Counting Down the Days
It keeps snowing at Kosciuszko, but I'm too busy having fun on the trails. It was a big week in training and personally, but it's another week closer to race day!
“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
Nelson Mandela
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You Were Tough as Nails it’s Sad to See You Go
I knew that Heather Anderson had a mind set that not many could understand when she woke up one morning and decided she was going to run from one end of the ACT border to the other, but that’s just who Heather was.
As a journalist at times we are stripped from our human elements, we report on some of the most tragic stories and have to deliver it in a way that reflects the sadness, but doesn’t allow us to fully process the human element of it.
I always wondered when personal and professional life would intertwine and it happened this week when the news broke that Heather had taken her life in Perth.
Anderson, who also served as a medic in the army, played with Adelaide during the 2017 AFLW season and was part of the team that beat Brisbane in the grand final.
I knew her through her time being a footy prodigy down here in Canberra for Belconnen, she was often the best player on the field, and was easily recognisable from her pink head gear that she would wear, so that her vision impaired mother could see make her out on the field.
She was one of the toughest football players I had ever seen, but her career was cut short by a gruesome shoulder dislocation.
"As soon as my shoulder went (the second time), I had this sense of dread, this gut feeling, that this was going to be my last game," Anderson told AFL.com.au.
"So, I think it's something I've been tossing up since then, and as I went through recovery and got to a bit of a crossroad where I had to make a decision, I started thinking about it a lot more.
"I know the reasons I'm doing it are the right reasons, and I know it's for the best.
"But, looking back, and thinking about the past 17 years with footy and other contact sport (rugby and judo) and what I've done and the people I've met, I think that's what I'm struggling with."
If Heather was going to continue playing she wasn’t going to do it half-assed.
When she was first going to try and play in the AFLW she would commute to Canberra and Melbourne for football while working in Albury-Wodonga – three-and-a-half-hour drives each way – and rise at 4am to complete strength and conditioning training before work.
All I can really say is that it’s a great tragedy to lose Heather and while we lost connection, these are the people you don’t forget. I just wish she could see the great outpouring of grief that has followed her tragic passing. She filled her 28-years with more than any of us could dream of, I hope she’s finally at peace.
Stromlo Running Festival 30 Kilometre Recap
I came into this race confidence, but with a bit of nervous energy because of the 50 kilometres I struggled through earlier this year, which I look back on now as a turning point. I had the biggest struggle in any race I ever had, but was able to find a way to get through 30 kilometres, after already running 20 kilometres, through only being able to get down a litre and a bit of coca cola.
The great thing about this game is that it always gives you another chance, I went back to the books and figured out what went wrong. I worked hard on my running weaknesses, including my downhill technique and tapping away on the hills, and levelled up my nutrition and hydration game with the help of my coach Shiree.
I only actually ended up racing this because a friend Amy, who I met in college, was running her first trail race. She wanted someone to run with (I laughed at this internally because she is a lot faster than me), but I’m so glad she talked me into it.
The feeling I had coming down the stairs and onto the bike track was different, you know those moments where you’ve put in a ton of work and you just know this is going to be different? It was like that, the confidence that even if it wasn’t going to be my day for whatever reason, I’d complete this course because the 372 hours of training that I’d put in over the year had made you stronger, more comfortable and filled you with an energy you never knew possible.
This Stromlo Race was a chance to prove that I wasn’t the same guy that I was in March, I was a different beast.
The initial climb I’ve always struggled with, but just decided to tack onto the back of Amy, when we got to the first hill of the day which is a nasty 106 metres over 1.15 kilometres, I told Amy to go and I’d just keep running my own race. During the climb I saw my friend Singh who just exudes energy, and Binh who is a great friend.
Decided to hike the rest of the hill, knowing some down hills were coming I could make up some time on as I was feeling good, plan was to drink the first of my Maurten 320 Drink in the first hour, it’s 80 grams of carbohydrates and I’d been training to take on 100 grams, so this was my safe buffer zone.
