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Shokz headphones really are very good.

 

I discovered Shokz headphones just over two years ago, bumping into a couple of trail runners at the Perth Discovery Centre, with Adam surprising enough , who were wearing them. I hadn’t really ever ran with music before as I find it quite intrusive and I like to use my time running to ‘think about stuff’, having something in my ear just didn’t work. The thing with Shokz headphones is they aren’t in your ear, because they are bone conduction sports headphones they sit on the bone infront of your ear. I know it sounds ridiculous right but the first time I tried them on I was blown away, they really work and work very well.  I remember the first time I used them on the trails I was playing Pink Floyd the Wall and when the kids choir chirped in I actually stopped running and looked around, I was convinced they were on the trail !

So other major benefits are they are incredibly light and you really do not notice when you have them on, of course this can also be a curse as only yesterday I dropped a pair of OpenRun Pro’s on my local trail and didn’t notice. I was taking some time out from music and listening to the serenity of my surroundings, at one point I stopped for a rest and took of my cap, sunglasses and  headphones. Unfortunately it seems I  forgot to put the headphones back on, only realising a few kilotmetres down the trail.  Now I know you’re going to ask why I didn’t backtrack,  it was at the end of a three hour run in the scorching West Australian heat and there was no way I was spending another 30 -40 minutes on the trail getting even more cooked, I was done. Fingers crossed someone finds them and hands them in as I’ll be gutted to lose them.

Quality of sound in amazing, reference my last story when I actually stopped convinced there was a school choir on the trail with me, it is that good. Of course they work best without competing noise , as all headphones will. In a busy city setting it’s more important to take advantage of  another benefit , the ability to listen to your environment while running. Having your ear clear allows you to be able to listen for possible issues ahead while still enjoying the sound from your shokz headphones. This cannot be under estimated, the safety side of this product. It could make a big difference, situation dependent of course. Personally for this feature alone it’s enough to invest in bone conductive headphones.

 

For more detailed information regarding the science go to the Shokz website.. https://shokz.com.au/  There’s lot of images and explanations but believe me they are ace.  Currently in my family I have three pairs (well two at the moment as I have one of the bibbulum track somewhere currently!) , my Wife and eldest daughter are sporting OpenRun Pro’s , we’re a shokz family albeit my other two daughters are Apple worshippers so have air pods, no accounting for taste.

 

Checking my music selection for another backyard ultra lap with the Shokz OpenRun Pro’s.

 

If you want an honest test between the OpenRun Pro and the normal OpenRun watch the video below..

Love my Shokz OpenRun headphones and they are quicker in red of course.

Of course do your own research but I found this site backing up my claims, Shokz are good and probably the best on the market.

https://gearjunkie.com/technology/best-bone-conduction-headphones

Battery life is pretty good as well, ten hours for the OpenRun Pro , with a five minute recharge for ninety minutes listening; or eight hours for the OpenRun and a ten minute recharge to ninety minutes.  I personally recharge mine when I’m driving home from my run in the car, by the time I’m home they’re normally fully recharged ready for the next adventure.

It seems the OpenRun is more waterproof then the OpenRun Pro due to the added bass capabilities , and design changes, on the newer model, both are more than adequate for day to day running albeit if moisture builds up you need to dry then before charging, I’ve used a hairdryer in the past quite successfully. The support is outstanding and you get a two year warranty. I’ve successfully claimed myself and the process was seamless and Shokz were very helpful, which these days was a refreshing change.

So to sum up this post Shokz, for me, are an absolute must if you need to listen to music or pod casts while you run, and do so safely while enjoying top quality sound. They are so light as to be unnoticeable but so well made, of titanium,  you’d be hard pressed to break them. As will all products I recommend they just do what they say they do on the box, simples.

As always I give a shout out to three of my favourite products, will probably make it four now adding Shokz, …  fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered.  It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.

 

Fisiocrem is a must have in your ultra box of tricks…

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

Great hydration.

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

 

 

 

Feel free to follow me on Strava.


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or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/

 

 

Running is all about numbers.

The finishers left at the after party, Unreasonable East 2022; one of the highlights of 2022.

Right, numbers for 2022. Overall I’d give myself a B+ for distance, good enough to break 5,000km’s for the year, by one kilometre, but what could have been. Earlier in the year I was on target for my initial 6,000km total but after the No Time to Die Frontyard ultra I dropped off the pace and did very little training in between races. Average of 96 kilometres a week but take out the 2000km’s of racing and the training weekly total is a lot less, significantly less, more around the sixty km a week.

Another statistic that sums up my stop , start year is the number of actual runs , only 229 for the year. This is my lowest total since 2010, twelve years ago. Basically I’ve ran less but when I have ran it’s been longer distances, down to running ten ultras of course.

Last three years I’ve been an Ultra racing machine, 21 races in the last three years including 18 in the last two years, and one marathon thrown in. Lots of racing culminating in 10 ultra’s in 2022 alone. I was either tapering, racing or recovering; very little training.  It was working until injuries started to affect my training from September onwards. Only downside for the year has been my lack of pace and some personal worst racing results including the Feral Pig 100 miler and the 6  Inch Ultra. I struggled in both of these events but was happy to finish and not embarrass myself.

From my running spreadsheet, you have got a running spreadsheet right ? As a backup for Strava, you never know when the next Russian mafia group will try to blackmail Strava and wipe all their data ! It happened at Garmin and those Russian hackers are always looking for their next pay day. Please note my Mum said I am not allowed to pay hackers any blackmail albeit I’m not sure www.runbkrun.com is high on their list of possible targets.

Another surprise for 2022 is no double digit weeks for runs. Back in the day I’d regularly run 13 or 14 times a week, I say back in the day I’m talking about five years ago. Double days unlock running dreams,  one of my favourite quotes. These days I just can’t get that morning run in, I’ve lost that discipline to get up every morning before the sunrise and run an easy 10km before breakfast. I’d then cycle to work on my Elliptigo (or Bionic)  , run lunchtime and then Elliptigo home. Four separate exercises a day, I was a cardio-machine. The results followed so if you really want to improve just run more than you are running now, and don’t get injured. Running is simple.

Bionic Gen1 , this thing is a monster !

Ten ultras, three wins,  highlighted in yellow, and many top ten finishes. Plenty of running early on in the year but injuries after the No Time to Die Ultra killed off the second half of the year and I limped, literally, to the finish line in 2022. I’ve joined the Valetudo gym ( https://www.valetudohealth.com.au/  ) and go three times a week currently to try and finally get my flexibility back, maybe touch my toes for the first time this century ? It was a tad daunting at first but starting to feel the love for gyms again now and not being as weight conscious as I was in my marathon days I can put a but of muscle on, it’ll keep No1 Wife happier as she was never a fan of my Schlinder’s  list extra look.

Its been a few months since I’ve posted my nine golden rules so with the end of 2022 upon us this seems as good a time as ever.. I wrote these six years ago but they are timeless, in my view.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.  
  3. Don’t get injuredThis 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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’.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.)
  9. 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.

 

Me and a legend, Steve Moneghetti.

So what does 2023 hold for me I wonder. I’ll start the year with the Delirious West 200 miler in early February ( https://deliriouswest200miler.com.au/race-information-2022/ ) and then Hardy’s Frontyard Ultra in March ( https://herdysfrontyard.com.au/ ) , followed by the Lighthorse 24 hour race in April ( https://lighthorseultra.com.au/ ) before the big one in June, all of June actually… Run Brittania. ( https://ratracerunbritannia.com/ ) . After that I have nothing locked in as I’m not sure what sort of state I’ll be in after running 1,000 miles the length of the UK. ?  Truth be told I could have done with a ‘down year’ after eighteen ultras in the last two years but when Run Brittania became available I had to take it, you’d be mad not to surely. ?

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

 

Fisiocrem is a must have in your ultra box of tricks…

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

Great hydration.

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

 

 

Feel free to follow me on Strava.


Follow me on
Strava

or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/

 

 

6 inch 2022, it never fails to deliver.

Running is all  about traditions , runners love doing the same thing over and over. That may be training routines, entering the same races or just spending time with friends going to the same location for runs. After a while all these routines turn into traditions, and then they have to be adhered to, it’s tradition. The 6 inch ultra trail marathon  ( https://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com/ ) is one of many traditions that the lads and I love to adhere to, albeit it use to be a family tradition (yes, you can involve the family) but the kids all grew up and no longer wanted to spend time with old runners. We took that on the chin and just stopped inviting them, it had now morphed into a lads weekend away. (I say ‘lads’ in the broadest sense of the word, our average age is well over fifty these days. It’s lucky Michael Kowal is still scarred by the escalator on his one and only 6 inch attempt a few years back or the average age would be in the sixties!)

To get a feel for the event I recommend trawling through my blog to get some old posts , I’ve attached a few links here. This will help with the post I’m about to recount.

https://www.runbkrun.com/2020/12/23/6-inch-race-report-warning-contains-images-of-trail-runners/

https://www.runbkrun.com/2020/12/13/its-that-time-of-the-year-6-inches-of-fun-fun-fun/

https://www.runbkrun.com/2018/12/17/middle-of-december-6-inch-time/

https://www.runbkrun.com/2016/12/19/sometimes-6-inches-is-enough/

https://www.runbkrun.com/2016/11/14/look-busy-the-6-inch-is-coming/

Right now you’ve caught up with the history of this event it time to way lyrical about the 2022 edition. Due to various reasons we have a small starting line up this year. We lost Marky ‘Mark’ Lommers to a twisted ankle, Adam to gastro, Bart’s to a family holiday he had to take in Noosa and Scotty to long term injury. This left Jeffrey , Jon and I to toe the line at the start with Rob (poorly achilleas)  again driving us to the start Sunday morning at some ungodly hour. (Remember it’s a point to point and we stay at the finish) After I persuaded Jeffrey to drive (remember we lost Adam to gastro and apparently if he can’t go to the event his 7 seater Prado can’t go either, a tad selfish me thinks!) we were off , high noon on Saturday, the day before the event. Jon would be joining us down there as he loves to hoon in his BMW and would prefer to do it alone apparently, less eye witnesses is probably safer for all concerned.

6 INCH ..Road trip ! Boys all smiles while I practice my influencer pout. 

Right back to tradition, for this lads trip there are a few. First we always stay at the Jarrah Forest lodge , Jon always books the family room , and pays, thereby ensuring he gets the double bed (being the smallest) while the other room is shared with the lads (there’s two bunk beds). This room has the benefit of air conditioning in both rooms. I always stay in room 16 , a single room with a bunk,  the farthest from the toilet block. This has no air conditioning, actually just a bunk bed, you get that prisoner cell block H feeling about the place.  It’s clean and that’s all we need for one night. We use to go the pub the night but the meal portions are so large that it affected the running performances the following day. Bart’s was still eating his chicken parmi post race Sunday afternoon. I was above this of course and always take my own meal for the Saturday night, it’s tradition.

My favourite tradition is watching run fatboy run after bib collection on Saturday evening, we must have seen this movie at least five times but it still gets the same laughs in the same places, so good. Due to the set up at the lodge it can take anywhere from 15 minutes to nearly an hour to get the video working. There is an amp, a switcher box, a projector , at least two DVD players and cables everywhere. Things were looking good this year when Jon got the DVD talking to the TV, with the right input, in a matter of minutes but , as is tradition, things didn’t go that smoothly and the DVD had been played to death, literally. It was finished so after a brief interlude we selected another DVD, Will Ferrel in Semi Pro which , although not a run fayboy run, was a pretty good alternative.  Never fear thought we have ordered Run FatBoy Run on DVD so will be watching it next year and we will bring all our own equipment !

Post DVD the boys scuttle off to their luxurious, for Dwellingup remember the town has a population of population 524, family room complete with air conditioning while I hit my jail cell, alarms set for 3am. This year I was lucky enough to have a very keen runner next door to me (?) who had set their alarm for 2am as they were catching the bus. Great, I get to get up an hour or so earlier than planned. It gets better, I was also next door to a snorer and the walls are paper thing, it felt like we were in the same bed ! When you hear someone snoring you cannot unhear it. Let’s just say I was sleep depraved while I ate my weetbix and drank my cup of sweet tea in the communal kitchen at 2:15am. Not ideal but I’m a big believer in it’s the night before the night before which is the important time to sleep, anything on the evening before the event is a bonus.  Once the boys rose, an hour or so after me, we all got into the car as planned at 3:45am for the twenty minutes or so drive to the start and check in. The drive to the start is always a tad worrying as Kangaroo’s aren’t car friendly and if we were to hit a roo it wouldn’t end well for any of us. Luckily we didn’t see any albiet last year we’re sure Bart’s killed a bandicoot on the way to the start, something he still denies.

 

The drive to the start at 3:45am, looking out for Kangaroos !

As the image below shows we were last to arrive at the pre-race check in but we have a car so the drive to the start was only a few minutes away and we arrived with minutes so spare, more than enough. Unfortunately we were carrying a goody-pack for my mate Tristan who was running the 12 inch. This is another tradition of runners running from the finish to the start the night before (47km) and then leaving with the race at 4:30am and returning for the medal, another 47km; hence the name 12 inch.  We managed to get Tristan his drop bag albeit a few minutes from the start, sorry buddy, it obviously wasn’t a problem as he ran the 12 inch in around 13 hours.

Last to leave for the start after the obligatory check in, me , Jamie and the volunteers left.

The plan for this race was to finish under five hours, not walk, bar the monster hills,  enjoy the event and keep Jeffrey behind me to keep my 20 year or so winning streak. Jeffrey is now over 60 and running very well, he came close to pipping me to the post in Melbourne in October and had been training well since with Bart’s preparing him for battle. My running had been down the toilet since September due to over training (or over racing?) and niggles including tight hamstrings and a probable tear under my right knee. Weekly I was getting dropped at the Yelo Thursday morning gathering and my training runs in the hills had all been thirty minutes or so longer than last year.  The smart money was on Jeffrey for this one. Jon was expecting another sub four hour finish but a nasty cough had me questioning his optimism.

The traditional start photo.

The 6 inch starts with Goldmine hill, a beast of a hill that has destroyed many a runners dreams. If you’re not prepared it can derail you very early in the piece, trust me if you are goosed after two kilometres the next 46 or so are challenging.  This year me and Jeffrey decided to walk most of the hill with the masses, saving our running legs for the beating that was ahead. It was quite nice to enjoy the hill for a change,  although I say ‘enjoy’ in the broadest sense of the word.?  We summited full of beans and changed up through the gears cruising along in a group of about ten of us, mainly women surprisingly ? The event itself is held on the mundi biddi trail, a thousand kilometre offroad bike trail from Perth to Albany, so pretty good running. David Kennedy, the Race Director, reckons you can add about an hour to your marathon time to get an estimated finish time, he’s probably right.

The 6 inch has an aid station at 23 kilometres and then again at the top of the escalator hill, around 35 kilometres. There is also one with four kilometres to go but when you’re that close why would you stop?  I ran with Jeffrey until the first aid station where he complained of a sore knee and walked into the aid station.  This was my chance and , as all good friends do , when I sensed weakness I pounced or in this case left him.  That was the last I would see of Jeffrey , or so I thought. My confidence was knocked  by Mick Francis, the aid station captain, who mentioned I was limping and he’d  pull me out if he was RD.  A tad harsh I thought as I thought I was going ok ?

After aid station one there is another large climb to the highest part of the course, the 3 inch version of the Goldmine Hill I suppose. I half walked and ran this and took a few more positions as I started to warm up, after twenty years in Western Australia I’m now half lizard and love the heat.  Once I get to the highest part I tend to flick over into finish mode and chase down the back end of the half runners and fellow full runners. As I mentioned at the start of this report this race was about finishing and having fun, as much as that is possible. I was feeling good enough to up the pace and started to move through the field albeit nothing to previous years but nice to be moving up the field none the less.

I climbed the escalator hill to the second aid station, filled my bottles and then started the last ten kilometres to the finish. It was here Jeffrey reappeared and all of a sudden my relaxed cruise to the finish changed to a very stressful run being chased by a motivated Jeffrey Wang.  I managed to maintain the pace for the final ten kilometres and with the experience of twelve previous finishes I knew when you push and when to hang on.  It wasn’t easy or pretty but I managed to finish in four hours and forty eight minutes and change. My new personal worse by thirty minutes but mission accomplished, sometimes it’s the journey that’s important not the time taken to complete it. As you can see from the smile below I was stoked.

Finish number #13, still smiling !

All that was left to do was the traditional esky photo, if you know, you know, don’t judge me. Thanks Nathan Fawkes for supplying the ice shower, may add this to the tradition for the esky photo, always keen to add more traditions ?

Traditional esky shot.

One final tradition is all the boys (and driver) who completed the course to put on their finishers shirts and get a photo. I have so many of these and enjoy looking back at all the lads aging gracefully and back in the day we’d even have a few kinds with us, they are all far too cool to have their photos taken with us these days of course.  A small gathering this year but I’m confident there will be a bigger group in 2023.

Mission accomplished, what a great year 2022.

So that’s it for 2022, what a great year, ten ultra marathons and one marathon , I’ve been busy with over two thousand kilometres racing with a bib on my chest and another three thousand kilometres training. 6 inch number thirteen completed and I can’t wait until I;m back at the bottom of Goldmine Hill facing another 47 kilometres of the munda biddi trail , sleep depraved but excited about what lays ahead, why wouldn’t you, after all , it’s tradition.

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

 

Fisiocrem is a must have in your ultra box of tricks…

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

Great hydration.

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

 

 

Feel free to follow me on Strava.


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or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/

 

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2022 , the year in review and what a year it was…..

Right, 2022 was a massive year, following on from 2021 which was a massive year. In 2021 I ran eight ultras, Hardy’s Front yard ultra, Light horse 24 hour, KepV2 Ultra 100km, Birdy’s backyard,  Delirious West 200 miler, Feral Pig 100 miler, Hysterical Carnage backyard ultra and the 6 inch trail ultra marathon.

2022 was all about doing more and I added the No time to die front yard ultra, the Unreasonable East 200 miler and the Melbourne marathon. I have added the posts for each of these events in 2022 as a review and also just in case you missed the posts.

First off in 2022 was the Delirious West 200 miler for the third time. It was 1-1 with a good finish in 2020 after a DNF in 2019. This year I had the run of my life and finished in just over 68 hours, good enough for a fourth place finish.  Can’t wait to take this beast on for the fourth time in February 2023, already have the 2022 crew back on board.

https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/07/04/delirious-west-february-2022/

 

100 miler club, 24 hours done and dusted . My 5th backyard ultra and always managed to get to 24 hours minimum.

In March I ran Herdy’s Front yard ultra for the second time after an assist in the inaugural year in 2021. Not quite the 48 laps (hours) I was after albeit I was very happy with the 34 laps I completed before not making lap 35. Found after two days post Herdy’s I had COVID so explained why it was more testing that I thought it would be ?

https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/03/27/herdys-frontyard-ultra-2022/

 

Third time lucky, finally joining the 200 kilometre club.

Post COVID and Herdy’s came the Light Horse 24 hour ultra. Another great Ultra Series event. With Rob Donkersloot  ( https://mindfocusedrunning.com/  ) crewing me I managed 207km for the win in the 24 hour event, very unexpected and mainly down to Rob not letting me sit down.

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

 

 

 

Three weeks post Light Horse came the Kep V2 100km. Love this event, steeped in WA ultra running history. I was going to use this race as a long run with a medal at the end, leaving my poles at half way so I could cruise back to the start. Due to a small field I was lucky enough to pick up another win, well first male, so stoked.

https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/05/16/kep-v2-ultra-another-win-well-first-male/

 

Halfway through the year and I faced my biggest challenge yet, a 200 miler in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney. The first 200 miler ever attempted in that region. The Unreasonable East was a beast of an event with stunning scenary, brutal climbs and more stairs than I have ever encountered in an event ever. Add in some seriously cold nights and long distances between aid stations , on the shortest days of the year, and you had a monster to slay.

https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/07/08/unreasonable-east-200-miler-done-and-dusted/ 

 

The 24 hour , 100 mile club. 10am Saturday morning.

Next was time for my third Birdy’s backyard ultra. Plan was to enjoy myself and get to a course PB, anything over 28 laps. In the end managed 36 laps (150 miles) before the impending storm hit and I scuttled off to my car for a well earned sleep. Love this event and can’t wait for number four in 2023.

https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/03/27/herdys-frontyard-ultra-2022/

The starting lineup of the inaugural ‘No Time to Die’ Frontyard Ultra.

 

After Birdy’s it was another backyard ultra, this time No time to die in Adelaide. Managed to pick up my first , and probably last, backyard ultra win. Managed 33 laps which was good enough to take line honours. After two assists it was so good to get the win and a surreal feeling, running sometime gives back in spades.

https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/09/25/no-time-to-die-it-wasnt-and-i-didnt/

The dunking of the medal for Jeff.

My only non ultra of 2022 was the Melbourne marathon , two weeks post No Time to Die. Running a 33 hour long run two weeks out from a marathon didn’t seem like a good idea and as it turned out it wasn’t. Ran with the sub 3 hour bus for 10km and was then unceremoniously  kicked off  the back, made the last 32km challenging to say the least. In the end finished in three hours and seventeen minutes, funnily enough bringing my average for the 46 marathons I have run to two hours, 59 mins and 59 seconds… a Don Bradman total albeit under my goal not over it. !

https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/10/04/how-not-to-run-a-marathon-melbourne-2022/

 

32 hours and change, Feral Pig 100 miler 2022 done !

Post Melbourne I suffered, my hamstrings seized big time and no amount of anti-inflammatories or dry needling really helped. This was a problem with back to back milers coming up, why wouldn’t you ? The first one was the Feral Pig 100 miler , a beast of an event with over 4,000 metres of elevation. I had not been able to train pre-event and only ran it as I had nothing else to do that weekend and I wouldn’t get my entry fee back leaving it so late to defer.  It was going to be brutal and it didn’t disaapoint, finished just over 35 hours, ouch.

https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/11/17/beating-a-pig-feral-2022/

 

Finally, so far this year, I ran the Hysterical Carnage backyard ultra, again in Adelaide, 5 days post Feral Pig. Back to back milers was the plan so I had to run at least 24 hours at Hysterical, in the end managed 27 before timing out on lap 28. Mission accomplished but not something I’d recommend. Lucky I have youth on my side ?

https://www.runbkrun.com/2022/11/18/back-to-back-milers-and-grand-slams-hysterical/

With one event left to run in December,  the 6 Inch Trail ultra marathon, 2023 has been amazing, challenging, ace, ridiculous, stupid, inspiring, memorable and more besides. Can I top it in 2023 ? You bet I can.. watch this space…

 

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

 

Fisiocrem is a must have in your ultra box of tricks…

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

Great hydration.

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

 

 

Feel free to follow me on Strava.


Follow me on
Strava

or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/

 

and facebook https://www.facebook.com/runbkrunoz

 

 

Is downtime needed for breakthroughs ? and.. 8 tips from the GOAT.

The lads experiencing ‘downtime’..?

After the No Time to Die ultra I have been struggling with injuries and motivation. Running the Melbourne marathon in October was probably a mistake and I paid with tight hamstrings,  which made any sort of running at pace impossible. The only thing that kept me going was dry needling and strong anti-inflammatories; both dangerous long term ! Coupled with a knee niggle I have only really ran long twice in the last few months and both times were ultra races. Apart from a couple of back to back milers I have run very little and am struggling with motivation.

I have put this down to an aggressive racing calendar and I need time to recoup before more of the same next year. My only race for the rest of the year is the 6 inch ultra in late December. ( https://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com/   ) I’m hoping after the 6 Inch I’ll get my mojo back and head to the hills for my pre-Delirious West training block around Xmas and into the New Year. ( https://deliriouswest200miler.com.au/ ) This block of 4-6 weeks is paramount to success for the 200 miler, hours of trail running in the heat of a Perth summer.  Extreme heat is as good as altitude training apparently and I love trail running in summer so its a double bonus. Delirious is also my favourite race of the season so I don’t need much motivation to get up for it. The last few years it has been a very sociable affair due to COVID making it impossible for anyone but WA runners able to get to the start line in Northcliffe.  Albeit last year a forest fire almost put paid to the event coming a few days before the start. In the end it was turned from a point to point race to an out and back , which was still awesome as we got to start and finish at the Northcliffe pub , which is a great country pub and does the best food.

So this post is a couple of really cool posts by David Roche of  http://www.trailrunnermag.com website . One about does downtime lead to breakthroughs ?  and a second post on Kilian Jornet’s 2022 Training Data. This is epic and worth digesting. Kilian’s 8 tips may be a bit polarising for some but his thinking on double days , in my point of view, is spot on. As I have always maintained double days unlock your running dreams. Although I’m never sure why you would lock them up in the first place, anyhow locked up or not running twice a day will help you achieve your running goals. Run slow but run often. Another take away from Kilian’s tips is he runs slow nearly 60% of the time , active recovery he calls it. Again I must concur, when I saw the biggest improvement in my running times I was running between 12 to 14 times a week mostly at aerobic pace. (easy) This is what Maffetone ( https://philmaffetone.com/ ) and Athur Lydiard preach ( https://www.lydiardfoundation.org/ )

 

Why Downtime May Lead To Breakthroughs Sometimes it feels like the best/fastest/happiest runners never take breaks. But critical fitness adaptations happen when you rest. From an article by David Roche, March 2021 ( http://www.trailrunnermag.com )

Breaks make breakthroughs.

You know that statement is true because you could imagine it on a motivational poster of a puppy in a paw cast. To double-check the puppy-poster proof, I went through a list of the athletes that I coach. Every single one had some sort of layoff preceding their biggest accomplishments.

Injuries? This is running, so … yeah, it can seem like a cereal commercial with the number of snaps and crackles and pops. Some athletes had to stop running for months or years. Some were told they might never run again, only to come back and exceed anything they achieved before.

Here’s an objective, scientific fact: downtime is not a failure. It’s about more than that, though. The theory of this article is that if you play your cards right, breaks can lead to exponential growth processes that reset what you could have ever thought possible before the layoff.

Mental-health breaks? This is sentience, so … yeah, there were plenty of those too. Breaks come in many forms, good and bad, planned and unplanned, pregnancies and pandemics. Whatever caused the breaks, the act of taking downtime was often hard on those athletes. We all have those questions sometimes.

Champions don’t take downtime, right?

Maybe I’m not cut out for this?

Am I losing everything?

Here’s an objective, scientific fact: downtime is not a failure. It’s about more than that, though. The theory of this article is that if you play your cards right, breaks can lead to exponential growth processes that reset what you could have ever thought possible before the layoff.

Let’s start with the principles of fitness maintenance.

We’ll start here as an excuse to discuss how it’s easy to have misconceptions about how fitness changes and grows over time. A 2021 article in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that endurance performance can be maintained for 15 weeks on as little as two sessions per week, or when volume is reduced by up to 66% (as short as 13 to 26 minutes per session). The review article findings were based on a few studies that had untrained individuals do 10 weeks of six times weekly training sessions, followed by a detraining period of 15 weeks where participants were randomly assigned to reduced frequency, reduced intensity, and mixed groups. As long as there was some maintenance of intensity, participants did not significantly detrain.

Similar findings applied to strength training, with as little as one session a week being effective for maintenance in younger populations, and two sessions for older populations. The general conclusion of the review is that both frequency and volume can be reduced while maintaining fitness, with volume in particular being acceptable to drop by substantial margins over 50%.

 

The general conclusion of the review is that both frequency and volume can be reduced while maintaining fitness, with volume in particular being acceptable to drop by substantial margins over 50%.

I could walk 500 miles, and I could walk 500 more while reciting disclaimers. The studies apply in a narrow context for the general population, not for runners trying to optimize performance. And over longer time horizons, it’s likely that maintenance becomes short-term fitness loss as past adaptations start to fade. But the general principles overlap with the experiences of coaches and athletes about why it’s OK to take downtime.

All tie back to a general principle: once training levels reach a certain point, there might be variance around that point based on training status, but it’s always relatively quick to get back to those levels. Even if you feel out of shape, the past work you have completed is right there at the surface, ready to shine after a quick polish. That’s due to how the body retains training adaptations with time. 

 

Decreases in VO2 max take time and levels rebound quickly.

1989 article in Sports Medicine found that VO2 max decreases start to begin after two to four weeks fully off, tied to reduction in cardiac output and blood volume. Follow-up studies generally find around a 5% reduction after two weeks, and up to 20% at eight to 10 weeks.

RELATED: What You Need To Know About VO2 Max

While VO2 max may drop with time off, it doesn’t take much to maintain it. For example, a 1985 study in the Journal Of Applied Physiology had athletes reduce training from six to 10 hours per week to one 35-minute session, and those athletes had no reduction in VO2 max (but their performance decreased, likely due to changes in muscular output and efficiency). And even after total detraining, VO2 max bounces back with some focused intensity.

However, that initial VO2 max reduction may make running feel hard at first, especially when trying to go harder. After a few weeks off, even slight hills make my breathing sound like a broken harmonica. Don’t worry, you’ll be ready to rock within a few weeks.

However, that initial VO2 max reduction may make running feel hard at first, especially when trying to go harder. After a few weeks off, even slight hills make my breathing sound like a broken harmonica. Don’t worry, you’ll be ready to rock within a few weeks.

Blood volume changes happen fast in both directions.

Similarly, blood volume and cardiac output are highly sensitive to both time off and reintroduction of training. Another 1985 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found a 9% reduction in blood volume and a 12% reduction in stroke volume after two to four weeks of inactivity in trained men. On the flip side, a 1991 review in the Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise journal found that blood volume increases quickly as training is reintroduced. And a 2015 study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found a 17.8% increase in plasma volume in highly trained cyclists after just four exposures to post-exercise sauna.

Blood volume and stroke volume feed back into VO2 max, so the initial feeling of being underwater and gasping for air upon returning to exercise is likely going to be short-lived. Plus, as demonstrated by the 2021 study on detraining, it takes very little relative training to maintain baseline levels.

Detraining is gradual for the metabolic and aerobic systems.

2000 review in Sports Medicine found that after around a week, the body may start to rely more on carbohydrate metabolism, with reduced capillary density too. Those adaptations make the body work harder to get energy to working muscles and limit endurance—part of the reason why you might struggle immensely on runs over 60 to 90 minutes after a longer break. Again, the changes are reversed relatively quickly with reintroduction of training, and can be maintained at lower training levels.

Neuromuscular and biomechanical lag.

Running economy decreases short-term as the nervous and biomechanical systems get slightly less efficient. That could explain why those first few runs after a layoff feel so foreign, even if you have been cross training. In coaching, I often see athletes start to feel less awkward after a week, and downright natural after intensity is reintroduced (usually via hill strides to start). And muscles may lose some strength, particularly after very long breaks (like severe injuries). But as reviewed in 2019 in Frontiers of Physiology, nuclei may not be lost from muscles during that process, possibly contributing to quick bounce-back cycles.

RELATED: Run Less to Run More

So studies and training theory are generally in agreement: detraining starts after a week or two, progresses for a month or two, and begins to level off, with some ongoing muscular changes. It can feel like you’re so far away from where you were!

But here’s why I’m never worried about that downtime, whether it includes maintenance or not. Athletes usually have a rapid return to previous fitness levels with a small dose of consistency, with it being much easier to achieve again than it was the first time. Restarting training is awakening a sleeping giant.

But here’s why I’m never worried about that downtime, whether it includes maintenance or not. Athletes usually have a rapid return to previous fitness levels with a small dose of consistency, with it being much easier to achieve again than it was the first time. Restarting training is awakening a sleeping giant.

It’s not just that, though. The sleeping giant may wake up with superpowers.

While the science is unsettled, there are so many stories of massive breakthroughs coming off downtime ranging from a few weeks to a few years that there must be physiological resets that raise the ceiling on long-term potential for some athletes. Let’s look at a few possible explanations. 

Long-term recovery.

Every training session introduces some acute stress—muscular fatigue/damage, increased cortisol, hormonal disturbance. That acute stress is the whole point of training, allowing an athlete to build back stronger after adaptation. But some of those acute stresses have long tails. Take muscle damage as an example. If we did a blood test after a hard training session, there might be elevated creatine kinase, indicating some muscle breakdown. An athlete may report some subjective fatigue mirroring those results, subsiding in a day or two. Then they’ll do another workout. Heck, yes, adaptation!

Downtime can wipe the stress slate clean. Sometimes, athletes find that they were carrying a chronic stress weight vest around without realizing it.

But wait. While subjective fatigue may be approaching baseline, if we did a follow-up blood test, there would be a good chance that the athlete wasn’t fully at baseline, especially in heavy training. That’s how acute stresses can add up to become chronic stress—the long tails get stacked up over time. While chronic stress can be optimized with plenty of recovery and fuel, it’s always a risk of hard training.

Downtime can wipe the stress slate clean. Sometimes, athletes find that they were carrying a chronic stress weight vest around without realizing it.

Nervous/endocrine system hypotheses. 

The interplay of the brain and hormones in long-term growth is weakly understood due to how hard the neuromuscular and endocrine systems are to measure and isolate. For the nervous system, overtraining syndrome is a prime example. A 2020 study reviewed what we know about OTS—a series of dysfunctional adaptations to excessive training and inadequate fueling, with major nervous system impacts.

While approaches vary, the general rule is that a full shut-down of training is needed in severe OTS cases. Athletes often can’t jog their way through OTS, they need to eat and sleep and chill their way through it. Even if downtime is not in response to overtraining specifically, the same rules may be relevant: the nervous system works on longer time scales when responding to chronic stress.

For the endocrine system, sex hormones estrogen and testosterone can be reduced in hard training for endurance athletes, with evidence that the hormones may increase during downtime. As with the nervous system, there may be longer-term endocrine system processes at play when it comes to how hormonal changes affect health.

Gene expression and epigenetics.

Our genetics are not just a set of instructions that we can’t influence. External stimuli change how our genetic code expresses itself via epigenetics, and there is even some evidence that epigenetic changes can be heritable. With endurance sports, relatively small stimuli may start turning some of those epigenetic switches toward endurance. While it’s debated, that could be one explanation for how bodies can undergo such fundamental and positive changes over time even if exercise routines are a few minutes a day.

If I had to venture a guess about why breaks precede breakthroughs, it would be that major reductions in training may have a priming effect on adaptations to future stimuli.

So what happens with downtime? We’re not sure. But if I had to venture a guess about why breaks precede breakthroughs, it would be that major reductions in training may have a priming effect on adaptations to future stimuli. That could involve some mix of all of these physiological processes, plus other cellular-level processes like protein expression or mitochondria changes. Or maybe it has to do with the brain and neuromuscular system.

Whatever the exact cause, breaks are not something to fear and certainly not a reason to beat yourself up. Call it the Dell PC Theorem—sometimes turning it off and turning it back on can solve problems that slow everything down.

Is alcohol the answer? Probably not unfortunately, albeit I don’t drink bar a celebratory pint of Guinness after an event.

What does it all mean in practice?

I don’t know. I don’t think anyone knows. And that concludes my TED Talk.

Wait, not quite done. Here’s what I do know: the “breaks make breakthroughs” principle is seen over and over again, in every sport. It might just be availability bias, but I don’t think so. What I think is happening is that the principles of maintenance of training interact with detraining and longer-term recovery in a way that compounds interest on underlying athletic potential.

When an athlete first starts training, the body takes some time to build up. You know the feeling—immediate gains followed by slow progress. From that new normal, our bodies can detrain and rebuild relatively rapidly, getting back on the slow progress trend.

But maybe every athlete isn’t designed for slow progress indefinitely. Maybe they even face stagnation or regression no matter how hard they work. Whether it’s due to chronic stress or just our baseline genetics interacting with training over many years, some athletes may find themselves on a trajectory that undersells their ultimate potential.

Break. Injury. Burn-out. Pandemic.

What builds back from that break? There’s no certain answer, but I have my theories. And if you have had to take downtime, just know that all of those theories point to four words when it comes to your future.

DREAM REALLY, REALLY BIG.

David Roche partners with runners of all abilities through his coaching service, Some Work, All Play. With Megan Roche, M.D., he hosts the Some Work, All Play podcast on running (and other things), and they wrote a book called The Happy Runner.

A Jon Pendse classic…cross training is one of Kilian’s top tips, albeit he has snow to play about on, rare in Western Australia.

 

Eight Takeaways From Kilian Jornet’s 2022 Training Data

Kilian Jornet, aka the Greatest Of All Time, just published a summary of his training data and practices for all of 2022. His post is destined to be a legendary guide to thinking about training theory and what it takes to have the best season ever. Let’s break it down. Another article from David Roche, this time Spetember 2022. This is gold. 

Last week, I wrote a primer on Kilian Jornet’s training data between his course records at the Hardrock 100 and UTMB (data published by watch-maker Coros). After the article came out, Kilian messaged me a new link. In case you were wondering: finding out I was going to be a dad, my marriage, Kilian sliding into my DMs, in reverse order of importance.

I clicked the link and angels sang. Kilian wrote a post that is going to be a fundamental pillar of training theory, opening up the vault to his data, theory, and mindset. It’s almost unprecedented in the history of endurance sports–an athlete at the peak of their powers being fully transparent about the how and why behind their successes.

The most recent analogue I can think of is Nils van der Poel’s speed skating training. But I think Nils wrote his training manifesto with an understanding that it was unlikely that anyone was going to be able to repeat the wild block-periodization model with workout days that almost seemed impossible.

Kilian’s training, on the other hand, is far more mainstream, the type of approach that almost any athlete could use with modifications for their backgrounds. The GOAT just wants to add to the body of knowledge of endurance training, where he is both a student and a teacher.

The GOAT wants us all to be the GOAT version of ourselves.

Read his full post–it’s brilliant and important. In this article, I am going to provide context for his training, distilling eight takeaways that are relevant for everyone. My wife/co-coach Megan and I interviewed him on our podcast this week (listen here) for more details, one of the ultimate honors of our lives. Is it creepy if we name our kid Kilian? Before you answer, keep in mind that we already printed the sign to hang above the crib.

RELATED: Kilian Jornet Isn’t The G.O.A.T. of Trail Running Just Because He Wins Big Races

Kilian’s 2022 was absolutely astounding. 

Even as the ultimate fanboy, it’s mind-blowing to me that one athlete is the best short-distance mountain racer (course record at Zegama) and the best long-distance mountain racer (course record at UTMB) in the same year. The easy response to his dominance is to say he is a genetic outlier. But at the elite level of sports, it’s always a competition among outliers, and the genetic differences alone are not enough to explain dominance like Kilian’s 2022. Reading his post, it’s clear that he earned 2022 with a methodical, process-focused vision of long-term growth across decades of hard training.

On the podcast, he talked about how his training philosophy fundamentally shifted in 2018 and 2019, coinciding with the birth of his first child. Instead of long days in the mountains at zone 2, he shifted toward a different intensity distribution, emphasizing lots of easy volume and focused workouts. He made the changes without a coach (though he does work with exercise physiologist Jesús Álvarez-Herms). Instead, he made himself into an exercise physiology and training theory expert, applying what he learned and making changes based on what worked for him.

The GOAT wants us all to be the GOAT version of ourselves.

So his article is not a genetic outlier talking about the nuances of being an outlier. It’s a brilliant scientist talking about the process of maximizing potential based on universal principles of human physiology, adapted for specific variation in genetics and goals.

Time to get to it! Let’s dive into 8 takeaways from a training summary that will shape the sport for years to come.

One: Training is a long-term process of consistency and aerobic development.

A stunning figure shows Kilian’s weekly training volume since April 2009. While there is variance, most weeks average around 20 hours, split between running, skiing, biking, and other sports. There are big up-swings of skimo in the winter and running starting in spring, with his training following a seasonal cycle.

At the far right of the chart is a microscopic red circle encompassing 2022. It’s a striking visualization of how our brains can think short-term, but our bodies are playing on much longer time scales.

“There’s no such a thing as the magical session that will make you better or a training program that will work for everyone,” he says. “But the adaptations come from the repetition of training stimulus (consistency) and the individualization of those stimuli.”

Kilian has consistently averaged 1000+ hours of training per year, mostly easy, across multiple sports. His aerobic roots run deep. For all of us, the first principle of endurance training is to stack up easy volume over time. The foundation for all performance from the 800 meters up to 200+ milers is how the aerobic system processes energy and associated fatigue. That ability comes from the daily grind of easy training.

So, first? Put your own roots down. It’s a year-long thing, across decades.

Two: Most of his training is very easy, with a Pyramidal intensity distribution.

Now is the moment for every athlete to pay attention to specific guidance from the GOAT. You hear that most training should be easy, but what does that actually mean? Here’s Kilian’s breakdown of training intensity using the 5-zone model:

  • 58% zone 1 (active recovery, nose breathing)
  • 19% zone 2 (aerobic endurance, can keep for hours)
  • 16% zone 3 (tempo, sustained fast and can say several sentences)
  • 4% zone 4 (race pace, can say a sentence)
  • 3% zone 5 (max)

58% in zone 1! That is an astonishing number, echoing the evolution of training theory more generally across endurance sports. Easy volume does not just allow recovery for harder sessions, but it provides the fuel that makes the hard sessions possible.

His intensity distribution is strongly Pyramidal with hints of Threshold, with 77% of his training in Zone 1 and Zone 2. The 16% in Zone 3 and 4% in Zone 4 is a high amount of threshold work, similar to some approaches used by Norwegian runners and triathletes. The smaller amount of Zone 5 work shows that he still develops his top-end speed, but with a much lesser focus.

It’s tempting to get on the trails and assume that faster is better. But stacking up faster work causes everything to decline after an initial period of growth, as the musculoskeletal system wears down, the endocrine system gets overstressed, and the aerobic system erodes via less efficient lipid metabolism and mitochondrial function.

Admittedly, 58% of training in Zone 1 may be Kilian-specific, requiring wonderful aerobic efficiency and very high volume. On our podcast, he talked about moving quickly through the mountains at 110 to 120 beats per minute heart rate, which is my heart rate when getting food from the top shelf of the pantry. But every athlete should probably have a more even split between Zone 1 and Zone 2 than might be our natural baselines, with those percentages adding up to around 80%. All easy is not created equal, and it’s valuable to slow down some of those days for workout quality, longevity, and growth along the entire aerobic spectrum.

Pyramidal training intensity is the predominant approach used by elite athletes whose training has been the subject of studies, meaning the next biggest proportion of training is tempo/threshold, with a much smaller portion faster than Critical Velocity and VO2 max. Lots easy, some moderate, just a bit hard (and make sure that hard work has a focused rationale for improving mechanical output).

Kilian leaves room for disagreement. “I know, for example, that I can absorb a great amount of volume and Z2 and Z3 training, but if I do more speed work for several continuous weeks (Z4 and Z5) I will get injured or metabolically not as efficient,” he says. “For other athletes, it is the opposite.”

What’s fascinating in the research is that an approach with a higher proportion of top-end Zone 4 and Zone 5 work (known as Polarized training) is very rarely used long-term due to its tendency to cause quick adaptations, followed by stagnation (or injury).

Three: Kilian periodizes his training across the year, with a base period preceding specific training blocks.

Kilian’s winter is spent on skis, where he’s a world-class skimo athlete. From December to March, he would do 2-4 hours on skis (mostly in Zone 2) in the AM, followed by a 40-60 minute easy treadmill run in the PM. His training graphs show no hard workouts that entire time. Interestingly, he did a 100-mile race in February to test fueling. As much as I think Kilian’s approach has lessons for all of us, doing a 100-mile race off a ski-focus may just be a Kilian thing. It’s like wearing white spandex at Western States–don’t try this at home.

That base period reinforced an already-monstrous aerobic system. The fact that he didn’t only ski shows a lesson that might be important for athletes that get lots of cross training time. It can be helpful to reinforce mechanical adaptations for running year-round, even if it’s not the primary focus.

Starting in March, he trained for Zegama at the end of May, emphasizing big volume (150-190km / 93-118 miles per week) with 2 quality workouts. In June and July leading up to the Hardrock 100, he increased training volume up to 200km (124 miles) per week, but did no longer sessions, and kept doing 2 speed workouts a week. From Hardrock to UTMB, he primarily focused on recovery and maintenance (read about that period here).

Reinforcing an aerobic base year-round is key for all endurance athletes, and it may help to have a more focused block of aerobic development in the off-season. This winter in coaching, motivated by Kilian and Nils, I am going to focus more on dedicated base periods, particularly for elite athletes. For athletes that don’t have Kilian’s background and VO2 max, it may include a small amount of intensity like in a classic Lydiard model, emphasizing the mechanical adaptations to handle faster work (like hill strides).

Kilian kept that aerobic focus going even when training for short races like Zegama. The benefits accumulate over time, so keep stacking those bricks.

Four: Most of his training sessions were relatively short, but with tons of doubles.

A big change in Kilian’s life was when he became a dad a few years ago. His wife Emelie Forsberg is one of the GOATs herself, and they balance the demands of family life, business, and training as a team. In practice, that means that one gets the early block, one gets the afternoon block, and then their nights are free after the kids go to sleep.

And that seismic shift in life’s demands may have also unlocked a training secret: Kilian rarely does “long” training sessions. Almost all of his runs didn’t exceed 4 hours in 2022 (with most far shorter), a major change from what I had heard in whispers about his training in the early 2010s. However, he still accumulated massive volume week after week. How does that math add up?

The answer is by using doubles–two sessions in one day. On our podcast, he said that he completed doubles almost every day. For all athletes, doubles may improve hormonal response to training, and avoiding excessively long sessions could reduce some of the chronic stress of high-volume training. These sessions can likely be as short as 10-15 minutes, running or cross training, and may have outsized influence on fitness growth. There’s a reason that almost every elite athlete training log includes doubles, even if we aren’t 100% sure on the mechanism of action that makes them nearly universal.

The outstanding question is whether other ultra athletes could excel from so few extra-long efforts in training. Kilian has completed so many ultras and long sessions that he has no doubts about his aerobic abilities, or how his body will respond late in events. Most of us step into the unknown, but nothing is unknown to Kilian. Interestingly, this approach focused on training frequency to accumulate volume rather than supersized single days overlaps with some of the training of ultra champion Camille Herron (and others), so it’s possible that very long efforts are an overrated part of ultra training.

Five: Kilian does workouts that focus on the specific demands of his events.

Now it’s time for some workout porn. I know that Kilian doesn’t want us to read too deeply into any specific session, but these are too good to pass up. He groups his sessions into 3 groups: speed, threshold, and tempo.

For pure flat speed training, he only did 4 workouts all year long. WOW! That includes track staples like 10 x 400 meters, which he says he limited due to risk of injury, a problem he faced in the past when focusing on road training. This may be a place where his genetic ability matters–he is very fast naturally, so it might not be an element that he needs to reinforce much, at least on flat ground. Most trail runners can probably limit their flat ground work, with just enough reinforcement to help hill strength translate into flat speed.

His staple session was an uphill/flat combination workout (like what I wrote about here). He starts with 1 or 2 intervals up a steep climb, with the downhill for recovery. After, he does a flat workout, such as a 10km tempo, 2 x 5km tempo, or 10 x 1k. On the podcast, he said that it improves his ability to run uphill fast and then on flats fast, like in a race. All athletes can likely use combination workouts, but scaled down to current levels.

His third big type of session was a longer steady run. He starts at high Zone 2 before increasing the effort, usually over 20 km to 30 km (12 – 18 miles). These long, steady runs are likely underutilized by many athletes in training, and they are a great opportunity to build specific endurance and musculoskeletal resilience. Just be careful not to turn them into races, since the intensity control is key to avoid an excessive amount of time in the upper intensity zones, undercutting aerobic growth.

The magic simplicity of Kilian’s training is that it’s usually 2 of those workouts a week plus easy running across daily doubles. Rinse and repeat, with specificity before races indicating higher volume preceding long ultras and a greater workout focus preceding shorter events. Finish up with a taper that is very easy and includes rest days for ultras, and a bit less easy with fewer rest days for shorter races.

Six: Most of his aerobic training is on steep and technical trails.

While Kilian consistently does moderate/hard workouts on flat ground or non-technical trails, many of his easy runs are on the trails where he lives in Norway. Just looking at a photo of those trails gives me a stress ulcer–they are steep and technical in ways that are rarely seen in the US outside of climbing routes.

He likes workouts to be on smoother and/or flatter surfaces to “privilege the metabolic and muscular capacities”–optimizing raw output. He likes slower days “on terrain that challenges other aspects (cognitive, mental, technique, visualization…and they’re much more fun!).”

Make sure that you aren’t sacrificing output in your harder sessions. On a steep and technical climb, an athlete’s grade-adjusted pace may be 1-2 minutes per mile slower than on a less technical climb. While the efforts feel equally hard, that translates to lower output, and likely to fewer adaptations. However, on purely easy days, you can have fun with it! Plus, working on technical abilities requires constant reinforcement, like all cognitively and neuromuscularly demanding physical movements.

Seven: Strength work is not a part of his training.

Readers, I know that you know that I am not a big fan of a heavy emphasis on strength training. But my views are far outdone by Kilian’s views. “I don’t do any strength sessions,” he says. “Having limited time for training, I believe that the stress to the body from strength training would be too much to be able to give the best at the running or skiing sessions, where I want to put the focus because they are more specific.”

However, it’s important to note that skiing is a bit like one long strength session, and the way Kilian runs up hills is similar to plyometrics. So he may be playing by a different set of rules than most athletes. I like a minimal-dose program, focused on the least amount possible to get the necessary adaptations, often as little as a few minutes 2-3 times per week.

Eight: It’s all about the process.

Near the end of our podcast, we asked Kilian about the one piece of advice he’d give an aspiring young pro. We had been diving deep into training theory, so I was trying to ask a leading question for him to give away his ultimate methodological secret. Instead, he swerved the conversation.

Focus on the process, not on the results.”

He described the importance of developing a deep love of daily training, through ups and downs, wins and losses. It’s going to take many years to see where the limits are, and it’s way better when it’s fun.

RELATED: Five Elite Coaches On The Biggest Change They’ve Made to Improve Their Training

Kilian talking about training is Kilian talking about anything. He’s a founder of the shoe company NNormal, which is set to be a major player in the future of the sport. Yet even as he’s probably being roped into conversations on growth models and projections, he’s still focused on the process of making a fulfilling workplace for himself and his employees. The same goes for parenting, with his eyes lighting up at the mention of fatherhood and all the new stressors that come with it.

Over the last few weeks, I have learned that Kilian is not the GOAT because of genetics. He is the GOAT because he loves it. We asked him how he reconciled a love of the mountains with all of the data he collects on his training. He had a genius reply: to him, science is a manifestation of his love, of his respect for the sport and the mountains and what they require.

I have never been so motivated to get out there tomorrow and run. I’ll be doing it for the love of the process, and all the messy narratives that entails. I hope you are as inspired by Kilian as I am, helping you get out tomorrow and embrace a love of that messy process.

And I hope that we all can do that year-round for a few decades in a row to find our true limits…with a substantial portion of those days in Zone 1.

 

Thankyou Kilian Jornet…

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

 

Fisiocrem is a must have in your ultra box of tricks…

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

Great hydration.

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

 

 

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Back to back milers and Grand Slams, Hysterical.

Hysterical Carnage 2022 was to be the last piece of the jigsaw in the Ultra Series backyard ultra Grand Slam, running all four of the backyard Ultras in a calendar year. Myself , Jen and Renton were the only three runners who would complete this magnificent task. The image below is the Grand Slam runners and the Race Director, well one of them, Michelle in fancy dress. (Well I am assuming it’s fancy dress ?)  The three of us have had many adventures together over the four events and travelled to Adelaide twice  ( No time to Die (   https://nttdfrontyard.com.au/  ) and Hysterical Carnage  ( https://hystericalcarnage.com.au/ ) as well as Lake Towerinning in regional WA (for Birdy’s Backyard ultra https://birdysbackyardultra.com.au/ ) and inner city Perth for Herdys frontyard ultra ( https://herdysfrontyard.com.au/ ) A special mention to Margie Hadley who had run three of the four as well as the World team backyard Ultra in November (and set a new Women’s Australian record ) and also Nico Watkins who had also ran three of the four but fell at the last hurdle.

I also had  another objective for this event after running the Feral Pig 100 miler the previous weekend, I was after back to back milers, a feat I had never achieved or even attempted. To do this I needed to complete 24 laps.

Renton, Jen , Michelle and Myself before the start.

The conditions in sunny Loxton were as the name suggests, sunny. It was going to be a hot one but after Feral the previous week I wasn’t that worried, living and training in the heat of Western Australian summers had acclimatised me to the heat and it was no longer a worry. I have said many times I consider the climate of Western Australia to be just about perfect all year around for running.  We haven’t a Winter to speak off , Spring and Autumn are great temperatures and you can avoid the heat in Summer by running early if you so desire or just slower in the heat of the day if that’s your thing.

Shaun Kaesler and his pregnant Wife Sarah were also running and the five of us posed for the cameras before the start of the event, all smiles before the first lap. Sarah had targeted three or maybe four laps while Shaun was keen to smash his 10 lap PB and see how deep he could go. Shaun’s father, Frank, was also running  and is as big a character as his son, surprisingly.

Team WA, well a few of them. The Grand Slam runners and Sarah and Shaun Kaesler.
Team WA, well a few of them. The Grand Slam runners and Sarah and Shaun Kaesler.

The course had changed since last year which was a pity as it was one of my favourite courses. A large hill you had to walk and then a few kilometres of level running before a road section into a nice trail and then a swamp section  before some more level road running to finish. It made for fast laps which meant more time to recover, on the hour every hour.  We also had great conditions last year and I managed an assist to Phil Gore, for the second time that year. More than happy with my 37 laps coming two weeks after the Feral miler.

This year,  as the image below of last years race village shows,  we had water issues. The Murray River had burst its banks and Shaun had to come up with a new course. He did this by adding a big hill and a loop section around the Pioneer Village. On the plus side we actually got to run through the Pioneer Village this year , rather than around it last year. This was pretty cool , especially late at night when you had the place to yourself bar one disgruntled security guard. I’m not sure it made up for the extra elevation but I can’t complain, I still enjoyed the course as the last hill was a good reason to walk for a few hundred metres.

This is where last years event village stood ! You’d need scuba gear to put up a marquee this year.

Another bonus was the Loxton Council had been busy and put in stairs to help the runners climb the first hill. Last year the path got more and more challenging as the event went on with new ruts forming each lap. This year no such problem although I’m sure, as last year, the hill grew during the event, it certainly got harder.  We started the event in the caravan park and ran to a improvised trail before the stairs and this trail was undulating and technical, made for some near misses as we tired.

The local council had been busy and put in stairs on the first hill.

The 10am start was upon us and we were off into the heat of a spring day in Loxton. As the images below show it was a beautiful day initially but we all knew the heat was coming and it didn’t let us down. I ran a few laps with Shaun Kaesler who was enjoying his last event of the year for the Ultra Series, I think it was number 18 ? ( https://ultraseries.com.au/  ) This has been a great year for Shaun but I feel he has found his limits and I hope he had put things in place to make 2023 easier on him and his loyal staff.  It has certainly been a case of famine and feast after the COVID years and I see a bright future for the Ultra Series moving forward.  I highly recommend you get on board and participate in one of the many events offered, there are some seriously good ones.  Check out the website for more details.

 

You can have fun on a backyard ultra. Shaun , Jen and I.

As I mentioned before Loxton in South Australia, where the event is run, is Shaun’s home town and his family even have their own street. It was only a hundred metres off the course so we couldn’t resist sneaking a photo though please note we exited and reentered the course at the same point. I love the photo, me trying to see my iphone over the top of my sunnies and Shaun just being Shaun, sometimes an image can capture the moment perfectly.

Love this photo. Shaun showing off his family street in Loxton.

Right back to racing. I always divide any backyard ultra course into three separate sections, this is a big tip so make sure you digest it. For Hysterical the first part is from the start (obviously) to the top of the hill after the first road section. This encompasses the first hill , the next kilometre or so through the paddock and then the trail section before the road. This was the hardest section as the paddock was sapping on the legs and there was some gradient gain. From the top of the road to the end off the Pioneer Village was section two. Mostly all down hill or level this was easy running although the gradient was steep enough to test the legs later in the event.  The final section was from the exit of the Pioneer Village back to the start which included some level running before the road hill you ran down on the way out and a steep final descent back to the event village.

By breaking down the course into three sections you hit targets quicker and can also gauge where you are , time wise, if you are struggling to make the loop within the hour cut off. You also know when to put in more effort and when you can cruise. For me the first section was the hardest and when I got to the top of the road hill I could cruise to the end of the Pioneer Village before putting in some more effort to finish.  By doing this the lap passes quicker.

 

After the hill and before the road section, nice bit of running.

This event was always going to hurt coming so soon after Feral and it didn’t disappoint. I always struggle for the fist 15 or so laps at any backyard ultra but if I can get past 100km then the 24 hour lap becomes a target and I can normally find a second wind to get there. This proved to be the case at Hysterical. I enjoyed the heat of the day but was also relieved when it was time to don head torches and the temperature dropped. Night running is where you can lose yourself on the course and everybody retreats to their small circle of light ahead of them. This is where a good audible book comes in very handy, I was lucky enough to find Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir at Birdys and this makes such a difference. You actually can’t wait for the next chapter and time, and laps, disappears. I also used audible at Unreasonable earlier in the year and the Matthew McConaughey biography Green Light kept me entertained for hours.  For Hysterical I had Kevin Hart talking me though his life in ‘I can’t make this up’, another great book and it makes such a difference.

 

Sunset on Friday evening.

The sunset came quickly on Friday which was a good sign. I was finishing each lap around 45 minutes which is where I wanted to be, towards the  front of the field. It gave me time to get everything charged, nutrition and hydration and also a few minutes with the shoes off relaxing in my chair.  I was sharing a marquee with Renton and Jen who were both relaxed early on, both experienced enough to pace themselves, remember in this event its’ the runner who finishes last that eventually wins. Time between laps is as important as the running time. Get it right and you’ll be fresh for the lap , fueled and watered, get it wrong and fatigue will start to creep in and as Lazerus says ‘running a backyard ultra is easy until it isn’t‘.

Friday night , running along the fence.

Highlights of the evening was definitely running through the Pioneer Village alone or with a disgruntled security guard. It was very cool having the place to yourself and the bonus of public toilets was the cherry on the cake. The evening laps seem to disappear quickly and the temperature was never an issue, warm enough that you didn’t freeze when you stopped but cool enough you didn’t over heat running. I wore a singlet for the first day and night which was perfect, maybe adding a towel as a blanket when I sat in my reclining chair while I drank my tea, with three sugars of course.

 

It was cool running through the Pioneer Village in the evening.

Once the sun came up every runner was reinvigorated, the sunrise has that effect on people and you can just about guarantee another 4-5 laps just on the adrenalin  rush of making it through the night. The morning was cooler than the previous day as we had some cloud cover and the impending storm was brewing on the horizon. It was predicted to rain on Saturday and boy did it rain later in the day.  The storm that was predicted also arrived , with avengence but that’s later in the story.

 

Saturday morning and its beginning to warm up, head torches soon to be dispatched.

Love this view, below,  from the top of the stairs looking back to the start line. The Murray River looking resplendent , it really did put on a show for us over the few days we were there. The locals were saying this was a once in a decade like conditions so next year it’ll probably be dry and dusty , which is the norm apparently. On the Saturday we had a months rain in a few hours and for a lucky few we were able to appreciate it on the course. Luckily my Kathmandu Gore-Tex jacket did its job and even though I was nearly drowning while standing up I was never uncomfortable.

 

View from the top of the hill.

As you can see from the image below the sky started to turn early morning , around 9am I think I noticed something afoot. You could see trouble ahead. They had predicted a good storm and you could feel it coming. I have other things on my mind though. Once I hit sunrise I knew I was a shoe in for the 24 hour mark I coveted. I began to enjoy the loops and with the aid of fisiocrem and some Panadol my legs were behaving. I know I say this constantly but fisiocrem really does make a huge difference on multi-day events, just puts the spring back into tired muscles. No idea what they put in the product but it works.

 

Saturday morning and there’s a storm coming.

 

Seven runners left for the 100 mile lap, not sure where Kevin Muller was ?, anyhow mission accomplished and even better all the three Grand Slam runners made 24 hours, how good is that?  Backyard Ultra number four for the year and Renton, Jen and I can still finish high up the field, it looks like experience really does make a difference for this format but I always knew that.  A massive congratulations to Renton on a PB and he looked so good , until he wasn’t which happened quickly, lap 25 and he DNF’d.  Not a problem he was stoked to finally make the 100 mile club on a backyard ultra. I’m sure if Nico Watkins had made it to the start he’d have also made the 100 mile distance but alas no, he is still on the outer and has to wait outside , probably in the rain, while we bask in the glory of the 100 mile club.

100 miles, leaving on lap 24. Back to back ,milers baby !

As is now tradition I finished lap 24 and adopted the ‘dead runner’ pose , as I call it. Again as usual everybody takes a photo rather than check I’m ok, they could at least pause my Coros.? The photo below is a classic from Michelle and it sums up the day, bleak and lonely with worse to come, the weather gods were about to play their hand and it was a good one.

 

My traditional 24 laps, 100 miles, finishing pose.

The final laps and thing began to hurt. It seemed my strong anti-inflammatories were starting to give in to the pain from the now visibly swelling ankle. This was an injury I had picked up from the Feral Pig ultra caused by tightening the ankle timing bracelet too tight, rookie error. I had not ran , or even attempted to run, in-between the two events but knew that eventually the ankle would probably say enough is enough. Around lap 26 I mentioned this to the Race Director at the time, Michelle, expecting sympathy,  and she responded by pulling up my sock over the offending swelling and sending me back out onto lap 27, priceless.

I nearly forgot to mention lap 26 when the heavens opened up and I mean opened up. It had be brewing all morning and when it came it was a serious down pour. I’ve been on this planet for over 55 years but I can’t honestly remember a downpour as bad, or good if you’re a farmer which at the time I wasn’t ! The course changed completely and I went from running in a dust bowl to running in a river with a strength to nearly take your feet from under you. It was crazy but also pretty cool as as I said earlier I was prepared for the deluge and enjoyed the experience of running in extreme conditions, albeit for half a lap.  I managed to get back to the start , dry off and then Michelle kicked me out again, one more lap.

Lap 27 and all was dry again, so quickly, where did all that rain go ? Must be really porous ground  in Loxton ? I struggled from the start and was left alone with my thoughts by the other 5 runners.  Wayne Chapman was on course clapping us as we passed and he could see I was suffering. Wayne was brilliant the whole time. He managed 5 laps himself then spent the rest of the day and night supporting us,  popping up at every corner it seemed at the time.  His support did make a difference.  I managed to get in around 55 minutes and the five minute warning song was already playing as I slumped into my chair. By this time the foot had gone very troublesome,  to annoying and was moving towards very painful with possible long term injury.  I had achieved all my goals and was obviously the weakest of the remaining five runners as I was being dropped early each lap.

Undeterred  I thought I’d go for one more lap and call it if I made it to the finish. Again I was dropped by the top of the hill but this time I was walking early with little chance of even a stumble. I eventually made the left turn before the road with Wayne patiently waiting for me. This time though there was no words of encouragement good enough to send me on my way. I took up his offer of a lift back to the start after making a quick detour to say my goodbye’s to the remining runners on the course.

Wayne drove me right up to the start line, through the event village, and I popped out of his front seat and ran that bell for all I was worth. DNF lap 28, bloody awesome result. This left five runners on the course but the weather had yet to play its trump card, a thunder and lightning storm for the ages. This was enough to stop the event at lap 30, the right call,  and that was it.  The last five runners’ DNF’d with Mother Nature the winner, such is life.

 

Hysterical Carnage 2022 done and dusted. DNF lap 28. Very happy.

So that’s it, four backyard ultras for the Grand Slam, 130 laps, (Herdys 34 /6th /Birdys 36 /5th  NTTD 33 /LOS / Hysterical 27/6th )  just over 870km of fun, fun, fun, at least I think it was. ?  That’s eight backyard ultras and I hope to compete in many more, it’s an event like no other and when you know, you know.  If you haven’t tried one , do you won’t regret it, you’ll go further than you ever thought you could and at some point you’ll enjoy it, remember as Lazarus Lake says ‘ it’s easy until it’s not’…..

I have so many people to thank for this event. My Grand Slam buddies Renton and Jen, we had so many laughs over the events, so many. Shaun Kaesler and his army of volunteers including the three race directors , Michelle, Georges and Kirk. These guys put in a monster shift and coped with all Mother Nature could throw at them. All my fellow competitors who always encouraged me and everybody around them, it really is a brotherhood (or sisterhood?) of suffering but this bonds us. Wayne Chapman for just being there , on every corner, encouraging us all. Tamas for being Tamas.Everybody who made me a cup of tea and there were a few of you.  Georges or Michelle’s Mum ?, for the best omelette ever and also the best Anzac biscuits. My Wife for crewing and doing a damn good job, Charlotte and Jasmin, two of my three daughters, for tuning up occasionally and not complaining too much and finally Michelle for the medical advice, I never knew you can fix most running injuries’ just by hiding them.

 

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

 

Fisiocrem is a must have in your ultra box of tricks…

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

Great hydration.

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

 

 

Feel free to follow me on Strava.


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Beating a pig, Feral 2022.

The Feral Pig 100 miler is a beast of an event. Over 4,300 metres of elevation on brutal trail in the searing heat of a Western Australian spring day. The best is saved for last after returning to the start line and then having to face the hardest terrain of the day in the 38k ‘death loop’ , normally attempted in the late evening or early morning when you are at your weakest.

I have ran the Feral twice before , in 2020 I got my ass well and truly kicked 🙁 https://www.runbkrun.com/2020/11/13/another-lesson-learned-ultras-teach-you-stuff/ ) but I returned last year and returned the favour, take that piggy ! ( https://www.runbkrun.com/2021/12/13/feral-pig-100-miler-in-case-you-missed-it/ )

So it was best of three time and to give the pig a chance I picked up an injury post Melbourne Marathon,  in early October,  so had ran less than 100km’s in the five weeks coming into the event, not ideal. I had managed to get to the start line thanks to some dry needling from Myree (the most painful experience of my short life!) and some seriously strong anti-inflammatories, prescription strength.  Unfortunately the little running I had done in the last few weeks was pitiful at best and the only reason I rocked up to the start was the entry money was non-refundable,  as I had left it so late,  and I had no other plans so a three day hike on the bib sounded like fun. ?

As you can see from the Stava extract (you are on Strava right ? http://www.strava.com ) I had ran 6 times since the Melbourne marathon and I use the word ‘ran‘ in the loosest sense of the word.  With my tight hamstrings , a result of running ‘fast’ at Melbourne, I could only run while high on strong anti-inflammatories and even Myree and her needles of pain couldn’t release the hamstrings fully.  The orange activities are time on my Elliptigo  ( http://www.elliptigo.com ) which was the best cross training I could muster without inuring myself. I enjoy my GO time but it’s nowhere near enough exercise in preparation for a Feral assault.  The last three runs pre-Feral were pitiful at best and I was lucky to average around 6min/k , while the heart pumped at beats per minute reserved for sprinting, things were not good.   The ultimate low for me was my last run pre-Feral, an 11km run in the ghetto that is City Beach where I slowed kilometre on  kilometre until towards the end I was barely running. I passed two young men collecting from the verge when one of them starts to run backwards with me and asks his friend to video it. He was most excited that he could run backwards faster than this old fella,  struggling,  could run forwards. The worst part was my hammys were so tight I couldn’t go any faster and just had to take the embarrassment head on. I remember thinking to myself I had sunk to a new low in my running career.   As I mentioned in the last paragraph I had no right rocking up to the start of the Feral but with nothing better to do on the weekend a long hike , with like minded runners, sounded ok?

 

Undertrained is an under statement !

 

Undeterred by my lack of training and negative attitude from the Yelo running crew, in their defence it was ludacris to attempt the Pig really, I fronted up to the Perth Discovery Centre early evening on Friday to catch the 9:35pm bus to the start line.

It’s tradition before we leave to recite the Feral Pig pledge and once Shaun Kaesler talked us through it were away on the two hour bus journey to the start line  over 130km’s south on the Brookton Highway. The bus is a somber affair as all runners are desperately trying to get as much shut-eye as possible knowing it will probably be their last for a minimum of 24 hours  and, for most, even longer.  I nodded off a few times and was awoken when we left the highway and start to bounce along an off-road section  just big enough for the bus. The clock was showing 11:30pm so we have 30 minutes to kill before the start.

This is the time Shaun Kaesler gets all the runners into a big circle, everybody turns off the headtorches and we just bask in the silence and tranquility of our surroundings, trust me people it’s special. Worth running a hundred miles for, probably not but a nice touch and it certainly fills you with positive vibes and prepares you for the task ahead. Mr. Kaesler really is the pied piper of ultra runners and in Shaun we trust.  

 

All aboard the pain bus to the start, with Shaun Kaesler reading the Feral pledge.

The Feral start at midnight is unique and is a double edged sword, on one hand you have less than five hours until daylight but on the other you are starting a 100 mile race already sleep deprived and you know Sunday morning, early, you are going to have pay the piper.  Due to the remoteness of the route the first aid station, Sullivan Rocks,  isn’t until 41km, and it’s really for drop bag pick up only,  not hot food as such ,  and the second aid station , Brookton Highway, is at 74km. That is a long way between aid stations. After Brookton they start to come every 13km or so until the end and this is much more manageable.

The first twenty or so kilometres is very runnable with no real elevation to speak off, I settled into a group of four runners with the Feral pain train of 2021, Cam D’Silva and Andy Thompson joined by our new recruit Neily Rae.  Throughout the night runners came and went but the four of us were pretty constant until just after Mount Cook when Andy took off.  Mount Cook was as challenging as always , elevation and also it just gets cold and windy near the summit, funny that. Coming off Mount Cook you eventually hit some good running terrain again , the sunrises , and before you know it you’re at Sullivan Rocks, aid station one.

Saturday morning, the witching hours , 2am to 5am. Nice running terrain.

At Sullivans I was prepared with a drop bog, one of only two for me, filled with goodies including 5 weetbix and milk. I have learnt from the two previous races that this aid station is really just a place to pick up your drop bag. Nothing compared to the smorgasbord we would be presented with at Brookton Highway thanks to Shannon Dale, the aid station King. I wolfed down my weetbix but in the rush to leave (why? It’s a 100 mile race!) I must have repacked or misplaced most of my gu’s. I left Sullivan Rock with very little in the way of nutrition,  which was a mistake as the next aid station was another thirty two kilometres away.  The image below is me and Cam at the top of Sullivan Rocks about to get trampled on by the 100 km runners and 50 mile runners. They do it every year although this year I think we arrived ten minutes earlier than the previous year so we had a bit of a headstart, ultimately it just delayed the inevitable.

Cam and I just after the first aid station at Sullivan Rocks. Two thirds of the Feral train, after Andy left us !

After Sullivans Cam started to drop off citing an issue with his knee and Neily also faded leaving me with my thoughts and Taylor Swift on the Aftershokz, normal service had been resumed.  Cam actually made it back to the Perth Discovery Centre, over 130km, in pain for over 100km of that distance. Bloody amazing effort and together we’ll go better next year. (Did I just type that?) He is a young man with a big future in trail running and ultra distance running. We’ll run together in February when we both take on the Delirious West 200 miler , with his mentor Carl Douglas.  ( https://deliriouswest200miler.com.au/ )

Luckily before I reached Brookton I bumped into Tristan Cameron running with another miler and he had some extra nutrition he was able to give me as well as a water bottle. this certainly made the journey easier. To my credit I gave his some fisiocrem which helped his aching limbs. Fisiocrem is an absolute must for these events and I carry a tub with me in my backpack as well as tubes in my drop bags, it’s that good ! At every aid station and regularly throughout the event I would lather my legs in fisiocrem, it is ace !

 

Early Saturday morning as its still overcast, just after Sullivan Rocks heading towards Brookton Hwy.

Between Sullivan Rocks and Brookton Highway aid stations someone turned on the heat. This isn’t a problem for me as I love the heat , well I love running in the heat, daily life going about my business in the heat I whine like a stuffed pig.  Actually I think that should be ‘bleed like a stuffed pig’? but whine is better in this scenario. I very rarely bleed like a stuffed pig when it’s hot, unless I trip ? I digress. I was probably undernourished and dehydrated by the time I got into Brookton but all this changed as Shannon Dale and his aid station oasis recharged my batteries. As you can see from the image below he knows the way to my heart.  Bacon, egg and pancakes swimming in maple syrup, there are no words !

Bacon, egg and pancakes at Brookton Hwy.

I left Brookton Highway feeling like a million dollars, bacon has that effect on me. The next aid station was Dale Car Park , a mere 13km away. After the first two aid stations spanning nearly 74km, a 13km hop was childs play. The trail was also special with the spring flowers in full bloom and also the colours from a recent burn-off, stunning. I stopped several times to try and capture the images on my iphone 11 but to no avail. (Note to self, time for a new iphone 14 for Xmas. ) It’s amazing how the world changes after a good feed and this is a valuable lesson , if you’re feeling like you’re done just eat and drink , a lot ! You can then walk it off initially before running again, fully fueled. As I have said many times a diesel van with fuel will destroy a Bugatti with no fuel all day long.  Ultra running is all about getting the hydration and nutrition right.  Sounds easy right , not so trust me.

Feeling great after my Brookton HWY aid station feast.

Between Brookton and Dale Car Park I ran alone and just enjoyed the serenity of the occasion and the magnificence of my surroundings. The 13km slipped away quickly and before I knew it I was sitting down at Dale Car Park with a great cup of tea, white with three sugars, thankyou Harmony.  I had my second , and final drop bag, here and opened it to find a tin of rice pudding, winning. ! Rice pudding is my go to as it is easy to digest, is full of all the good things an ultra runner needs and tastes great. Please note I only ever eat Rice Pudding when racing, as a day to day treat its probably not ideal, probably ?  Before I left it was suntan cream time, thanks Heath Watkins, and off I went to take on more trails. Eleven more kilometres before Beraking aid station, another small hop albeit a few nasty elevations in the way. The fisiocrem certainly got a hammering at each aid station, making a massive difference.

The photo does not do this scenery justice, need a new Iphone !

Things were really heating up now and I had been running for well over 14 hours. The hill ( mountain?) before Beraking doesn’t have a name as such but boy it is long and grinds you down. Shaun mentioned at the start of the event that Beraking seems to be the DNF high point for the miler and I can see why. You’ve ran most of the night,  and all day , and are now tired, hot and have just faced a monster of a hill. You hit the aid station at 99km into the 163km race knowing you have a death loop (38km ) ahead of you as well as over 60 kilometers, very easy to pull the pin. I felt good at Beraking as the next aid station , Allen Road, is where I start to enter my ‘happy place’.  Allen Road to the Discovery Centre is a segment I have ran many times and know it like the back of my hand.  I knew once I hit Allen Road I could easily get back to the start before the final death loop, the hardest part of the whole event.

The Bibulumum track turned it on late Saturday afternoon.

The next aid station hop to Allen Road was around 16km, moving from 99km to 113km into the event. Again some serious elevations between these aid stations but the scenery made up for the brutality of the terrain.  The temperature started to drop as we neared sunset and I managed to get to the Allen Road aid station just before the sun disappeared. I gorged on chocolate at Allen Road, trying something different to try and boost performance and who doesn’t love chocolate.  Fueled on dark chocolate I climbed out of Allen Road and headed back to the start where I had left 18 hours earlier.  As I said earlier this is my go to loop and I know it so well, it would be a lot easier running this route with my history on this trail.

 

Snapped in my natural habitat..

Between Allen Road and the Discovery Centre I ran though the sunset which is my favourite time on the trails. The light is just so special at this time of the day and around each corner you are faced with another breath taking image. Colors change by the minute and it takes all my will power not to stop every few yards and take another photo.  I have added an image below but I have so many more, I could have probably have finished a lot quicker if I hadn’t kept stopping and taking photos but when the scenery is this good you just need to stop and take it all in.  This is why we do what we do after all.

 

Just when you think the Bib can’t look any better, along comes dusk.

Upto Allen Road aid station I had been mostly running alone but had been yo-yo’ing with Doug Bartlett for most of the day, we both came into Allen Road at around the same time and I suggested we run the last part of the race together. In the dark company can be a good thing. He agreed but he was too quick and I let him go early although I did catch him as we got to within 4km of the discovery centre and we talked about setting off into the death loop together,  after a 90 minute rest.  At this point we also nearly caught Andy Thompson, who had dropped Cam and I about 80 kilometres earlier. We heard him and Harmony, his pacer, a few hundred metres ahead of us but never managed to catch him. He also had a power nap at the Discovery centre and left with Doug.

We got into the Perth Discovery Centre around 9:30pm, 132km into the event and nearly twenty hours . There was no way I could face the death loop, the hardest 38km of the whole event, without some rest.  Doug and Andy also tried to get some sleep and I scurried off to my car , got changed into some pajama’s and dived into a sleeping bag. I set the alarm for 11pm and tried to sleep. Normally I drop off to sleep very quickly but for some reason I couldn’t get comfortable and lay there thinking about what lay ahead of me. This is the hardest part of the Feral pig, lying in your car with the opportunity to drive away and end the suffering or starting on the death loop knowing you’ll be out there for probably around nine hours. Two years ago I left at this point , driven home by Adam around midnight,  albeit I was pretty broken. Last year I breezed through the aid station and left after a quick pot noodle, chasing a buckle finishing time.  It was one for the pig and one for me, this was the decider, it all came down to my next decision.

After working with Rob Donkersloot from Mind Focused Running ( https://mindfocusedrunning.com/ ) there really was only one option. Change of clothes, change of mental attitude and into the night I would go, unfortunately at this point alone as Doug and Andy has already left.  It would have been better to run with them but I felt they were both running quicker and I didn’t want to hold them back. It was me, my shokz headphones and Taylor Swift again, the deadly duo reunited.  I walked to the aid station letting them know I was off into the death loop alone when I saw Neily Ray get some work done on his feet. The last time I saw Neily was exiting Sullivan Rocks, a lifetime ago.  I was going to wait for him when Shaun Kaesler informed me Tristan Cameron had just left minutes earlier. Company was too good to turn up, I left the aid station and chased Tristan down which didn’t take long as he was playing with his light about 100 metres down the trail.  This was good news, we agreed to run (hike?) together but in all the commotion I had forgot to grab any water or food. I had a 8km hop to the next aid station with no nutrition or hydration, great ? Again Tristan had more than enough for both of us so it wasn’t a problem.

The death loop (or DNF loop) is a real nasty piece of work. You have to run normally at night and after running a 132km warm up with a midnight start the previous evening. You’re tired, very tired and probably worse and you know you have a really long night ahead of you, and early morning. Last year I ran most of it and still took nearly 8 hours, this year there would be little running. Tristan and I just broke the loop down into four separate sections, what I recommend you do with any ultra distance event. Don’t concentrate on the finish , which could be days away, instead aim for the next aid station. Get there and then reset with your next goal being the next aid station, leap frog your way to the finish,  one aid station at a time.

For this loop we had just over 9km to the Camel Farm aid station, then a similar distance to Jorgensen park, Kalamunda, before retuning the same way , via the Camel Farm, to the finish. The first 18km was the hardest as we climbed from the Discovery Centre to Jorgensen Park. Once we go to Jorgensen Park we could turn and roll home, well that’s how we sold it to ourselves. We staggered and I mean staggered to Camel Farm where we stopped for a cup of tea albeit with no sugar, sacrilege, and some cold sausage rolls. As we sat there mulling over the next section Neily Ray came into sight and the duo became a trio.  The three of us would finish together and the company made the journey so much more enjoyable.

We left the Camel Farm to take on the hardest section of the death loop, the 9km to Jorgensen Park. There are two massive climbs within this section on just about un-runable single track.  Add to this we go lost on a descent following an old trial on the Gaia app, and when I say old I mean old, I reckon the last people on this trail would have been early settlers. ! We eventually made the summit at Jorgensen Park to an oasis of an aid station. Hot food, hot tea and great company. The only problem was we were all so tired myself and Neily actually nodded off in our chairs. It was time to get moving or we’d never leave. The mental boost from knowing you are on a descent to the finish and with a full stomach, cannot be under estimated.  Now every step was a step towards the finish line and mostly downhill. It got even better when the sun rose albeit it brought rain with it for good measure. Undeterred we kept moving forward and breezed through the Camel Farm on the way back, not even stopping, we could smell the finish.

I have no photos of this stage bar the two images below. The first the three of us at Mundaring dam at the top of the stairs, all smiles,  and the last one at the finishing line. I was just fatigued to take out my phone and take photos, and if you know me that is a big deal.  This race destroys you, it’s as simple as that.

The three amigos at the dam, a stones throw from the finish.

Mission accomplished. We staggered home from the Camel Farm and even broke into a trot on a few occasions. Overall just over nine hours for the last 38km and I’m happy with that. Tristan and Neily made it bearable and I’m sure we’ll all sign up again. In the end we finished in 32 hours 19 minutes and change. Given the build up to this event it goes down as one of my greatest achievements’.  A week before the event I was struggling to finish a 10km , to complete the Feral was a miracle and a testament to Rob Donkersloot and his work on my mental strength. No more talk of DNF’ing just enjoying the moment and reminding myself that this is what I signed up for and enjoy it.  He’s got a point you know.

 

32 hours and change, Feral Pig 100 miler 2022 done !

So what’s next ? Well you’re probably not going to believe this but Hysterical Carnage backyard ultra  ( https://hystericalcarnage.com.au/ ) is five days after the Feral Pig.  I love Hysterical and this year am taking the family along so it’s recovery and then racing again. No time for training due to the quick turn around. Only fly in the ointment is a very badly bruised ankle due to the timing chip ankle bracelet being too tight, rookie error.  It’s back onto the anti-inflammatories for one more adventure, promise.

As well as the strong drugs I also use my Human Tecar compression bandages and spray to aid recovery.  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) I have used the compression bandages after both of my 200 milers this year and they really work. We’ll see how they go this time, pre-Hysterical.

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

 

Fisiocrem is a must have in your ultra box of tricks…

 

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Eventually Injury always comes calling, time to get out the toys.

An injured runners weapon of choice, the Elliptigo.

After the No Time to Die Ultra I was broken and on my first run post event , the Thursday morning  Yelo  run, I blew up 5km into the 10km morning recovery. The last 5km back to Yelo was painful and I could feel all my tendons and leg muscles taught and ready to rip or tear. I put this down to little or no stretching since the last ultra and also not drinking enough liquids. I made an appointment with my dry needling guru, Myree , and that evening found myself on her massage bed in the world of pain that is a decent dry needling appointment. I normally avoid dry needling if possible as if it is done right it is so, so painful. Myree works miracles and she relieved the hamstrings that were tight as old buggery. Dry needling , done right, is very , very good at releasing muscle tightness but you certainly pay the price.

Thanks to Myree and some very string anti-inflammatories I was able to run the Melbourne marathon. As well as tight hamstrings I had felt a niggle on the inside of my right knee. The anti-inflammatories put an end to this but post marathon it returned with a vengeance. To this end I have only ran three times since Melbourne, in the last two weeks. This is not ideal with a 100 miler less than three weeks away and then my final backyard ultra of the season 6 days after that in Adelaide.

The Feral Pig miler is a beautiful as it is brutal, my race report from last year  is here :- https://www.runbkrun.com/2021/12/13/feral-pig-100-miler-in-case-you-missed-it/

Running this event with a dodgy knee, high on anti-inflammatories, is not ideal especially with a backyard ultra in another state. South Australia,  the following week. Then again at any start line you’ll find a high proportion of runners are carrying niggles or minor injuries, mental toughness, stubbornness and good drugs help carry the runner to the finish line, normally.

 

The beauty of the Pig…

After the Feral Pig miler I’m heading over to Adelaide to compete in the Hysterical Carnage backyard ultra. I was lucky enough to grab an assist to Phil Gore, the story of my life, in the inaugural year last year but had an extra week to recover after Feral. For some reason Shaun, the race director,  has moved the events closer together ?  I’ll be gutted to miss either of these events as both are so good and this is why I’m still desperate to run both, even though the timing really makes it suicidal.

Last few runners , probably around lap 30.

So if I am to spend some time on the sidelines I have a few toys to play with to help keep my cardio fitness high enough that I shouldn’t lose too much. My Elliptigo (https://www.elliptigo.com/ ) is great for longer distances as you can cruise around 20-25km/h , it is seriously good fun to ride taking you back to your childhood, just puts a smile on my face every time I use it. I also have a generation one Bionic  , image below. This is an Australian made product but the company has unfortunately gone under due to dodgy Chinese manufacturing. It’s a pity as the Bionic is a seriously good running alternative and has the ‘airplane wing’  motion which is akin to running. It is a much harder ride than the Elliptigo and you’d normally average a few kilometres an hour less but also it works the body harder, making longer distances testing. The only issue with the Bionic is my rollers are starting to fail and there doesn’t seem to be any options for getting new ones, without these rollers it becomes unusable.

 

Bionic Gen1 , this thing is a monster !

With all injuries there are various stages, I wrote this post on the 5 stages of grief a few years ago when I recovering from a calf tear, I think. There’s be a few injuries over the years , I must admit to losing track.

The same stages apply to an injury.

My Daughter recounted this to me a few days ago in reference to my ongoing battle with injury. She reckoned I was moving into the depression stage and truth be told she’s probably right.

The 5 stages of grief can be virtually mirrored for injuries when you’re a runner. Well they work for me. The first stage is denial. For me this was probably as I hobbled over the road to Yelo to grab a coffee and muffin with the boys a week before the Bunbury Marathon. At the time I could just about hobble 10m’s but once I got settled in the cafe all talk was about the marathon in a weeks time. Not once did it cross my mind I may not make it. I had a calf knot which would either disappear itself with a bit of ‘pain ball’ magic or a trip to the physio  and dry needling. Nothing to worry about. That was three weeks ago and I’m still lame, silly boy.

Next comes anger. Boy, I was angry on Thursday evening before the marathon when 7k into a 10k last run I pulled up lame and knew instantly I had rolled the dice one too many times. I was also angry at myself for ignoring the calf all week and just assuming it had come good on its own. In my defence I had ran twice with no issues so assumed all was ok. With hindsight I should have gone to the physio on Monday after the weekends 10k race and had some needling and massage on the calf. I reckon the physio could have got the know untangled intimate for Bunbury and I would be posting about my 42nd marathon finish rather than adding to another post on injury.

Next come bargaining. For me this was about convincing myself I’d be right in a few days after physiology. Again . no problem, I bargained my injury window down to a week max with the upside this would be good ‘rest’ time, something I never do normally.

Once bargaining fails it headlong into depression, which is where I am now. Depressed at what could have been and also depressed that I’m still injured and my 2 days blip has become a 3 week road block with little sign of abating. Worse still my last 7k run was as bad as the first run 3 weeks ago which started this sad tale, so after three visits to the physio and well over $150 out of pocket I’m back to the start, injured ! Oh yeah, I’m depressed. It gets even worse, I’ve had to resort to spending two hours a day on the bike to try and save my cardio fitness. This is depressing but also painful. How these cyclist breed is beyond me.?  The family jewels have taken a right royal beating on the Perth bike paths and I either need to man up or get cycling shorts with more padding. (maybe a cushion! or even better a cushioned seat as the one I got seemed purpose built to inflict as much pain as possible. Maybe this is why cyclists spend so long in cafe’s drinking coffee and eating cake, to rest their ‘how’s your fathers’ ‘ ) 

Finally comes acceptance. I’m close to this stage currently as the Joondalup half in 2 weeks is now off the race calendar as is the 10k the following week. I realise that the 3 weeks of no running (with more time to come.) is too much for me to give a good account of myself at either of these races. I have no accepted missing the Perth marathon in June as this is an A goal race but I may have to reevaluate my predicted time. A lot will depend on Tuesday when I will slope off back to the physio and let his magic hands and needles do their best on my right calf.

Injury wise I’ve been lucky over the last 8 years. This is my fourth calf knot which accounted for maybe 4-6 weeks of no running, less than one week a year. I know that it about as good as you get but as I sit him typing away I’m not overly excited about my previous track record. If you’re a runner you get injured, this is as certain as the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening. How long and when depends on so many variables but I could kick myself for missing the signs (for missing substitute ‘ignoring’!) and allow the 2 day injury to morph into this 3 week (and counting) career threatening calf knot from hell. Off course I did sell my soul to the Devil for this good run but was hoping to get longer than 8 years. That’s the problem with dealing with Lucifer, just can’t trust him. Oh well, onwards and upwards, the bike is calling and how much more pain can the family jewels endure? Surely over time the jewels will ‘harden up’ or maybe they just fall off ?

I have also got my treadmill back, the one  that I brought when we entered COVID lockdown early 2020 and then loaned out to Adam for a few years. I don’t think I’ve ever used it in anger truth be told but it should help as it’ll be easier on the legs, I can also add a good gradient if necessary ; without leaving my a garage. Not a fan of treadmills but I’ll get a TV set up in the garage and catch up on all my Netflix movies while exercising, winning.

 

My COVID treat..

Finally as prevention is better than cure I’ll be hitting my massage gun, every runner needs one of these , they are ace. I use an Australian made product, the Stryke recovery gun. ( https://www.strykerecovery.com.au/ ) I have had mine for over two years and it still does the job, I just need to use it more. This weapon has saved my life many times on the lionger ultras when you have time to really get into the aching muscles. This together with humantecar spray ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) and fisiocrem  ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) are must haves for longer events and also injury prevention.

 

The running answer to eternal youth ?

So its on the treadmill for a week and then hopefully two weeks of training before its on the two hour bus ride from the Discovery Centre (the finish line) to the start line in the middle of nowhere on the Bibbulmun track for the midnight kick off.  Where else would you rather be on a Friday night ?

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

 

Fisiocrem is a must have in your ultra box of tricks…

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

Great hydration.

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

 

 

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How not to run a marathon, Melbourne 2022.

Melbourne tram, iconic image.

The last couple of years my focus has been on ultra races, in fact my last 18 races over that period have all been ultras. My last marathon was the Perth City to Surf in August 2019, just breaking the sub three hour mark finishing in 2 hours 55 minutes and change.  I had entered the Melbourne marathon on a whim earlier in the year and I was determined to try and continue my sub three streak currently standing at twenty nine marathons over a ten year period. Seemed like a good idea at the time but then the ‘No time to die‘ backyard ultra was introduced and I had to run it to get the Grand Slam of backyard Ultras. (Running all four of the UltraSeries backyard ultras in one year)

The only down side to this challenge was the backyard ultra was two weeks before Melbourne, essentially my last long run.  Normally a last long run is around 32km maybe a tad longer but not the 33 hour , 224km backyard ultra I ran. Deep down I knew this would come back to bit me and coupled with just about a total lack of marathon specific training I knew I was in for a torrid time, at best.

Right lets start at the beginning, well actually before the beginning,  at the hour and half before the start with myself and Adam cocooned in the VIR room (Very Important Runner) . This is a $100 extra you can pay to get a nice warm room in the MCG at the start with fruit, tea and coffee and the best bit, toilets without a queue a mile long.  You are then escorted to the front of the pack just before the start and then afterwards back to the room for a massage, light lunch and a shower ; and yes, toilets.  Probably the best $100 I have ever spent.  The image below is myself and Adam preparing to enter the VIR room up the VIR escalator, I told you it was a good deal.

Melbourne VIR entrance with Adam. No Barts and Jeff, too tight to spend the extra $100 !

The view from the VIR room was pretty special too, the MCG stadium in all it glory just before sunrise. This VIR option is the gift that keeps giving I tell you.  As the sun rose we were escorted out of the calm of the VIR room into the chaos that is a major marathon start line. It was good to get the option to start with the preferred starts, the fast runners , just behind the Kenyans. Adam and I noted the location of the three hour pacers and then some last minute stretching before the gun went off and it was on for young and old.

MCG pre-start, view from the VIR room.

The VIR room was also full of most of the Perth runners loyal to my good friend Tony Smith, him of Tony Smith Coaching. ( https://www.tsrunclub.com/ ) Tony has built an empire the last few years and his one goal is helping achieving theirs, a very humble but driven character Tony , as are his coaches.  Over the years we have had many tussles and trained many, many  hours together and laughed a lot and I mean a lot, easily done with like minded people.  His coaching business is growing but he still maintains a hands on approach and is genuinely interested in all his runners.  I love the image below as it shows us getting ready and I have many of these over the years. Tony is still running incredibly well and ran sub three for the marathon.

 

The T-train and I, two old warriors preparing for battle, again !

Right lets get to the interesting bit, the race debriefing. As the split below shows I basically tried to stay with the sub 3 bus and did so until 10k when I was kicked off and then struggled to the finish. Truth be told it was what I expected after running the No time to die ultra two weeks prior and as I always maintain you can’t hide from a marathon. I struggled from the start and a toilet stop at 5km didn’t help as I was then chasing the three hour pacers, when I eventually caught them around the 10km  my head gasket blew. As I said earlier its been three years since I’ve ran a marathon and in that time I have done no specific marathon training bar a few token efforts in the last few weeks.  My legs hadn’t recovered from the backyard ultra a few weeks previous but I was hoping I could run sub3 on past glories, a ridiculous concept really and at 10k all the cows came home and the piper was there with his hand out, he wanted paid big time.

I’ve very rarely been in this position before as I always train for the event I enter, be it a 4km sprint to a 200 miler adventure. This was always going to be a challenge and depending how the legs had recovered would determine the time in the pain cave. It looked , at 10km into the race, my time in the pain cave would be extensive, and very deep. It is in situations like this you need your past experience to decide a new strategy for the way forward, because you need to keep moving forward.  I decided I needed to get to halfway and then mentally I would be in a better place. At the moment I was running away from the start line, at halfway I was running back towards the finish line, a world of difference. I would then also give myself a pace target for the journey home to the MCG stadium.

From the 10km mark to halfway is good running , initially around a park and then along the beach front in St. Kilda, conditions were perfect.  I struggled to the halfway mark with runners constantly passing me but once there gave myself a target of pacing around the 4:40min/km to 5min/km , if I could keep this pace I would be able to get back to the MCG around 3 hours 15minues, a respectable enough time. From 21km to 28km I was able to maintain my new goal pace amd as we turned for home felt confident I could reach my new goal albeit I could see the 3hour 10min bus approaching quickly. With hindsight I would have been better off starting with this bus as I could have probably held on to the end, but was happy with my decision to roll the dice and pay the price, so to speak.

After the 3hour 10 bus went over the top of me we merged with the half marathon runners who were running considerable slower than me, it was actually nice to pass a few runners for a change as I had spent the last hour or so getting passed myself, constantly. We were then separated briefly before the marathon runners got to run the hills in Tan park while the half marathon turned for home.  The tan park has a few nasty rises, not really hills as such, but with less than 5km to go you can see the end so mentally you just need to switch to finish mode and it all becomes do-able. Coming out of the Tan Park the job is done as there is a 2-3km downhill stretch to roll into the MCG, albeit playing ‘frogger‘ with the now really slow half marathon runners.

Once you enter the MCG the magic of the finish engulfs you, the stadium is a 100,000 seater , four tier monster of a venue to finish in. The holy grail of Cricket and Australian Rules Football and it is an honour and a privledge to run on the sacred turf. I made an effort to smile for the camera and not look at my watch until I was well past the finish to get a good photo, albeit at 55 finding a good photo these days is becoming more and more difficult, thankfully we have photoshop and filters.

As you can see from the splits below they tell a sorry tale of reality kicking in around the 10km mark and then a slow and painful slide down the pacing chart from 4:15min/k to 5:00min/k. Halfway at 1:32:27 means a positive split of thirteen minutes in the second half, not ideal.  On the bright side, is there one,  I stuck to my second half plan, give or take, and couldn’t have give any more on the day.  It was good to finally run marathon number 46 after such a long time away.

 

The splits tell the sorry story.

After the finish it was back to the VIR room for a light lunch, massage and shower, how good is that ? I even managed to sneak Jeffrey in so he could enjoy the business class conditions.

All smiles in the VIR room after the event with the T-train.

As you can see from the image below taken from the VIR room conditions were perfect and the finish is just so special. The MCG is hallowed turf and just to run on it is worth the entry itself, magical times.

So after a snooze at the hotel it was time to all meet up at the Transport bar in Federation Square for a post event beer. I always treat myself to a Guinness or two after a race but today one was enough. Tony and a few of his runners joined Adam, Liam, Barts . Jeffrey and I and we talked for hours about the days adventures, time disappeared very quickly. There was so much laughter as we all had our own stories to share and these adhoc catch-ups are just so good, lime minded people enjoying each others company, what more is there ?

Christened the medal for my friend Jeff Hansen who lost his battle with Leukemia earlier in the year, it was a tradition he and a few of his close friends started. Jeff was a Race Director at the Delirious West backyard ultra , and the Mundy park run (his baby) and is seem interviewing me in the video clip below. He was admired and loved by the running community in Perth and beyond. Missed every day.

 

The dunking of the medal for Jeff.

So the Melbourne marathon has reignited my desire to go sub 3 , and maybe quicker, but before I can do that I have many ultras to finish culminating in the Run Brittania 1,000 mile race July next year. ( https://ratracerunbritannia.com/ ) After that though it could be time to put on the short shorts , drop the ultra puppy fat and start racing marathons again and who knows maybe stay on the sub three bus for longer or even beat it, funnier things have happened.

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

 

Fisiocrem is a must have in your ultra box of tricks…

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

Great hydration.

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

 

 

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No time to die, it wasn’t and I didn’t.

Backyard ultra three in the UltraSeries ( https://ultraseries.com.au/ ) Grand Slam was the inaugural ‘No time to die’ Ultra in Adelaide.  Actually no one is sure what is involved in the backyard ultra grand slam we just know we have to run all four backyard ultras put on by the UltraSeries team, two in Perth and two in Adelaide. Currently there are five of us attempting this, myself, Jen , Renton, Margie and Nico. We have all ran the two WA backyard ultras, Herdy’s Frontyard ultra in March and Birdy’s backyard ultra  in August. How hard could another backyard ultra be ?

There was a good turn out for the first running of this event, nearly 60 runners. As as the photo below shows it was all smiles before the start. That’s the thing with backyard ultras, they really are incredibly easy at the start. You only have to run 6.7km in an hour , you could hobble in at 8min/k average and still have a few minutes. Runners normally find themselves killing time the first few laps  as they finish with twenty or more minutes to spare. Of course this doesn’t last long, to quote Lazerus Lake ‘ Backyard Ultra’s are easy until they ain’t’. 

Conditions for the event ranged from perfect to bloody awful. The temperature was always conducive for good running but the sideways rain at times didn’t help. One lap we sitting in the gazebo when a squall came in just as the five minute warning came over the tannoy, not ideal. Luckily these squalls never lasted long but the over cast conditions cost me a very sun burnt head on Sunday afternoon, lesson learnt , wear a hat or apply suntan cream, rookie error . I miss my mullet, hell I just miss my hair full stop.

 

The starting lineup of the inaugural ‘No Time to Die’ Frontyard Ultra.

We have Team WA in the image below Margie, Jen, Nico, myself, race director Shaun Kaesler, Renton and the other race director Micelle. You’ll notice the Race Directors are in fancy dress, well I hope they are. Shaun had arranged to put us all up in our own gazebo, complete with four separate pods for sleeping, it was very ‘business class‘ as he also supplied a gas heater.  We were joined by another couple of runners who added to the ‘party atmosphere’, one of which was Becky Beumer who would play a staring role in this event.

All the WA runners and the race directors, Michelle and Shaun.

This event started at 4pm on Friday afternoon giving us three hours of daylight before we’d need the head torch. I prefer the late start because it means you get to the night earlier so are better prepared to get to the sunset, if you can  get to the sunset you will give yourself a good chance of going for the first big milestone, 100km or 15 hours. After that its the 24 hours or 100 miles target, then 36 hours (150 miles) before the holy grail of 48 hours and 200 miles. In the back of my mind this is always the end goal.

One of the first three laps before it the head torches came out, Friday afternoon. My new Hoka’s Mach 5’s so clean, this didn’t last long.

The course for the ultra was flat and fast which gave us more time in the business class gazebo with the WA crew. As it was new to us I found the hours seem to tick over quite quickly and sunrise came around before I knew it, a pleasant surprise. Personally I find the first 15 hours in a backyard ultra the hardest, I struggle to get use to the constant stopping and starting but as I pass the 100km mark I can normally find a second wind to make the 24 hour goal. I have always got to the 24 hour mark at all six previous backyard ultras and this was a minimum for this one. I was relieved to hit this goal together with seven other runners, the final eight.

Friday night and another lap finished.

Hydration wise I was running with a 500ml collapsible bottle filled with Bix, various flavours. I love Bix as the flavours are just so good, you can enjoy the drink. Once every five or so laps I would switch to Maurten. ( https://www.maurten.com/ ). Maurten are very, very good and I highly recommend all their products. I particularly like the chewable bars and always feel a boost after eating one, they do make a difference. One caveat is the caffeine gel, this is just to much for me and I used it once in  backyard ultras before testing it in training first , rookie error I know. Gave me a headache due to the amount of caffeine, could be a personal thing so test before you use in racing scenarios.

Nutrition I always eat big meals when I would normally, i.e. 4-5 weetbix early morning drenched in brown sugar, pasta or similar for lunch and rice and meat for dinner. In-between these larger meals I would snack on something every lap.  A gel or similar every three or so laps, chocolate bar every two laps, tin of rice pudding once a day and loads of sweet tea. Always have some form of nutrition every lap. Balancing calories out to calories in takes some doing, remember you’re constantly exercising.

While I’m offering insights into backyard ultras here’s another little gem, break the lap down into three separate sections. By doing this you are able to hit targets quicker and not have to wait for the full lap. i.e. roughly every 2-3km’s have a point where you can tick a box. For this course it was two kilometres to a bridge and then a further 3km to the wetlands walking point (up a small rise).  From this point it was great flat running to the finish. Thus each lap I would look for the next section, twice on a lap and three times including the finish.  I always use this strategy in every backyard ultras, works for me.

Another tip is, as with all ultra’s, you will have up’s as well as down’s and it’s knowing when you are in a down part of your race and having the ability to mentally drag yourself out of the dark place and into the light. Working with Rob Donkersloot of Mind Focused Running  ( https://mindfocusedrunning.com/ ) has allowed me to recognise when I need to ‘mentally’ man up (can I use that term anymore?) and concentrate on changing my attitude, in a backyard ultra it is so important to do this, more so in this format because you have the ability to work on this while you rest , on your chair, each lap. If you are feeling a bit down chat to your crew or anybody who will listen, they will help with words of encouragement and sometimes that’s all it takes. Of course having a crew that knows you is a huge bonus and working with Rob, when he has crewed me, has been so good, the man knows his stuff and also makes a mean cup of sweet tea ! Going deep in a backyard ultra is so much more mental than physical. (Caveat, Nico took this to the extreme and did little or no training, there does need to be a bare minimum of training pre-event, there is an element of physical fitness, call me old fashioned) Right, back to the race report….

 

Sunset on Friday night , looking back over the wet lands.

Friday sunset was spectacular and after the sun disappears its just you and the small beam of light ahead of you. Time to put on my Taylor Swift mix and audible , seventy seven hours of Sherlock Holmes stories read by Stephen Fry.  I find the evening is great for just disappearing into your own thoughts or catching up with books read to you using audible. ( https://www.audible.com/ ). Add in a spotify account and you have just about every bit of music you could ever desire on tap. I think this is my favourite time as you don’t feel the need to talk to fellow runners as everybody just disappears into the darkness and their own world, ‘Kev time‘ as I like to call it.

 

Event village, looking very quiet, all the runners would be out on a lap.

The magnificent eight joining the 24 hour club.  It was a relief to get to 24 hours because anything else was now a bonus and I knew I could get to the second night.  Runners started to drop out quickly after 24 hours and by lap 28 we were down to the final four. We had lost Nico at 100km / 15 hours. A bad knee got the better of him , that and no training ? Renton equaled his PB of 20 laps but was timed out on lap 21, so close to his 24 hour dream which I am sure he will get to at the Hysterical Carnage in November. Margie pulled the pin after lap 24, treating this as a training run with the World Satellite Championships in a few weeks, bigger fish to fry for this young lady. She has easily finished first on all 24 laps and looked relaxed, we’re expecting big things from Margie in a few weeks time.  Jen got to lap 29 and then rang the bell at the start of lap 30. She had plenty left in the tank but was lapping a tad slower than Becky and I and thus found herself running alone. In the end she just wasn’t enjoying the solitude. Unfortunately in a backyard ultra you each run the lap your way and if others are on the same strategy,  and running similar times,  that’s great and you have some company. It’s hard to adjust slower or quicker for company because eventually this will come and bite you. I knew Jen was suffering but was worried if I started to slow I’d lose the time I craved in-between laps and fatigue would start to set in, a minute here or there towards the pointy end of a backyard ultra is so important, trust me ! This is why events such as Herdy’s in WA are so popular because the field is nearly five times larger and you have company well past thirty laps, it makes for big totals.  This event will grow and solitude will be a thing of the past even deep into the event.

 

The 24 hour, 100 mile, club of eight.

 

Hamming it up for the camera Saturday morning.

 

Becky and I are pictured below starting lap 31 and setting a new Women’s South Australian record. Becky had been struggling with knee and hamstring issues for quite a few laps but was always smiling and never complained, just kept ticking off the laps, and that’s the way to get a big total at these events. We managed to get to midnight together and this was always Becky’s primary goal so she decided to pull the pin and grab the assist, handing me the opportunity to run one more lap for the win.

It was surreal running the last lap alone albeit with an accompanying bike, knowing each step would be your last on that course , at that point. I was quite sad truth be told as I had a bit left in the tank and would have probably made sunrise and then who knows ? Easy to say that sitting in my lounge typing this a week later but I really do believe there is more to give. Saying that I was more than happy to stop, take the win and scuttle off to one of the pods with a warm swag and a stretcher bed to fall asleep, and man I needed sleep, 33 hours of running does that to you.

Becky sets a new SA Women’s record, 31 laps.

To the winner the spoils. As well as a trophy for first male I was also presented with an overall winner trophy and a boat. Not a bad haul I reckon albeit I have to give the boat back next year , actually I have to arrange to get the boat to WA as it’s currently in the Ultra Series SA storage unit. I’m under no illusion this win was down to nothing more than  timing, with the Australian Satellite Championships in a months time all the top backyard ultra runners were preparing for this event.  I had decided against running the Satellite championships as my racing calendar has been,  and continues to be, hectic and another trip over East was just one event too far.  This event has been booked in from the start and to take a win was beyond my wildest dreams, I am truly blessed so far this year. At my vintage I treat each win as my last and an unexpected bonus for all the hard yards I’ve put in over the last twenty or so years of racing. That being said this one was very special.

 

A sneaky martini, shaken not stirred, after the event, Sunday morning.

All that was left to do on Sunday morning was packup the event village and go and watch the annual South Australian Aussie Rules final, what a better way to recover ? I think Shaun called this ‘active recovery‘ , I called it bloody hard work! Shaun did  provide the best bacon and egg sandwich I think I have ever tasted in my life, albeit I was so hungry I could probably have eaten a sweaty thong and thought it tasted good ? A few coffee’s later we were sitting in Adelaide Oval barracking for a team I had no idea even existed hours earlier, we lost by the way.

 

All done, ready for the next one.

I need to thank the volunteers who put in massive shifts over many days , the race directors Shaun Kaesler and Michelle Hamlin, who went above and beyond what is expected and continue to do so every event. My fellow runners who all helped offering encouragement every lap, these little comments make a big difference. I probably didn’t chat as much as I could have but do try to help my fellow competitors if I can, this event did take a lot out of me and I didn’t really settle into any rhythm until laps 24. I need to take my shokz ( https://shokz.com/ ) head phones out more and will concentrate on this at Hysterical, promise ! If I don’t let me know please. Finally to team WA and Backy, you guys rock and I had such a great weekend, pre-event and post event. Becky was just bloody good to spend time with and her crew were always so supportive of her but also me, they must have felt sorry for the bald old fella alone towards the end.  Jen gets a special mention as she just went about her business and yet again finished on the podium, so consistent and in the near future Jen is going to go long, very, very long.  Margie looked the top runner all day long and it was lucky for me this was a training run for her, as I said earlier I was successful by timing rather than talent.

That’s it for the inaugural ‘No time to die’ frontyard ultra, a raging success and my one and only win. So happy with the result but also with the whole weekend, spending time with like minded people doing what we love and that’s the point really.  I now need to get ready for the Melbourne Marathon in a few weeks and then the Feral Pig 100miler four weeks after that before taking on the Hysterical Carnage backyard ultra four days post miler, that will be interesting but I choose to enter so it’s down to me. What could possibly go wrong?

 

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

 

Fisiocrem is a must have in your ultra box of tricks…

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

Great hydration.

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

 

 

Feel free to follow me on Strava.


Follow me on
Strava

or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/

 

and facebook https://www.facebook.com/runbkrunoz