2018 has nearly disappeared in the blink of an eye and I’m left with the 6 inch ultra trail marathon (December 16th http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com ) and 3 races I need to complete the WAMC 7 races to try and win my age group.  Considering I haven’t probably ran a sub 4 min/k kilometre since April I see trouble ahead. The Joondalup half ( https://www.wamc.org.au/major-events/joondalup-half-marathon/ ) next weekend will be the litmus test to see if my Plantar Fasciitis has finally given up and moved on to the next unfortunate runner. I’ll dose myself up with Voltaren pre-event and hope this will get me through it. Assuming I survive the half it will be the City Beach 8k a week before the 6 inch in early December and then the New Years Eve 8k on New Years Eve, funny that ?

Kings Park trails and the Elliptigo have been my salvation this year and I’ve managed to string together a strong last 3 months, albeit with more Elliptigo action than running.  From the last 7 weeks you can see I’ve managed to avoid a day off exercise and have tried to exercise there times a day in the week when I Elliptigo to work. This has certainly been challenging as I’m not a ‘cruise to work in lycra‘ kind of guy. When I get on my GO it’s on for young and old, I’m racing baby, be it the clock, average pace, the cyclist infront of me ; whatever. This means I get to work in the mornings and home in the evenings on the cusp of a heart attack normally and I wouldn’t have it any other way, I am in a ‘building phase’ and I’m building a cardio engine that will allow me to add a turbo to it (i.e pace) early 2019 and hopefully onwards to glory, that or an early grave and some rest in my box. ? I must admit ti feeling great, albeit tired a lot, and there’s even the chance the BK six pack is making one more appearance before it scurries off to hide behind some well placed toxic fat as I fade away into old age. With my Elliptigo I may be able to avoid that for a few more years and maybe even nudge a PB or two in the near future. The proof will be in the pudding so speak and if my PF finally leaves I have the chance to try this new cardio engine at the Australia Day Ultra in January, around Australia Day funnily enough ? ( http://australiadayultra.com ) It was at this event I set the AURA  ( https://www.aura.asn.au ) age group record for the 100k and I ‘d love to knock a minute or two off that but with the interrupted year this is highly unlikely.

Right to the point of the post, cross training can and needs to be a weapon in the arsenal of the competitive runner. Running twice a day every day, even with the second run an easy one, eventually catches up with you. I’m testament to that with my calf tear last year (thank you Mark Lommers and your Cappacino laced with injury !)  and a bad case of Plantar Fasciitis this year. On the plus side the previous 8-9 years I ran virtually injury free. Must be a fifties thing which I’m hoping to grow out off in my sixties ? With me I have found the Elliptigo gives me that runners heart rate and cardio workout without the pounding on the legs, supported by some big names in the running world albeit they’re sponsored so have to write good things about the GO. I actually love my time commuting to work now and I’ve found an extra 6-8 hours a week where I can give myself a good workout without affecting work or family time. The alternative is sit on a train with all the other commuters glued to my phone wasting my life away. I actually mislaid my train smart rider months ago and cancelled it before finding it again (Always the way?) Anyhow I’ve never actually been to Transperth and reactivated the card, no need I have my GO . As you can see from the Strava image above ( You have Strava right ? Everybody has Strava don’t they… if not , get it quick and feel free to follow me ; click on the icon at the bottom of this post)

Another point of this post is to remind everyone I’m still here. I’ve moved house in the last month and managed to fill seven garages full of ‘stuff’, it seems the Matthews family are hoarders ? ( I’m currently staying at a 4 villa complex I brought that i can’t seem to sell? The joys of being a property developer in your spare time, in  between running… ) This coming from a man who never throws out his running shows and probably has 4 boxes full of old pairs. They are like old friends to me and if you were to pull a pair out of any box I could tell when I wore them, what races , if any, I ran in them and probably how many kilometres I put in them. My Wife just shakes her head, actually everybody shakes their heads but they’re all special to me. Is that wrong , who knows? If i can find all the boxes in the 7 garages I’ll get them all out for a photo, it’ll need to be a wide angled lens if course !

I seem to have digressed , as is my way, but I’ll make more of an effort to post to the blog now I’m nearly uninjured, I have so much more to talk about when I’m racing of course. This weekend there may be a story or two as I’m running a recon run for the 6 inch ultra on Saturday. Even though I’ve ran the course nine times I’ve got lost three times and that’s even wearing two watches with a GPX file loaded to keep me on track. Needless to say I’m not the best person in the world to run the 6 inch with and the running joke , excuse the run, is when I tell people I know where we are you need to panic because you are then officially lost, harsh but true unfortunately! (Thanks for that Zac!)

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