Had a great chat to Michelle Frost which we recorded for her FitMind FitBody podcast. Here’s a link to the episode.

 

https://fitmindfitbody.co/episode-338-kevin-matthews-from-cornwall-to-ultra-marathons-a-journey-of-passion-and-community/

 

It’s worth a listen as Michelle and I talk about all things running albeit I must warn you I tend to go on and Michelle is far too polite to cut me short.

As well as listening to runners Michelle is also an advocate of mind training in a similar vein to my good friend Rob Donkersloot from Mind Focused Running ( https://mindfocusedrunning.com/ ) . This is a subject, as well as nutrition, ignored by a large majority of coaches.

If you are serious about improving your running you need to speak to Rob or Michelle and they can ‘train your brain’ which also has positive ramifications outside of running of course.  Rob particularly encourages meditation which he believes aids in nurturing the continued love of running and I have worked with Rob in the past to help me push though the negative thoughts that all ultra runners are faced with during any event.

I have a feeling I’m going to need all his teaching on the last few laps of the Bibra Lake marathon in four weeks time.. my quest for sub 3 number 33.

What Is Mindful Running and How Do You Do It?

 

I gave myself four days off post Lighthorse 24 Ultra before lacing up again for the weekly Yelo run 5:30am Thursday morning. Five weeks later and I’m very tired, which is what you expect when you train for marathons. Week one post Lighthorse I managed 60km, then 126km ( 9 runs) for week 2, 125km (8 runs) week 3, 141km (9 runs) week four and finally 160km (9 runs) last week.   As you can see from the Strava extra below ( You use Strava right ? http://www.strava.com ) it has been a busy few weeks with plenty of long runs, elevation  and double days. I’m a big believer in all of these to improve fitness. There’s a reason professional runners run double or even triple days and also run a lot. Sprinkle in some pace and you’re away, while of course avoiding injury at all cost.

 

 

From a Run to the finish article last year  ( https://www.runtothefinish.com/ )

When you run twice a day, you’re reducing the time between sessions, which teaches your body to run on tired legs and to work through fatigue. Improving your total recovery time is part of this process as you also focus on what you do post run from the stretches to the nutrition!

At first since your body is not used to the extra effort it may feel difficult. Which is why like everything else in running, this is a slow and gradual process.

However, the good news is that your body will learn to utilize its mitochondria more effectively, resulting in less muscle fatigue. Now we’re talking!

Mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells. They make most of the chemical energy needed to start and fuel the biochemical reactions that happen inside our cells.

Apart from this, when you run more than once every day, your enzyme activity increases. These enzyme activities are important for a lot of things in our bodies, like building muscles, digesting food, and getting rid of waste and toxins.

Benefits of Running Twice a Day

Running twice a day comes with a bunch of benefits, which shows why it’s so popular amongst elite athletes. Here are the advantages of running doubles:

1. Helps Increase Mileage

If you want to increase your weekly mileage, adding a second run one or two days a week will allow you to do so without needing to extend your long runs.

If you want to build up your endurance, it’s tempting to look for shortcuts, but there’s no better way than to run a lot of miles. Double runs let you do this without giving up a rest day.

2. Gives You an Opportunity to Run at a Faster Pace

Running twice a day allows you to have an opportunity to change your running pace and style between runs. This is particularly useful when you want to try doing a speed workout but can’t seem to set a particular day for it.

You do then try to do some speed work such as a fartlek or interval training in the morning, and go for your long run in the evening or vice versa.

3. Enhances Training Adaptation

If you double your runs you will burn more glycogen, and your body will need to adjust to this new state. You’ll also burn more fat, and your body will become better at using your glycogen stores.

Running in this glycogen depleted state, in turn, enhances and improves training adaption.

You will be able to recover more quickly, and over time, your tolerance for fatigue will improve. As you increase your frequency of aerobic exercise, your lungs and heart will grow stronger, improving your overall fitness level.

4. Allows for More Efficient Recovery

Running twice a day gives you an opportunity to go for an easy run, which is meant to facilitate recovery. The less demanding runs will aid in increasing blood flow to your muscles, giving your cells the oxygen, they want to recover.

By increasing the frequency at which your muscles get more oxygen, blood flow, and nutrients, you’ll recovery faster and more efficiently.

For me increasing distance is the key to improvement and double days help you get more distance, simple really. Pace isn’t as important when you’re building weekly distance totals. It’s all about getting more kilometres weekly. As you start to adapt to the twice a day running strategy you can add pace with the caveat of avoiding fatigue which will lead to injury. Week by week you will get stronger,  as a runner , as distance increases. There is no such thing as junk miles, remember that, they are all good.

Right, benefits of a down week are explained in this article below from Runners World.

When training for a marathon or other target race, you may assume–as Ryan Hall once did–that it’s best to reach peak mileage and hold it steady for many weeks. Doing so will ensure that you maximize your fitness and prepare optimally for your goal race, right? Perhaps not.

During a marathon buildup Hall used to train all the way through without taking a day off or significantly reducing his mileage. Recently Hall began incorporating weeks of planned lower volume and intensity into his training, and has found these “down weeks” leave him restored and able to tackle tougher training in the weeks preceding and following.

“Since I began my training this fall I have seen big improvements,” Hall says. “While my 62:20 [at January’s Houston Half Marathon] was nowhere near my personal best, it actually was a huge improvement from my half marathon in Philadelphia last fall.” After that race, Hall decided to skip the Chicago Marathon and coach himself. “I believe that incorporating rest and down weeks into my training will get me to the shape I hope to be in,” he says.

WHY CUT BACK?

Pete Rea, coach at ZAP Fitness in Blowing Rock, N.C., believes that regularly incorporating down weeks allows an athlete to complete successfully a full four-to five-month training cycle, avoid injury and ultimately make fitness leaps and achieve a higher level of performance. He cites as an example David Jankowski (right), a ZAP athlete initially resistant to the idea of down weeks, who has seen improvement and reaped benefits since implementing them into his training. Jankowski used to experience staleness and sometimes struggled to race his best at the ideal time. Last year, however, after dialing back his mileage every third week, Jankowski finished fifth in the 10,000m at outdoor nationals and set personal bests at 1500m, 3,000m and 5,000m.

Rea finds that his athletes’ workouts reach a higher level post-down-week, and he believes the planned rest helps his runners avoid unforeseen longer breaks due to injury, fatigue or overtraining. Robert Chapman, coach of Team Indiana Elite, agrees and uses down weeks for athletes who are slightly more injury-prone or who might get run down and overly fatigued with more weeks at high volume and/or intensity.

“Training is a progression,” he says, “essentially a stair-step pattern where after each block they are more fit and performing at a higher level. So the down week is a very important part of the overall training plan. It allows them to absorb the training they did during each block and prepare for even better training in the next block.”

WHAT EXACTLY IS A DOWN WEEK?

