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Lessons learned from another sub3 marathon, listen to David Goggins.

This weekend was the 45th City To Surf race and the eleventh running of the marathon for this iconic Perth event. I’ve been lucky enough to run nine of the ten marathons,  missing out last year due to plantar fasciitis, a runners worst nightmare. This year I set my expectations a tad lower than usual as I was using the race as another indicator for the Perth Running Festival Marathon in October. Together with the Rottnest Marathon, earlier in the year,  the goal was to run a comfortable and controlled sub 3 marathon saving something in the tank for later in the season.

Conditions at the start were perfect, around 10 degrees with no wind. This made for a fast start as the first three kilometres are slightly down hill. Normally I don’t recommend banking time but in this case , when the opportunity is this good, you just need to go for it.  Running with the T-train and a turbo charged Jon we were soon rattling along at half marathon pace. Now hurtling along at half marathon pace in a half marathon is a good thing, in a marathon , not so much. My plan was to stick with the boys until half way and then back off and cruise home for a sub 3 finish. Going through 10k in less than forty minutes I decided discretion was the better part of valour and let the lads disappear into the distance , while I dropped a few gears and set the auto-pilot to 4.10min/k pace, far more civilised.

If you have never run the Perth City to Surf marathon you really are missing out on a treat. It must be up there with the best marathons in the world , with views to die for. The start is 6am , so its still dark , as you wind your way through the deserted CBD before moving along the Swann River on Riverside Drive and then passing the iconic Swan Brewery , as the sun rises, into Nedlands, one of the most affluent suburbs in Perth. I enjoy the Nedlands part of the course as you move from one street lined with mega-mansions to another,  and then through pristine parks  , before cruising through the deserted University of WA grounds and starting your 10k of hills in Kings Park.

Lovekin Drive, part of the City to Surf.

Kings Park is another iconic symbol of Perth and running through it,  while it showcases its natural beauty,  is an honour , to do it as part of a marathon is a privilege. Of course there are hills but they are also part of the challenge and a reminder that a marathon is both a mental and physical test. This part is very much physical, the mental bit comes later of course as you move into the post 32k ‘death zone’.  

Exploding out of Kings Park you are then rewarded with 3-4 kilometres of undulating, downhill section as you move through Subiaco, another one of Perth’s best suburbs. This really is the marathon that keeps on giving. Finally you run past Bold Park and over Oceanic Drive to be faced with City Beach, in my view the best beach in Perth. The marathon is more a guided tour of all the best Perth has to offer,  with a medal at the end, priceless.

City beach, so posh the showers are heated.

So back to the race. I left off earlier with me dropping down through the gears,  leaving the T-train running towards a top 5 finish and a 5 minute PB to finish in 2:45. Jon was five minutes behind him just missing out on a sub 2:50 finish, 8th I think overall. Personally I had targeted a 2:55 finish, a 2 minute improvement on my 2:57 at Rottnest in June this year. Truth be told it all went to plan and, after banking time and going through 15k with a 4min/k average , I allowed myself to slow to a 4:09min/k average pace and crossed the line in 2:55:27, mission accomplished.  How easy was it typing that, very easy, how easy was the marathon , not so easy. If you race a marathon it’s never easy, its not meant to be.

A marathon needs to be broken down into manageable chunks. The first 10k should be where you set out your stall, so to speak. Start depending on the terrain, for example the City to Surf is slightly downhill for the first three kilometres and normally very cold, this is perfect to bank a few minutes to be used later in the race. Faced with a hilly start you need to do the opposite and start slower than marathon pace to save energy for later in the day. A marathon is all about choosing your battles. The next 10k or so , too halfway,  is about locking in marathon pace and preparing for what I consider the hardest part of any marathon, the 10k between halfway and 32k.

From halfway to 32k is when it’s going to hurt. You’ve ran a half already and you’re now probably maintaining a pace at a distance that you rarely, if at at all, run in training. Your long runs are normally long and slow, more of a time on feet run and your tempos are not normally past 21k. Thus you rarely run over 21k at marathon pace and between 21k and 32k you will start to feel the pain,  that is long distance racing. This is where you need to dig deep and just get to the final part of the race, the finish quarter. At 32k , personally, I switch into finish mode.

With less than 10k to go I know I probably hold on and if the first 32k have gone to plan I’ll be there, or there abouts, to my predicted finish time. Mentally I can feel the mind relaxing a bit and the central governor releasing its hold on  the body.  One of my runnings hero’s David Goggin’s  once said that the central governor protects the body by only allowing us to use 40% of what we are capable of. By working on our mental strength we can find another 60% , imagine that , 60% improvement ! Endless possibilities, beats spending $350 on a pair of Nike Vaporflys for a 4% improvement, David Goggins can get you 10 times that by using one of his ‘suck it up pills‘ or eating concrete to harden up, you get the picture. ( https://davidgoggins.com )

So the marathon went to plan really. First 10k felt good and I banked time to be used in the hilly second half. Up to halfway I set auto pilot to just over 4min/k pace and enjoyed the ride. The 10k in Kings Park was challenging , as expected but the following 10k to the finish was easier and although the last few hills beat the hell out of your legs the end is in sight. All in all another great marathon , in perfect conditions with good friends. It doesn’t get any better truth be told and as the photo shows below running with good friends is what its all about.

The usual suspects, enjoying the sunshine and that “I’ve just finished a marathon feeling!’…

 

Right the point of this post isn’t about my last marathon, my 45th in total, the point is to try to show you that whatever you consider your best really is just 40% of what you can achieve. Spend some time on the David Goggins website, get inspired and learn to loosen the grip the central governor has on your ability. It’ll be a whole lot cheaper than a pair of Nike Vaporflys and ten times as effective. Goggins is also the master of motivating memes and a favourite with me and my friends, it’s worth reading his books just for some of these little gems.

When you’ve as tough as DG even your shirt tears….

 

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Found one mojo, treat carefully. (Please forward this to Hoka One One)

2019 has been a mixed bag for me. So far I’ve raced 6 times and done pretty well. Three 10k’s finishing in 36.17, 35.55 and 35.38 ; two half marathons , 1:22 and 1:19 and one full, 2:57. Not times to set the world alight but reasonable enough I suppose to keep me interested. Chuck in my first ever DNF at the Lighthouse 12 hour race and I reckon I’m averaging around the ‘B’ grade for the year; commendable effort but could do better . Add to this me and my mojo parted company earlier in the year and it has taken me nearly three months to find it again. I’m not sure how one loses their mojo but it did happen to me in 2014 and this led to me taking Raf on board to coach me which sparked a running renaissance that lasted until late 2017.  ( http://therunningcentre.com.au)  I use to say there was only one coach in Perth but this was by no means a slant on the numerous quality coaching opportunities available. In fact lately there’s a new Rooster in the training henhouse, my good mate Tony T-Train Smith ( https://www.tonysmithruncoaching.com ) Tony is probably aiming at the older runner , being one himself, and with his military back ground you can be sure of a quality product. Word on the street is he’s fully booked with a waiting list  and countless 5 star reviews , maybe I can join the queue as , of late, his running has been taken to a new level.

So what has Tony done to not only reboot his running but all of his clients. Basically good old fashioned running 101’s. First, distance, this is the foundation onto which you build your running dreams and aspirations. If you take nothing more from this post, or even my blog as a whole, than ‘distance is king‘ then my job is done.  I have other rules of course about avoiding injury, adding speed, losing weight but all these are useless without first adding distance. Once you run more you will get quicker, it is that simple people. Of course the act of running more may lead to injuries and this is where the juggling act of adding distance comes into play. It’s here a good coach can advise with advice on training techniques and/or injury avoidance with exercise etc. (It’s a little known fact that injured  runners do more prescribed exercises in the waiting room of their running professional than in whole previous week. Also when a runner is given a ‘time not to run’ they instantly half that time as they are better than ‘normal runners’ and then half it again because the Doctor is always conservative. Thus when a Doctor says ‘ 6 weeks of no running’, a runner hears ‘ 2 weeks of no running’….. I digress)

Right back to my mojo. Losing ones mojo is not nice as it makes the thing you love most seem a chore and you find yourself thinking of reasons not to run. Trust me you can always think of multiple reasons not to run but all you need is one reason to run, to get you out the door and , normally, that is enough. The old adage you never judge a run on the first few kilometres. Unfortunately when your mojo is gone the run itself is torture from the start to the finish. When this happens you just got to get your head down and ‘run through it’. For me buying new trainers helps as well as running with friends , especially if you start to find you’re running alone a lot. Friends keep you accountable and also help pass the time. They’re also good for ‘kicking your sorry ass’ if you start to bleat about losing your mojo; thanks guys. Eventually you will come out the other side and , voila, you and your mojo are reunited and all is good with the world.

 

This time I managed to find my form and mojo by buying new shoes. Initially the new Nike NextX and then some Hoka Cliftons ; which were on sale so why wouldn’t you?  These Hoka’s are amazing and give you that Vaporfly feel without the hefty price tag, a poor man’s Nike Vaporflys you can use for everyday training. They are so light but also packed with foam that ‘bounce’ you along on your run and also protect your legs. I can’t recommend these bad boys enough, I am a convert. They also add 2-3 inches to your height, a win-win situation.! I’m tempted to try their Carbon X version which is their version of the Nike NextX but with three pair of Vaporflys in my stable it would just be showing off to buy more , wouldn’t it ? I’ve heard on very good sources the Carbon X is as good as the Next X, not for me to decide on that one unless a Hoka representative is reading this and wants to send me a pair to test, always open to free stuff. (Would any reader, i.e. Mum, please forward this post to someone in Hoka One One world and get me some free shoes please… I’ll mention you on my  blog?)

