An injured runners weapon of choice, the Elliptigo.
After the No Time to Die Ultra I was broken and on my first run post event , the Thursday morning Yelo run, I blew up 5km into the 10km morning recovery. The last 5km back to Yelo was painful and I could feel all my tendons and leg muscles taught and ready to rip or tear. I put this down to little or no stretching since the last ultra and also not drinking enough liquids. I made an appointment with my dry needling guru, Myree , and that evening found myself on her massage bed in the world of pain that is a decent dry needling appointment. I normally avoid dry needling if possible as if it is done right it is so, so painful. Myree works miracles and she relieved the hamstrings that were tight as old buggery. Dry needling , done right, is very , very good at releasing muscle tightness but you certainly pay the price.
Thanks to Myree and some very string anti-inflammatories I was able to run the Melbourne marathon. As well as tight hamstrings I had felt a niggle on the inside of my right knee. The anti-inflammatories put an end to this but post marathon it returned with a vengeance. To this end I have only ran three times since Melbourne, in the last two weeks. This is not ideal with a 100 miler less than three weeks away and then my final backyard ultra of the season 6 days after that in Adelaide.
Running this event with a dodgy knee, high on anti-inflammatories, is not ideal especially with a backyard ultra in another state. South Australia, the following week. Then again at any start line you’ll find a high proportion of runners are carrying niggles or minor injuries, mental toughness, stubbornness and good drugs help carry the runner to the finish line, normally.
The beauty of the Pig…
After the Feral Pig miler I’m heading over to Adelaide to compete in the Hysterical Carnage backyard ultra. I was lucky enough to grab an assist to Phil Gore, the story of my life, in the inaugural year last year but had an extra week to recover after Feral. For some reason Shaun, the race director, has moved the events closer together ? I’ll be gutted to miss either of these events as both are so good and this is why I’m still desperate to run both, even though the timing really makes it suicidal.
Last few runners , probably around lap 30.
So if I am to spend some time on the sidelines I have a few toys to play with to help keep my cardio fitness high enough that I shouldn’t lose too much. My Elliptigo (https://www.elliptigo.com/ ) is great for longer distances as you can cruise around 20-25km/h , it is seriously good fun to ride taking you back to your childhood, just puts a smile on my face every time I use it. I also have a generation one Bionic , image below. This is an Australian made product but the company has unfortunately gone under due to dodgy Chinese manufacturing. It’s a pity as the Bionic is a seriously good running alternative and has the ‘airplane wing’ motion which is akin to running. It is a much harder ride than the Elliptigo and you’d normally average a few kilometres an hour less but also it works the body harder, making longer distances testing. The only issue with the Bionic is my rollers are starting to fail and there doesn’t seem to be any options for getting new ones, without these rollers it becomes unusable.
Bionic Gen1 , this thing is a monster !
With all injuries there are various stages, I wrote this post on the 5 stages of grief a few years ago when I recovering from a calf tear, I think. There’s be a few injuries over the years , I must admit to losing track.
The same stages apply to an injury.
My Daughter recounted this to me a few days ago in reference to my ongoing battle with injury. She reckoned I was moving into the depression stage and truth be told she’s probably right.
The 5 stages of grief can be virtually mirrored for injuries when you’re a runner. Well they work for me. The first stage is denial. For me this was probably as I hobbled over the road to Yelo to grab a coffee and muffin with the boys a week before the Bunbury Marathon. At the time I could just about hobble 10m’s but once I got settled in the cafe all talk was about the marathon in a weeks time. Not once did it cross my mind I may not make it. I had a calf knot which would either disappear itself with a bit of ‘pain ball’ magic or a trip to the physio and dry needling. Nothing to worry about. That was three weeks ago and I’m still lame, silly boy.
Next comes anger. Boy, I was angry on Thursday evening before the marathon when 7k into a 10k last run I pulled up lame and knew instantly I had rolled the dice one too many times. I was also angry at myself for ignoring the calf all week and just assuming it had come good on its own. In my defence I had ran twice with no issues so assumed all was ok. With hindsight I should have gone to the physio on Monday after the weekends 10k race and had some needling and massage on the calf. I reckon the physio could have got the know untangled intimate for Bunbury and I would be posting about my 42nd marathon finish rather than adding to another post on injury.