A down week is a planned rest week, with mileage reduced to a certain percentage of your peak mileage. The majority of runners find it most beneficial to drop mileage to somewhere between 50 and 90 percent of highest mileage, typically varying depending upon the frequency with which down weeks are taken. Rea’s athletes work in three-week cycles and run 15 to 20 percent fewer miles during their down week. For example, if they’d been running 100-mile weeks, they would run 80 miles during a down week. Chapman’s runners also cut back by 15 to 20 percent. Hall reduces mileage even further and runs approximately half the total volume of his highest week.

The frequency of down weeks varies among athletes but most reduce mileage once every three to eight weeks. Rea’s athletes take a down week every third week; he uses them as a means to increase mileage gently without overburdening the runner. Specifically, Rea’s runners’ mileage progresses slowly through repeating three-week cycles. The second week of their cycle is approximately 10 to 20 percent higher than the first week and the third week (the down week) is 15 to 20 percent lower than the first week. When the cycle begins anew a runner’s mileage in week one is about 10 percent higher than the previous week one. Chapman has the Team Indiana Elite athletes who use down weeks take them every fourth or fifth week.

Hall uses down weeks less frequently but has a steeper drop in mileage when he does take a down week. Every seventh week is a down week for Hall, an idea he adapted from the Bible. Hall explains, “In the Old Testament God commanded that every seventh year was to be a year of rest for the field where no crop was to be harvested. There is a reason why a field can produce more fruit when it has a year to just chill out, and I believe the principle is not only good for the field trying to produce optimum crop but also for the runner trying to produce optimal results.”Expect to feel bad sometimes during a down week says Pete Rea, head coach of ZAP Fitness. “Athletes often feel sluggish and have lower energy during this week,” he says. “Nonetheless I find the level of workouts is elevated thereafter, that workouts are more effective and staleness prevented.”

On the flip side, what happens if you find yourself feeling so refreshed at the end of the down week that you begin picking up the pace? While inadvisable to hammer easy runs and make them so taxing that they defeat the purpose of a down week, don’t be overly concerned if you find yourself running a bit faster than normal by the end of a down week. Hall finds that this often happens to him. “Our athletes typically do easy days on feel,” says Robert Chapman, coach of Team Indiana Elite. “So they might end up running a little faster on the easy day by the end of the down week. I am less concerned about that than dropping mileage 20 percent. Usually, even if the easy runs are a little quicker, they will still end up with fresh legs for the next week.”

Hall says, “How one feels during a down week is going to differ from athlete to athlete and also within each athlete. Each time you do a down week you are probably going to feel a little different than previous down weeks. Stick to your plan and see how you feel coming out of it. In the middle of one down week I was so wired with extra energy that I had to call a buddy of mine to have him reinforce to me the importance of resting even if my body feels good. He reminded me of all the hard training to come and how I just needed to bottle all my energy.”

WHERE TO CUT BACK?

During down weeks, cut out or shorten maintenance runs. Maintain quality, albeit at a reduced volume. This strategy helps to lessen the sluggish feeling that’s common during down weeks.

For example, during a typical week Rea’s athletes run a long run and two speed workouts. In contrast, when taking a down week they shorten the long run significantly and do only one workout. In addition, they remove a second run from one of their double days to achieve the total desired reduction. In the same manner, Hall cuts out all afternoon runs during this week and also reduces the volume of his workouts. Yet his workouts, while shorter, are sometimes at a slightly faster pace. For example, instead of the 12-mile tempo run he might typically do, he may run two 4-mile segments at a faster clip.

Chapman’s down week looks slightly different than most, as both workouts are removed. Quality is maintained in some form, though, as his athletes continue to do 100m strides once or twice a week for a neuromuscular stimulus. Mileage is reduced equally over all days with a bit more taken from the long run, in a fashion similar to prototypical down weeks.

YOU NEED A REST

Sometimes the most difficult part of taking a down week is having the discipline to back off when you feel yourself getting stronger and fitter. It seems counterintuitive to cut back when things are going well and progressing in the right direction. Hall suggests reminding yourself of all the hard training to come and that the rest week will enable you to get the most out of those important workouts that lie ahead.

“Resting takes confidence, courage and above all trust in your coach,” Hall says. (The last part is especially important if “your coach” means “you.”) Chapman adds, “I always remind the athlete that the primary goal of the down week is to have ‘fresh legs’ at the end. The volume and workouts we do often leave the legs heavy after two to three weeks of solid work. At the end of the down week, I want their legs fresh, so they can go right into another threeweek solid block.”

Finally, Hall cautions that “just because a down week is on the schedule for the following week, it does not give you permission to totally smash yourself in training in the week prior. If you go into a down week super-tired it is going to take the first three days just to get back to normal, and then you will only have the second half of the week to allow your body to absorb all the weeks-on-end training you have been doing. Find the balance of training hard but smart.”

So what type of runs have I been running I hear you ask ? I have been avoiding outright speed because at 57 years old the hamstrings and calf muscles are way past their best and I’m not interested in replicating my 5/10/21k best times, they are a distant memory. Instead I have concentrated on running at marathon pace or slightly quicker for as long as possible while keeping the heart rate under control. My long runs are either on trails or footpaths with the trail run being more time on feet while the footpath it’s more about a good pace, closer to marathon pace but not too close to be counter productive.

Over the last few weeks my pace has increased and it’s getting easier to maintain marathon pace, so whatever I’m doing it’s working. I also spend a large part of my training week in Bold Park, which is a mix of trails and footpath but lots of elevation, which is another good way to improve without running the risk of injury.

From  https://marathonhandbook.com/ Hill repeats are classic bread-and-butter workouts for distance runners and sprinters alike.

Running uphill benefits your cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems, making it an effective and efficient way to combine speed work and strength training into one workout.

Runners can reap unique benefits from running workouts that involve hill repeat sprints and long uphill climbs at an endurance training pace. For example, hill sprints develop strength, speed, and turnover, while longer hills develop strength, endurance, and mental toughness.

So, if you need some support to turn your dread of running hills into motivation and excitement, keep reading for a list of 12 running uphill benefits.

12 Running Uphill Benefits

Running uphill has physical and mental benefits, and hill workouts can be one of the most effective components of your training program, particularly if you struggle on hills during your runs and races.

#1: Running Uphill Improves Your Cardiovascular Capacity

Running uphill strengthens your heart and lungs, boosting your cardiovascular fitness. If you take on long endurance uphill climbs, either up a long mountain run or on a treadmill set at a gradient, you can also boost your endurance by running uphill.

The oxygen demand from your muscles is higher when you run uphill, so your heart rate naturally rises¹ and you have to breathe deeper and faster than when you run on flat ground. Therefore, hill workouts can strengthen your heart and lungs over time and increase your stroke and tidal volumes.

#2: Running Uphill Will Build Strength

Most runners know that strength training is essential to our training, but sometimes, we lack the motivation to hit the gym for squats, lunges, and deadlifts.

Running uphill repetitions can almost be equated to strength training leg muscles in disguise. It builds strength and power in the glutes, calves, quadriceps, hamstrings, and hip flexors. Increases in leg strength from hill running can translate to a more powerful running stride.

#3: Running Uphill Develops Core and Arm Strength

In addition to building leg strength, running uphill benefits your upper body and core. Proper uphill running form requires a strong arm drive. Also, to drive your knees up, you engage your core even more when running uphill than on a flat surface.

Runners don’t often consider the importance of strong arms, but your arm swing dictates the power and pace of your turnover, so be sure to pump those arms with power and conviction.

#4: Running Uphill Can Help Improve Your Running Speed

Hill repeats are one of the best speed workouts for runners of all distances, whether you are a sprinter or training for a long-distance race like a half marathon or marathon.

Attacking each hill rep at top speed is a great way to train your body to run faster without doing intervals on the track.

Moreover, the muscles used for running uphill are the same ones recruited for sprinting, so hill repeats can help condition your body for faster paces.

To boost your speed by running uphill, do high-intensity short hill repeats (100-200m) at near-maximal speed.

#5: Running Uphill Can Improve Your Running Form

One of the best benefits of running uphill is that it’s a more natural way to work on your running form than trying to consciously do a bunch of form drills.

Running uphill forces a strong knee drive, good posture, quick turnover, and a shorter stride, so you land more on the balls of your feet or midfoot rather than your heel.

Be sure to keep your chest up, back straight, core tight, and shoulders back as you run uphill. Don’t hunch over.

#6: Running Uphill Improves Your Running Economy

Studies show² that running uphill can improve running economy and make you a more efficient runner by increasing your cardio capacity and aerobic energy production.

The better your running economy, the faster and longer you can run before being overcome by fatigue.

#7: Running Uphill Can Increase Your Turnover

Your turnover refers to how quickly your feet land when you run, so it’s another way to look at running cadence. Running uphill requires you to shorten your stride and take shorter quicker steps. 

This can help you increase your running cadence, one of two factors determining your running pace (the other being stride length).

However, unlike increasing your stride length, which has been shown to increase the risk of injuries, increasing your running cadence³ makes you faster and reduces the risk of injury. Win-win.

#8: Running Uphill Can Improve Your Race Performance

Who doesn’t want to run faster or set a new PR?

Studies show that incorporating hill training into your workout program can improve ⁴ and overall race performance.

#9: Running Uphill Can Reduce Your Risk of Musculoskeletal Injury

One of the risks of repetitive high-impact running is the development of overuse injuries. Your bones, joints, cartilage, and connective tissues are subjected to lots of pounding on flat roads, mile after mile.

Running uphill can reduce the risk of certain common running injuries, such as shin splints and knee pain, because it recruits large muscles like the glutes and hamstrings and reduces the pounding impact and load on your bones and joints.

#10: Running Uphill Burns a Lot of Calories

If you want to lose weight or boost your metabolism, here’s some good news: Running uphill torches calories and can

#11: Running Uphill Adds Variety to Your Training Plan

Flat running every day can become a bit dull for some.

Hill workouts break up the monotony of a regular run. For example, running uphill on the treadmill with repeats at an incline is one of the best ways to pass the time and bust boredom.

#12: Running Uphill Makes You Mentally Strong

Let’s face it: hills are hard for any runner. However, running uphill benefits your mental game nearly as much as your physical body.

Running uphill builds grit and can help you develop the determination and formidable attitude you need to succeed as the runner you want to be.

Focusing on the many benefits of running hills can give you a much-needed willpower boost to give your hill workout your best effort. Remember, hills feel hard for a reason: they work!

 

So the first block of marathon training is done and dusted. Very happy with progress and the icing on the cake was picking up a pair of Saucony Endorphin Elites for $266 from Pace Athletics , who have a great sale on right now. ( https://www.paceathletic.com/ )  Everything is falling into place nicely….

 

There’s no getting around it , training for a marathon is a long, hard slog. Early mornings, long afternoons and late nights. Add in inclement weather (luckily not a problem in Western Australia bar the scorching heat of summer ) and what started out as a good idea can become a ‘grind’.  I always think about Brenden Foster’s quote when I get up for an early morning run and stumble out of bed on tired limbs,  before staggering to the first kilometre of my run. It’s at this point I always remember to ignore your first kilometre, it lies to you, you will loosen up and rarely, if at all, have I finished worse than I started. In fact I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have regretted a run and over twenty plus years of running,  consistently,  that is a very small number.

I’m a big fan of the ‘train hard, race easy‘ approach to training. Basically the harder you train the easier the final race will be, simple really. Of course you need to also run the tightrope of avoiding injuries or burn out which is where the easy runs comes in.  Runs where you just run for the pure love of running, no goal, no distance , just you and your thoughts.  You are always tempted to run faster than you should and this has been the downfall of many runners, not giving their body times to recover.  In my defence I do take a day off a week as I commute to work on my bike as you can see from my Strava (You are on Strava right? http://www.strava.com ) Highlighted in orange below.

As you can see from the image below I’m a big believer in double days and distance; sprinkle in some pace, avoid injury and you’re all good. Sounds easy right but you need to keep the fire burning, avoid the burn out that affects so many marathon runners. Personally I love the grind of marathon training as I feel my fitness levels increase and my daily runs start to finish quicker,  as I run faster.

Keep an eye on heart rate though, no point running quicker but finishing totally spent, remember a marathon is 42km (or 26 miles for our American and British Cousins). Heart rate is an indicator of how hard you are running , what gear you are in basically. As you get fitter your heart rate will drop, in essence you’re running at the same pace but in a lower gear which means you can go for longer.

 

I’m also a big believer in running at marathon pace as much as possible when you train for a marathon, this way your marathon pace becomes ‘normal’ and the heart rate should adjust accordingly. Running a marathon is all about maintaining a target pace for as long as possible, the runner who slows down the least usually wins.   Of course you also need to add pace, distance and easy runs.

Fatigue is another issue you will face in the middle of a marathon training block and fisiocrem is a necessity to ward this off.  I have been using fisiocrem for many years but recently started to use it daily, twice a day and the results have been staggering, No long do I winch when I bend over to tie my laces, all niggles seem to have disappeared and my legs feel fresher for longer.  There may be a placebo effect in there of course but it works for me and all I can do is recommend products I use.  ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ )

An article by Toby Tanser in 2007 rings as true now as it did then. 

Although there are a number of prominent, unique coaches working with the elite Kenyan distance runners today, the cornerstones of the “Kenyan program,” for nearly all, revolve around running fundamentals that were commonplace in the British Athletics training system in the 1970s and ’80s.

Bruce Tulloh, Alex Stewart, and Peter Foster (brother to Olympic medalist Brendan) were three coaches who introduced the system that is still largely in place today. That the Australian phenomenal athlete, Craig Mottram, trains by these guidelines as well should tell us this is a system worth following.

Catherine the Great

The most consistent of Kenyan marathon runners has been Catherine Ndereba, who has used the same formula and training plan through her near decade-long marathon career that begun with a career-worst sixth place at Boston in 1999. She owns the remarkable record of winning a medal in every single championship that she has contested. “The first time I ran the marathon for Kenya, I won the World Championships,” she says. “Of course, running for my country is what counts; at the end of the career you are remembered by what you did for your country.”

Ndereba uses a lighter mileage than her peers, running only between 75 to 90 miles per week. “This way I can keep my body fresh, and recovered,” she reasons. The focus she puts on her key marathons is extreme to the extent she will not extend herself in any session, even tune-up races, when honing in on the big day. Thus, she often falls in the world rankings during her key tune-up period.

For a championship year, she runs a spring marathon with a twofold purpose: to prove to the selectors that she should be chosen, and also to test her body to see what aspects need working on. Her coach for her entire career, El-Mostafa Nechchadi, a charismatic Moroccan who once ran 2:10, likes to begin the program with hill training and strength work, yet never drifts too far from speed work that is event specific. This philosophy is shared with other Kenyan greats: “What’s the point of running 5K speed to race a marathon?” asks Lornah Kiplagat.

Intervals are typically long reps with short recoveries. Short recoveries are a hallmark of Kenyan training. Joyce Chepchumba used 30 x 400m sessions with little rest prior to bringing home an Olympic bronze in 2000. “Why? There is no rest in the marathon,” she says, when asked about recovery time. “When I do 400s, it can be 30 seconds of rest.”

Ndereba runs using this formula: 20 x 400m in 71-72 seconds, with a very short rest. She can pop off this session at any time of the year. Felix Limo rarely runs short intervals, but when he does–for example, a session of 400s–he “jogs” his 100m rest at a pace this author clocked at six minutes per mile!

All Kenyan women, and Ndereba is a champion at this, adhere to the notion of running easy on the easy days. “On easy days, if you start pushing then the next day you cannot give 100 percent,” says Olympian and 2:27 athlete Alice Chelangat. “And nowadays if you speed and it is not 100 percent, then you better say goodbye to have any chances to win races.”

Running with Ndereba on an easy session you will find the pace does not creep any faster than 7 minute per mile–slow considering her 5:17 per-mile PR marathon pace. Catherine is easily able to run a hard session one day and the next morning come out and burn a 10-miler at 6-minute pace. But she does not, and therein lies a Kenyan secret to success. It’s no different for most Kenyan men. Isaac Songok and Augustine Choge, for example, rarely break 8-minute pace on their easy runs.

For Ndereba, the long run, the meat of the program, is run at a slow clip. “Easy speed up to 22 to 23 miles maximum,” she says. Five weeks prior to Osaka, she ran 7:30 pace for 23 miles. Tegla Loroupe ran under a similar program.

Run Hard: Rest Easy

Looking at the training diaries of three 2:06 marathon runners, Martin Lel, Felix Limo and Josephat Kiprono, you find a three-week cycle of long runs that moves from 30K to 35K to 38K before reverting to the shorter distance. For many, the long run is often the highest quality run of the week. Paul Tergat said one of his 35K runs in preparation for his world-record marathon was not that far off race pace.

Rest is the most underrated word in the global running dictionary. Yet in Kenyan running, the best runners are the ones who best separate themselves from the outside world.

“You can’t be thinking about business (for example real estate) and concentrating on running,” explains Solomon Busendich, who won the ING Amsterdam Marathon last October. “Your mind must be clear.”

He cites the example of Boston Marathon champion Timothy Cherigat, whose life became so preoccupied with the wheeling and dealings of trying to build a gas station that his running career crumbled. The hotbed of Kenyan running, Iten, is a far throw from electric lights, busy calendars and the constant distraction of a typical American city.

The image above shows me at the end of what is probably my best ever race, a third place at the Fremantle half and a 56 second PB for the distance. I didn’t know it at the time but I would never run that well again, this run was the pinnacle of my running career.  The funny thing was before the race I was close to not even starting as I so fatigued from the previous few weeks training I was worried I’d embarrass myself. In the end I rocked up very late to the start and decided I would run with the lead group, whatever pace that was, and hang on. I expected to get found out quickly and jettisoned off the back but what happened was quite the opposite and I ended up leading the way until the 18km mark when two far better runners decided it was time to change gears. Unfortunately I had been in top gear for a number of kilometres and had nothing in response, pity as I had already rehearsed my winners speech during the previous few kilometres.

Looking at my Excel sheet detailing my training for the end of 2016 (always have a backup incase Strava is highjacked by the Russians !  http://www.strava.com) you can see I was busy, very busy.  Races are highlighted in blue, personal bests in red and wins in gold.  Red numbers indicate the number of kilometres at sub 4min/k pace.  This was a magical time in my running career, so many pb’s and a few wins, even a second age group at the World Masters Marathon in Perth. (7th overall) .

Leading into the Fremantle Half I had weeks of 104, 167, 164, 191, 149 and over 110km in the week of the race. I was so tired going into the race but somehow pulled off the run of my life of a 18 week intense training block including races every few weeks.  So is the secret of running just run a lot and race a lot. Well yep, it looks like it is.

Unfortunately in 2017 I picked up a bad calf tear and my PB days were over . The start of the year went well enough although my times had slowed , especially Darlington Half where I had a PB of 1.17 in 2014. I ran the Bridges 10k and finished well enough but hung around for the awards ceremony where I won a bag for an age group win. In that time Mark Lommers brought me a cappuccino. The kicker was we had to run 3km back to showers and I ran with the bag. Dehydrated and running holding a bag didn’t end well and I somehow pulled my calf in the shower. This was then compounded by trying to stretch it out a few days later as I was desperate to run the Bunbury marathon later that week. I think I turned a tear into a bad tear confirmed by a scan.

 

A bad case of Plantar Fasciitis in 2018 was the final nail in the BK PB train, albiet I managed a win at the Australia day 100K and the Peninsula 10k before injury came calling . At 50 years old my days of running PB’s, for any distance under 100km , were over, this is when I found ultras.  Three wins in 2022 at a 24 hour event, a 100km and a Backyard Ultra justified my move to the Ultra distances but I never thought it would be an all or nothing choice. ?

Well for the next six or so months I’m back into the world of marathon running starting with Bibra Lake in July and then Perth Marathon in October. ( https://perthrunningfestival.com.au/ ) Can I go sub 3 one more time at 57 years old ?  Maybe but one thing for sure, if I do I won’t be mucking about with my watch for the finishing photo !

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.

The article below was written by Reid Coolsaet a top ranked marathoner in Canada. At the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon last September his time was 2:11:23 – the fastest by a Canadian in 24 years. Reid spent time in Kenya at Iten, the breeding ground for running superstars. The article is good in that it emphasises all the things I talk about on this blog. As I have said many, many times running is not rocket science,  just common sense really and lots of hard work.  To run faster you need to look at the people who are running the fastest and learn from them, try to be more like them. The main points (for the lazy readers amongst you who won’t finish this post!) are consistency, train hard, rest hard, soft surfaces, group training, proper warm up, nutrition and Hakuna matata

 

Kenyan distance runners have been dominating the world scene for more than 30 years. Just last month, a Kenyan, Mary Keitany, was the first woman to break one hour and six minutes in the half-marathon when she set the world record at 1:05:50. Last year, Kenyan men won four of the five world major marathons and lay claim to 60 of the top 100 ranked marathoners.

An astonishing 239 Kenyans broke two hours and fifteen minutes last year in the marathon. (By contrast, Canada had three under the same time – and that was a good year for us.) Factor in the population of the two countries (Kenya, 39 million, Canada, 34 million), and it’s evident just how excellent the East African country is at producing world-class distance runners.

As a marathoner, I wanted to observe first-hand how these great athletes were training and living. For one month this winter, I went to Iten, Kenya, and immersed myself in the culture of Kenyan running. Iten is a small town of 4,000, about 300 kilometres northwest of the capital, Nairobi, and is home to many of the world’s best distance runners and hundreds more who make a living winning road race purses.

It’s not a coincidence that the rural town sits about 2,400 metres (about 8,000 feet) above sea level where athletes benefit from training in thin air. I soon learned, however, that there are many other reasons why Kenyan runners dominate. Here are some tips that all runners can incorporate into their training in order to run like a Kenyan.

Consistency. Running – a lot – is the key to distance running, and the Kenyans are no exception when it comes to logging many kilometres day in, day out. Most of the runners I met run at least twice a day but some run up to three times. If you can squeeze a few more kilometres into your week, without compromising quality, you will reap the benefits.

Train hard. The motto “train hard, win easy” is exemplified by Kenyan runners. If you want to run hard come race day, it’s best to prepare with some sort of speed session (intervals, fartlek, tempo) one to three times a week to get used to the specific effort of your race pace.

Rest hard. After bouts of hard training it is vital that the body has time to repair and recover for the next training session. Kenyan runners incorporate naps into their days and get to bed early. Plus, they don’t run hard all the time; most people would be surprised on how slow they run their recovery runs. Make sure you’re not running hard every day and take it easy the day or two after a hard run.

Soft surfaces. Running on dirt trails rather than pavement is much easier on the body. When I was in Iten, all of my running was on trails and dirt roads (of course, this is easy to do when there is only one paved road in the area). Seek out soft surfaces for most of your running, and your body will thank you.

Group training. Seeing a Kenyan run alone is the exception to the norm. Kenyans run in groups during speed sessions as well as their easy runs. Running with a group can provide that extra push during hard runs and it can help keep the easy runs leisurely with chit-chat. Many running stores offer group runs if your friends are too lazy to join you.

Proper warm-up. Many times while I was running with Kenyans I was surprised how slowly they would start off. It’s best to ease into your runs, and it is especially important to do some easy jogging before any type of speed session or race.

Nutrition. In Iten, a 100-mile diet would seem absurdly long. Kenyans eat fresh food that usually comes from small-scale farms in their region. Ugali (a cornmeal dish) is their staple carbohydrate of choice and is served with beef or chicken stew and veggies. It’s important to replenish carbohydrates and protein soon after a run and get the proper fuel into your body.

Hakuna matata. The Lion King popularized the Swahili phrase “hakuna matata” which, loosely, translates to “no worries.” Kenyans keep stress to a minimum by embracing hakuna matata in their everyday lives. It’s important to leave stress behind to allow your body to perform at its best, and sometimes the best way to relieve stress is to head out the door for a run.

Throughout my month in Kenya, I gained fitness, but more importantly, I came away motivated and inspired. To test out my fitness I went to Belgium to compete in a 10-kilometre cross-country race where I surprised myself with a fifth-place finish; the rest of the top eight were African. Training with the best runners and taking advantage of altitude training allowed me to perform much better.

Marathon Training & Performance: Sub 3h Dataset

fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered.  It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.

Before you dive into the 2024 recap , if you’re new to this blog, it’s a good idea to read the previous three years tales of woe.  Gives you an idea of what’s coming.

2021 Recap :-  https://www.runbkrun.com/2021/05/08/lighthorse-24-ultra-lest-we-forget/

2022 Recap :- https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/04/30/lighthorse-ultra-24-hours-2022/

2023 Recap :- https://www.runbkrun.com/2023/05/06/once-more-into-the-breech-lighthorse-24-hour-ultra-race-2023-recap/

The Lighthorse Ultra is a timed event giving runners a 1, 3, 6, 12, or 24 hour option. There’s even an hour dog race which is pretty unique. I first ran this event in 2019 when the 12 hour was the longest option., this didn’t end well as I was in marathon mode and after just over three hours had enough and scuttled home.  I had no concept of a timed event or even the 3am kick off time. Lesson learned.  I came back in 2020 for the first 24 hour option and grabbed third place, I was hooked.

The 24 hour option came onboard in 2020 and I’ve ran every one. This would be my fifth time and the goal was just over 200km to reach the 1,000km mark for the five years. ( Previous years I had ran 192 (3rd) , 187 (3rd) , 207 (1st) , 206 (2nd)  ; albeit I lost 3 laps (around 7.5km in 2021 when I ran without my timing chip, rookie error!)

The only fly in my ointment was I had started the moving house process the previous Monday and Tuesday and continued for most of the week before the event, not ideal. To make matters worse I had a removal truck hired for the day after the event. ( Post event I worked a 15 hour day moving house, in hindsight not one of my best ideas ! )

I had nabbed a spot in the Mind Focused Running tent again. ( https://mindfocusedrunning.com/ ) If you need help with your mental approach to running reach out to Rob Donkersloot, he will toughen you up, or make you enjoy the process rather than stressing out on unachievable goals.  I worked with Rob a few years ago and have never looked back, he teaches what most coaches ignore, the mental approach to enjoying your running. This tent is full of like minded runners enjoying plying their trade, albeit high as kites on No Doz.

Looking at my splits on Strava (You are on Strava right ? https://www.strava.com/dashboard ) I was going great guns for the first forty seven  kilometres but then started to fade with a twenty minute break , funnily enough. Personably I feel the weeks activities moving house had come back to haunt me and this was not unexpected. (To be fair I didn’t set the house move date but it was a rookie error not to move it a week either way.) There’s no sugar coating this, the event hurt and I had to dig deeper than previous years with my end goal reducing on the hour. First a win and over 207km. then a podium. then anything over a miler ( 162km) and finally top five.

This is the mind games you play , giving yourself easy outs, the trick is to not accept these options and keep heading towards your original goals or better, one loop at a time. Think Goggins 40/60 rule, when he reckons you have 60% more available to you when you are completely done. The mind keeps this to protect you. If you can tap into this extra energy you can achieve so much more.  ( https://youtu.be/ocIWBpT-AGc )  Alternatively the Tim Noakes ‘Governor‘ theory which is very similar.  ( https://thenoakesfoundation.org/prof-tim-noakes/ ) albeit Tim seems to have upset a few people lately. Tim’s book ‘ the Lore of running’ is the bible of all things running albeit it you need to keep in mind it was written over fifty years ago now and some of his comments would be inflammatory now, in the nicest possible way.

This event breaks you, there is no getting away from this but that is the point of ultra running. A good ultra allows you to find out things about yourself you can’t in normal life. At two or three in the morning when you’re about 100km in and totally fatigued the easy thing is to stop and sit down in your chair, put on a warm jacket and just stop. This event differs from a backyard ultra where you can sit down but are restricted by the need to be up and about at the start line on the hour. At Lighthorse , as it’s a timed event, you can just sit down and stop while still moving towards the finish line, the clock is always ticking.  There is a ‘way out’ where you can ‘go easy‘ on yourself,  you need to avoid the chair , this is how Lighthouse differs from most ultras. The event village is a hive of activity in the day and a shining light in the evening, day or night the urge to sit down and relax is so tempting, must be strong, avoid the chair. This is where Rob Donkersloot comes in handy, he doesn’t even have to say anything, just a disapproving glance is enough to get you moving and scurrying off onto another loop.

The village comes alive at night. Each year the gazebos are decorated more brightly than the previous year as crews learn from experience and update their facilities. It can make it hard running past barbeques and gas heaters as you scuttle off into the dark while everybody is having a great time in the ‘party village’!   In the day they have shade and cool drinks as you scurry from shadow to shadow out on the course in the heat of the day doing your best to avoid the sauna that is the sun, turned up to ten.

The course itself is a 2.6km loop and is has a bit of everything , concrete, crushed limestones, a wooden footbridge and some nice pot holes to keep you on your feet, or off them, at various times through the loop. Every three hours we change direction which is actually a good thing albeit I have a favourite direction, anti-clockwise.  Clockwise is harder as you have to run up the concrete path which seems to drag on where as the opposite direction you get to stumble down it but have to run up the crushed concrete path outside the event village.  There’s not a lot in it truth be told.

Running the 24 hour event you get to experience a sunset and a sunrise, and everything in-between.  The sunset comes on quickly as it’s a three o’clock start where as the sunrise is a long wait after eleven hours of darkness. When it comes it also brings along the coldest part of the day but you embrace this as you know the heat is coming close behind.

So back to the race, previously I had enjoyed a twenty minute snooze at 47 km while I was leading the event. I was beginning to feel the fatigue of a house move earlier in race week so decided to drop down a few gears and I managed to maintain a relative consistent pace until 109km when I have another thirty minute rest.  I always split the race into twelve hours and aim for a 100km split, twice. This year I ran 105km for the first twelve which left me 95km for the second twelve. I promised myself a rest post halfway and at 109km I delivered on that promise, would have been around 3am.  It wasn’t enough and fifteen kilometres later I was exhausted and rather than stumble on I treated myself to a good hour in the chair. I’m not sure if I slept, I think I did but it was at an ideal time, probably between 5am and 6am, part of the witching hours as I call them (anytime between midnight and 5am you are at your lowest, your body is not use to exercise in this period, it craves what it knows, sleep)  The best thing about starting again post-snooze was the sunrise was imminent and with the sunrise comes a mental boost that is always enough to see me to the 3pm finish.

This year we were treated to another beaut’ sunrise and also the six and three hour runners at 6am. (The twelve hour runners joined us at 3am they’d finish at the same time as the 24 hour runners)  So it became suddenly very busy on the loop with four formats running together. This also spurred you on albeit you were being lapped by the shorter distance runners who were running much quicker.

After my long ‘power nap‘ I was surprised to still be in third place with my good friend Chris Martin one lap down and young Jack Brown  three or four behind him. I wasn’t confident I could hold off Chris but continued to move around the course avoiding the chair. At this point I was aiming for the miler distance as a minimum and then I’d try and hold third place. When I eventually reached the miler distance I checked the real time lap counter and was surprised I had moved to second place after Conor Quinn had left the course, peeing blood apparently.  (Please note he hadn’t left the course peeing blood, he was peeing blood in the toilet and then decided to go home, in case you had an image of a runner leaving the course peeing red liquid on everybody as he did so. ) This gave me the impetus I needed, I could smell as second place finish and the pressure of a podium finish suddenly became a lot less , given I had a place buffer,  or so I thought.  A few laps later I again checked my position and noticed Chris and Jack were in hot pursuit. I had four hours to go and plenty of running ahead it would seem, game on.

The last four hours was hard work but I found a second wind and managed to grind out the laps at a reasonabel pace, with an hour to go I was four laps ahead of Chris and Jack and four laps behind Callum Mason, in first place, my job was done. All I needed to do now was keep lapping and try to get to 190km. I managed to get to 190.1km in the end, good enough for second place and my fifth 24 hour podium, I was stoked.

So that was it for 2024, second place and a 190km final total. Not my best, not my worst, a very reasonable effort given my fatigued legs from the start. This one really hurt though and even now, a few weeks after, I’m still not 100% sure I’ll enter again next year. This event just takes too much out of me and I’m not sue I can put myself in the pain cave again for so long and so bloody deep ! It’s a race compared to a 200 miler or even a point to point 100 miler, which are more adventures. I enjoy adventures , not sure about these timed events, albeit I put pressure on myself to achieve lofty goals but that’s just me I suppose. To be noted I’ve said the same thing on the previous four occasions I’ve ran this beast of an event and by Christmas forgotten how painful the event was and entered. You know what they say about old dogs and tricks, I’m not sure I can learn new ones…

fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered.  It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.

 

After watching the lads at the Bunbury marathon last weekend I have decided to have another go at running sub 3. This time at the Perth Marathon (for the 13th time) in October. I have a PB time of 2:41:58 at Perth albeit that was over ten years ago. My goal will be the event age group record for 55-60 which is 2:59 and change. So 2:58 is the target. Training wise I will adjust my plan from ultra training to marathon training after the Karratha BYU in June, this will give me three months which should be enough ?

 

It’s been nearly five years since my last sub 3 at Rottnest in 2019, can I go again ? I think with a bit of help from the shoe technology I have a shout, that and lots of time in the pain cave. Of course the main issue will be not snapping any hamstrings or tearing any calves, the curse of the aging runner. !

 

As I start my journey to the Perth Marathon in October this year I have been reading some of my old posts on racing marathons and sneaking under the holy grail of running, a finishing time of less than three hours.

This one from September 2022 training (very bad training!!) for the Melbourne marathon. It didn’t end well, blew up at 10k and staggered home in 3:17. 

I have been on my marathon training for about three weeks now and this has mainly been adding in some faster runs three or four times a week , with a more aggressive progressive run on Thursday morning and then a tempo Saturday. All my runs have become faster and I am trying to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.  I love that quote , it sums up marathon training where as ultra training is a lot more relaxed. You get comfortable with being comfortable I suppose with ultra running, and eat a lot more. I am certainly back into marathon mode as I have started to worry about weight again, not something an ultra runner is normally concerned with. It’s all coming back to me, my love of the scales , the joy of reaching a racing weight and then the devastation of adding a few pounds, not something I have missed truth be told.