 

These are just ‘ace’…

 

Right back to the mojo search. As you can see from Strava extract below ( you do have Strava don’t you ? … ‘in Strava we trust’, ‘if its not on Strava it didn’t happen‘ etc…   http://www.strava.com ) I built up nicely after the Rottnest Marathon before being struck down by a blister. This was a rookie error on my part as I could feel my shoe rubbing but waited until the end of the run, 10k later,  to investigate. ! If I had just stopped and adjusted my shoe earlier the blister would have disappeared . As it was I had four days off running when I was starting to get the love back. Anyhow after a few painful runs on my healing blister I eventually put together a few good weeks and threw in some double days to add some punch to the training.  Now I am deep into my two week taper and finding it hard not to run twice a day, this is where you need to be so close to a marathon, itching to run twice a day and worried about the prospect of losing all that hard earned fitness you have accumulated over the previous few months. Of course you won’t,  and can’t,  lose fitness in two weeks but marathon runners are fickle things at the best of times and let all sorts of ridiculous thoughts enter their brain when they don’t have running to distract them!  Tapering and carboloading are activities which ever runner realises they MUST DO pre-marathon but all question these activities when they are not running as much as they’d like. As I have said before as runners we enjoy running, it is what makes us runners. Knowing we shouldn’t run to allow ourselves the best chance on race day is common sense but it still does not make it any easier to digest, no matter how many times we go through it.  Add in the carboloading activity ,pre-marathon, when we are forced to eat more carbohydrates than we think we should , mixed in with our paranoid delusions about getting sick the last few days before the race and you wonder why being married to a marathon runner can certainly put a strain on any marriage. Karen, No1 Wife, treads very careful around her grumpy Husband in the few weeks preceding a marathon., even the kids have learnt its best to give Dad a wide berth, pre-marathon.  With just over a week to go I’m not in fully ‘taper grumpy mode‘ yet but it’s coming and the family is preparing to baton down the hatches.  I must admit I forgot to tell them I’ve entered a ‘last man standing’ race two weeks after the marathon so will move seamlessly from one two week ‘grumpy runner‘ period straight into a another two week pre-race taper, joy, I can’t wait to tell them the good news ?

 

Ramping up for the Perth City to Surf Marathon.

 

 

This last man standing is a new concept over here in WA and it’s the brain child of Shaun Kaesler and his USWA Series ( http://ultraserieswa.com.au ) , as well as his triple crown of Australian 200 mile running (The Delirious West, Irrational South and Unreasonable East , I think? ) and the Forest Series etc.. you can’t keep up with Shaun at the moment. Birdys backyard is a 6.7k loop with 44 runners all needing to be at the start line on the hour every hour , until there is only one runner left who will need to run the loop one more time to win.  Depending on how keen the other runners are this event had the possibility of lasting between 24 and 48 hours. Eventually sleep depravation will choose who wins, in my opinion. Personally I’d like to run over 100k and if I could nudge 100 miles that will be my limit. We’ll see, it’s my first ‘last man standing race’ so anything could happen ? A lot will depend how I pull up after the marathon  but this event is more mentally challenging so the legs won’t have to be 100%, well that’s the theory anyway ? If you need to know about extreme running events google https://wheredreamsgotodie.com . Lazarus Lake invented the insane ultra and his Barklay Marathons is just a lesson in masochism ! He also has a last man standing competition and from this Birdys Backyard was born, allegedly. ?

 

As always I seem to have digressed and a post about finding my mojo, getting free shoes from Hoka One One and general training tips has ended up detailing mad races that you’d be mad to take on , after I have already signed to do just that. We’re a funny bunch runners, just saying.

A Shaun Kaesler wanna-be?

 

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A runners night out….

A runners night out, watching a film about running naturally?

This years marks the fifth year of the Run Nation Film Festival and I highly recommend you pop along to a cinema near you (if possible) and watch it. The website will have all the details ( https://runnationfilmfestival.com/#home-section ) and I’m very excited and looking forward to viewing the film in Perth on August 22nd, luckily enough a few days before the Perth City to Surf Marathon. This film will certainly inspire me as it does every year. The man behind the film, Keith Hong,  is a genuine turbo charged, running nice guy and just loves what he does. He puts together stories that make a difference and just make you go ‘wow’, or stories that just inspire you to be a better person and that is just a special gift.

So for all my Perth running buddies I’ll see you on August 22nd at the Luna Cinema, Leederville, 7pm KO, everybody else the dates are on the website. (Looking at the website it looks like the World Tour is Australia and New Zealand at the moment?)

 

Finding your mojo.

 

I’m a big believer in a runner having a window of opportunity for personal bests (PB’s) or Personal Record’s (PR) for my American Cousins. The window varies for each runner of course but 7-10 years is about the average when it will be possible for a runner , who trains consistently, to expect to challenge PB’s. After that,  unfortunately, Father Time dictates it’s time to readjust your goals. Instead of PB’s it could be a ‘season’s PB‘ or even add a minute or two to your PB time and set that as your goal; that way running become goal orientated instead of PB’s. More important of course is the goal needs to be achievable otherwise your running mojo soon disappears,  together with your records. We run because we love running but also because we love testing ourselves to either complete a certain distance or run that distance in a certain time. Very few runners just amble up to the start and then skip along with no thought of time or distance. (We call these people ‘joggers‘ and we shall not concern ourselves with them!)

In the picture above I was just about to break sub 3 hours for the City to Surf Marathon in 2009. This was my 10th marathon and I had been slowly whittling down my finishing time each marathon, each time closer and closer to one of the holy grails of running. Funnily enough in 2009 the full length compression tights were all the rage and I’d convinced myself they gave me a 5 minute advantage. The logic is sound with the tights helping blood circulation and thus allowing the heart to concentrate on other things, this results in a lower heart rate and thus an increased performance window for longer.  Sounded good but I could never get over the fact the lead marathon runners at the time, Kenyans, never wore them and so, after a few years,  they were consigned to only injury prevention or wearing on long flights before or after racing. I still have a pair , as well as calf socks, and will wear them when I’m feeling particularly fatigued , as an injury preventer. Every runner should have a pair of compression tights in their wardrobe.

As you can imagine 10 years ago, after breaking sub 3 hours for the marathon for the first time, me and my mojo were joined together in the search for my next PB. At that stage of my career I ran PB’s virtually every race from 5k up to ultra’s. It was exciting turning up at the start line knowing you would run faster than you had ever run before and it wasn’t a case of ‘if’ but ‘by how much’. Over the next 6-7 years I managed to continually bring down my times for all distances and,  even when I thought I had done with setting records , managed another year or two thanks to Raf and his magic training plans. ( https://therunningcentre.com.au )  Unfortunately injury came a calling in 2017 and 2018 and , although I managed so sneak in a 100k AURA age group record,  my times started to slide. No more sub 35 minute 10k’s or sub 2:50 marathons, it was back in the 35 minutes for the 10 and closer to three hours than I’d like in the full. My half times were a minute or two slower than I would target as the first half of a marathon and a sub 1:20 half became a challenge. No worries, I knew age would eventually catch up with me and two bad injuries ,back-to-back,  had given Father Time the ammunition he needed, bless him !

So what next ? Funnily enough running slower isn’t a problem. At 52 it’s expected of course but what does become harder is the ability to keep running the same weekly distances. A few years ago I’d be targeting twice a day runs , every day,  with a minimum of 130km  to 150km a week. I’m a big, big believer in distance over pace so hitting these numbers needed to be relaxing, remember if you see a rose,  stop and smell it !! This was possible initially but, this year,  even the rose smelling runs have started to test me and 5min/k’s average runs are now , sometimes, a challenge. I remember a few years ago I’d target 4min/k average as the benchmark for all my running and I achieved this more often than not ? Where have those days gone ?

Mojo wise I now struggle to find mine most days but that is not to say it is lost forever. Pre-Rottnest, in June this year, I had one Sunday training run with the boys when I was dropped at 5k and turned around, alone, to stumble back to the car. On the way back I managed to find enough juice to manage 19k for the run but it was a real struggle, again when it should had been a breeze. A week later I ran the Rottnest marathon for the 12th time and finished sub 3 for the seventh time, a new record on Rottnest. What had changed in that week ? Nothing really, a few days tapering and a few days carbo-loading put me in a position to finish strongly but with no explanation how, a week earlier, I had stumbled to a slow and painful 19k training run. Recovering from Rottnest has been as difficult as preparing with numerous runs that have been, at best, forgettable and worst career ending. Looking at my training for the last few months and its nowhere near what I once considered the ‘norm’.  To highlight the difference I’ve added my Strava ( You do have Strava right? http://www.strava.com ) history from January 2017 compared to my latest month of training.  Chalk and cheese unfortunately, training was so much easier when I was 50 ?