Next come bargaining. For me this was about convincing myself I’d be right in a few days after physiology. Again . no problem, I bargained my injury window down to a week max with the upside this would be good ‘rest’ time, something I never do normally.
Once bargaining fails it headlong into depression, which is where I am now. Depressed at what could have been and also depressed that I’m still injured and my 2 days blip has become a 3 week road block with little sign of abating. Worse still my last 7k run was as bad as the first run 3 weeks ago which started this sad tale, so after three visits to the physio and well over $150 out of pocket I’m back to the start, injured ! Oh yeah, I’m depressed. It gets even worse, I’ve had to resort to spending two hours a day on the bike to try and save my cardio fitness. This is depressing but also painful. How these cyclist breed is beyond me.? The family jewels have taken a right royal beating on the Perth bike paths and I either need to man up or get cycling shorts with more padding. (maybe a cushion! or even better a cushioned seat as the one I got seemed purpose built to inflict as much pain as possible. Maybe this is why cyclists spend so long in cafe’s drinking coffee and eating cake, to rest their ‘how’s your fathers’ ‘ )
Finally comes acceptance. I’m close to this stage currently as the Joondalup half in 2 weeks is now off the race calendar as is the 10k the following week. I realise that the 3 weeks of no running (with more time to come.) is too much for me to give a good account of myself at either of these races. I have no accepted missing the Perth marathon in June as this is an A goal race but I may have to reevaluate my predicted time. A lot will depend on Tuesday when I will slope off back to the physio and let his magic hands and needles do their best on my right calf.
Injury wise I’ve been lucky over the last 8 years. This is my fourth calf knot which accounted for maybe 4-6 weeks of no running, less than one week a year. I know that it about as good as you get but as I sit him typing away I’m not overly excited about my previous track record. If you’re a runner you get injured, this is as certain as the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening. How long and when depends on so many variables but I could kick myself for missing the signs (for missing substitute ‘ignoring’!) and allow the 2 day injury to morph into this 3 week (and counting) career threatening calf knot from hell. Off course I did sell my soul to the Devil for this good run but was hoping to get longer than 8 years. That’s the problem with dealing with Lucifer, just can’t trust him. Oh well, onwards and upwards, the bike is calling and how much more pain can the family jewels endure? Surely over time the jewels will ‘harden up’ or maybe they just fall off ?
I have also got my treadmill back, the one that I brought when we entered COVID lockdown early 2020 and then loaned out to Adam for a few years. I don’t think I’ve ever used it in anger truth be told but it should help as it’ll be easier on the legs, I can also add a good gradient if necessary ; without leaving my a garage. Not a fan of treadmills but I’ll get a TV set up in the garage and catch up on all my Netflix movies while exercising, winning.
My COVID treat..
Finally as prevention is better than cure I’ll be hitting my massage gun, every runner needs one of these , they are ace. I use an Australian made product, the Stryke recovery gun. ( https://www.strykerecovery.com.au/ ) I have had mine for over two years and it still does the job, I just need to use it more. This weapon has saved my life many times on the lionger ultras when you have time to really get into the aching muscles. This together with humantecar spray ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) and fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) are must haves for longer events and also injury prevention.
The running answer to eternal youth ?
So its on the treadmill for a week and then hopefully two weeks of training before its on the two hour bus ride from the Discovery Centre (the finish line) to the start line in the middle of nowhere on the Bibbulmun track for the midnight kick off. Where else would you rather be on a Friday night ?
Finally as always I give a shout out to three of my favourite products… fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered. It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.
Fisiocrem is a must have in your ultra box of tricks…
Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ ) The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products) can be difficult to digest later in the event. From the website :-
As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority.
In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance.
In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born.
BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work!
BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!
Great hydration.
What can I say about HumanTecar, ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !
The last couple of years my focus has been on ultra races, in fact my last 18 races over that period have all been ultras. My last marathon was the Perth City to Surf in August 2019, just breaking the sub three hour mark finishing in 2 hours 55 minutes and change. I had entered the Melbourne marathon on a whim earlier in the year and I was determined to try and continue my sub three streak currently standing at twenty nine marathons over a ten year period. Seemed like a good idea at the time but then the ‘No time to die‘ backyard ultra was introduced and I had to run it to get the Grand Slam of backyard Ultras. (Running all four of the UltraSeries backyard ultras in one year)
The only down side to this challenge was the backyard ultra was two weeks before Melbourne, essentially my last long run. Normally a last long run is around 32km maybe a tad longer but not the 33 hour , 224km backyard ultra I ran. Deep down I knew this would come back to bit me and coupled with just about a total lack of marathon specific training I knew I was in for a torrid time, at best.
Right lets start at the beginning, well actually before the beginning, at the hour and half before the start with myself and Adam cocooned in the VIR room (Very Important Runner) . This is a $100 extra you can pay to get a nice warm room in the MCG at the start with fruit, tea and coffee and the best bit, toilets without a queue a mile long. You are then escorted to the front of the pack just before the start and then afterwards back to the room for a massage, light lunch and a shower ; and yes, toilets. Probably the best $100 I have ever spent. The image below is myself and Adam preparing to enter the VIR room up the VIR escalator, I told you it was a good deal.
Melbourne VIR entrance with Adam. No Barts and Jeff, too tight to spend the extra $100 !
The view from the VIR room was pretty special too, the MCG stadium in all it glory just before sunrise. This VIR option is the gift that keeps giving I tell you. As the sun rose we were escorted out of the calm of the VIR room into the chaos that is a major marathon start line. It was good to get the option to start with the preferred starts, the fast runners , just behind the Kenyans. Adam and I noted the location of the three hour pacers and then some last minute stretching before the gun went off and it was on for young and old.
MCG pre-start, view from the VIR room.
The VIR room was also full of most of the Perth runners loyal to my good friend Tony Smith, him of Tony Smith Coaching. ( https://www.tsrunclub.com/ ) Tony has built an empire the last few years and his one goal is helping achieving theirs, a very humble but driven character Tony , as are his coaches. Over the years we have had many tussles and trained many, many hours together and laughed a lot and I mean a lot, easily done with like minded people. His coaching business is growing but he still maintains a hands on approach and is genuinely interested in all his runners. I love the image below as it shows us getting ready and I have many of these over the years. Tony is still running incredibly well and ran sub three for the marathon.
The T-train and I, two old warriors preparing for battle, again !
Right lets get to the interesting bit, the race debriefing. As the split below shows I basically tried to stay with the sub 3 bus and did so until 10k when I was kicked off and then struggled to the finish. Truth be told it was what I expected after running the No time to die ultra two weeks prior and as I always maintain you can’t hide from a marathon. I struggled from the start and a toilet stop at 5km didn’t help as I was then chasing the three hour pacers, when I eventually caught them around the 10km my head gasket blew. As I said earlier its been three years since I’ve ran a marathon and in that time I have done no specific marathon training bar a few token efforts in the last few weeks. My legs hadn’t recovered from the backyard ultra a few weeks previous but I was hoping I could run sub3 on past glories, a ridiculous concept really and at 10k all the cows came home and the piper was there with his hand out, he wanted paid big time.
I’ve very rarely been in this position before as I always train for the event I enter, be it a 4km sprint to a 200 miler adventure. This was always going to be a challenge and depending how the legs had recovered would determine the time in the pain cave. It looked , at 10km into the race, my time in the pain cave would be extensive, and very deep. It is in situations like this you need your past experience to decide a new strategy for the way forward, because you need to keep moving forward. I decided I needed to get to halfway and then mentally I would be in a better place. At the moment I was running away from the start line, at halfway I was running back towards the finish line, a world of difference. I would then also give myself a pace target for the journey home to the MCG stadium.