 

There is also the pressure of meeting targets , be that weekly distance or pace. It is always difficult when you start but you see improvements weekly if you put in the effort and these improvements give you the energy to keep putting in the hard yards needed to reach your goal.  A good example of this is the Mona Fartlek, a 20 minute run that as you improve you run longer. Run this once a week and you should see an improvement.  Another example would be a 5km park run, again every week you run the same course and you should see your time come down. These small wins give you the impetus you need to keep on the straight and narrow, remember marathon training is a grind. To quote Brendan Foster ‘ You wake up tired and go to be really tired‘

It’ll be good to get back to Melbourne as I’ve ran it four times and represented Western Australia each time at the State Marathon Championships. This was so cool as we got to get changed in the MCG Stadium, hung out with the Kenyans, got free accommodation, massages and help with your travel as well as starting at the front of the field.  I’ll miss that part but have entered this year with the VIR option, Very Important Runner. This way I get changed in comfort, get access to toilets and breakfast and also a massage and food afterwards, maybe not in the MCG but close by, at my age I’ll get the benefits but have to pay extra for them.

I love the image below taken in 2010, notice the Garmin 305 which I still have and use it once a year at the 6 inch ultra, for tradition. Also notice I’m wearing a normal digital watch as I was paranoid at this time with my GPS watch failing as this had happened at the City to Surf earlier in that year , costing me a sub 3 finish. For a few years I would wear two watches, so funny. No Nike Alphaflys carbon fibre racing shoes, in 2010 it was all about racing flats, I think I have Nike racing flats on gifted me by my mate Dan Macey. Skins compression tights were all the rage back then, sadly another great company gone too soon.  I PB’d every time I ran Melbourne, culminating in a 2:43 the last time, this year I just want a sub 3, just ?

It you want to follow my progress follow me on Strava , Facebook or Instagram (links at the bottom of this post) and subscribe to this blog, it’ll all be here, the good , the bad and the ugly.  

Mona Fartlek, one of my favourite sessions for some serious ‘pain box’ time.

 

Fartlek is  a Swedish term to describe ‘speed play’, training method that blends continuous training with interval training. Fartlek runs are a very simple form of a long distance run. Fartlek training “is simply defined as periods of fast running intermixed with periods of slower running.”

Today was my Mona Fartlek day, a 20 minute workout that I adore. Though lesson to self, eating banana bread 2 hours before is not such a good idea ! I can normally get to around 5.6k for the session. Steve Monaghetti stills hits over 6km I hear and in his prime was nearer 8km. !! He is a running legend though.. enjoy the article on a true sporting great below.

I was lucky enough to meet Steve at a photo shoot for the Perth City to Surf in 2014 and again this year as he was Ambassador for the Perth marathon. Both times I was taken aback by his down to earth attitude and his willingness to embrace all our questions and comments.

This session is good as it is fairly short but you know it’s doing you good. Golden rule no2 , add pace after the distance phase. This bad boy workout is all about pace.

 

Steve Moneghetti is set to leave a lasting legacy that goes beyond his set of marathon medals. As a young man from Ballarat he and coach Chris Wardlaw devised a session that fitted in with his usual stomping ground of Lake Wendouree helped him become a four-time Olympian.

 

The Session: Mona Fartlek: (2x90sec, 4x60sec, 4x30sec, 4x15sec with a slower tempo recovery of the same time between each repetition. The session takes 20mins in total.

Distance Mona covered: The session was most often used on Tuesday night at Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree. The first time Mona did it as a 20-year-old he did not complete the Lap of the Lake (6km) in the 20minutes but in his prime he completed the Lake in 17.19 and then continued on to finish his 20min session. He still does it most Tuesdays and even at 52, covers 6km.

History

Mona devised the session with his coach Chris Wardlaw over the phone back in 1983 when he was just 20. He wanted a solid fartlek session, one that would help improve his speed as well as endurance and stimulate an ability to change pace mid-run, something that helped later on his career when tackling the Africans, who had a habit of surging mid-race.

The session became a Tuesday-night ritual for Mona and while it was set up for Lake Wendouree, he’d use it whether training at altitude at Falls Creek or overseas preparing for a championship marathon.

It is still widely used today with Ben Moreau and a host of Sydney athletes doing the session. A recent feature in the UK has led to a number of British runners adopting the session along with a number of runners in the US, although some are calling it the “Mono” session.

A good idea is to set your watch to beep every 30 seconds, so that you don’t have to look down at it all the time.

 

Mona says

“I was always a stickler for routine and I feel that this session, coupled with my usual Thursday night session of 8x400m with 200m float set me up and gave me continuity with my training.

The 15-second reps came at the end and really forced me to concentrate on accelerating hard when I was fatigued. One night when I was in top shape I covered nearly 7km with Troopy (Lee Troop).”

Tip for other distance runners

For many runners, the session will be too demanding initially and you will need to build into it.

Mona recommends just walking or jogging the recovery as you adjust to it.

Middle distance runners may wish to reduce the length of the session, halving everything (ie: 1x90sec, 2x60sec, 2x30sec, 2x15sec) to make it a 10minute session.

 

 

Golden rules, guaranteed to improve performance.

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. )

 

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.

 

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 weight rather 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  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.

fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered.  It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.

 

Herdy’s Frontyard Ultra 2024, another beast of an event coming probably a tad too soon after the Delirious West 200 miler a few weeks prior.  ( https://deliriouswest200miler.com.au/ )  This was to be my fourth Herdy’s finishing assist to the great Phil Gore in 2021 with 47 yards (laps/hours) and then a 34 yard effort in 2022 and 28 yards in 2023.   This was my tenth backyard ultra and I had harboured thoughts of a possible retirement from this format of racing.  For readers who don’t know what a backyard ultra is check out this website https://backyardultra.com

The issue I have with the format is it allows you to push yourself way beyond what you would normally consider achievable. This is a double edged sword as the mental torture running these events is real and you tend to break yourself physically and mentally. Basically they take too much out of me and because its a race against the clock, on the hour, every hour, you never get time to rest, the clock is always ticking. Running 6.7km in an hour is easy, until it’s not and then how far do you push your mind and body.  This format gives you the opportunity to test your limits.

 

Grabbing a decent spot these days is getting more and more difficult. I was one of many who turned up before the 8am time constraint to grab a spot. With nearly 400 runners space was a premium. It remined me of a old Western style gold rush with gazebos substituted for wagons and horses, it was one for young and old ! Luckily I managed to secure my preferred 3m * 3m spot of real estate, close to the start line.  With these types of events where you are back at the start line on the hour, every hour, you need to be comfortable in your ‘downtime’. A BCF Wander reclining chair , gazebo and a table are the bare minimum. You then need to add change of clothes, massage gun, fisocrem, food (and lots of it), toiletries i.e. drugs, tape, sudocream, etc., basically a cut down Chemist Warehouse.  Again this is the bare minimum. This year I spied a few weber barbeques, enough fairy lights to be visible from space and heaters and fans of all shapes and sizes.   Every year people get more and more ingenious  , I’m sure I’ll see a blow up pool one day.

My good friend Simon Bennet joined me in the the gazebo and we were both gunning for 48 hours, albeit this was quickly amended to 24 hours after a brutal early evening and night of heat and humidity that zapped all the energy from out already tired legs post Delirious. Funnily enough the last two years at Hardy’s have been humid and both times I’ve suffered on tired legs, luckily I have a very short memory albeit it comes back to me pretty quickly after a few hours running around the a lake.  I’ll probably type the same thing for Herdy’s 2025 (Yep, after retiring on Saturday I entered on Thursday as soon as entries opened up for 2025!)

There was a capped field of 400 , which broke the world record field last year, and in the end I think there was 367 starters. Incredible to be a part of a world record field, the New York Marathon of back yard ultras. Shaun Kaesler and his team of Ultra Series WA ( https://ultraserieswa.com.au/ ) make incredible things happen. The village was a hive of activity and you could feel the excitement in the air before the start. If you’re reading this in WA you need to be a part of this event in 2025, either as a competitor , volunteer or spectator, just get involved.

 

 

 

The event starts at 4pm Friday afternoon so before you know it you are treated to a spectacular  sunset, and if you get to the right point at the right time great photos.  The trail section at the end of the loop is always amazing at sunset, it just comes alive bathed in the last remnants of the suns rays before giving way to night. Even at night it has that ‘sleepy hollow‘ feel about it and I can’t help thinking of Icabod Crane every time I run it.

 

 

 

 

So the event itself started well enough, I had friends from work at the first bridge, about 800m from the start, so would sprint off and reach it ahead of the field, do a bit of  ‘show pony; shenanigans’   and then wait for the field to catch me up before jogging in with the lead runners. I was quite relieved when they got bored of waiting for me and decided the barbeque was a better place to be at the sun disappeared. Although the first few laps were without incident I wasn’t eating and when my Wife brought down a pasta dish I couldn’t face it, albeit it was pretty dry. I had a few mouthfuls and then decided I could survive on the electrolytes, rookie error.  As the night went on the heat and humidity didn’t disappear and it was an uncomfortable night for all runners.

I started to return to the pack and I soon found myself surrounded by head torches and finishing mid pack at best. Walking breaks became a thing and my recovery time suffered accordingly. This is what Lazarus Lake , the architect of these events, meant when he said ‘ a backyard ultra is easy, until it isn’t’. The clock is always ticking unlike most Ultras when if you feel you need a break you just take one, time is not your enemy.  In a BYU the distance is very do-able but you get worn down over time and your recovery time decreases, minute by minute until eventually you have none.

Looking at Strava ( you have Strava right ? http://www.strava.com ) I could see resting time disappearing before it faded completely as I started to finish and then walk straight to the starting coral, with my crew changing my water, feeding me and adding ice to neckerchief and arm sleeves as I walked through. No time for any ‘chair rest’, it was continual movement. This is the first time I had done this, normally I’m going ok and then I quit, even when I lapping in the high forties or low fifty minutes. This strategy of not spending any time in the reclining chair was used to good effect by Harvey Lewis when he took out the Bigs World BYU Championships in October last year. He’d come in around the  late fifty minute mark and then sit on a log near the starting corral while his crew changed his nutrition and hydration and then off he’d go again.  Other runners would come in earlier but eventually be worn down by the effort this would take deep into the competition, and I’m talking three or four days.  Harvey had a sweet spot of getting in with just enough time but not expending too much effort on the course.  By doing this he outlasted everybody.

Herdy’s starts a 4pm so you have two sunset twilight laps before you are cocooned in the little circle of light given off by your headtorch,  albeit with nearly 400 headtorches on course for the first few night loops it was a pretty special spectacle. At this time you put on your audible book, music or podcasts to keep your mind active as you swan around the lake. Early evening is normally a relaxing time as you have a good period in your chair and you’re still excited about what lies ahead.  This time though something was different, without any nutrition I was struggling  and every lap was starting to take longer and longer.  I always find the first 15 hours of a BYU testing at the best of times, this year I was in trouble early.

 

My lowest ever return from a BYU was 24 hours, my first one at Birdy’s back in 2020. I had promised my Wife I’d be back in Perth by a certain time so pulled the plug when I was feeling great. My last lap was in the high thirty minutes, what could have been. ? The following year I ran my furthest , 47 laps at Herdy’s 2021. Early in the game I knew I was never getting anywhere near 47 laps but was determined not to finish with less than 24 hours, 100 miles. I just need to get to the sunrise and then I was certain I’d be good for a 24 hour finish.

When the sun eventually poked up from over the horizon I was in deep strive, no nutrition for many hours I was banking on some weetbix and a sweet tea to save my race. This was dutifully delivered by Karen just before 8am. I wolfed down the weetbix and drank the tea and I was back in the game. I repeated the feat the next lap and things started to look up albeit I was still lapping slower than I liked.  As the day warmed up I resorted to icy poles and would take four or five onboard as I staggered from the finish to the start line. My times were now in the middle fifty minutes, no time for any sitting down. This went on from lap seventeen to twenty when I came close to pulling the pin.

On lap 21 I was ready to quit. I walked virtually half the course to the drunk fountain and was ready to walk it in. I was dead last and gathered up my mate Graeme who was on the phone arranging to be picked up. As we contemplated the best way to DNF Aaron Young came running past and said we still had thirty minutes, we could still make it. That was all the encouragement I needed, it was on.  I set off in hot pursuit of the two runners ahead of me and Graeme joined me. We both made lap twenty one but my time was now limited, I’m  talking one or two minutes between laps, enough time to sit down in the start corral and ask my why I was doing this ?

I survived lap twenty two and set off on lap twenty three unsure of whether I’d make it or not. I was now walking to the first bridge, in stark contrast to the first laps when I was sprinting to get there first. Now I was last by a country mile and there was no running, this was one of my two walk breaks. I would walk to the fist bridge and then walk again to eh drink fountain. After a rest at the fountain I would try and stagger home. By doing this I survived probably five or six hours longer than I thought I could.  This was an invaluable lesson and one I will take onboard at my next BYU.

 

At the end of lap twenty three I was done. Horizontal in the start corral now, no more sitting. I lay there waiting for the one minute warning. I knew this would tough but I had to complete lap twenty four, come hell or high water. For this lap I ran, I use the word ran in the broadest sense of the word, to the frst bridge so I could at least see my fellow runners. I used this as inspiration to keep moving forward and came in, lap twenty four, dead last but made it in fifty eight minutes. That was it, mission accomplished.

 

Karen handed me and coffee and I collapsed to the floor. My equal worst result in terms on distance (laps) but I had learned some valuable lessons. My nutrition and hydration needs to improve and you can run for many more laps if you avoid the chair and time your walk breaks according to the weather  and also your general overall condition. These two lessons alone make Herdy;s 2024 a success,  as well as an eleventh equal finish from the 376 starters which wasn’t a bad result either.

So Herdy’s 2024 was a B+ for effort. Had to work hard to get through the first night with very little nutrition and managed to at least  keep my 24 hour minimum finish time for BYU number 10. Retirement was very short lived and I can’t wait for my next BYU in a few months time… until then I have the Lighthorse 24 hour ultra ( https://lighthorseultra.com.au/  ) in five weeks. No rest for the wicked, why would you ?

 

 

fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered.  It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.