75km!
So now on this 6th lap I was still struggling and still shuffling.
I saw Margie again on the turnaround and she was going back out again for her 7th lap, wow what a champ especially with injuries and hitting the wall. Well that was it, if Margie is going to see it through, so am I (not that Mick hadn’t already told me earlier). And just before i went back out again for my 7th lap, T-Train looking fresh as ever… goes “spoke with BK he says it’s a 100km race not a 75km race.” (He lied, Tone never called me , though I would have said that !)
Alright decision made well and truly.
So, going back out now on my 7th lap things are warming up, but I’ve had almost 25k of shuffling along, and I’m starting to feel a slight second wind.
I started running a few sub 6-minute k’s, and soon enough was running around 5.30’s… so a lot more running and a lot less walking! Albeit tough and still a challenge ahead but at least I only have less than 2 laps to go! Things are starting to look up.
The whole race I’d been consistent with nutrition/hydration, had my strategy and didn’t really deviate. Setup my own esky at mid aid station, have a gel every 10k, and grab 2x250ml water bottles every time i passed that aid station. Although I’d been drinking around 600ml-700ml per hour (the other 300ml-400ml) I’d tip on my head to try and cool the core body temp) I still felt dehydrated and physically couldn’t take on any more fluids. It had been a long warm night that was for sure.
So with my new determination, I had the remaining 25k to go. Between 75k-82k I averaged around 6:30s, however I was definitely starting to feel some running legs returning, a lot less walking! The tide had turned. At the out turn-around I had a quick toilet stop, and then I was good to go. It was from here I was able to hold 5:15s, more importantly I was feeling great again, and could almost feel the finish line in sight although I did still have the final lap to run. Ron had chocolate medals this year right…! We often joke ultra-running is not actually about the running, it’s all about the food and my impartial attraction to the distance.
On completion of the 7th lap I clocked in at 7:54:05, which was a 1:12:45 lap time. Maths time again… I was feeling great, could it be possible I could break 9 hours? Sub 1:06 final lap?? Hmm. Challenge accepted. After all, given how I was feeling and could taste the finishers 100k medal, may as well go for it I had nothing to lose. Sub9 hours would be a fantastic result given where I was at 53km. Still managing to hold 5:15s, felt great at this speed again… I couldn’t work out what pace the sub 1:06 equated to, however if I could hold the 5:15s and get to the final turn-around in 33 minutes, then I would be in the ball park. And that’s exactly what happened, held the pace and got to the turnaround just under 33 minutes, a look at my watch slightly under 8hrs27. About bang on if I wanted to go under 9 hours. Still feeling great at this stage, no sign of cramping, and this was it, the final home stretch. Only 6.25km remaining and the last time I’ll see this end of the course for 12 months. It’s game on. I didn’t really have to do anything special, I didn’t need to speed up, just hold the pace and see it through to the finish. As I left the mid aid station, I yelled out to Mick I’ve got a sniff of a sub9 hour so bring it on. The final 3k was magical, this is how I had hoped I would run the final lap or at least this feeling, something you can’t replicate. I’d smashed my mental barriers and now I could enjoy the achievement of finishing my fourth 100km. I soaked up the atmosphere and ran beaming with smiles. Ok, not a sub8 and not a sub8:30, but who cares. I was so close to calling it a day, getting to this point everything was forgotten. The endorphin runners high here was more than worth hitting the wall at 53km.
This was a personal journey and my story of the day. Never give up. Respect. Pride. Proud. Redemption. And just plain mental! We are runners. And we are warriors.
I’ll be back next year to join the 500 Club -ADU Hall of Fame! Hopefully BK will have recovered by then and raring to go, I still have a sub8 hour in me?? (have I learnt anything, hmm)
Anyone interested here is my Australian 100 marathon club profile page as I endeavour to run 100 marathons (currently at 56 and 13 ultras).
2018 was probably not my best year with seven months wasted due to Plantar Fasciitis. The year did start and end well but injury made for a very sad BK for most of the year. There was a slight glimmer of hope after a top 10 finish at the 6 inch trail ultra marathon ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com ) and I started to believe that maybe 2019 was going to be a better year.