June / July 2019

 

January 2017. Some serious distance and some serious race results.

 

Right, to find your mojo the best thing to do is completely reset your goals. Give yourself achievable targets and run for only as long as you’re enjoying yourself. This may take the form of very small loops but anything is better than nothing. Just getting out the door is the first step because , after the first kilometre,  you’ll always be surprised how much better you feel, it’s just putting on the trainers and making that effort to open the door  and take those first steps. Rarely have I ever finished a run and thought that was a mistake.

Next it’s making yourself accountable and that can take the form of running with friends or employing a coach. Both of these demand you turn up when you say you turn up and also give you the encouragement you need to keep turning up ! (Especially when you’re paying for the attention.)  Note this doesn’t work if you’re friends with Mark Lee because he rarely turns up , probably looking for his mojo ? (Only joking tiger ….)

Buy yourself some very expensive race shoes, the Nike NextX is a good example of this. I have mine waiting for me when I eventually find my mojo. ! ?? I wish these shoes were avaialable in 2016 when I ran 2:41:xx twice. I’m positive the Nike shoes could have given me 3-4 minutes minimum which would have allowed me to easily break 2hours 40 minutes for a marathon. No worries, I’m hoping Nike invent the Vaporflys 50% which will make you 50% faster than you would be without them, then even I can break 2 hours ?

Remind yourself why you run, sounds simple but sometimes it’s the simple things that make the biggest difference. Also mix it up a bit. Tomorrow I’ve arranged to run 38k in the hills, on trails. Running on the trails reminds yourself about the pure joy of ‘just running’ , breathing in the scenery and just enjoying the pure pleasure of running, remember , simple things.  It is to be noted we are in the middle of a Perth Winter (I say ‘Winter’ in the broadest sense of the word?) but that makes a difference and on a number of occasions I have been beaten back to the couch by the cold (?) , dark nights. Not sure how’d I go if I ever returned to old ‘Blighty? Probably never run again. Running in Summer is so much easier , albeit avoiding the heat in the middle of the day, no one likes being fried alive.

 

The article below , published on the Runners World website ( https://www.runnersworld.com/uk/a775662/20-ways-runners-refound-their-motivation/ ) lists 20 reasons why a runners mojo was lost,  and then found. Worth a read…

 

I had 10 days off over Christmas – I was planning on two! I just couldn’t find the energy, but I pulled myself together and decided on January 1 to just run. It was only 5km and lashing with rain but it broke the excuses and my mojo is now back. It’s just getting out the door – give it 10 minutes and tell yourself that if you’re not feeling the love you’ll stop… bet you won’t, though!’ Karen Stanley

‘When it’s cold outside and you’ve had a miserable day it’s so easy to come in and drink a pot of tea and eat a cake. Before I knew it a month had passed with the same excuses and I was getting out of breath in the park with the dog and the kids. So one morning I set my alarm earlier, having laid out my kit the evening before. I got up and just did one mile. Wow, did I feel great that day! I decided to do three short, early runs a week and as time went by home life improved and I felt healthier and happier just for getting out there.’ Michael Bowen

 

“Hello mojo.”


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An hour of ‘Rambling….’

 

Irwin and I after a monster podcast.

I cheated this post by using a link to Irwin Swinny’s podcast on a conversation we had a few weeks ago. (below) What’s better than reading about my ramblings,  well listening to them of course. Let me know your feedback in the comments section of this post.

https://anchor.fm/irwin-swinny/episodes/Kevin-Matthews—Distance-unlocks-your-running-dreams-e4gnt9?fbclid=IwAR0FltVx03wZ-PBfd5tDa0sxV–pzdIW7tag6VUcDezkyQkthoB9-T2VNyg

 


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Recovery , active or passive, is the result the same ?

Passive recovery means stillness and inactivity. By contrast, active recovery means being active in a way that promotes recovery rather than intensity

Time to pay the piper, but the real payment starts after the marathon finishes!

A few weekends ago I ran marathon number 44 , which was a controlled effort for sub number 31. After celebrating with a can of Guinness , or three, it was off back to the mainland and time for active recovery. Now when I recover from a marathon it is not a pretty sight. It’s a bit like drinking really, I can drink like a 18 year old (please note I only really drink after the Rottnest Marathon as it’s tradition and the beer mile because, well, it’s the beer mile?!) but I recover (and suffer) like a 80 year old. Personally I think the reason hangovers get worse ,with age , is because otherwise we’d all just keep drinking to excess and ,unfortunately, this can only end badly as we grow older. If there is a God, ( and it’s a bit if,) then I can see why he (or she?) programmed us this way. Best thing to do is abstain completely but then how can you enter the Beer mile, it is a quandary ?

Right , back to me recovering. Normally after a marathon I give myself a minimum of three days off , sometimes even up to a week. After that I gotta run, I mean ‘ c’mon ‘ we’re runners, it’s what we do right? Anyhow I say ‘run‘ in the loosest sense of the word because my legs are normally well and truely ‘goosed’ and it feels like you’re running on wooden stumps. The first gradient I encounter can result in racing people walking and minding their own business. The look on their faces when this old, balding , bearded runner (?) sidles up to them is priceless. I’m not sure if they just feel pity or disgust at my inability to pass them in a reasonable manor. Of course over time I eventually get back to a some sort of pre-marathon form and pace and it’s onwards and upwards to the next one. (Remember , there is always a next one.)

The week after my last marathon , Rottnest, was particularly testing as for some reason I only gave myself Monday off running. Tuesday I was back into it and ‘stumbling‘ around Kings Park trying to convince myself this was a good idea, when it clearly wasn’t. This continued for the whole week,  truth be told and as I type this post I really question my decision. Was running a week after a marathon achieving anything bar humiliation ?

Funnily enough I googled “passive recovery after a marathon” and Google returned a post I had written in November 2016. How good was that ? On rereading the post I impressed myself (which is easy to do , mind.) So it’s worth another read (link below)

https://www.runbkrun.com/2016/11/07/the-day-after-the-marathon-active-or-passive-recovery/

 

For me after Rottnest I felt I should have opted for ‘passive’ recovery and piled on the kilograms before starting again. Weight is another good indicator of recovery and if you aim to put on at least a couple of kilograms before setting out on your next adventure it won’t be a problem. After carbo loading before a marathon and adding a few kilograms after, to aid recovery, running the marathon itself suddenly seems worth it ?  I’m sure I read somewhere that Meb Keflezighi,  or Ryan Hall,  liked to add a few kilograms after a marathon and wouldn’t start training until he had. Probably Meb , but looking at Ryan since he retired it may have been him !!

 

From the Guardian online.

Your immune system has taken a battering, your muscles are torn in lots of places and you won’t fully recover for a few weeks.

The severity of the damage and speed of recovery after a long distance run depend on how fit the person is to start with. For the casual runner who has spent several months training properly, the physiological damage during the marathon would have started as a gradual congestion of waste products in the body. “Your tissues are asked to do something that they’re not normally asked to do at that speed at that number of repetitions at that distance,” says Neil Black, head of physiotherapy at the English Institute of Sport.

The fatigue leads to soreness and tightness in the muscles. This means that the runner starts to move slowly and inefficiently. “When they slow down, they will change their gait slightly,” says Clyde Williams, a physiologist at Loughborough University. “They’re changing to a recruitment of muscles that have not been used for training and that’s when you get fur­ther aches and pains.” In addition, about halfway through the race, the constant pounding of the feet on the roads starts to cause pain in the joints.

At about 20 miles, levels of glucose in the bloodstream start to drop and the stores of carbohydrate energy in the body are almost depleted. Runners will become more aware of the distress signals that the various parts of the body are sending to the brain. “The distractions of the crowds and the bands and the cheering become less of a distraction and the focus goes more on the body,” says Williams.

Dehydration is also a risk. Runners drink water en route to replace the fluid lost through sweat but can’t fully replace it, simply because of the time it takes to get water through the digestive system into the bloodstream.

All this adds up, effectively, to major trauma. After the race, runners are left with microscopic tears in their leg muscles, which leak proteins such as myoglobin into the bloodstream.”The body’s defence mechanism will see these tears as damaged tissue and will set up an inflammatory response,” says Williams. Part of this response is that free radicals are released, which also attack the tissue. This leads to the familiar soreness.

Runners often pick up a cold or an infection afterwards, as the immune system tends to be suppressed for several hours after the marathon.

It takes weeks for the body to return to normal. “A lot of people, after a week, feel reasonably well recovered but it would be very unlikely they truly had recovered at a physiological level,” says Black.

More tips from Fleet Feet. ( https://www.fleetfeet.com/blog/ )

Hammering out 26.2 miles takes a toll on your body—not to mention all the training miles leading up to race day.

It’s time you got some rest.

Rest from running and recovery look different for everybody. Some runners need weeks of reduced mileage to work back into hard running while others, like elite ultrarunner Michael Wardian, can run seven marathons on all seven continents in seven days.

For those us of not like Wardian, deliberate rest from running is important to getting back into regular training.

This guide will teach you the basics of how to recover from a marathon, including how to massage, what to eat and how to rest before easing back into running.