Made some good time and settled into the rhythm of the race in the first hour, saw lots of Elevate people including Dani D who is an absolute legend. I also found there was a couple that was running alongside me, and would overtake me each time I’d stop at the drink and aid stations along the way, they’re my Monday Motivation Heroes, so I talk a little bit more on them later.
Found my good friend Dani K who is such a strong runner, and Paul who I was trying to stick with and ended up passing both along the back stretch of the course where the undulations I felt really comfortable on, I tried not to get stuck going the same pace as people around me which I’ve done in the past, and I was feeling good enough to the half way point 16 minutes faster than I ever had before.
Both Dani K and Paul passed me as I’d spent a little bit too much juice around the back section, but to my surprise after seeing Kaye at the half way point I was able to keep pushing on, couldn’t catch either of them again, I also stupidly sucked myself in to the rhythm of people around me going up Stromlo climb and ended up just staying behind them.
In a way it might not have been stupid, as it saved my heart rate quite a bit, and legs felt nice and easy on the hike up the hill.
To this point of the race about 22-23 kilometres in I had already consumed 180 grams of carbohydrates in about 2 hours 20 minutes and had no stomach issues, considering this pace is far faster than what I’ll run at Kosciuszko that’s promising for my nutrition goals, as for hydration I drink about 750 millilitres an hour, but upped this to about a litre and took advantage of the aid stations to keep myself well hydrated.
On the downhill section I made up at least 20-30 places, just through the heel toe technique and being able to run a section that a lot of people were walking. Some people had started cramping, where in reality if this was my end of season race I would’ve had a few more gears to click over, I was in their position only eight months ago, so I was checking on a few people to make sure they were alright.
I knew there was an aid station about five kilometres from home, so I got stuck in with about 300 millilitres of coca cola to give me that hit to reach the finsh. Started making up some good time and finished the downhill section of the track with two five and a bit minute kilometres.
Finished the race and felt like I still had a lot more in the tank which has me floating on cloud nine heading into Kosciuszko, this was a huge confidence booster and coming in 3:37:10 finishing 276 of 474. Only eight minutes off finishing in the front half of the field for the first time.
This race was such a far improved effort on my 232 of 240 in the 50 kilometre race in March. My heart is so full after this race, thank you everyone for your incredible support, before, during and after the race!
Shout Out to Suze who Joins the Marathon Club
I get to train with some pretty cool people and Suze Lance is absolutely one of them. Incredibly strong on the hills, I was getting plenty of motivation seeing Suze crush Lake Burley Griffin Lake runs.
She had a ripper first marathon in what I’m sure won’t be her last! I get great joy out of seeing people crush their goals.
Training for the Week
Monday: Lie on my Shakti Mat on the rug for about an hour, I find it’s been helping my lower back in recent times, then I massage gun my quads, calves and hamstrings, and work it around the ITB. Important to avoid the bony part near the hip, it has a bursa (a tiny slippery sack of fluid) that could be irritated by the gun.
Highly recommend the video below, who knew you could use your massage gun incorrectly!
Tuesday: I felt like I knew I was in for a good week when I woke up feeling really good. Headed down for a run around the block with my friend Kirstie, I’m trying to talk her into a half marathon at the moment, because her progress has been awesome, we did about seven and a half kilometres, and had plenty to talk about so perhaps we were distracted with that, we went with a 15-20 metre incline hill about a kilometre from the finish, with a nice rolling finish. This felt really good, mainly because I think my long day was three days prior rather than being on the Sunday or Saturday.
Wednesday: Back on one of my favourite undulating trails at Mulligans Flat heading down to Goorooyarroo Nature Reserve, most of this track is runnable in road shoes and is a popular trail for road runners looking to train hills on a run, instead of repeats. I aimed to get through 18 kilometres in two hours, as I felt I’ve benefitted after a long block of Zone 2 work from quickening up my pace and working the body a bit more. Finished with about five minutes to spare which I was stoked with.
Thursday: Elevate Hill Session with Coach Shiree. This is another one that’s going in the kit bag, in particular the longer interval that we did, without giving the session away it involved intervals up the hill with a longer recovery back down, in a pyramid style, didn’t make it to the summit as I was saving my legs for a big weekend, felt really good here especially when I decided to go all out on the last one.