After 22 weeks of Elliptigo commuting to work and some good quality training towards the back end of 2018 I was ready to defend my ADU title. ( http://australiadayultra.com ) Last year I probably had the run of my life to win the 100k event and set a sub 8 hour time. I had certainly left a few minutes on the course and reckoned with a new pair of Fly 4%’er’s I would be able to collect these and maybe even nudge a sub 7:45 finish. Unfortunately (I seem to be typing that a lot lately?) this was not to be as a week out I came down with ‘man-cold’, this then morphed into ‘man-flu’ (which can kill !) and finally a throat infection and onto the antibiotics. Needless to say after over a week off work I was in no condition to run 100k. So the ADU 2019 was added to my ever growing list of races I had entered and not started, the dreaded DNS. (Did Not Start). In my defence there was no way I was going to make the start line , even with the best Goggin’s motivational lines; and there are many !! ( https://davidgoggins.com )
So how many DNS races have there been in my career ? The first one , and the most expensive by far, was the 2015 Disney Goofy challenge. I think the entry was over $500US and unfortunately the Oil price put paid to that trip to sunny Florida when Chevron decided they’d had enough of me and I had to move to Schlumberger, for a massive pay cut ! Current Wife and many Daughters were not happy with that decision. In Disney’s defence they did refund me a few hundred dollars gift card which I never used. (Their retail site really is very, very sad; sorry Disney.)
Next in line was the Darlington half 2016 when due to a bike race shutting down the freeway we couldn’t actually get to the start line in time. I blame the guys at TRC for putting out a route that was flawed and left me and Mike the wrong side of the Reid highway unable to cross. on the bright side it was stinking hot and humid and they probably done us a favour ! Mike had actually worked out a route to the start which would have worked but for once the ‘trust in TRC‘ mantra backfired; sorry Mike.
Next was the Bunbury Marathon of 2017 when I picked up a nasty 5cm calf tear there week before after racing the WAMC Bridges 10k. With hindsight I probably should have given that race a miss so close to a marathon and this was a lesson learned. This calf tear cost me three months and was my biggest injury at that time. I blame hanging around at the finish for the age group medal I had won and then jogging back to the car. That jog back , while dehydrated and tired after running a 10k, was the reason behind the tear. Preventable for sure and a real rookie error. Funnily enough I had risked the run back and made a big effort to take it as easy as possible. The tear happened as I exited the shower somehow ? Still I could have probably avoided the injury with some forethought.
Finally the City to Surf in 2018 was another race I had entered early but due to injury couldn’t make the start line. This was to be a big race as it was the 10th in a row and also I was part of a small group of runners who had all previous nine. 25 of us had made this elusive club after running the inaugural marathon in 2009. This one hurt and it was very emotional on the morning of the race as I walked the dogs rather than compete. With hindsight I could have probably completed the course but was worried about breaking my 27 in a row sub3 streak I was (am) on. If I had my time again….
That’s it, five races all in the last 4 years, and at least I got my annual DNS out the way early this year? Overall I suppose I got to be happy with that and I’m still to experience the dreaded DNF (Did Not Finish). The quandary I am now in of course is is the fear of either DNF’ing or finishing a marathon slower than sub three hours going to start to eat away at the reason why I run in the first place, , my love of running ? Is the fear of failure going to eventually outweigh the pursuit of running goals that keep you coming back to the sport. Will I start to avoid events that may result in me not performing as well as I would have liked. ? I remember once somebody said to me why do you train so hard and my response was fear, fear of slowing down; was that the wrong reason ? Surely it should be for the love of running and pace and time should be secondary. ? Probably, but on the other hand I am a competitive runner and every time I put on a race bib it really is on for young and old. there is no grey area here people, just a switch, on and off. This is why I am able to replicate times I have achieved ten years previous, even in my early fifties, good old fashioned hard work and the fear of failure. Of course there is also the love of competing and, as I have said many times , the pack may be calling but I’m still not ready to go back to it. A few more years in the sun I reckon , keeping a few young guns honest, albeit for less and less distance after the start of a race but it’s still nice to be at the pointy end, albeit briefly, and feel alive doing what I love to do with like minded people.
This was what made missing the ADU yesterday so painful, the camaraderie of the event and general atmosphere. I have a whole year to wait before I can experience that again and I’m not the most patient person in the world, that is why a DNS sucks. On the bright side I feel a lot better today and may even start running again next week so the year isn’t a right off just yet. This extended break has also given my PF time to finally fully heal and I’m confident I can start to add some pace work to my endless Kings Park trail running rehabilitation program. This is much needed with the WAMC racing catalogue about to start for 2019 and I need to get back my age group win after losing it last year due to not completing the required number of races to qualify. Will miss the February presentations for the first time in many years , got to love getting old. ( I seem to have typed that a lot lately as well?) Not much of a positive post this one but unfortunately (there’s that word again.) sometimes running is a cruel mistress and once in a while the piper needs paying. Personally I think I’m paid in full for a few years so lets get back to writing about what I love writing about, racing and training with the BK posse…. yours in running… BK
I have talked up the Nike Vaporfly 4% many times on my blog but still people race wearing other brands so I’m going to try one more time to make you see the light before moving on to the next running product. How good are these shoes ? Very, very good. Do you need a pair ? If you are serious about running yes, you need a pair and yesterday. Can you get a pair ? Probably not, they sell out quicker than a Rolling Stones concert at your local old peoples home, and that is fast ! What makes them so good ? Easy, you run faster for longer with less effort ; as there say on the show 4% performance increase for a perceived 4% less expelled energy; that’s right people they really make you faster while also making it easier to achieve these new found pace. I mean why wouldn’t you buy a pair , unless you want to stay the same pace and not get a 4% increased performance boost for nothing ? Well when I say nothing they do coast $350 AUD or similar but c’mon, a 4% performance increase for $350; I’ll take that all day. I reckon to get that through training alone you’d have to put in 1,000 – 2,000 kilometres of hard yakka. $350 is cheap at double the price…
Right, so after Nike sponsored the breaking 2 adventure ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2ZLG-Fij_4 ) and came so close they have created the marketing man dreams of a shoe with demand far outstripping supply thus keeping the price inflated. I know I said $350 was a small price to pay, and I stand by that, but it’s still a large amount of money for a running shoe, to the untrained eye (Unfortunately No1 Wife has a couple of those untrained eye’s and I still haven’t mentioned what I paid for my second pair of fly’s, well over retail and I mean well over retail !! Never got to use them, to add insult to injury , excuse the pun, as I picked up a nasty case of Plantar Fasciitis virtually the week after buying them. The Lord really does move in mysterious ways sometimes ?)
I brought a couple of version ones I suppose but managed to snag a pair of the latest and greatest via http://www.nike.com.au, these bad boys pictured above are the fly knit versions with a one piece flyknit upper attached to the foam and carbo fibre insole; a deadly combination by all accounts. Opening the box was like being a child again at Christmas Day with the one present you asked for in front of you. For me it would have been my Stretch Armstrong when I was nearly 10 years old, around 1976, man I loved Stretch Armstrong. My brother got Godzilla I think, basically the same idea; you stretch the sh*t out of the toy and it always returns to its original shape. To a 10 year old this was life changing, the flyknits have the same effect on a 51 year old. Personally that’s the $350 purchase price covered right there, the fact they also make me run faster for less effort is a bonus. Of course the only fly in the ointment is the possibility of me now searching on eBay for an original Stretch Armstrong and paying thousands of dollars to replicate that feeling I got as a 10 year old again. That would be difficult to get past no1 Wife for sure, even harder than the shoes!
So last few words… to me the Bugatti Veyron of running shoes, probably the most expensive shoe on the market but , like the Bugatti, the best of the best. Of course there will be haters who dish this post but that’s fine because I have enough experience to know a game changer when I encounter it, either as a 10 year old with the latest toy or a 51 year old with the best running show every invented, bar none. Really I should just keep quiet and let my competitors stumble around in their run of the mill trainers but that’s not me. We all run and race but really it’s ourselves we are racing against and our PB’s (PR’s) define us ; these shoes can help you rediscover yourself and to me that is a good thing and if even one person reads this post and goes out and buys (finds?) a pair I would have succeeded in giving that runner the same feeling I got when I opened my Stretch Armstrong box over 40 years ago, and that really is priceless.
Well as we move into 2019 I completed my tenth year of recording my runs on the good old fashioned Excel spreadsheet. Thanks to Excel I can see I ran 3031 times for a total of 43,299 kilometres. Wow, didn’t feel that long ? The Earth’s circumference is 40,075km so I have actually ran around the earth, albeit it took me 10 years and I rarely left Western Australia. That is a lot of fun and for the most part it has been fun. Of course there has been struggles at times but ultimately I always came out of any slump better than when I went in so always seem to improve; albeit the PB’s are harder to come by these days.
Right some points from the table below :-
- PB’s were a lot easier in the “early days” of my running career when I probably ran less and also with less idea of what I was doing but I ‘m a big believer in the old adage that most runners have around 7 years of PB’s, independent of when they start running, before they plateau and ultimately start to slow. 2011 and 2013 show this to be true. (in 2012 I had the first of my many calf tears and my Father passed, away so my running was limited)
- The foundation for my running career was built on three Comrades campaigns in 2008-2010. ( http://www.comrades.com ) This is where I ran, a lot, training in the Perth hills for the Comrades ultra-marathon, my first taste of Lydiard or Maffetone training before I had even heard of them. Lots of distance and slow and steady. I say ‘a lot’ , at the time it was a huge step up from previous adventures but looking back nothing to what I run now. In those days there was no training log, GPS watches and Strava was a twinkle in somebodies eye….. (Please note there was to be a fourth campaign but No1 Wife put her foot down and as, luckily, this doesn’t happen often when it does I know to listen. She is probably still smarting from my promise of a new dining room table and chairs I offered her to let me go the first time. Must get to that one day?)
- There was a “second coming” in 2016 when, with the aid of Raf and his team from the Running Centre ( http://therunningcentre.com.au/) I was put on a program to work towards breaking two hours and forty minutes for the marathon in the later part of 2015. Ultimately a small stress fracture put pay to that but I used what Raf taught me to run amok in 2016 and race every other weekend. This was probably my best years running and I achieved some great times I thought were well beyond me.
- 2017 and 2018 have been destroyed by injury at a time I was beginning to gain momentum from a Stella 2016 season. In ’17 it was a calf tear and ’18 the dreaded Plantar Fasciitis.
- 2013-2016 I increased the weekly mileage annually and the results came thick and fast. The double days and running slower to race faster was the main contributor to some great races in this period. It’s a pity 2017 and 2018 were hampered by injury as these years were probably my last chance to get some solid times before I eventually slow; which I’m assuming is anytime soon unfortunately.
- Big believer in racing as much as you can. Nothing aids improvement more than putting yourself in the pain box, in the fetal position. as much as possible. We run to race, if not other people than ourselves; this is why we do what we do, to test ourselves against either what we once were or what we are to become.
- Can I run 6000k in 2019 and not get injured and if so would I be able to replicate previous years results ? This is the big question of 2019. Personally I don’t think I can as running in your early fifties you run the tightrope of picking up injuries and regressing or avoiding injuries, with less distance, and maintaining a certain standard; without improving.
- I’m running more in my fifties than I have ever ran before and still loving it. This is due to running more times a week but also slower than I previously ran, on average. Race times, I’m holding steady at the moment.
- Can I make it one more time around this planet we all live on ? Hell yeah….although it may take longer than 10 years this time round. !
There is also a separate worksheet detailing my marathon and ultra times which may be of use to my many readers of this blog; well Mum can print it off and show her friends. ? This table shows that with perseverance and good old fashioned hard work you can achieve your running dreams. I remember running my first sub3 in 2009 and the euphoria of that moment will go with me to the grave. It was my 11th marathon and I always said I’d retire when I ran my first sub 3, never quite got to that retirement thing and don’t intend to anytime soon. This table also shows, combined with the table above, that running improvement needs time and consistency. That is the most important factor in my opinion, consistency. Of course you’ll improve quickly at the start of your running career as you build the cardio engine but to continually improve you need to just keep running, as much as you can. The table above is fed by my daily table for each year where I record every run; this morphs into a weekly total and then 52 of these and hey presto you have an annual table. ( Please note my table pales into insignificance next to Jon’s but he is an accountant by trade and has an Excel Spreadsheet that Bill Gates would be proud of, cocooned in pivot table heaven. As well as distance he records who he ran with, time of day , temperature, how he felt etc. etc… it really is a think of beauty. )
These days of course we have Strava and Training Peaks, amongst others, and the digital world has taken over but I’m still a big believer in the old fashioned method of Excel (or even notebooks) when you can easily look back at previous years and see what worked and what you did to aid in your assault on your next running goal. When it comes to running historical data is gold, sometimes looking back can help you look forward. (I must write these motivational lines down , although I probably just did of course?) So even if you have Strava (because as we all know if it wasn’t on Strava it didn’t happen!) a manual spreadsheet is still worth keeping, plus it’s always good to know when you have finally ran the circumference of the planet you currently live on. !
Finally manage to get some kudos from Feedspot.com with recognition for my blog , making the top 10 Australian Running blogs, a debut at number 6. Happy with that but of course will make every effort to get a podium in the near future, nothing beats a podium. https://blog.feedspot.com/australian_running_blogs/
Right so that was 10 years of running, gone in the blink of an eye, best part is I hope to have at least another 10 years to add to the table above so I’d better get my skates on, ( only figuratively speaking of course, unless there is a skating option on Strava?) I’m off for a run, you don’t get round the world twice blogging you know. !
Finally…as I have said many times you need friends to share in your journey and I have some great examples. So as well as concentrating on the running reach out to fellow runners and suffer(?) / enjoy the journey together… when it comes to running you really do need friends….
At my age the best years are probably behind me. Runners don’t tend to improve too much after 10 years running and getting close to 52 day by day. (February 2nd if anybody is interested, all major credit cards accepted for the BK Retirement Fund!) In my continual battle with ‘Father time’ today I sneaked off to the hills in sunny Perth, and believe me people it was sunny. I probably laced up at 9am and it was over 30 degrees, of course it got hotter by the minute as I moved into the trail. The plan was a 38k loop with time on feet the reason behind the adventure. This was reaccessed at 7k and I decided a 34k shorter loop was more in keeping with the conditions. A few kilometres later it turned into a 20k out and back as I about turned at 10k and struggled back to the car. By the time I got back to the car I was in a right state, staggering around Darlington Oval looking for a water tap. Unbeknownst to me my tap had disappeared from the last time I visited Darlington and I was left high and dry scouring the surrounding houses for external water taps. Luckily for me the local volunteer fire brigade had what I was looking for and I treated myself to a tap shower.
The moral of the story , apart from not running in the Perth hills in a Perth summer alone and without water, is you need to continually assess how you feel while you train and if you ‘ain’t feeling it‘ pull the plug and live to fight another day. I could have forged on at 10k and probably even survived the 38k loop , I say probably, but what would it have achieved ? As I said earlier the 20k was a real test and I had to treat myself to a two hour ‘power nap’ when I eventually crawled through my front door, much to my current Wife’s disgust. In my defence I did manage to then take the family to the beach with the dogs and make a good effort playing with both. Even as I type this I feel I could probably manage a slow 10k this evening but know better and will save myself for tomorrow when I’ll get back on the GO ( http://www.elliptigo.com ) and scoot off to work while treating myself to a lunch time trail run and a scoot home on the GO. This three exercise sessions a day has served me well these last 3-4 months and I’m hoping it’ll get me to the end of the ADU 100k in a few weeks. ( http://australiadayultra.com ) must admit thinking about running a 100k at the moment is filling me with dread, not excitement, but it always takes me three to four weeks to fully recover from a marathon/ultra so maybe I’m not as badly off as I feel as the moment, maybe ? This concept of training on feel is one of the major building blocks of Arthur Lydiard and his distance training techniques, Lydiard together with Fitzgerald ( http://mattfitzgerald.org/8020training/ ) are my two favourite coaches , with a little bit of Maffetone ( https://philmaffetone.com ) thrown in for good measure.
So in 2019 what’s the plan ? As a runner you need, goals as I’ve said many times, if you don’t have goals as a runner you find yourself drifting into ‘jogging‘ and before you know it you start to not worry about time and just concentrate on the pure joy of running. Then before long you’ve dumped your Garmin and you stop logging runs to Strava, imagine that , not recording your runs on Strava ! I’m starting to ‘sweat‘ just typing that last sentence.. let’s move on quickly ! For new runners you can start to think about personal bests ( or personal records for our American cousins) . I miss the days of turning up at races and knowing you’re going to run a PB, those days are not as frequent as I’d like now, last year there was only one PB albeit it was a beauty setting a AURA record for the 100k for the 50-55 year old age group. (see certificate below) I’ll be racing this event again in a few weeks but am not seriously considering beating this time unless Jon can drag me to halfway in a good time and the legs feel they maybe have one more record in them. After this mornings runs it’ll be more about just surviving than setting records but I have a few weeks to recover, I suppose? That’s running of course, my number one mantra has always been ‘trust in your training‘ , that’s what I love about running , it’s the most honest sport, do the hard yards and on the day there is a good chance you’ll get your reward, miss your training runs and then aim for the time not mirrored to your training program will always end in tears. You can’t ‘fluke’ a good marathon or ultra time unfortunately, or fortunately if you are prepared to put in the work. This is why I’m not overly excited about the ADU but will be more than happy to finish around the 8 hour mark, of course with an ultra it’s the little things that can conspire against you. Examples would be no vaseline during the run (trust me on an 8 hour run a small chaffing can turn into a major issue very quickly without vaseline!) , the wrong hydration and nutrition (the engine cannot run if it runs out of fuel (nutrition) or there’s a radiator leak (hydration)) and finally the training needs to be tailored to the event. (For an ultra it’s about 80/20 training and time on legs, not too worried about pace just run, a lot!)
Of course speaking of coaches there is a new rooster in the hen house, my old mate the T-train has thrown his hat into the ring and now offers personalised training programs from his website , https://www.tonysmithruncoaching.com. If you need to be inspired Tony would be your man as personally I find him one of the nicest guys around but with a ruthless steak when it comes to racing as this photo of the T-Train mowing down the opposite in the last few hundred metres of a 50k race. I put this down to his army training, no prisoners were taken in this race that’s for sure. Tony’s training is certainly unique but his results cannot be argued with. Even this year , on a comeback after a nasty case of Plantar Fasciitis, he’s won a 50k ultra a week after racing a marathon and always places top 5 in any ultra he enters, winning his fair share. Although he’s not as long in the tooth as yours truely he is the wrong side of forty but loves putting young pretenders to the sword, in the nicest possible way of course. Looking at his website he has the coaching credentials and experience to back up his racing pedigree so I can highly recommend Tone. Please note as a TRC Ambassador ( http://therunningcentre.com.au ) I cannot mention coaching without plugging Raf and his crew as well, Perth is big enough for the both of them of course and the most important thing is selecting the right coach for you and that just takes experience.
Right that’s it for the first post of 2019. I’ll try and post more about running this year and less about injuries as the last couple of years there has probably been a 50-50 split. A nasty Calf tear in 2017 and Plantar Fasciitis in 2018 have been the major talking points on the blog and really its a running blog not an injury prevention blog, I mean its not called www.donotrunbkdonotrun.com is it ? Lets hope I can get though 2019 injury free and see if distance and the Elliptigo can’t propel me to maybe one or more PB’s before I get dragged back to the pack…..we’ll see. Happy new Year all..Yours in running… BK