What to Eat to Recover After a Marathon

Eating is an important component of training. You need to eat the right foods (and enough of them) to sustain your longest days, and you have to find nutrition that doesn’t upset your stomach. But what you eat after your run is just as critical because it replenishes lost nutrients and repairs spent muscles. The best post-run foods do both, and taste delicious.

Your body burns lots of carbohydrates—its favorite fuel source—during a marathon, and your muscles break down from the extended effort. So, it’s important to refill your tank with both carbohydrates and protein to restore balance (a 2:1 carb to protein ratio is recommended).

As with everyday nutrition post-marathon, reach for real, whole foods like leafy greens, lean proteins and fats rich in anti-inflammatory omega 3s to aid recovery.

And don’t forget to hydrate. Your body needs water to function properly and flush waste products out of your system. A good goal: Drink about half your body weight in ounces each day. That’s 60 ounces for a 120-pound person or 100 ounces for a 200-pound person. But remember this is just a rule of thumb. As temperature and humidity changes, so do your hydration needs (for example, warmer weather calls for more water).

When in doubt, check your urine; your pee should be light in color, not dark like apple juice, or worse, soda.

How to Massage After a Marathon

The 26.2 miles you just ran is likely the longest distance you covered since you began training, and a lot can happen over that distance. Inflammation and aches and pains from a couple of dozen miles pounding the pavement is almost always guaranteed.

Massage helps alleviate some of the aches and pains by loosening knots and adhesions in muscles or soothing nagging problems like plantar fasciitis.

Here’s how you can massage after your run:

  • Save your shins. While you’re sitting down, stretch out your leg in front of you. Press your thumbs into the muscles on either side of your shin bone and rotate your ankle in every direction. Search for sore spots up and down your leg, and give them some extra attention. Repeat on the other leg.
  • Get the glutes. Put a foam roller or a lacrosse ball beneath your glute and roll it around. When you hit a tight spot, keep the pressure there until it loosens up. Repeat on the other side.
  • Care for your calves. Your calf muscles absorb a lot of impact from running, and they’ll begin to feel it after a marathon. Sit on the floor and place a foam roller beneath your calf muscle. Roll forward and backward to release tight areas on both legs.

A word of caution: Know when to call it quits. Massage can be uncomfortable at times, but it should not produce sharp pains, numbness or tingling. If you feel any of those, lighten up or stop for the day.

Running a marathon puts a lot of stress on your body. In addition to eating right and massaging away knots, your body will need time to repair itself. That’s why you need rest after running a long race.

How to Rest After a Marathon

But rest isn’t passive. Resting after a marathon takes conscious effort, and your body will thank you for it. Generally after a big race, it’s a good idea to take at least one full week of non-running recovery. During this sacred period, it’s OK to exercise, just keep it light and mostly resistance free. Think leisurely walks, hikes or bike rides.

And, make sleep a priority because your body and muscles recover best when you’re asleep. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends seven or more hours of sleep per night for adults. Getting the recommended amount of shut eye will make you more alert and ward off sickness, too.

But the CDC says only about 35 percent of adults get the sleep they need, which affects more than just running recovery. Inadequate sleep is linked to chronic health conditions like Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity and depression, according to the CDC.

Bottom line: You will train and recover better if you get better sleep. If you’re struggling to fall asleep or stay asleep, try these tips:

  • Avoid drinking alcohol late in the evening.
  • Before bed, eliminate exposure to blue light from TVs, computers and smartphones (if you must be online, consider downloading a free app like Flux that filters blue light).
  • Get to bed at a consistent time, preferably before 10 p.m.
  • Set your thermostat between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Track your sleep to understand your sleep quality.
  • Avoid working or reading in bed.
So to sum up,  marathon recovery is very personal. For me , it’s a painful experience which ends up with me racing senior citizens up hills and normally losing. For others , like the T-train, it’s an excuse to totally ignore the fact they have run a marathon at all and rack up some serious kudos on Strava ( you are on Strava right? http://www.strava.com ) Jon uses it as a precursor to his next marathon,  which is normally less than three weeks away , so it’s actually an instant taper ? We approach the recovery stage differently but it is important to find something that works for you and no pace for at least two weeks .(or if you are the T-train , 2 days!)
Most important thing too also take into account is not to get injured. For the two weeks after the marathon you are walking a tight rope between recovery and injury. Add pace to your runs too early and you are guaranteed to be spending more time on the sidelines. I am speaking from experience here , partially tearing a calf muscle a week after the Perth Marathon engaging in some shenanigans with the boys,  on a lunch time run too early after the event. A painful experience. (The calf tear that is, not running with the boys at lunchtime?)
My version of passive recovery after the 6 inch trail ultra marathon !.


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With running you can predict the future and trail stuff.

 

Preparing to explode , all bar one runner playing on his iPhone ?

Using shorter races to predict your times in marathons is possible if you also take into account your training and previous times. One of my favourite to predict your marathon time is doubling your latest half time and adding 10 minutes, less if you have more experience. E.g. a half time of  one hour 30 minutes would equate to a 3 hour 10 minute full marathon, for a relative beginner,  with a good 10-12 week training block under his or her belt. If they were an experienced runner, and had history of achieving close to these times , you could probably drop 3-5 minutes and aim for three hours and five minutes.

These are many websites with ‘race predictors’ that can even translate 10k or even 5k times into predicted marathon finish times but of course the less distance in the predictor race , the less accuracy in the prediction. I’ve mentioned this before but my mate Mikey K. reckoned he could predict his marathon time from a 1k sprint. Being an Engineer it probably involved pi or, knowing Mike,  the other ‘pie’; he is infamous for his beer and snacks after running as he continually grappling with his weight and VO2 max score. (If you follow Mike Kowel on Strava you’ll understand ! http://www.strava.com You are on Strava aren’t you ?)

https://www.mcmillanrunning.com/#calculator-input

https://www.runningahead.com/tools/calculators/race

http://www.pace-calculator.com/race-pace-predictor.php

 

 

Of course anything past a marathon and there really isn’t anything available as it turns into a mental battle with oneself and also hydration and nutrition start to play a more important part. As we all know an ultra is basically an eating and drinking competition,  with running between aid stations. First person to get to the finish wins. There’s no real predictors as such for these distances because there are so many variables. Who can predict blisters, hydration or nutrition issues, fatigue, navigational bloopers, drop bears; the list really is endless. Truth be told it’s amazing anyone every finishes an ultra at all. This brings me along very nicely to the next topic of this post , the Wild Goose event to be held this weekend.

A weekend of trail running debauchery…

In WA at the moment we are blessed with so many great events and I had initially entered this event but realised after the Light Horse 12 Hour race I was in fact human after all and not bullet proof. With a heavy heart I pulled my entry and it was definitely the right thing to do as I struggle around the Perth CBD recovering from the Rottnest Marathon.  A pity because all I have heard is good things about this three day event offering distances from 18k right up to 106k with the Ducks Nuts option of all three offerings on each of the three days. This one is on my hit list for next year maybe assuming I can drop down to the half distance for Rottnest because two weeks is not enough timer for me to recover from the full.

If you live in WA, or even Australia , it’s worth spending some time on the WA Ultra Series web page ( http://ultraserieswa.com.au ) The events are just awesome, the brain child of Shaun Kaesler,   who has just about single-handedly  created this vibrant smorgasbord  of running events that cater for all abilities. He is also behind the Delirious West 200 miler (and change)  point to point ultra in WA ( http://deliriouswest200miler.com.au ) and also its sister event over South, the Irrational South.  ( https://www.facebook.com/groups/www.irrationalsouth200miler.com.au/ ) I must admit to getting very excited about running the Delirious in February next year, it will certainly be EPIC ! Just got to keep Jon under control and hold him back, at least for the first 100 kilometres ?

Running on trails is a whole different ball game to the normal grind of day to day pounding the pavement. You can throw away the watch and just run for the pure joy of running, not target pace because the gradient normally dictates pace and trail running is more about time on feet and distance. Add in beautiful scenery and you wonder why you ever run in the concrete jungle,  that is our every day bread and butter. I’ll certainly get my ‘trail fix‘ next February on the Delirious !

200 miles, how hard can it really be ?

 

As well as the Ultra Series WA there is the Perth Trail Series. ( http://www.perthtrailseries.com.au ) Their motto is ‘uncivilse yourself’ which I think is awesome , compared to Shaun and the Ultra Series WA which is all about doing ‘Epic Sh*t’, another great mantra to live your life by. Anyhow I have never done a PTS event but this is mainly due to a crowded racing calendar with the West Australian Marathon Club but maybe it’s time I gave some of these races my attention. The feedback has always been very positive, well organised with great trails to test yourself on. Gareth often sneaks off on a Sunday and runs these races, without ever telling us of course, and he always seem to enjoy himself placing near the pointy end most times. I must try and pin him down one day and ask his opinion on the series.  From the website:

Perth Trail Series delivers over 20 Trail Events in WA each year, putting over 6000 people on the trail. Woohoo! We’re an all ladies team, and we’re stoked to organise amazing event experiences right here in WA! Our events are held in some of WA’s most stunning locations and we’re proud of our world class events, and stunning locations.

We LOVE our trail community, the environment, and the event experience, which is why we’re leading the way in delivering low (sooooo close to NO impact) events …including the vibe at the end! Where there’s truckloads of high fives, PTS punch, music and/or some form of entertainment! And really cool people to chat with.

The Faces Behind the Trail Magic!

So many races and so little time ?

 

Of course the best trail race, in my humble opinion, is the one that’s been running the longest , and in WA it’s Dave Kennedy’s 6 Inch Ultra ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com ) If you live in Perth you need to run this 46km trail ultra positioned on the last Sunday before Christmas. The perfect pre-Christmas present to oneself. Dave even throws in free beer at the end, ho, ho .ho !! It’s a point to point race from North Dandelup to Dwellingup on the Munda biddi trail. A beautiful part of the world with some challenging elevation and beautiful views.  One tip would be to avoid the pub food the night before the big event,. This is by no means a slant on the tukka but more the portion size , which is probably built for Americans, and big ones at that. Before last years event the boys all tucked into to some massive meals,  while I nibbled on some pre-prepared pasta. Bart’s had so much he took some back to the campsite and tried to finish it, unsuccessfully, the next day. Let’s just say none of the boys had good days on the trail the day after those bad boy portions! Post race they would be perfect, combined with a few beers and we have plans to stay behind for an extra day this year and ‘go to town‘ , literally. !

From the website…

Six Inch Trail Marathon is inspired by the famous Six Foot Track Marathon in the Blue Mountains near Sydney.Returning from New Zealand in January 2005 I bemoaned the lack of trail races in Western Australia. I wanted to move to the land of the long white cloud but family and circumstances warranted at least another year in WA. One evening I headed out to run a gravel road signposted “Goldmine Hill”. What followed was a soaking wet 15K with the highlight being running into the Munda Biddi Mountain Bike trail. The Munda Biddi was built to keep cyclists off the 964K Bibbulmun walking track. The first 335K section from Mundaring in the Perth hills to Collie was completed in 2004. I had seen some road crossing signs during the construction and was keen to one day experience the track either by bike or foot. Finding the track so close to my house in Mandurah had me pondering a race in the near future. On my return from New Zealand I had been discussing a possible trail race on a local runner’s message board. I bought the map and found that this town to town section was about 44K. Six Foot which I had dreamed of running for years sprang to mind. “We could have our own version”. I had ridden between the 2 towns, North Dandalup and Dwellingup, and the road was super hilly. I was a little disappointed by the lack of hills when I ran the trail but some less masochistic runners didn’t agree with me. The result is a 46K trail race starting at the foot of Goldmine Hill 1K from North Dandalup and finishing in Dwellingup. This run is designed to be tough but most marathoners can expect to finish within an hour or 2 of their best marathon time. Dave Kennedy

 

Dave Kennedy also two other great races , the WTF and the Lark Hill. (Thanks Dave Tams) http://wtfultra.com.

Welcome to the home of the Runningworks WTF 50 & 100 Miler, the first  & original 100 mile trail race in Western Australia.

Held annually on the last weekend in September (WA’s Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday weekend), the 50mi and 100mi events both start at 6am on Saturday.

2019 will see a change to the start location and course, with the new start/finish location at Nanga Bush Camp, around 10 minutes south of Dwellingup.  The 100 mile and 50 mile runners will depart together at 6am, and share the trail for the first 50 miles.

Why WTF? Other than being an attention-grabbing name, WTF is an acronym for “Waterous Trail on Foot”. The Waterous Trail, located south of Dwellingup, was to host the course for the inaugural event in 2013. Unfortunately, as the race-date neared, authorities advised of a prescribed burn in the area planned around the time of the event. This resulted in a switch to a course run between Jarrahdale and Dwellingup.  In 2019,  we decided it was time for a change, and thought about using the Waterous Trail loop, but decided there was a too much road, and not enough climb & descent, so a new course was created.

When: Saturday, September 28, 2019 at 6am.

How long in existence: Inaugural race was 28 September 2013

 

Welcome to the home of the Runningworks Lark Hill Dusk to Dawn 50 & 100km Ultra

Held annually on the W.A. Labour Day weekend in March, the 50km and 100km events start at dusk (7pm) on Saturday, with a childrens event (45min) at 6pm.  For both events, entrants will be given an official cut-off so long as they start their last lap by no later than 8am on Sunday morning (13h).

Where: Adjacent to the Lark Hill Sportsplex (east of the Lark Hill playing fields), Port Kennedy, WA

Course information:

  • 25km (8 laps), 50km (17 laps) and 100km (34 laps) GPS measured trail races on a ~3k limestone loop course.
  • The course consists of mostly compact-limestone, with ~200m of soft sand on each loop. There are some minor undulations, with a short climb into the start/finish point.
  • Click here to see the course. The race director will lead the first lap, so there’s no change of getting lost.
  • The children’s event will be help be over an ~800m loop for 45 minutes.

Next Race: 2-3 March 2019.

No. of finishers: 2018 – 58 ; 2017 – 61 ; 2016 – 52 ; 2015 – 71; 2014 – 47; 2013 – 39; 2012 – 35;

How long in existence: Inaugural race was 3 March 2012

 

The WTF is one I need to run soon.

 

After the 6 inch ultra it’s time to smell the roses and eat the pancakes..but not before !!

 

 


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Sub 3 number 31 and 28 in a row, like ‘shelling peas’.

Paradise Island with a “Mother of a Marathon.”

 

I’ve been very quiet on the blogging front and, truth be told , I’m still suffering from my first DNF at the Light Horse 12 hour race at then end of May. Since then I’ve only been to the keyboard twice, most unlike me. So what have I been doing for the last 4-6 weeks ?

Luckily I had the Rottnest Marathon to prepare for. This is without doubt one of the most idyllic , beautiful and brutal marathons in the West Australian Calendar. I have run this bad boy eleven times and managed to sub3 on six occasions. (The last 6 funnily enough). Over the years I been at the pointy end of the race many times and ran second on two occasions, as well as all positions upwards to 7th and a few other top 10 finishes. In my defence it’s normally a small field of less than two hundred runners as marathon runners are not big fan of hills and at Rottnest there’s four, that’s four per lap of course and there’s four laps, you get the picture!

One of the main reasons for Rottnest this year, bar a confidence booster ahead of the 2019 marathon season (which would include the Perth City to Surf Marathon for the 10th time and the Perth ‘Running Festival’ (ex-Perth Marathon) for the 13th time) , was also to take the record for the number of sub three marathon times on the Island. Currently I share this with Mark Page, both having run sub3 six times, this was to be my seventh. So the goal was a 7th sub3, age group win and the cherry on the cake would be a top 5 finish.

 

All smiles at the start. Always said the best part of the marathon is the first 100m’s and the last 100m’s…it’s the 42k in-between which is challenging?

Jon had organised accommodation and I was staying with his family, minus his ex-Wife, the T-train and the mighty TB; that’s trailblazer not Thomas Bruins. (Although Thomas Bruins is mighty but there’s really only one TB, the one,  and only,  original Trail Blazer, Jon Phillips) There was the obligatory pasta meal, pre-race,  cooked by Jon this year due to his ex-Wife not being invited on the trip. In Karen’s absence Jon did a good job so I feel her days are numbered, actually they are well and truly finished!

Pasta party with Josef, Jon, the T-Train and TrailBlazer… 

 

Safely seated on the sub 3 bus on the first lap.

The first lap was controlled with a big group of runners settling into a sub 3 bus  and moving along comfortably at around 4:10min/k pace, faster in places when gradient allowed and slower when faced with the hills. For the first lap we went through averaging 4:06min/k, right on track. We had splintered into a group of five runners by this point with Tony, and two other runners,  leaving the pack to go on and finish in the top 5.

On a side note I must add that this was without doubt the best conditions we had ever encountered at Rottnest. Moving the race from its usual October slot, which is spring in sunny Perth, so normally a tad warm, was certainly justified. The sun rising as we moved along the causeway, between the salt lakes, is an image that will go with me to the grave, it was inspiring. One of those ‘wish I had a camera moments‘, I can only hope someone did have an iPhone and took a photo because it was biblical. Normally there’s a howling wind with ‘foam balls ‘ rolling towards you, not today, it was perfect. If we weren’t racing me and Jon would have stopped for a hug ! Right, I digress…..

 

End of lap one , Jon pushing the pace and I’m playing with plastic cups? With a previous winner , Chris O’Neil, looking on in awe. (?)

The second lap was similar to the first with the pack dropping down to four and Jon pushing the pace through the start line onto lap three. Again we were right on time still averaging 4:06min/k, maybe not as comfortable as last one but still nowhere near the ‘red zone‘, yet. Now if you race Rottnest you know that lap one is comfortable and you breath in the scenery and the occasion. Lap two and things are normally heating up , literally, and you’re not so bothered with the scenery just the concrete road infront of you. By lap three you are well and truly over Rottnest, big time, and dream of long, flat, courses . Lap three is what makes or breaks you at Rotto. Survive and you tee yourself up for a great Rotto, fall apart and that last lap can last a very, very long time.

On this occasion I was lucky enough to find another gear and my third lap was my fastest. I jettisoned the last two members of the sub 3 bus and was now alone with my thoughts , the bus had become more of a personalised Uber ride ? I knew I was outside the top 5 so concentrated on my sub3 finish, my primary goal. I had 3-5 minutes up my sleeve but knew I would be paying the piper sometime very soon, both figuratively and literally . My fears were realised at around the 35k mark where the legs decided they had had enough for the day and started to misbehave. I probably dropped two minutes over the last 5k which cost me a sub 2:55 finish and a top 5 placing.

 

End of lap three and it’s just me and my thoughts before heading out for the final lap.

As I crawled up the last few hills I was handed a gold coin which you then have to hand to the pipe a few hundred metres up the road, this is a WAMC tradition and one I always look forward. Paying the piper means you have less than 4k to the finish and, with my experience, there’s no way I ain’t finishing that close, it’s just a case of what state I’ll be in.  A top 5 finish was there if I could have kept my pace for the final 5-6k but today I was just beaten by the hills. I predicted somewhere around 2:55 so two minutes over was acceptable. I had gone through half way in 1:27:30 so a positive split off less than three minutes , on Rottnest , is just about perfect pacing.

 

Time to pay the piper, literally ! Gold coin donation as you pass the bagpipes on the last lap.

 

So,  after paying the piper,  I held it together to finish just under two hours and fifty eight minutes with a 4:10min/k average. (The course measured 42.7k on Strava  http://www.strava.com. so the average reflects that.) Mission accomplished, sub three number seven on Rotto, 31 overall , and my sub streak moves to 28 in a row, a perfect day really. To say I was stoked is an understatement. This may have been my 44th marathon but given the last two years of injury it meant as much as my first in 2003. Overall I had ran a ‘controlled’ race with only the last 5 kilometres between me and a perfect finish. I’m not too overly bothered about dropping the ball , slightly , over the last 30 minutes as I’m sure with more training I’ll get my finishing kick back. Remember ‘distance unlocks your running dreams‘ and I just need to run more, simple really.

 

Rottnest 2019 done and dusted, counting the days to 2020.

So lessons learnt for all you sub3 runners.

  • Do the hard yards first, and that means distance and plenty of it. Research Phil Maffetone (the running bit and the diet if you can stomach a diet with very little carbs, initially?) , Arthur Lydiard and Matt Fitzgerald. Theses three preach the distance is king mantle before adding the turbo charger that is pace before finally fine tuning to your chosen event.
  • Indicator races are a valuable source of confidence. Coming into Rottnest I had ran 10 three times in 2019 , each time faster than the previous. I managed a 36:17, 35:55 and 35:38 in the weeks leading up to the marathon and these times gave me the confidence that I could sub3, even on a hilly course. Add in a 1:22 and a 1:19 in my two half marathons this year and I knew I could go out at 4:10min/k pace comfortably.
  • Trust in your training. If you’ve done the hard work you will get the reward. There is no secret to doing well at races, it really is about putting the work in,  with your training,  for the pay back with a bib on your chest. No surprises. This is another mantra I live by and I use sometimes when I am deep in the pain box,  questioning the way forward.
  • The race is your time to shine, don’t be afraid of it but instead embrace it. The final part of your training is the race itself and this is where all that hard work pays off. The final 42.2km’s of any 12 week training program should be the most enjoyable. This is when the previous 12 weeks of hard work is suddenly worth the price you pay, sacrificing your social life, family life and work life. The race itself is pay back for all of this, enjoy it. !
  • After you finish and achieve one goal,  start on the next. Without a goal we become joggers and start saying things like ‘ I don’t run with a watch, I run by feel’, ‘I just run because it makes me happy’; you’ll be hugging trees next. We run to challenge ourselves to be a better person today than we were yesterday,  and even better tomorrow. The only person we are really racing is ourselves and you need to continually work to better the old you , or get as close as you can to the old you as Father Time starts to add seconds to your race times and pace.
  • Search the runbkrun website for my Golden Rules. These are my nuggets of information that will help you bring down your times. Not real surprises here but just good old fashioned advice from someone who knows, or at least thinks they do ?

 

The award ceremony for the first 50-59 runner with Visna Jerab, a Goodlife Gym executive and great triathlete and marathon runner.

After the obligatory warm shower it was off to the pub for the awards ceremony, I told you Rottnest was a magical place. After being presented with my 50-59 age group medal by my good friend Visna Jareb it was onto another one of my goals for the weekend, to drink the pub dry of Guinness. This sounds a lot harder than it actually is as the sub only serves Guinness in cans and one year there was only five and I managed to drink them all, hence the street goal every year since.  This year I saw there was eight cans so had to get my good mates Zac and Steve ‘Twinkle toes’ McKean in to help me. I put in a good effort by demolishing three cans but that was me done. I staggered down to the 4:30pm ferry and back to the mainland I went. Bye bye Rottnest, as always it was a blast and I’ll see you in 2020….

 

Drinking an Island free of Guinness…. one can at a time , with Zac and Twinkle.


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What you learn from a DNF.

On the 27th April I ran my first DNF at the 12hour Lighthouse ultra and it has taken me this long to even think about typing a post on the experience, well over a month. This is a post I thought I’d be writing many years from now and never envisaged penning this particular post so soon in my young (?) career. Right some background to the event. The Lighthouse is a 2.5k loop that starts at midnight and continues through to midday, as 12 hour events do of course. The plan was to podium at minimum and maybe even sneak a win, this , with hindsight , was to be my undoing..

I have said many, many times that marathon and ultra running , actually any distance racing , is to a large proportion a mental struggle with oneself. If you haven’t questioned yourself in a race you ain’t running fast enough. The human body can go so much faster than we allow it but the safety barriers, we put in place to protect it,  prevents us from reaching our true potential. Training allows us to move those barriers and thus we run faster. Trust in your training is a mantra I live by and better training always equals faster racing. I believe this is because we have persuaded the mind (the main instrument in protecting the body) that we can run that little bit faster and not do too much damage. This is why better training equates to faster racing, simple really.

Coming into the 12hour ultra I was unprepared mentally. I questioned the reason for the event even upto driving to the start line, not a good idea. The previous two weeks I had moved house and this had mentally , and physically, exhausted me, not ideal preparation. Also this was to be my first ‘time rather than distance race‘ where the idea is to run as far as possible in a given timeframe, again not a good sign. The few days before the event my running had been substandard with my heart rate higher than it should have been given the pace, another sign I ignored and this culminated in a nasty cold after the event.  Typing this I’m surprised I actually lasted as long as I did.

Right , lets cut to the chase and describe the race.  I arrived tired, remember it starts at midnight which is way past my bedtime, and set up my esky full of drink bottles and Gu’s. Jon joined me and we decided to go off around the 5min/k pace and try and hold this for the 12 hours. Simple really but when we started Jon found another gear and we were motoring along at around the 4:40min/k pace and leaving the rest of the field behind very quickly. This should had been a sign to me that this was too fast as there was some great running experience behind us, and along way behind us. I tried my best to calm Jon down but he was having the run of his life and I was hanging on for dear life, a situation which could not go on.

Lesson learnt, when Jon is in this form hide in the toilet !

To add to my tale of woes I was struck down with toilet issues and had to make an unscheduled toilet stop at 18k. This was also an excuse to let Jon go on his merry way and give me some respite from the relentless pace. The only downside to this pitstop was it was totally dark in the toilet cubicle as I was using Jon’s headlamp when we raced, sitting behind him. So here I was, just before 2am,  rummaging around in a dark toilet cubicle questioning why I was there and not even thinking about the 9-10 hours ahead of me. Eventually I did the ‘paperwork’ and started on my merry way , alone. As you can see from the image below I did manage to hold 5min/k for around 7 kilometres before another unscheduled stop, this was now becoming an issue.

Jon lapped me around this time and all thoughts of a podium were well and truly finished. I managed another 6k before my third, and final,  toilet stop and trust me I was now in a world of pain. Pace was steadily decreasing while the heart rate was rising, not good indicators so early in the event. The final straw when when we changed direction at 3 hours, turning back to the finish line I knew I could not continue for another 9 hours, as it was the I was lucky to make another 9 minutes.  So at 3:19:22 into the 12 hour event I packed up my gear and stumbled off into the night to drive home to bed, destroyed. I must admit it was long and lonely drive home but it was the right decision at the time but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt, big time.  Getting home around four in the morning one of the dogs had decided not to wait for their scheduled toilet stop and left me a nice coming home present on the tiled floor of the kitchen, things really couldn’t have got any worse as I cleaned up their ‘gift’, it seemed to be a recurring theme of the night !

 

Not pretty reading…

 

So what to take from this tale of woe. For me it highlighted how mentally unprepared I was for the race but, more importantly,  how badly I had started , setting unrealistic goals that in the end destroyed me. Being my first time over distance race I should had prepared myself for the long haul and setting off at 100k pace, when I was not in the form to do so, was always going to end in failure.  With hindsight, and this is so easy to type, I could have taken an hour to compose myself and got back out there, hell I could have gone for a 6 hour sleep and still ran for another 3 hours ! The possibilities were endless with the nine hours I had left in the event but in the end I did nothing and just sculked off home,  a beaten man. Could I have carried on ? It’s a question I ask myself on a regular basis and I truely believe I couldn’t at the time. Three in the morning suffering from sleep depravation, toilet ‘challenges’ and a heart rate rising quickly,  I was in no condition to continue, yep, stopping was the only answer but it could have been so different.  Will I go back next year ? Hell yeah, for redemption and to prove to myself I can give the 12 hour a good tilt.

What will I do differently ? Just about everything.  I’ll mentally prepare myself for a start, really want to finish and finish strong. The pace will be dialled in early and it’ll be sustainable. Jon will be running the 24 hour version so I can stay away from his suicidal pacing and finally I’ll avoid my home cooking as No1 Wife will be home, so no toilet stops ? I’m really looking forward to it, truth be told,  but of course there are plenty of other fish to fry before I return to the LightHorse next year.

Confidence wise , mine took a beating of course. My first ever DNF hit me very hard, it’s taken me weeks to even think about typing this post. On the bright side I have taken so much from this , I will never take on an event unprepared and always give the ultra events the respect they deserve, not just turn up and think it’s may right to finish and finish high up the field and strong. In ultra running nothing can be taken for granted and just assuming you are going to go well on past performances is threat with danger. The only thing that semi-guarantee’s  results is training, trust in your training not historical data from past experiences.

 

From the Sciene of Ultra website this paragraph sums up the while DNF thing for me .. https://www.scienceofultra.com/blog/zion100k

They say that the opposite of love is not hate, but rather indifference. That is exactly what I was experiencing. I was completely indifferent to the event. I didn’t love it or hate it, I just had no interest at all, indifference. I asked myself whether this was just frustration; it was not. I had been replaying all the times I’ve heard people say they regretted dropping out of a race and that their advice is to just walk if possible…finish it. But, finishing was not part of my reason for entering the race. I’ve completed 100k races before, with nearly twice the elevation change. I had nothing to prove with finishing. I knew I could finish and that held no absolutely no meaning to me. So, I dropped out.

 

I was totally indifferent to the event at three hours, I was not enjoying myself and the thought of another 9 hours filled me with dread. It was this I suppose which in the end made my decision for me. I was not in the race to finish but to podium or at least finish high up the field, when this started to slip away (when I DNF’d I was sitting 6th) the race held nothing for me.

You learn more from your failure than you do from your success‘, is that true, maybe. I have certainly spent more timing thinking about what happened and working on ways to make sure they never happen again, so from that point of view you do take more from failure. To sum up how early I pulled the pin on the race I ran 33k the next day at 4:37min/k pace , comfortably. Mentally I was in a better place and the legs felt great, imagine that after a 37k race I was running a quick long run faster than race pace. What a difference a day makes, or even a goodies night sleep. I’ve managed to string together a semi-reasonable few weeks which culminated in a 35:38 10k last week and this is a confidence booster with the Rottnest Marathon in two weeks. I certainly feel a lot better going into a race and distance I know and love and there will  be no mental challenges on Rotto. (Bar the normal marathon ones of course?) The goal is to run sub 3 for the 7th time and set a new record which I currently share with Mark Page. ( The two of us have six sub3 Rottnest Marathon Finishes). For those of you who don’t know Mark Page has finished Comrades second on two occasions, which is a pretty big deal. He was a pretty handy runner in his time and set numerous records so to go one better than Mark will be a massive honour.  Looking at my training I’m in with a shout and I’ll certainly give it my all.

 

Back on the horse after the Light Horse Ultra

 

 

I found a great article from Nic Errol, originally from Perth funnily enough, on his first DNF, far superior to mine.  Worth a read people… https://nicerrol.com/2018/02/26/live-and-learn-anatomy-of-a-dnf/

 

Right it was good to get that post out of the way and I can continue to motivate rather than depress people. With what I have learnt from this race I hope to avoid writing ‘My second DNF’ for a very, very long time, remember I’m at the beginning of my career and time is my friend… yours in running…

 

Maybe the Piper has started warming up….and it’s time to pay him ? No way…..

 

 

 


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An ultra-marathon legend is born.

A few weeks ago inaugural member of the BK running crew, Jon Pendse, ran over 142km in the twelve hours at the USWA Lighthouse event ( http://lighthorseultra.com.au ) and I have attached his race report below as it is an inspiring read. I am mentioned a few times in the report as I sacrificed my run for his of course and it was not really a DNF on my part, more a suicide  mission ! (well it felt like one at the time?)  Jon’s time has caught the attention of the Ultra running community over East and he has been invited to attend the next 24 hour race with a view to making the national team. If anybody deserves this it’s Jon. We go back a long way (since meeting in the changing rooms of our work building, where all good relationships are born?)  and he is one of the most dedicated and hard working runners I know. Week in and week out he’s running and , more than that, so humble and encouraging, a true champion who ran a champions race and hopefully this is a stepping stone to national and then international stardom.  I’ll write a post on my glorious failure later… in the meantime enjoy Jon’s ramblings..

 

This is a story that continues from my Australia Day Ultra 100km race report held in January 2019 (https://www.runbkrun.com/2019/01/23/runjprun-a-race-report-from-a-local-legend/), where I had attempted to break 8 hours, instead hitting the wall spectacularly early on and slogging out a hard earned third place finisher in 8 hours 58 minutes.

I’ve been wanting to enter my first 12-hour race for several years now, ‘logically?’ this being the next step up in distance from a 100km ultra marathon, previously having run the ADU 100km race four years in succession.

The Lighthorse 12-hour Ultra marathon is a race that has appealed to me over a number of years, and having volunteered last year (and had runners envy) I decided 2019 would be my debut over the 12-hour distance.  Besides I would already be in ‘reasonable’ ultra-marathon shape having run ADU some three months earlier and would be continuing my normal marathon training load. For me, I find having a solid marathon training foundation bodes well stepping up to Ultra’s with not a lot of ‘extra’ training required.

I generally average around 120km-130km per week (if I’m not racing), with two or three ‘double’ days and probably once a fortnight I’ll throw in a triple day.  Most of my runs are about backing up on tired legs. Alternating the easy and hard runs, with my speed work coming from plenty of 5k parkrun time trials.

After having run the Bunbury marathon (2.56.02) some three weeks earlier, having run the WAMC 40 miler (4.48.36) four days earlier, and also having the upcoming Margaret River Ultra (80km) seven days’ time, my target for Lighthorse was not so much to race but more about enjoying the experience and having some ‘me time’.  That said I did have a target distance of 130km with a backup goal of 120km. Basically that meant first reaching 100km ‘feeling good’ and only then assess how I am going… if it was a good day I thought sub 9 hours should be very do-able, given I hit the wall at 40km at ADU 100 and still managed to run 8hrs 58. Not hitting a wall and running within myself would likely see a 100km split time of around 8hrs 45 minutes, and set up for a solid crack at 130km, knowing the temperature would quickly rise and the inevitable slowdown very likely to occur.

My good mate Kevin Matthews (BK) had also entered the race and having been a DNS at ADU 100 this year (he withdrew a few days earlier with pneumonia), this was to be our make-up Ultra marathon where we would run at least the first three or four hours together.  We even had our good mate Tony Smith (who knocks out training marathons in sub 3 hours on an almost weekly basis).

So much easier knocking out a large chunk of the race with someone else.  Even more so when the race has a midnight start; lonely, dark, cold, and scary!!

I was actually worried when I got a call from Kev on the morning of the race (I thought he may be a late scratching), instead asking what I had packed (my list was around half a page long!).  After going through all my items, he was happy there would be enough for both of us, haha. Shortly later I did get a photo of his race pack which contained 1 banana, and then a photo of 2 when I asked where mine was?

My fueling strategy was simple (self-sufficient), setup my own table, stock up an esky with ice, 40 x 350ml bottles of water, 10 x 350ml electrolytes, container on table with 15 gels, muesli bars, hat, sunscreen, and usb pack to charge my garmin.  Every 4 hours I’d run out of water bottles on my table, so a brief stop to put another 15 bottles on top of the table which would see me through another 4 hours. Repeat. (Lucky enough to have folks visiting on holiday, so they replenished my bottles on the table top in the last 2.5 hours so I had no need to stop).  Gel every 10k, and whilst it was cool around 350ml water per hour, and one electrolyte bottle per hour, but once it warmed up this became a lot closer to 2.5L-3L per hour with half going on my head cooling core temperature.

Onto the race; my suggestion of running the first kilometre in 4 minutes was quickly knocked back (I wasn’t joking), but in hindsight was probably sensible going along with a 4.45 starting kilometre.  BK was already worried we were cooking the pace far too quick for so early in the race. I wasn’t so sure, I wanted to bank some time knowing the forecast of 29 degrees would mean a drastic slowdown over the last two hours.  Surely if we bank some easy kilometres in the first few hours, this would set us up to succeed later in the day (what’s the worst that could happen?).

Six-hour split distances of 70k and 60k would achieve the 130k target.  Some simple maths said pace should be around 5.00-5.08 for the first 6 hours, and then a pace of 6min k’s for the last 6 hours, thinking likely actually running 6.30-7.00s, when it’s hot it is all about survival!  Targets are thrown out the window.

For the first hour and a half BK and I averaged around 4.45 per kilometre, mind you every kilometre that ticked by BK kept complaining shouldn’t we be running closer to 5.00.   I was feeling very ‘comfortable’ with plenty in the tank … it’s a long race after all, so there is plenty of time later if we do want to pick up the pace.

By around 20km BK had to stop for the toilet and said go on I’ll catch you up in two or three laps.  Well here was my chance, with BK flailing already, I wasn’t going to slow down to let BK catch me, so I decided instead I would speed up and catch him!  Then I’ll slow down and run at his pace. (Not the best strategy in hindsight but it did work)

Laps being 2.5km, and roughly 12 minutes per lap, with BK’s toilet stop (2minutes?), I’d only need to find 10 minutes, I thought I should be able to shave off a minute per lap and catch Kev within 8-10 laps… plus I would then be a lap up on BK.

I was actually quite surprised when I hit 25k under 2hours, wait a minute by averaging a comfortable 4.45’s that’s actually on track for an 8-hour 100km time…!  Well I’ve banked time now for the first two hours, so it is probably a good idea to slow down and run closer to 5-minute km’s.

Hitting anything under 9 hours at the 100km mark and I’d be well on the way to my 130km target.

The mind doesn’t work that way for me unfortunately.  Break or bust mentality, nothing to lose everything to gain.  

The good thing on a 2.5km lap is the amount of times you pass a human!  (not sure what else Jon was passing , I personally only saw humans but I only lasted 3 hours..?) Every time it’s slightly less scary knowing that I’m not alone (I’m afraid of the dark).  Around 22km Glen decided to join me for a lap, he told me he was basically doing an interval race, resting, running laps ad-hoc with friends and some of his athletes for support, wow what a coach and dedication!  We chatted away whilst running 4.40s, I mentioned to Glen my plan was to run 9 hours feeling good for 100km, which is true. However, Glen slightly twisted my words around and said most important thing I just said was focusing on the feeling good part, and then worry about the time later.  If you run low 9hours you might think that was a fail, but if you are feeling great then you are on a path to succeed. True.

After Glen ran this lap with me (hope he wasn’t too knackered), I decided screw the time, let me just focus on my running and getting to 100km feeling good (this is what I took from the chat with Glen).  Conditions were good and I was setting myself up for a big total, back of my mind the heat is what would slow me down the most.

My best races to date have been the least ‘eventful’, by that I mean I just held a pace not hit a wall and had minimal slow down.   

Around 33km who do I see in front of me BK!  “Jon I stopped for the toilet twice, and I’m feeling terrible I’m thinking I’ll stop at 50km…”  oh no, that doesn’t sound good, come on Kev you should do at least 100km. It’s 12 hours after all, you can go home sleep, come back and still run a good distance.  Ok, um well I’m feeling good how bout you run with me for a bit and see how you go, it seemed like a dream here because around 2km later BK was dropped and I was left back to my own pacing.  He later withdrew around 37km and 3 hours in. Not his day, but he’ll be back to put things right. Trust me no disrespect withdrawing in any ultra, they are challenging and a beast at the best of times.  They consume us, and part of the attraction for entering them in the first place.

I hit 50k just under 4 hours 2 minutes, and I was thinking wow half way to 100 and slightly over an 8-hour 100km split time, now that is some serious time ‘banked’.  I took some time here to re-assess, ok this isn’t a 50k ultra where you ‘race’ a marathon and jog in the last 7.2k. Be serious, now is the time to consolidate re-group and re-zone.  You can’t stay focused for 12 hours, break down the distance and run hour by hour on feel.

By this stage I was now starting to think where is Tony (T-train), he had laughed at the suggestion of joining me and BK on the start line and said you guys are on your own, I’m running 5-minute k’s and that’s it.

At 5min k’s this would put T-train around 4 hours 10 minutes at the 50k mark, so no wonder I hadn’t seen him yet, I was only around 8 minutes in front.  I slightly panicked thinking 8 minutes isn’t much, I would like to at least lap him so that I know how much distance I have being the lead runner. T-train isn’t one for slowing down, if anything he gets quicker the longer a race goes on and many a time has T-train rail roaded me in the last hour of a race.  On the plus he doesn’t know how to run slow (yet), I wasn’t so sure how long he would last hour after hour. He later succumbed to a Plantar Fasciitis niggle and withdrew around 65km. (I would love to get a three-way battle with BK and T-Train both in full form, that would be some serious competition).

By six hours I had clocked up just on 73km’s, which is 3km’s more than I had ‘planned’, greater importance still feeling fresh.  I was confident 130km was a very achievable target, that meant only 57km’s required over the last 6 hours. And if I could run reasonably consistent laps perhaps I could give 135km a nudge which would be a fantastic result.

I had already resorted to continuing my pace to 100km and only then re-assessing a new target distance.  I crossed my 40th lap just under 8 hours 16 minutes.  Awesome! Although I was slightly freaking out from pre-race plans best estimate for 100km was around 8 hours 45 minutes.  Some 30 minutes in front! Talk about banking time (I normally wouldn’t recommend this approach so don’t try this at home!).

I passed Glenn again around 110km running with Sarah, where I said that sub 9-hour 100km target and ‘feeling good’, um well I crossed 100km on 8 hours 16 but I am feeling good so I’ll take it!

110km is now well into new territory.  If I look at my training since 2015 when I began Ultra running, for runs greater than 50km; four 100km races, one 50km race, and training runs; 2 x 70km, 1 x 56km, 3 x 50km, (Plus my 40 miler 4 days earlier).  In fact no training runs more than 50km in the last 12 months. I did run seven marathons though in 2018 (with three done in 5 weeks), so I was cardio fit but not necessarily quick.

After 110km I was beginning to finally feel fatigued, still running consistent lap times but around a minute slower per lap than the previous 9 hours.  Closer to thirteen and a half minute laps.

It was around this time Shaun had some encouraging words for me, ‘Jonny come on mate you know you’re on track to break 140km’, I told him otherwise where to go, and I’d be ecstatic with 135km.  I’m the one running it’s getting hot and still have 3 hours left to run! No chance of 140km.

Not one for giving up, especially after my ADU lesson (thanks Mick again!), I did think well I’ll just keep running and take it an hour at a time.  Maybe I could go closer to 140km, I’m not cramping and I haven’t hit any wall.

By 120km I was just under 10 hours, a good two hours of solid running to go, 10km per hour and I would hit 140km.  I began thinking here, 6-minute km’s 6-minute km’s that’s all I need.

Charging through ‘tent city’…

 

Crowd support had gained by this stage, I’m sure word was going around that I was on track for a big total… each lap more and more yelling out encouragement.  Truly inspirational having so many on the sidelines, many had seen my growth over the years (too many to name but I thank each and every one).

The last two hours were the hardest, however I had great support (folks) at the aid station keeping me hydrated and cool.  No time wastage which meant I could focus on running each lap.

SO much support on course from runners as well, constant encouragement telling me to keep going.  Each time I completed a lap a slight buzz knowing I was that much closer to 140km.

The last two hours each km split was consistently around 5.20-5.25 (last hour mostly around 5.35s), which is well in front of my 6min average needed to break 140km, things were looking good.  Yes it was hot, yes it was hard, but Forrest Gump was still running and not looking like stopping any time soon! Make hay whilst the sun shines. Plus who knows the next time hitting these sort of distances, surely this isn’t the norm.

Hard work had been done, and now was the time to ice the cake.

I hit 130km on 10 hours 53 minutes.  Accountant by day, that was an easy calculation even almost 11 hours in, 10km required in 1 hour 7 minutes.  I now only needed to run 6.5 minutes km’s. Something drastic would need to happen not to be able to run that pace given how I was feeling and where I was at (compared to ADU hitting the wall 10-minute km’s can be a tough ask! But today was different).  I was in the zone and today was my day.

Three laps to go, two laps to go, this is it, one more lap (with 27 minutes to go) and you’ve achieved 140km!  That final lap was amazing, totally surreal, I was floating. This is the stuff dreams are made of. The only problem was I was going to knock out this lap and still have another 11 or 12 minutes up my sleeve… I had been hoping to time the run to coincide hitting 140km with a minute or two under 12 hours so that I didn’t have to go back out again for a partial lap.  Would be nothing worse than finishing 1 km away on the other side of the course, and then hobbling back to the start. Surely makes more sense to finish near the start line with a very short hobble!

Hands in the air I was overwhelmed having completed 56 laps and the 140km milestone!  What a day. Well I guess I may as well go back out for the last 11 minutes or so, I’d already been out for so long anyway, could even clock up another 1-1.5km… I felt so good here though with the adrenaline pumping I sped up to 5.15s, and managed to knock out another 2.2km.  Total for the day 142.2km!! Totally surpassing wildest dreams, where did this come from, how did I do it?

Running a ‘marathon’ is life changing, running an ‘ultra-marathon’ redefines what the human spirit is capable of.  Never give up. These are my words, this was my story.

2020 will see my biggest challenge yet taking on the W.E.S.T Delirious 200 miler.

By Jon Pendse

Lap times:  https://my2.raceresult.com/123341/results?lang=en#0_ED7D9B

25k split times:  1.59.37 / 2.02.11 / 2.09.11 / 2.04.38 / 2.10.16 (last 25k was around 2.14)

50k split times: 4.01.48 / 4.13.49 (last 50k of race around 4.24)

 

Currently on 57 official marathons, striving to achieve joining the elusive Australian 100 marathon club; https://australian100club.org/member_list.php?runner=148  

 

You can follow me on strava for all my training and future races