From the 10km mark to halfway is good running , initially around a park and then along the beach front in St. Kilda, conditions were perfect. I struggled to the halfway mark with runners constantly passing me but once there gave myself a target of pacing around the 4:40min/km to 5min/km , if I could keep this pace I would be able to get back to the MCG around 3 hours 15minues, a respectable enough time. From 21km to 28km I was able to maintain my new goal pace amd as we turned for home felt confident I could reach my new goal albeit I could see the 3hour 10min bus approaching quickly. With hindsight I would have been better off starting with this bus as I could have probably held on to the end, but was happy with my decision to roll the dice and pay the price, so to speak.
After the 3hour 10 bus went over the top of me we merged with the half marathon runners who were running considerable slower than me, it was actually nice to pass a few runners for a change as I had spent the last hour or so getting passed myself, constantly. We were then separated briefly before the marathon runners got to run the hills in Tan park while the half marathon turned for home. The tan park has a few nasty rises, not really hills as such, but with less than 5km to go you can see the end so mentally you just need to switch to finish mode and it all becomes do-able. Coming out of the Tan Park the job is done as there is a 2-3km downhill stretch to roll into the MCG, albeit playing ‘frogger‘ with the now really slow half marathon runners.
Once you enter the MCG the magic of the finish engulfs you, the stadium is a 100,000 seater , four tier monster of a venue to finish in. The holy grail of Cricket and Australian Rules Football and it is an honour and a privledge to run on the sacred turf. I made an effort to smile for the camera and not look at my watch until I was well past the finish to get a good photo, albeit at 55 finding a good photo these days is becoming more and more difficult, thankfully we have photoshop and filters.
As you can see from the splits below they tell a sorry tale of reality kicking in around the 10km mark and then a slow and painful slide down the pacing chart from 4:15min/k to 5:00min/k. Halfway at 1:32:27 means a positive split of thirteen minutes in the second half, not ideal. On the bright side, is there one, I stuck to my second half plan, give or take, and couldn’t have give any more on the day. It was good to finally run marathon number 46 after such a long time away.
The splits tell the sorry story.
After the finish it was back to the VIR room for a light lunch, massage and shower, how good is that ? I even managed to sneak Jeffrey in so he could enjoy the business class conditions.
All smiles in the VIR room after the event with the T-train.
As you can see from the image below taken from the VIR room conditions were perfect and the finish is just so special. The MCG is hallowed turf and just to run on it is worth the entry itself, magical times.
So after a snooze at the hotel it was time to all meet up at the Transport bar in Federation Square for a post event beer. I always treat myself to a Guinness or two after a race but today one was enough. Tony and a few of his runners joined Adam, Liam, Barts . Jeffrey and I and we talked for hours about the days adventures, time disappeared very quickly. There was so much laughter as we all had our own stories to share and these adhoc catch-ups are just so good, lime minded people enjoying each others company, what more is there ?
Christened the medal for my friend Jeff Hansen who lost his battle with Leukemia earlier in the year, it was a tradition he and a few of his close friends started. Jeff was a Race Director at the Delirious West backyard ultra , and the Mundy park run (his baby) and is seem interviewing me in the video clip below. He was admired and loved by the running community in Perth and beyond. Missed every day.
The dunking of the medal for Jeff.
So the Melbourne marathon has reignited my desire to go sub 3 , and maybe quicker, but before I can do that I have many ultras to finish culminating in the Run Brittania 1,000 mile race July next year. ( https://ratracerunbritannia.com/ ) After that though it could be time to put on the short shorts , drop the ultra puppy fat and start racing marathons again and who knows maybe stay on the sub three bus for longer or even beat it, funnier things have happened.
Finally as always I give a shout out to three of my favourite products… fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered. It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.
Fisiocrem is a must have in your ultra box of tricks…
Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ ) The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products) can be difficult to digest later in the event. From the website :-
As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority.
In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance.
In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born.
BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work!
BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!
Great hydration.
What can I say about HumanTecar, ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !
