Last weekend I raced my first ‘last man (woman) standing event‘, a USWA event, dubbed Birdy’s Backyard. ( https://ultraserieswa.com.au/ ) The concept comes from the Big Dog Backyard Ultra described below by the Guardian. Our version is called Birdy’s Backyard named as the owner of the land on which Shaun staged the first event in 2019, the name will of course stick. It is the same distance as it’s big brother in the states thereby allowing for the possibility of a qualifying event for the Big Dog in the future ? As described below the concept is simple, you have an hour to run a 6.7k loop (4.16667 miles) on the hour , every hour, meaning the field all start together , on the hour, until there is only one person left, he , or she, is the winner while the rest of the field are all DNF’d (Did Not Finish)
A loop eternal: welcome to the Big Dog Backyard Ultra
It’s a simple conceit – a slightly more than four-mile loop that you run once an hour until all your competitors have dropped out. All very straightforward, until you hear how far the winner ran ….
Run a single loop measuring 4.16667 miles within a single hour. Now do it again. And again. Now keep doing it – starting a new loop on the hour, regardless of how fast you finish the previous one – until there’s only one runner willing or capable of doing so. Welcome to the simple – some might say sadistic – concept of the Big Dog Backyard Ultra in Bedford County, Tennessee.
“The apparently weird loop-distance has in fact been carefully chosen so each 24 hours equals running a perfect 100 miles,” says Guillaume Calmettes, the Frenchman who is the current Big Dog Backyard Ultra champion. “Another twist is that every 12 hours you change between a daytime trail loop to a night-time road loop, and because the road loop has less elevation gain – and is of course less technical – than the trail loop, then reaching the road loops gives you the opportunity to get a bit more rest time in between loops, and more time to take care of yourself before starting the next one.”
Calmettes winning distance was an incredible 246 miles. That’s 59 loops over 59 consecutive hours.
Obviously the Bad Dog Backyard Ultra isn’t for everyone. It’s leftfield events like this and the infamous Barkley Marathons – both devised by the savant of suffering, Lazarus Lake – that attract a certain breed of ultra runner. The 2017 edition had one of the deepest fields to date, or as Calmettes puts it, “everything you want for good entertainment: Barkley finisher; 24hr world championship medalist; Badwater champion; Vol-State 500k champion; six-day running specialists; 100-mile winners, and so on. It was pretty humbling being surrounded by greatness everywhere,” he says.
So how to approach a race with no discernible end – a race where your competitors dwindle as the physiological and psychological torment picks off victim after victim? Quite easily, it seems, if you’re Calmettes. “Because there is no predefined finish, you cannot think in terms of ‘how many miles do I have left before this thing is all over’, so in fact, I found it very easy mentally. I just had to think about the next loop. The next loop, always the next loop, it’s very easy thinking,” he says. “You’re never overwhelmed by what you have left to run, because you simply don’t know what you have left to run.” In this case ignorance is, without doubt, bliss.
Another unique aspect of the Big Dog that turns the traditional race experience on it’s head is position. It doesn’t matter if you finish a loop quickest or slowest. Once you finish it within the given hour, every runner begins the new loop tied for first place. In fact, it almost sounds easy. Until it sinks in once again that Calmettes ran for almost two and a half days straight – through storms and rain – to take the prize. It’s a measure of his character that the race’s highpoint for him wasn’t, in fact, winning but a moment when his last surviving rival, Harvey Lewis, finished loop number 56 with only two seconds to spare. The two took off into the next loop like a couple of sugared up school kids – ticking it off in just 41 minutes. “Pushing on a muddy and slippery trail loop with a friend after 57 hours is something special and pretty fun,” he says.
The end came soon after, Lewis quietly dropping out during the 59th loop – leaving Calmettes to unknowingly complete what was to be his final, winning lap.
“The problem when you win Big Dog Backyard Ultra is that it means that you did not really reach your limits; your race stopped because all the others runners called it quits, not because you decided that it was enough,” he says. “Now that I know that I can cover at least 246 miles and stay awake for 59 hours straight, I am even more curious of what I can really do. So yes, I am definitely coming back, and hopefully we’ll hit a third night next year.”
As a final, devious twist, the prize for winning is a starting place at the Barkley Marathons. Will Calmettes take up the offer? “Of course! You cannot say no to a Barkley entry,” he says.
Right, off we go. The race was due to start on Friday at 10am and being a 3-4 hour drive (from Perth) (depending if you let Amy navigate !) most runners left Perth Thursday and slept the night at the race location. This wasn’t a hardship for a number of reasons. One, I traveled with Adam who has a caravan so we cocooned ourselves in van luxury for the evening and the race, and two the race itself is around a beautiful lake which was resplendent for the whole event, albeit a tad on the cool side for my liking especially in the evening.
After an nervous evening meeting all the other runners and mentally preparing ourselves for the adventure ahead we all settled down for the last good nights sleep for at least a few days. In the morning we awoke to the lake in its full glory, a magnificent view presented itself to us and we knew we would run in perfect conditions. How does Shaun Kaesler do it? In my view a small price to pay for a soul Shaun and thanks buddy.
The Lake the morning of the race…stunning !
A few of the usual suspect had made the journey down with me, namely Adam, Rob, Rhys, Neil, Justin, Amy, Rob, Jon to name but a few. We all got ourselves ready and ambled up to the start with the rest of the 120 or so starters. The lap itself was pretty cool, luckily because we were about to do quite a few laps on it. The first kilometre was good running before you ran through what looked like a graveyard of old caravans. There must have been well over a hundred. Speaking to the owners of the caravan park it seems the water skiers tow their boat to the lake but leave the caravan and just ask the owners to tow them to their site when they turn up for their annual holiday. After the caravan graveyard there’s another kilometre or so of track before you run on the side of the lake, cross a small bridge and then a few kilometres of meadow running before finishing running though a , dry, swamp area. Throw in a couple of small water jumps and some challenging terrain under foot and you have the making of a great loop.
Images of the course. (which don’t do it justice !)
So what was everybodies goal ? We all had differing expectations. Jon wanted to win it, Adam wanted to get to use his head torch for at least one lap, (he was carrying a knee and back inury!) Rob was targeting an Ultra PB, beating his current 51k record, while Amy and I were looking at 24 laps and our first 100 miler distance. None of us knew what to expect of course never having ran a race where you are continually stopping and starting so we made sure we all packed our massage guns (you do have a massage gun right?) and these were to prove invaluable as the race progressed, as the image below shows..
Guns out for the ladies? Adam, Rob and I. (Chairs supplied by Adam , and they were awesome..)
In the image below you have a few shots of our camp setup. Myself and Adam were in the business class section in his caravan, while the rest of the crew suffered outside in the freezing conditions or scuttled off into their tents. Trust me that caravan was worth it’s weight in gold later in the evening when the temperatures plummeted. While I was embracing the vans heater the guys outside where cocooned outside wrapped in sleeping bags and thermal jackets but still freezing. It can be a cruel world running ultras but I feel they learnt a valuable lesson and one they will take with them next year, I’m expecting to see a lot more caravans and Winnebago’s next year. Jon , as always, was very well prepared but I feel this time he may have outdone himself. I reckon he had more food on his aid station that the event’s version and I’m sure a few runners found themselves at Jon’s table assuming it was the event one , only to be sent packing by Jon ! Truth be told he didn’t really make a dent in his tukka as he was also visiting the events aid station for fear he would run out. ! Bottom right of the image below you can see the coffee van which also did some really nice toasted sandwiches. I had one before the event but none on the day as I never got it together to either queue or ask someone to arrange a coffee for my return. No worries, next year I’ll get some support. (Jeff did promise to come along this year but he saw the temperatures predicted for the event and thought better of it ! Can’t blame him really, 30- 40 hours of watching runners run round and round in circles, in freezing conditions, is not that enticing funnily enough?)
A few shots of the camp and Jon’s provisions (and Jon sleeping !) and the view from my bed in the caravan.
Below, starting from top left, you have me and Rob enjoying the daylight on the first day. Then Adam and Rob relaxing after setting new PB’s and now keeping warm and encouraging us runners who were left, before scuttling off to bed. The rest of the shots are of the local crew at various times during Friday morning and afternoon and the bottom middle shot is the last 13 runners about to set off on lap 24, 100 miles.
Right back to the race. What’s it like running a ‘Last man standing event‘ that will probably last longer than you’ve ever run before with numerous stops before starting again on the hour, every hour ? It is ace. That about sums it up, it really is the best fun you will ever have in a running event. but there is a caveat of course. If you decide to see how far you really can push yourself than fun soon disappears and you enter the dark world of the ultra runner, pushing themselves to depths of despair that any normal person cannot imagine and, in this case , you do in on the hour, every hour. Yep, this event can become an evil mistress and the rewards are great but the price you need to pay will be a big one. This is the real point of the event, it allows each runner to go to places they will have never been before and may never go again, in the relative safety of only ever being a few kilometres from safety. No running alone , kilometres from help and facing many more kilometres to even get to an aid station to DNF. In a looped event you have the relative security and comfort of being a maximum of roughly 3km, in any direction, from the start or finish. There is also the added benefit of support every 40-50 minutes and a rest before starting again, this is what allows the runner to go further than a normal event. Did I put myself in that dark place only an ultra runners knows ? Unfortunately not , ok, there were a few Goggin’s moments between midnight and the sunrise but once the sun was up the last few hours were probably the easiest as I could smell the finish. Would that have been different if I had decided to run until I dropped ? Definitely, but this target was 24 hours of running and entry to the elusive 100 miler club and also a big tick of kudos before I faced the Delirious West again in February. ( http://deliriouswest200miler.com.au/ ) Finishing strong after 24 hours was more important than pushing myself to exhaustion, this year anyway, next year it will be a different story.
Other positives was the camaraderie of the event. The start and finish area would be a hive of activity for 20 or so minutes when all the runners stumble in, refuel, re-hydrate , change their clothes etc (the list is endless) and then at a minute past the hour it’s back to being a very big campsite with the support crew left to their own devices and the coffee van, probably? In that hub of activity everybody is on a runners high because they have finished another loop, another mini event really. How good is this race ? Rather than one runners high, which is the norm, this event you get one every hour for as long as you can keep on going. Birdy’s really is the event that just keeps on giving, hourly. It is also great to see your fellow runners on the hour , every hour and , in my case, tell the same sheep jokes at the same location to the same runners, hourly. I’m not sure if Rhys and Neil dropped out through fatigue or they just couldn’t stand my jokes again? Probably a bit of both.
As I mentioned earlier all the crew performed outstandingly and all achieved their personal goals. The image below shows me and Justin entering the 100 miler club (give or take a few hundred metres apparently?) and we both decided this was enough for 2020. Personally I felt great and could have gone on but maybe that feeling was linked to my finish target, the mind allowing my body 24 laps before turning to his good friend fatigue if I decided to sneak in a few more laps. I’m hoping I haven’t sacrificed the opportunity to go further and break through the 200km distance but if I can continue training the way I am I’m confident I’ll be better prepared next year and I’m sure I’ll have some company with the current crop of finishers, all set to return in 2021.
Unfortunately during the race I did manage to probably pull my Achilles tendon , and maybe tear it ?, and my ongoing fractured big toe played up at various times. Voltaren and Rock Tape got me through the event but I’m paying the price now. No running for a week and a few rides on the Bionic Runner, stand up bike, is all I have to show since Birdy’s. It’s a price I’m willing to take but I have another one of Shaun’s events coming up mid September that I need to be ready for. ( http://lighthorseultra.com.au/ ) The Light Horse ultra is another looped course but this time dictated by time. I’m going for the 12 hour event which last year kicked my backside and handed me my first ever DNF. Determined to give it a good tilt this year and I’m helped by the starting time moving to 6am , so most of the race (if not all?) will be in daylight. Supper excited about this one but my good friend Voltaren will need to pull his finger out to get me to the start line.
Mission accomplished. 24 laps done and dusted. Synchronised watch pressing. !
Michael Hooker won the event finishing 40 laps and doing it with ease, truth be told. Phil Gore was magnificent in second place staggering to the finish of lap 39 before collapsing over the start line, leaving Michael to his own devices. Jon ran a perfect race for third spot, his walking, sprinting, snoozing, eating tactics obviously worked. For the ladies the deadly duo of Margie and Jen yet again were far too strong for the women field and 99% of the men’s field. They both ran to exhaustion and proved they are a real threat when Delirious comes along again in February.
In March this year I started to work from home as COVID19 started to make it’s presence known around the globe. This new way of working is perfect for the stay at home athlete to really add some serious fitness metrics. As you can see from the image below I entered lock-down in March just about as unfit as I had ever been in the last 2 years. This was down to a number of factors including losing my running mojo and coming off some bad racing results including a DNF at the Delirious West 200 Miler. ( http://deliriouswest200miler.com.au ) Truth be told I had fallen into this running hole at the end of 2019 after a second dose of man-flu. Now I know any Women reading this post, basically my Mum!, will have no sympathy for man-flu but let me tell the risk is real and it is a killer , albeit maybe more a few days feeling very sorry for ourselves. Anyhow I was left with little or no energy and lost the will to train, just before a 200 mile race over four days. I kidded myself it was all mental and I could walk the Delirious but in the end the inevitable happened and I DNF’d after 17 hours. In my defense there was a few other contributing factors, like not eating and drinking enough and my Quads completely seizing up, as I have also said an ultra is an eating and drinking competition with running between aid stations thrown in to justify the event.
Anyhow, I digress, in March when lock down hit I was working from home and came across the idea of massage guns. I had heard good things about these items so treated myself to one. Well, what a difference it made. Using the massage gun after every run allowed to me to start the next run with fresh legs, no longer did I hobble out of bed in the morning and stumble towards the door, I was like a Gazelle, leaping out of bed and bounding to the door. I found I could stride out again and my love of running returned which is pretty obvious from the chart below.
Lockdown fitness boost.
Another change I made was to spend more time, every Friday, hitting the trails for long runs and boy we have some great trails in Perth, all within a 30 minute drive from the city. These runs were all about time on feet and just enjoying being out there, running in its purest form. (Of course we all have our GPS watches on so we could show everybody where we’d been ! ) These runs rekindled my love of trails and over the ten or so Friday’s I spent on the trails I had some great times. (I took a GoPro on some of these runs so if you search in my last 10 or so posts you find a link to some of them or use this link to get to my Vimeo page :- https://vimeo.com/manage/422054940/general ) There are many benefits of trail running but , for me, the main one is the extra all over body workout you get as you are continually watching your step, due to the terrain, and unable to fall into a ‘road running‘ mode where it’s just step after step in the same stance. After a good trail run your quads and hammys are normally screaming as they recover from the extra work they have been put under, you may even wake up the next day with a six pack albeit probably temporarily.
The usual suspects. Adam, Rob and Jeff.
I have added my training before Delirious in February from Strava ( you do use Strava right… http://www.strava.com ) and the last 6 weeks and it’s pretty clear the change in intensity. First up is the 6 weeks before Delirious, in February, where I was in very dark place, training wise, mainly due to constantly tight hammys, making running unpleasant. I did virtually no running in January, although in my defence I was recovering from man-flu picked up in the first week. I made a token effort the week before the event but, by this time, it was probably, definitely, too late. Funnily enough my hammys survived the event but my quads gave up big time and after 17 hours and 112k I DNF’d . Speaking to the race winner , Jon Pendse, he said he was in a similar position later in the race and was saved by someone offering him a massage gun. Once he used the gun he was good to go again and wound up winning !
6 weeks pre-Delirious , not pretty.
Compare the pre-massage gun to the post massage gun training below. No days off and lots of double days, even a training half marathon (1:36) on a Saturday followed by a training full marathon (3:11) the next day. It really is chalk and cheese, the difference. As well as the extra workload you are able to get through you also start each run feeling fresh and this is where the massage gun is vital. The reason we run is we love running and if you take away the love then running becomes a chore and this is why , eventually, so many people give it away. Their mind is still willingly but their body lets them down. I see now that is what was happening to me earlier in the year, I was constantly fatigued and because of that unable to really enjoy my running. I remember lots of times sitting in my changing room at work wondering what I was doing, after another terrible run. Trust me it’s not fun when you question the reason you do what you use to love to do.
Post massage gun I am back to the running machine I was 3-4 years ago, albeit slower of course but the passion is there and that’s whats important at this stage in my career, that is the end. I realise my days of PB’s are well and truly behind me but age group wins are still there for the taking and also the joy of racing is still there to be enjoyed.
It’s been a busy few weeks.
So which massage gun to choose ? Well the choices are endless and vary vastly in price. Personally I went for an Australian product so I could return it if I had any problems, this is just my choose of course. The best thing to do is google ‘Best Massage guns for running’ and then give yourself the rest of the day to go though the options, or longer ! Of course , as always, price will probably dictate your choice but , as with all things, you probably get what you pay for so be careful.
Let’s pretend that you’re a sore runner training for one of the world’s first marathons in ancient Greece. You visit a practitioner to heal your weak-feeling muscles. He places a plank of wood on your sore spot and, using your body as a stabilizer, begins sawing away. The hope: that the resulting vibrations reach your muscles and help alleviate pain.
That was the beginning of vibration therapy, and while it sounds a little horrifying, the intention was scientifically sound. We now know that the technique helps build strength and speed, improve flexibility, and loosen stiff muscles, says Matthew N. Berenc, director of the Equinox Fitness Training Institute. And, until recently, this was largely done through bulky platforms found in gyms (rather than tools with dangerously sharp edges—phew). If athletes wanted to get strong, they stood on top of the vibrating Power Plate machine and performed dynamic exercises like squats and lunges. When recovery was the goal, they draped a leg over the platform as it buzzed. Either way, the vibrations stimulated muscle fibers and the nervous system, priming the muscles for quicker reaction and greater strength and power output.
But let’s be real: Unless you’re a hardcore athlete, these machines often collect more dust than users. They also require a trip to the gym. That leaves a clear void in the market, which companies like Hyperice, TimTam, and TriggerPoint have recently filled. Their devices—mini jackhammers and vibrating foam rollers—can be used whenever, wherever.
The Buzz on a Little Buzz
When our bodies are exposed to vibration, muscles automatically twitch against it, says Michele Olson, Ph.D., an adjunct professor of sports science at Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Alabama. It’s a defense strategy: Too much vibration can damage our organs, so muscles contract to dampen the blow. But low levels of pulsation can help muscles maintain their function and prime bones to lay down new cells while casting off old ones. So there’s a balance to be found and, for at least the last decade, that was achieved primarily through whole-body therapy (e.g., using a Power Plate).
The problem is that the research on whole-body vibration therapy has been mixed. A small study found that running economy—the energy needed to put in miles—increased after eight weeks of whole-body vibration training. But other research compared whole-body vibration to resistance training in endurance runners, and the results were equal. So it begs the question: Since you’re already doing strength-training, is it necessary to add more to your routine?
Some experts answer with a tentative “yes,” if vibration is delivered in a localized fashion. An exploratory study found that in recreational athletes, using a vibrating foam roller increased pain tolerance more than a traditional one did. Plus, when vibrations are applied directly to a muscle, certain proprioceptors (sensors in the muscle) cause tissues to relax and loosen, Berenc says. For runners, that could lead to an increased range of motion. Preliminary research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that when 19 people used the Hyperice Vyper, a vibrating foam roller, from their ankle to their knee, they experienced a greater increase in ankle range of motion than those who statically rolled.
When to Pump Up the Pulse
Manufacturers will tell you that at-home vibration therapy is great before, during, and after a workout. And while science still has to establish this for sure, there is a case to be made for each.
Before your workout, Berenc says, you can benefit from post-activation potentiation—a fancy way of saying your muscles are primed to work harder. “When the muscles work to control the vibrations, they recruit a high number of muscle fibers,” he explains. This way, when you start running, your muscles are already prepared and your stride could be more efficient, he says.
In the middle of a sweat session—say, in between sprints around the track—Jason S. Wersland, chiropractor and founder of TheraGun, says that quick, targeted vibration could signal glycogen to flood to a muscle. “It brings new blood and stored energy to the muscles, while also keeping you loose and limber so you can finish a workout feeling strong,” he says.
Berenc thinks it’s smart to vibe after you run, especially if you’re hitting the pavement five to six days a week. Running more often means more repetitive movement, which Berenc says should be counterbalanced in a way that allows the tissue to relax so that you can maintain range of motion. Ten minutes of vibration therapy each day is plenty to accomplish this; you can target three or four areas of the body each session to keep boredom at bay.
No matter when or how you use the device, though, most experts agree that it can’t hurt to give it a try. At the very least, you’ll get a mini massage—and we know those are awesome.
Pro tip: Newbie vibers should start on the lowest setting and gradually build intensity, limiting use to one or two times a week—and only vibing for 30 minutes max at a time—to avoid overuse injuries, says Berenc. “As your muscles become used to the stimulus, you can increase how often you use a device,” he adds. Pay attention to how you feel, and adjust accordingly.
I came across this article on the poduim runner website ( https://www.podiumrunner.com/training/marathon-training/how-to-run-a-227-marathon-at-age-59/ ) describing Tommy Hughes and his achievements and training tips, which are listed below. The article is worth a read and I totally agree with all his tips, they mirror a lot of my Golden Rules funnily enough. What resonated with me was his weekly training which consisted of a 16k run in the morning and a similar distance in the afternoon , 6 times a week. He is the ultimate advocate of the consistent running , high distance mantra taught by Lydiard, Maffetone and, too some point, Matt Fitzgerald.
I have said this many times but it’s worth repeating again ‘ Double days unlock your running dreams‘. Double days allow you to add distance without the threat of injury as you are breaking down your mileage by half, ultimately. Also by following the Maffetone method (using your heart rate as the dictator of your pace) you are normally running well within yourself and , as such, less likely to get injured. I keep telling Bart’s this as he is continually pulling his hammy running with his younger students on their track days. He needs to slow down, smell the roses and only test his dodgy hammy with a number on his chest after a good warm-up. Something about old dog and new tricks springs to mind with Bart’s !!
Anyway here are the tips of a sub 2:30 marathon runner, in his sixties, so they are worth reading and adjusting your training to accommodate, assuming you are a vintage runner , like my good self.
Run only as many miles as you can handle. In his 20s, Hughes pushed his training as high as 140 miles a week. That didn’t work. “I found that I was getting these little injuries all the time,” he remembers. Eventually, he settled on about 100 miles a week. In the last year, he’s been able to go higher—up around 120 miles a week. “I’m actually doing more miles now than when I was young,” he notes.
Do most of those runs at a modest pace. From Monday through Friday, Hughes runs twice a day, roughly 10 miles (or a little less) at a time. On these runs, he generally holds a steady “three-quarters effort,” and says he can’t stand running slower than that. He pegs his typical running pace at 6:30- to 7:00 minutes per mile. That’s about a minute-per-mile slower than his marathon race pace, so not a hard effort.
Go past 20 on long runs. Hughes generally follows a 12-week buildup for his marathons. During that period, he’ll run as long as 26 miles two to three times. He’ll also do several runs of 22 to 24 miles. He doesn’t push particularly hard on the long runs, but might run progressively faster the last three to five miles. (Note, at his training pace, none of these runs last longer than 3 hours).
Refine your focus. If there were a mantra to describe Hughes’s approach, it would be: Everything’s aimed at marathon performance. Even in his 20s, he never ran faster than 14:26 for 5000 meters. “I learned early that the marathon was my best event,” he says. “And once I did, I decided to put everything into building myself to a marathon peak.”
Skip the speedwork. But race often. Hughes does very little speedwork, fearful that the extra intensity might lead to injury. However, he races almost every weekend, either in a local Parkrun or a nearby road race. And when he goes to a start line, he goes all-out: “I love competing, and I always give one-hundred percent,” he says.
Use your races as marathon simulations. That said, he doesn’t run his weekend races on fresh legs. “I run 10 miles early on the morning of my races,” he says. “I want to be doing my races on fatigued legs, because that’s the best way to accustom them to the late miles of the marathon.”
Keep trying to improve your training regimen. Hughes has stuck with certain approaches most of his life—for example, the lack of track work. Otherwise, he’s always fiddling with what he calls his “training recipe,” hoping to find a new ingredient. He’s doing more foam-rolling of late, especially on his upper back and neck, which tend to get tight in marathons. He’s added a modest strength-building unit to his garage-gym, where he also practices rope-skipping and punching-bag sessions. A few years back, he started drinking a small glass of beet juice every day, and has become a big fan.
Carbo-load the hard way. Before his big Frankfurt Marathon effort last fall, Hughes followed the old-fashioned, extreme depletion-and-repletion system of carbo-loading. He ran a hard long run seven days before the marathon (“Bleeding out,” he called it), followed by three days of a high-protein, low-carb diet. Only after this glycogen-depletion stage did he switch to a high-carb diet. “It seemed to push my glycogen up higher than normal,” he observes.
Use a short stride. Hughes never had to work at this one. Short has always been natural for him. He ran Frankfurt with an average stride rate of 199 strides per minute. (It’s not genetic; his son used 174 strides/minute.) Hughes believes his short stride is an efficiency asset in the marathon, and also helps keep him injury-free.
Run even-pace marathons, or a slight negative-split. It’s the almost-universal strategy these days, and Hughes is definitely on board. He practices even-pace marathon racing. At Frankfurt, he ran 1:14:22 and 1:13:40. His son made the typical rookie mistake: He ran 1:12:54 and 1:18:36. Tommy caught him at 23 miles, patted him on the back, asked “You okay?”—then motored away.
Ride the 4% wave. Hughes, who is unsponsored, ran the Frankfurt Marathon in Nike Vaporfly NEXT% shoes. Why not? If you’re aiming for fast marathons these days, it’s what many do. “They seem to leave my legs less beaten up late in the race,” he notes, echoing what others have said.
Believe. The longer the distance you’re racing, the more important your confidence in mastering that distance. Hughes has always focused exclusively on the marathon. Over the years, he’s learned how to train for and race the distance. “I don’t want to sound too much like Eliud Kipchoge, but I believe in myself,” he says. “I believe I can run faster. I believe I can go under 2:27 at age 60.”
I wrote this post four years ago in 2016 so thought it would be a good opportunity to recycle as I’m on another training block heading towards another sub 3 at the Running Works Marathon at Bibra Lake, Perth August 30th. My Golden Rules are unchanged over this period and still ring true, follow them and I guarantee success.
The extract from Strava (you are on Strava right ? http://www.strava.com shows the last 5 weeks training I have put myself through as I prepare for the Running Works marathon in 6 weeks time. I will have given myself a good 12 week training block by the time I start my taper a week before race. This should be enough to sneak under three hours. (Rule 8 : Consistency) (The grey circles indicate when I commute on my Bionic (stand up bike) to work as well as run. )
It’s been a busy few weeks.
Funnily enough my ramp up started as soon as I started working from home , middle of March. The extra time allowed me to start to look at my training regime and slowly add distance , consistently. (Rule 1 : Run Further) I started at 40k a week and moved up through the gears to 162k last week which also included a trial half marathon on Saturday and a trial full marathon Sunday. When you can look at these graphics it gives you the confidence to lock in your marathon pace. (Rule 9: It’s all in the mind)
Build week on week …
As I mentioned earlier I commute to work on a stand up bike. My stand up bike of choice is the Bionic B-Runner but unfortunately the company went broke due to substandard Chinese manufacturing (funny that?), so if you need a stand up bike go to the Elliptical website and get yourself the next best thing. I have had an Elliptigo and they are ace, they are truly running without the impact, and they are also so much fun. ( http://www.elliptigo.com ) I sold mine to my good friend Mark Conway and regret it daily, just got to find a way to buy another one and sneak it into the garage without No1 Wife finding out ? These stand up bikes are perfect for extra training without the risk of injury (Rule 3 : Don’t get injured) I have used one when I had a calf tear a few years ago and was able to come straight back to racing with times duplicated before the injury, this would have been impossible without the training I was able to undergo on the Elliptigo.
Meb (Boston Winner and Olympic Marathon runner) on the ‘Go’.
Anyhow here is the post from 2016, worth a read..
This weekend I made a bold decision and stopped running at 29.5k when I got back to the City Beach car park after our long run into the Bold Park hills. It was a conscious effort to take control of my running from the evil that is Strava ( http://www.strava.com ) that has taken hold of many a good runner and turned them into a run recording web junkies. Truth be told I already had 121k banked for the week and knew I was over the 150k weekly total with another 10k planned in the evening to take me over the 161k (100 mile) threshold. So really who was I kidding stopping at 29.5k? It did impress the rest of my running group who ran in ever decreasing circles around the car park to get the extra 500m needed for 30k.
How did this happen ? Social media has a large part to play and these days every run is accompanied by a Strava upload as a minimum and a social media post if the run justifies it. Compare this to when I started running before the Internet and GPS watches (Yep such a time did exist and to tell you the truth it wasn’t that bad. ) when a runner who have to record all their information using a thing called a pen and paper. (To the young followers of my post these things are now defunct and serve no purpose bar to be used a weapons in disposing of zombies and other evil creatures in the mindless video games you spend hours playing. Note. That is the pen, the paper would be used as fuel to set fire to said zombies if the pen failed to do it’s job.) I’ll put my hand up with most of the running population as an avid Strava addict who has 4 Garmin watches and an iphone to make sure that every kilometre I run is documented and shared. I did try and run without a watch once, on the advice of a ‘friend’ (?) to try and recapture the feeling of that bygone age. I hated it and all the time kept thinking how I was going to record this and document my findings to the world. It is like if a tree falls in a forest does it make a sound, if you run without recording it on Strava did it happen ? Not sure about the tree and forest scenario but for the Stava question the answer is ‘no’, if it ain’t on Strava it didn’t happen.!
This brings me to the point of this post this morning. We do live in a digital world (this may or may not be a good thing?) but you still need , as backup, a non Strava recording of all your totals. I have attached mine below for the last 8 years and with the table as backup will use these totals to complement my golden rules of running.
8 years of recording running fun…
Run Further. Add distance, not speed.As you can see from the table my weekly average has steadily increased year on year with this year being the first I will break the 100k a week average for the year. In 2012 I was injured with a nasty calf knot, that I didn’t treat, which explains the delta compared to the previous year. 2014 my training had plateaued which is why I turned to Raf ( http://www.therunningcentre.com.au ) to train me in 2105 where my distance increased by 10%. I have taken this training forward and will probably increase another 10% this year. Distance first, everything else comes once the ‘foundation of distance’ has been achieved.
Run Faster. This is about adding pace after you have got your foundation after rule 1. 2011 was a break out year for me after 3-4 years of building a good running base. I had ran 3 Comrades campaigns in 2008-2010 ( http://www.comrades.com ) so my distance foundation was well and truly complete. In 2011 every time I put on a bib I was confident of a pb. It was a wonderful year. Unfortunately in 2012 I had a nasty injury which set me back but towards the end of the year I was able to train consistently again and in 2013 I was again rewarded with a magical year of running.
Don’t get injured. This is the hardest rule to obey as you always want to do more of rule 1 and 2 which can result in an injury. (I even hate typing the word!) In 2012 I succumbed to a calf knot which took me out for over a month. I struggled to recover from this and as you can see from the table I only ran 3 pb’s for the year compared to 13 the previous year and 10 the following year when I recovered. If this doesn’t back up this rule nothing does.! Don’t get injured, so easy to type but in reality one of the hardest thing for a runner to do, period.
Nutrition, nutrition and nutrition… Did I mention nutrition. It’s all about the proper fuel. So underestimated by so many runners. The number of times I hear the old ‘I run xxx kilometres a week so I can eat what I want’ . Not true, imagine putting low grade fuel in a Porsche, eventually the head gasket blows and you are faced with a serious bill, not to mention a misfiring engine. The human body is a finely tuned machine and should be treated as such, we all know what is good food and what is bad (normally the nice tasting stuff!), avoid the bad and put in the good, easy really. (bar the odd Yelo muffin of course, we are after all only human.) I’ll be exploring nutrition more next year when I have one more go at a sub 2hr 40minutes marathon.
Weight. So important, use to believe because I ran 100k+ a week I could eat what I wanted. Not true. This is another golden rule so often ignored. Runners can run so much faster is they hit their racing weightrather than a running weight. My go to man , Matt Fitzgerald, when it comes to everything running even has a website dedicated to this. ( http://www.racingweight.com/ ) If Matt has a website dedicated to this subject it must be important.
Baseline, document and evaluate everything. If it isn’t on www.strava.com it didn’t happen. Once you set a goal you have to be able to know how far you have come to achieving this, small steps but constant feedback. So buy a Garmin and start recording , everything !!! Contentious subject here. I’m a Strava addict and I know it but the purest will be horrified. You need a baseline to see improvement, set new goals and realize your goals. Buy a Garmin and to quote a small clothing company ‘just do it’.
Sleep. So underestimated but the bodies way of refuelling and preparing for the next day of running. Common sense but so often ignored. Sometimes the most obvious, common sense tips are the ones ignored. Sleep is when your body repairs itself, the more sleep the more repairs can be completed. It really is that easy, go to bed and dream about running.
Consistency. No point running 100k one week and then nothing. Marathon fitness is built up over time and this works hand in hand with rule number 1. I feel the figures from my running log back this up. I’ve steadily increased the duration consistently year in, year out (bar injury) and have reaped the rewards with 2016 being my fastest year yet as I move towards my fifth sixth decade. (Thanks Dave Kennedy) Running is all about getting out there on a regular basis again and again and again. Time on feet initially and then add pace before targeting certain distance with different run types, most important thinkg to note though is always consistently putting on the trainers and just running. ‘If you build it they will come’ type approach, keep running, build the foundation and the personal records will come. (This also works for baseball pitches apparently.)
It’s all in the mind. After 32k a marathon is down to mental strength and the ability to persuade your body you can still perform at your desired pace without falling to fatigue, which is the minds way of protecting itself. Never underestimate the power of the mind in long distance racing. Finally another massive part of running, the Noakes ‘central governor’. I’ve talked about this at length in various posts on this site. With experience I believe I can mentally finish a marathon stronger now then when I first started. I know what to expect and to this end can persuade my old friend fatigue to stay away for longer allowing me to achieve better finishing times. The mind is such an important part of running and needs to be trained as much as the body. When you race a marathon you will spend time in the ‘pain box’, the runner who can spend the most time in this little box of joy, before opening the door and embracing the old enemy fatigue, will run the fastest. I spoke to Steve Moneghetti after the Perth Marathon this year after he ran the 3hr30min bus and asked him how the professional athletes are so much faster than us recreational runners. His answer surprised me as he replied that a professional runner can stand more pain and this gives them the advantage need to push through and achieve the faster times. Again turning off the ‘central governor’ and spending more time in the ‘pain box’ avoiding fatigue and thus not slowing down. Common sense really, thanks Steve.
Steve Moneghetti enjoying time out of the ‘pain box’.
Recently we had the 6th running of the ‘runner versus train‘ Choo-Choo race. The concept is simple, you leave North Dandalup station then run 33k (35k?) over mostly trails to Serpentine station to catch the 10:21am train back to the start. The game is deciding how late you leave North Dandelup. Over the years the record for the latest departure time was around 7am but this year, due to part of the course being shut and thus 2k shorter, we decided to try and break the sub 3 hours and leave at 7:22am. It was Mark’s idea and although I was onboard Jeff was none the wiser to our plan having never ran the Choo-Choo before. So we let the last few runners start their journey and held firm, waiting for 7:22am to come around.
One of the last groups standing, holding firm just before first light. This group left just after 7am.
Jeff was a tad confused when the last group left just after 7am and myself and Mark continued to pontificate and make no effort to move away from the station. Eventually we let him in on our plan but he was less than excited, expecting a relaxed amble from one station to the next , stopping for selfies and rose smelling. He knew if we left at 7:22am it would be on for young and old and if you stopped there would be a good chance the train would be well gone when you eventually arrived at Serpentine Station. Of course he was in a catch 22 situation as the last group had left and he had no idea where he was going , so would need us for directions. There was much head shaking and grumbling but all this served to do was to gee up myself and Mark , who then took great pleasure in talking up the challenge ahead. We can be a cruel lot us runners !
The first sub3 group, with one very unhappy China man !!
So at 7:22am precisely we set off for Serpentine Station, giving ourselves 2 hours and 59 minutes, assuming the train was on time. From past experience I knew we could make the 35k version of the course in 3 hours, including a 5 minute drink stop. Having a nasty 2k loop taken out due to storm damage would probably give us 10 minutes , so we should have 10-20 minutes to play with. As I said earlier Jeff had not ran the Choo-Choo before , where as myself and Mark were old hands and knew what to expect. As you can see from the graphic below the run starts with about 8k of serious hill, as you rise onto the scarp. It then undulates, mostly uphill , until the 25k mark at which time it’s all guns blazing to the best finish ever !! Knowing this is coming it allows you to do the numbers in your head factoring in the fast finish. Jeff did not have this prior knowledge and at every kilometre got more and more discouraged as our pace dropped due to the terrain ahead of us. Again Mark and I did nothing to alleviate his angst and just kept on, knowing we were on track but not divulging this to Jeffrey.
Choo-Choo elevation.
The run itself was pretty uneventful as we had the GPX of the route on Mark’s Garmin (what did we do before GPS watches ?) so the couple of time we wondered of course we were made aware by the watch and we turned around and continued on the right track. Not having this would prove to be the undoing of a few runners because although the course is predominately on the Mundi Bindi bike trail ( https://www.mundabiddi.org.au/ ) eventually you have to leave the trail and return to the road and ultimately the train station. Some runners missed that turn and ended up in Jarrahdale , luckily the two runners in question where able to blag a lift to Serpentine and still made the train in time, after running over 40 kilometres, outstanding job ladies. Some runners thought were less fortunate and my mate Adam was unable to make the train in time, missing it by nearly 10 minutes. He was given a left back to the start and had to endure a slow clap as he arrived , rightly so of course. He was eventually allowed to take food from the tukka table but there was grumblings of discontent from the runners who had completed the course, these was talk of banishing him to a separate part of the park, as I said earlier we are a cruel lot us runners .
The best Deli in Serpentine.
You’ll notice in the image above no sign of Jeff, we had left him to his own devices about 5k from the finish as it was every man for himself at that stage and me and Mark fancied a Mocha before the train. Jeff did make the Serpentine Train station show below (far right) but was still smarting over the whole affair and will probably leave a lot earlier next year, a lesson learned.
All the runners bar the 5 DNF and TB who cut it very, very late (as usual!)
The Australind Train on it’s way to Bunbury via Serpentine Station, 10:29am; 8 minutes late I seem to remember.
The train ride itself is a bit of an anti-climax due to a number of factors. One, it takes an ‘as the crow flies ‘ approach to travel between the two stations, funnily enough, and two, it is a lot quicker than us runners ! The journey itself takes about 12 minutes for the 18km or so distance. Thus you just about sit down , get comfy, before it time to get up again and leave the train, not even time for a cup of tea from the buffet (which was actually shut this year anyhow?) No worries, we had organised for everyone to bring tukka for a post run debriefing because we all know that runners love talking about running as much as running.
Irwin and I enjoying the moment just before the train arrives.
I need to give a big shout out to Irwin Swinny who kick started the Choo-Choo this year after a leave of absence in 2019. He set up the Facebook page and, with his influence, we had a record turn out. With Irwin’s help I feel this event can go from strength to strength with more and more people experiencing the stress of racing a train. He has an excellent podcast, Stimulate Run, that is well worth a visit ( https://anchor.fm/irwin-swinny ) ,you’ll be surprised who you can listen to.
Best thing about running , is talking about running after you finish running , over cake ! Look’s like I’m doing all the talking for a change ?
So at the moment the record for the last to leave will stand at 7:22am, albeit with an asterix for the short course option. We later found the 2k loop we missed was runable it’s just not part of the Munda Biddi anymore as this is built mainly for bikes. Sam Hoffman ran the fastest time for the day albeit stopping his watch when waiting for his running partners. Still outside the course record set in 2018, 2hrs 27mins by Allister Caird, an average of 4:11min/k. At that pace you could chance your arm and leave at 8am and pry the train is a few minutes late, not that would be a story worth telling !!!!
Footnote: After this adventure my good friend Amy (wearing purple in the picture above) decided she would do the Choo-Choo in reverse. This meant catching the train from Perth to Serpentine, running to North Dandalup and then hanging around at the local servo’ station before catching the train from North Dandalup back to Perth, in the afternoon. Of course you could kill time by running longer , the possibilities are endless. Amy did report that there is a lot more elevation running it backwards and the hill up the scarp is a killer. Of course this then lends itself to a double Choo-Choo but the logistics would be quite complicated. It it to be noted one runner ran from Serpentine to North Dandalup , starting before 2am , and then ran the Choo-Choo. (well done Chemie Banger) I’m calling this a Choo-choo-choo; ultra runners always find a way to push the envelope, I suppose that’s the point ?
This weekend it’s the annual running of the runner versus train and all are welcome. The facebook page is a good place to start if you need to find like minded runners and need company or information :- https://www.facebook.com/events/1288649481324896
The concept is simple, we are runners after all, simple folk. All participants self seed by leaving North Dandalup train station giving themselves enough time to complete the 35k trail to get to Serpentine train station by 10:21am, to get on the only train of the day, returning to the start. Miss it and you’re snookered , faced with a 18k walk of shame back to the start on the road or a 35k return run on the trails, making for a big day out !
Over the years we have never had anyone miss the train but it is to be noted on the first running a runner was discarded and ordered back to the start when the group realised they would be unable to catch the train if they continued at their current pace. Unfortunately for the aforementioned runner they was not trusted with the car keys and thus had to wait, in their running gear, for the rest of the runners to return via the train. Needless to say there were words exchanged apparently. Please note I was not part of this inaugural running and can only blame Simon Coates for what transpired. He will gladly tell the full story if requested.
Over the years the latest we have left North Dandelup is 7am and we have always finished at Serpentine in good time for a Brownes Mocha but this year there is talk of a 7:30am departure, I may be able to bring that back to 7:15am but this will leave no margin for error. Normally we complete the 35k in around three hours, with a 10-15 minute water stop.
The trail is well marked and part of the Mundi Bindi trail so keep a look out for the signs and you will not get lost, well probably not; the GPX file is available on the facebook page. It’s best to buy you train tickets online but note you cannot buy them on the Saturday apparently, no worries you can buy them on the train of course, so bring cash. The train from Serpentine to North Dandalup is a disappointingly quick, event after taking so long to run the course, but the train cheats of course by going in a straight line , as the crow flies so to speak. This is probably a good thing for the rest of the passengers as we are not the most sweet smelling people after three to four hours of trail running.
So to sum up , come along this Sunday , start whatever you want but be at Serpentine for 10:21am for the train back. Bring food and we’ll all have a picnic at North Dandalup station before returning to Perth, or Serpentine to pick up stragglers ?
Train timetable
Make sure you go North or you’ll end up in Albany,.
Choc milk time at the Deli, job done.
I’ve attached the 2018 post on the event to get your juices flowing…
Right a quick post on the 2018 man versus train race where we leave North Dandalup train station and run the 35k to Serpentine train station and catch the only return train back to the start. Miss the train and you have a 18k run on a busy road or a 35k trail run back to North Dandalup. !!
The Serpentine train leaves North Dandalap at 10:20am so we decided this year to leave a tad earlier than previous years due to the various running injuries we were all embracing. Calf strains, Achilles issues, carrying too much weight (I’m not sure this is an injury Barts!) and good old Plantar Fasciitis to name a few. Thus at 6:40am we set off up the scarp, mainly due to Bart’s insisting we get a move on as he really wasn’t ready for a 35k sprint to the finish. He had got lost last year when he was dropped halfway up the scarp and had to run a lonely thirty or so kilometres to the finish. This year he was determined to stay the course and refused to leave a key hidden on the car so if he got lost he knew I’d have to find him and my lift home. Little did he know I had arranged alternative transport if we ‘lost’ him. In the end he made it and ran a large proportion of the run with us, complaining most of the way of course. I don’t think Bart’s like any hill in any direction, up or down, as both seem to set him off on a tirade of abuse. This from a man who loves trail running ?
The photo below shows the starting line up for 2018 taken at North Dandalup train station, funnily enough we were the only people about early on a Sunday morning in the country. I managed to persuade five ‘newbies’ to join us and supplied all of these with a GPX file of the course as I didn’t want them to suffer the same fate as Bart’s from last year, bless him.
So off we went up the scarp, which is a road section and probably one of the hardest sections of the run as you’re in danger of getting collected by mad country drivers cutting corners. Thankfully this year it was very quiet and I don’t remember seeing any cars, which is unusual, they were probably all still in bed after the West Coast Eagles, a local footy team, managed to sneak into the Grand Final the day before. As you can see from the elevation below the start is a challenge but the finish is ‘to die for’. It was a this point last year we lost Bart’s (the start not the finish.) and history repeated itself with Mark, a new runner from Brisbane, dropping off the pace early and, in Choo-Choo tradition, left to fend for himself. I felt a small amount of guilt but this was quickly forgotten when I realised the task ahead and I had supplied Mark with a GPX file of the course , so he had no excuse to get lost.
Choo-Choo run elevation. It’s all about the finish….
The conditions this year was perfect and we had given ourselves more than enough time to finish by leaving probably half an hour earlier than the year before. This certainly made the journey less stressful than previous years and we settled into a good rhythm with enough pace to complete the task at hand but not enough we couldn’t natter away discussing a plethora of topics and generally putting the world to rights. We as a group splintered early which seemed silly truth be told as it wasn’t a race and there seemed no point running a few hundred metres infront of each other. I ran with Jon, because he had the GPX route loaded into his Garmin 310, and Liam for conversation. (with Bart’s always a few hundred metres behind us complaining about something?) The three of us eventually caught up with the two Mark’s at the ‘drinks stop‘. I say drinks stop in italics because there was no drinks. Simon had hidden a carton of water and a box of Gu’s behind a tree but it seems these country people are resourceful with good eyesight because there was no supplies to be seen. Not a problem though but it did the make the last 5k or so a challenge as we were into the ‘dead zone’ (over 32k) with little water and no nutrition, a good test of your bodies capabilities to survive on it’s won internal fat resources I suppose. Luckily the last 10k is predominantly downhill so you can sort of ‘fall‘ to the finish line. ( It is to be noted this year Trish refused to bake for us which made the return trip to Dandalap a bit of an anti-climax as the reward of Trish’s baking (which is awesome by the way) would not be there to greet us, in the end we made do with McDonalds pancakes but thrust me they ain’t the same!, anyhow I digress.)
After regrouping with the two Mark’s the group of five set off to the finish and the conversation continued to improve with numbers. The highlight of the last part of the run was most of us falling prey to the only puddle on the whole course, how does that happen ? Mark C,. attached it with gusto (he’s Scottish you know and use to large expanses of water !) and nearly went in, this made me more cautious but it was to no avail and I ended up in the same situation, soggy socks and shoes for the last 10k or so.! Once we started to descend of course it was ever man for himself and Mark C. probably set the record for the fastest kilometre with a 3:10 down the steepest part of the hill. He was very excited and reported feeling a runners high as he snowballed down the hill at speed, more probably he was just totally knackered as we had all just ran just about 35k on a few sips of water.
It’s hard to put into words the run itself as it really was just about the perfect day. A good distance, beautiful trails and great company rounded off with Brownes Mocha and a danish at the Deli. Chuck in a train ride where the guard announced to the whole train of our adventures as we boarded and departed and the day really couldn’t of got any better. Talk at the Deli (see below) centred on next years departure time as we had plenty of time to relax at the deli before the train, well most of us that is. If you remember at the start I mentioned Mark from Brisbane getting dropped at the 3k mark, you’ll see he’s not in the photo below. We all thought he was gone and I had even arranged at the Deli to let him know we’d drive back and pick him up, save him the 18k walk back to the train station. Well he made it with 3 minutes to spare, albeit the train was late as usual so he could have probably stopped at the Deli for a danish.
At the Deli after a Brownes Mocha and a Danish, life really is that simple sometimes! (Notice no Mark from Brisbane)
As you can see from the photo below taken at Serpentine train station Mark is back into the fold and happy to be there, he currently holds the record for cutting it closest to missing the train, probably beating Trailblazers record set a few years ago. I’m sure Jon can get closer with a bit of effort ? Honourable mentions must go to Allister Caird who set a course record running the route in 2hrs 27 minutes, thats a 4:11k average, sub 3 pace for a hilly trail run, Boom! He could have left nearly as hour after us and still made it. Nigel also went well considering he twisted his ankle at 15k and ‘hobbled‘ to the finish in good time, a big call as if the ankle had given way completely it would have been a long night on the trails. Of course Mark gets a mention for running the whole route by himself under the stress of a potential long walk back to the car. He looked relaxed when he finish and puts his time down to this was his first trail run back in Perth, he’s from Brisbane you know. Bart’s also went well after we dropped him just after halfway, we actually dropped him earlier but always made sure he could see us, sort off. At least this year he ran the whole course after his miracle run last year.
At the hub of Serpentine, the ‘bustling’ train station. That’s a lot of smile , while I’m putting on my best ‘just finished 35k grimace’ face…
Right that’s the Choo-Choo for another year. I’ll try and drum up some more enthusiasm next year as if you live in Perth you really need to do this run. We all agreed we’d leave later next year but the departure time is personal to your ability and general fitness and also if you want that added bonus of really ‘racing a train’ and trying to cut it closer than Mark, from Brisbane’s, valiant effort of three minutes to go. Up for the challenge ? All aboard…..
This Furloughed Friday trail time was on the Bibbulmum Track . The Bibbulmun Track is one of the world’s great long distance trails, stretching 1000km from Kalamunda in the Perth Hills, to Albany on the south coast, winding through the heart of the scenic South West of Western Australia. ( https://www.bibbulmuntrack.org.au/ ) We planned a 30km run on some challenging single track including some serious climbs, with beautiful scenery. As you can see from the image below it was a great day for a trail run.
Start of the Bibbulmun track.
For this adventure I was accompanied by Adam, Jeff and Rob and we happily skipped off into the wilderness, excited about the trails we had ahead of us. The plan was to get Mundaring Dam and the infamous Golden View. This was a route I had run alone three months period and it just about destroyed me. I was hoping after 10 weeks of ‘furlough Fridays’ I would better prepared and easily ‘gobble up‘ this challenge. If nothing else it wasn’t raining which was a good start and starting earlier I wouldn’t be racing the sunset, which without a head torch is always stressful.
The usual suspects. Adam, Rob , Jeff and myself.
The video below shows some of the climb after the camel farm, it was great to run down this track but in the back of our minds we always knew it would be a different story on the way back. Funnily enough it wasn’t that bad coming back, which is unusual of course. It may have been we knew we were close to the finish and you can always find something when you can ‘smell the coffee‘ so to speak. (with pancakes of course.)
The lads halfway through the last climb, still with a few kilometres ahead of us, joy. Rob was struggling but as he was the designated driver, and had the car keys, he knew we’d never leave him ! He had missed a few Friday trail runs with injury and there’s no where to hide on the trail if you’re short of fitness, especially if your running buddies have been running trails weekly. Rob certainly knew better than to give me his car keys.
Lesson to self, when you’re tired and near the end of a three hour plus run , do not try and use a Go Pro, it never ends well and this video shows why ! Please excuse the language at the end. This was my second stack of the day and something I need to wo rk on with the Irrational South ( http://irrationalsouth200miler.com.au/ ) and Delirious West ( http://deliriouswest200miler.com.au/ ) races coming up, both 200 Miler’s with plenty of opportunity to spend time ‘eating dirt’ ! The last time , and only time, I attempted a 200 miler earlier in the year I was eventually undone by too much time horizontal on the ground with quads seized solid. Rookie error really with poor hydration and nutrition choices leaving me totally empty of fuel, resulting in legs that just couldn’t run or lift high enough to avoid the roots and rocks you find running trails. There was also my lack of preparation and missing mental toughness that all culminated in a DNF. No worries, I’ve learned my lesson and will be better prepared in October this year. (Assuming I can get over the border to Western Australia after the event ?)
The day was another great trail run , bar the two stacks, and it’s always nice to run without the constant worry of current pace, average pace and overall time, the constant indicators of a road runner that can sometimes take away the beauty of what we do. On a trail it’s all about the experience of being ‘out there’ , yes we spend more time stopping for photo opportunities or just to take in the scenery around us but the benefits are the added effort it takes to stay vertical, watching every step, and also the core workout you get as you constantly adjust to the terrain, something you don’t experience on a straight piece of concrete. Everybody needs to get lost once in a while, what’s the worst that can happen ?
Climbing mountains will build strength in the legs but it’s actually the downhill running that will do more for strength than uphill running. When running downhill runners can experience forces up to five times their body weight with each footstep. Running on level ground or going uphill the forces are “only” two to three times body weight.
Downhill running also involves eccentric loading of the leg muscles particularly the quads (thighs). This means the muscle is lengthening as it’s contracting. Eccentric contraction cause more muscle damage than regular contractions thus signalling the body to become stronger.
In effect, trail running provides better strength training benefits for the legs compared to road running.
Trail running also challenges coordination, agility and balance more so than running on roads, especially if running on technical trails full of rocks, roots and uneven terrain. Avoiding falls, negotiating steep slopes, cutting around sharp corners and landing on unstable surfaces all help build athleticism in trail runners.
This is the category where trail running really excels when compared to other forms of exercise. “Green” exercise or working out in the outdoors offers many benefits you can’t get in the gym. In our wired world full of electronic devices getting a run in nature is a great way to reduce the mental stress from being connected 24-7.
Here’s how trail running can help you beyond just physical fitness:
Improve your mental health.
Increase vitality, energy and positive engagement.
Reduce tension, confusion, anger and depression.
Provide greater enjoyment and satisfaction so you’re more likely to repeat the activity at a later date.
Make you more creative.
Exercising in the outdoors also optimizes your circadian rhythm helping you sleep better. And getting a good night’s sleep on a consistent basis is a cornerstone of good health. Poor sleep habits can lead to a host of problems both physical and mental. (Not to mention that running up and down hills will tire you out enough to sleep well.)
Last weekend we all go together and drove to sunny Mandurah for a boys running weekend, the inaugural one funnily enough. Bart’s parents have a beautiful holiday home on the beach in Mandurah and it has become available for the family (and close running friends) recently. This opportunity was too good to miss and on Friday afternoon the seven of us traveled down from Perth to start the shenanigans. The plan was to run a night run on Friday , two runs Saturday and a single run Sunday morning (depending on the alcohol intake Saturday evening of course?) before returning to the ‘bosoms of our loved ones‘ Sunday afternoon.
The view from the holiday home.
The highlight of the Friday evening run was running through what looked like a tip in the middle of the trail. It seems the Mandurah locals like to get some fresh air and nice scenery while they illegal dump all their rubbish, bless ’em. We made Bart’s promise to take us through this again the next day for evidence, which you’ll see later in the post, inspiring stuff.
Saturday morning we were up early, though not as early as some of my running colleagues would have liked. They seem to have no concept of not being rushed to get in a morning run and insisting on starting in the dark, even though we had the whole weekend ahead of us. I soon put an end to this predawn start talk and I managed to hold them back until just after 7am, which was difficult. My kids are a bit older now and I seem to have more time to run, albeit I am running less being a tad older, it’s a catch-22 situation I suppose. Anyhow one of the benefits of age is older kids and the knock on effect of not being so time constrained, this equates to later start time for morning runs (virtually afternoon runs sometimes) and also more late afternoon , early evening runs. Of course this is season dependent as in Summer 4am is the best time of the day, before the sun turns up the dial to ‘microwave‘! Anyhow managed 19k Saturday morning, after a double day Friday and another run planned in the afternoon, was never interested in hitting 20k. (sorry Strava, I am better than that !)
Saturday morning on the beach, Bart’s , myself, Rob, Jon, Jeff and Mike.
As I mentioned before a trip to Mandurah is not complete without the ‘run through the tip trail‘ with the added bonus of used needles to make posing for photos a life or death situation. You’ll notice for this photo I was the photographer , not the subject, a lot safer in my opinion. The look on Bart’s face sums up this one, priceless.
Mandurah trails at their best, just watch out for needles?
Saturday afternoon was a pre-sport watching 10k for some scenery rather than distance or pace. We managed to cross a bridge and Jon was let loose to chase a few segments. I suppose the whole weekend was more about running with good friends rather than a ‘training camp’ as such, I mean there was no talk of intervals, thresholds, VO2Max etc. We were chasing different metrics involving laughter, tall stories and making memories, we succeeded in all three categories.
That was the point of the weekend, just getting away with good friends, doing what we all love to do without life’s timetable , albeit only for a weekend. It was the inaugural running trip, but I’m hoping the first of many because it was just good old fashioned boy’s being boy’s, with a lot of running thrown in for good measure.
Saturday afternoon was a relaxed 11k and we ran over a bridge, about sums it up really.
Sundays run was a 10-12k amble through Dawesville and after the previous two days , and Saturday night’s entertainment, it was always going to be steady, at best ! We did manage to find a basketball hoop and try to teach Jon about ‘NBA dunking’ but I feel his career in professional basketball is probably a non-starter?
Sunday’s highlight was teaching Jon how to dunk, NBA style. He ain’t no Michael Jordan.
Another highlight was meeting a local runner, Jim from Singapore, at the turn around point and his insistence on joining us. It turns out he had just started his run and was looking for company. We’re a inclusive lot and he was welcomed aboard although the jogging pants are an acquired taste, he hung on for the last 4-5 kilometres before he was cut loose as we turned for home.
The boys and Jim. A local runner , from Singapore, who insisted on joining us.
Finally a photo of the inlet on Sunday morning, as always my photography does not do it justice, stunning views. Not a breath of wind and perfect temperatures to end the weekend before we all packed up and returned to life as we know it. As I said earlier the training weekend will be remembered for many years and there will be much laughter and back slapping as we recount stories which will probably last a lifetime, and that’s the real point of the weekend isn’t it? For instance after knowing Jeff for nearly 20 years we found out his Chinese name , we also found out Jon’s BMW has an oil leak after it deposited a large amount of oil on the driveway, after we spent hours cleaning the house. Jon loves playing Texas Poker , and we didn’t or don’t, Mike K. cannot play Poker after announcing to the table he had four of a kind and was that a good hand (needless to say we all folded instantly!) and on a Friday night watching the TV , after a meal at the local pub, there was more massage guns out than you’ll find at most physiotherapy practices.
Sunday’s scenery was epic, the running not so much.
I had planned a longer run this Friday and decided on a trail I had not ran before, an out and back over a 40k or so distance. I had been gradually adding distance to my Friday runs over the last few weeks and this one was going to be my longest for some time. As I mentioned before one of the few benefits of this COVID19 crisis has been my company I work for insisting I take 10 days leave before the end of June. Perfect, I took 10 Fridays in a row and dedicated these days to finding new trail runs around Perth. Over the last 6-8 weeks I have found some epic trails and with my ever increasing posse of unemployed or furloughed running buddies. On the downside I only have two more Friday off but I’m secretly hoping my employer forces me to take another 10 days furloughed, I’m not sure I can go back to a five day working week !
Anyhow I had to go for my morning coffee and croissant at my favourite cafe, Georges in City Beach, served by the best Father and Son barista combination probably globally, Georges and Ben. As you will know from previous posts I persuaded Georges to run Delirious with me in February and he completed the course while I DNF’d at 112k. He was also probably the only person to complete the epic four day event in the same clothes , most people changed daily. He is a character ! So after our normal morning social running banter I dropped my Wife and the boys (my two Golden Retrievers Sydney and Spencer) at home and off I drove the 50k to Chidlow to begin my adventure.
Spence and Sydney, the boys.
The plan was a simple one, run down the trail 20k, turn around and run back. This way I couldn’t ‘pike out’ and go shorter , assuming I got to 20k of course. I had a backpack full of food and enough water to get me to half way where I could refill , I hoped? By the time I started it was early afternoon and knowing I wasn’t gong to set any world records I packed a head torch, just in case. The day itself was another glorious one for running, slightly overcast and maybe a touch of humidity but just about perfect conditions.
I decided to get to 10k before I had my first banana stop and hit this target relatively unscathed and in good spirits as the video below shows.
I noticed on the various signs along the path there was a town called Wundowie at around the 21k mark so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to up the ante a bit and run a trail marathon, I mean what’s an extra couple of kilometres when you’ve already run forty ? From 10k to the halfway point things started to get harder and I’m sure it was all uphill, albeit more a gradual gradient compared to the monster hills I’d been tacking recently. I try to settle into a 5min/k pace but rarely hit the goal and found myself 30 seconds a kilometre slower. I wasn’t that worried about pace , this was a ‘time on feet‘ run and I knew in an out and back run you don’t want to get to halfway goosed, it makes the return trip unpleasant at best.
I eventually found Wundowie after a nasty 1-2k on the main road as the track disappears with no signage. I just kept running in the same direction hoping the town would be close and luckily for me it was. After reaching the halfway point the Garmin was paused and I scuttled off into the town looking for an open IGA supermarket for some tukka and hydration. After a mars bar and some electrolytes , and the last water from the water tap (?) I was back on my way, albeit probably half an hour later. By this time my legs were well and truly seized, one of the many benefits of being old! and the temperature had dropped enough for me to put on my running jacket. Undeterred I survived the 2k road section (people in the country all drive like they are being chased by the police! I suppose it’s good practice for when they are eventually chased by the police , I assume that’s the logic? They are a funny bunch these country dwellers?) and hit the trail back to Chidlow, a mere 21k away, joy !
Wundowie, a good old fashioned Australian town.
Funnily enough the first thing I did after hitting the trail was get totally disorientated and get lost. Now what you need when you know you’re 20k+ away from your car and the sunset is closing in rapidly. I took the next video at around the 23k mark…
There was actually quite a bit of downhill running in the second half but not enough to save me from the inevitable punshment I knew was coming, but that’s the point of these runs. It’s not about pace, it’s more time on feet and distance. Mental toughness rather than racing toughness. Over the next few months I signed up for some serious races and need more of these testing runs to make me a mentally stronger runner, well that’s the logic, I do enjoy them, honest. Next video is a few kilometres down the track, and I’m starting to realise what I have in front of me.
Eventually I hot the small town half way between Chidlow and Windowie, called Wooroloo. As you can see from the image below, it is a small town? By this time the sun was setting and I still had around 6-7k to go. (Although I convinced myself at this point I still had 13k to go ? ) I was never going to beat the sunset.
Wooroloo, in all it’s glory.
The last 10k or so was a struggle but I didn’t expect it to be anything but. As I have said before this run was about mental toughness and all I needed to do was finish strong to make the effort worthwhile, pace was a secondary factor albeit I was keen to see the finish. I did continue along at a similar pace for the remaining few kilometres but could have probably done with some more water and a carbo-shot or two, no worries, running hungry allows your body to learn to use the next source of fuel available to it, your own body fat. Rather than fast burning carbohydrates your body fat can last you many , many hours, albeit at a slightly reduced cruising pace but these type of runs teach your body to learn to use readily available fat rather than looking for cardohydrates and sugar, which burn quickly. So the sunset, it did come and was magnificent as always.
Managed to reach 40k before I had to reach into my backpack for the head torch. Lucky I did as in Oz there’s no dusk as such, one minute it’s light, the next it’s dark, like a light switch. Anyhow I managed to struggle to the car and even ran around the oval to get the 42.2 distance because we’re all Strava addicted and whenever to run over 40k you might as well hit the magic marathon distance, be rude not to really ? The image below shows the last kilometre or two with the head torch on, what a difference to the glorious sunshine I started off in, that can happen when you run a trail marathon, with a lot of stopping for photos and video, as well as food at half way. I think I had over an hour of non moving time (thankyou Strava) but that’s ok, these type of runs are more an adventure and half the fun is running to places you’ve never been before and just enjoying being ‘out there’ , alone with just your thoughts and a Go Pro.
So mission accomplished, I had ran a trail marathon, been to places I had never visited before and even got to watch a magnificent sunset while running alone in the bush, soaking up the ambiance. It really was a prefect end to the run watching the day turn into early evening and eventually night. All that was left to do was a quick go on the massage gun before I started to drive the 50k or so home for some serious dinner as I was starving, running a marathon can do that to a person I’m told.
The start in glorious sunshine seemed a lifetime away at the end of this trail marathon.
Well after only one post in a month I do two in two days. My running pod cast guru friend Irwin Swinny has resurrected the Choo-Choo run, man versus train for July 5th. I have written two posts on this run before and attached links below. The run itself is simple enough, you leave your car at North Dandelup train station and then run to Serpentine train station via a 35k trail. The only train of the day leaves Serpentine at 10:21am returning to North Dandelup, so you leave North Dandelup at whatever time you want, just as long as you finish at Serpentine before 10:21am. Simple really. The last few years we’ve left at 7am giving us just over three hours to amble back to Serpentine, noting the route is a challenging one and we allow probably 30 minutes for mishaps or general laziness. (Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/events/561857761192536)
So if you’re in Perth first week in July and you want to race a train feel free to meet us at North Dandelup train station around 7am and join us on one of the funniest and most enjoyable runs of the year. As I mentioned earlier if you want to leave earlier that’s fine, leave at 6am and you have over 4 hours to enjoy the trails , 5am five hours etc.. you get the picture. Of course you could push the envelope and leave at 8am, if you don’t make the station in time I’ll come back and pick you up… promise. ! ??