Friday: Was honestly not feeling this session which was going to be six kilometres easy at Running For Resilience, saw Jess Peil and we got talking, ended up running at a pace that I wanted to (5:22 average with a 5:13 and 5 minute last two kilometres), and was amazed I was able to hold a conversation at it. Felt so good and talking to Jess you barely feel like you’re getting through any work even when it’s tough, so looking forward to running Kosciuszko with her next month.
Saturday: This was a race day at Stromlo with 30 kilometres this time. I had only been on these trails once since my catastrophic failure in my ultra earlier this year, was super stoked with this run as you could gauge in my race re-cap. As my B-Race I did everything that I wanted to and ticked a lot of boxes.
Sunday: I had the option of going out with Ben Grimshaw (who won this year’s Gumby) on my plate, and waking up at 5am to fill in at work it didn’t seem like a tempting option, but Ben assured me he was just going out for time on feet, and you never pass down a chance to pick the brain of better runners. We did a nice loop of the trails around the Woden and Farrer Region, I had never been up the Farrer Ridge, but this was a great session to get another 650 metres of elevation into the legs over 18 kilometres, especially when they were fatigued. Felt really good and tried some different nutrition tactics so that I have options to avoid ‘flavour fatigue’ at Kosciuszko. Really enjoyed this, and Ben was incredibly generous with his time, and gave some great advice across the two and a half hours.
Totals: 85 Kilometres, 10 Hours and 6 Minutes, 2,046 Metres Of Elevation
A really good week, where Saturday and Sunday gave me such confidence. I’m now headed up to Queensland to see my parents, where new challenges will no doubt present themselves.
Motivation Monday Heroes
Trail Running is the greatest sport in the world, I used to think it was Australian Rules Football, which has been a passion of mine for as long as I was hold enough to hold, kick and hand pass a footy.
But it’s this sport that can humble you and bring you a kind of understanding of your body you never knew was possible. When I first entered the sport I never thought I would ever think about attempting an ultra marathon, but it’s like you catch the bug and it just goes from there.
The couple I mentioned briefly in my race recap were Rosemary Kemp and Javier Rocha Pica. We started in the 6:40am wave at Stromlo and I don’t think we were out of each others sites the entire time. We changed positions in the race multiple times, often met with the ‘good job’ ‘keep it up’ that usually comes with trail running.
I could tell heading up Stromlo that Javier was determined to finish, jogging up Mt Stromlo, a couple of times prior to that I passed him and Rosemary would’ve gone ahead, before coming back and picking him up, they’d always pass me when I stopped in at the aid stations to talk to people.
In essence, this was their first ever trail running event, and knowing what mine was like you have no idea about nutrition, how to save your energy for the climbs, it’s completely new.
On Saturday, it was like we were in this journey together, we’d never met before, but it was just little simple things along the way to help push through. I ended up passing them on the downhill section about a mile out from the finish line, and I got pretty emotional, it’s strange how you can build a connection with people you’ve never met on the trails.
After they finished hand-in-hand they saw me and immediately came over for a hug. They said they were using me as a marker for the entire race, and that if they could stick with me they were going alright. They had come down for the day as they’d fallen in love with the trails and wanted to give this event a crack.
This is what the sport is about, getting out and giving it a go, and I’m still of the belief that if you sign up for a race there is a belief you can do it.
The reason they’re my Motivation Monday Heroes is because they’ve gone and put themselves out of their comfort zone, and completed something not many people will do in their lives. Here’s to Javier and Rosemary and the adventures you’ll go to from here.
Sorry about your friend, My deepest Condolesnce to her, Rest in Peace.
Nice Come back, its a such a nice feeling/build confidence to smash the race where you struggled earlier. I need to learn a lot from you about nutrition and recovery. Great going. All the best my friend.
I'm sorry to hear about your friend. I too have lost a friend to suicide, so please reach out if you need someone to talk to.
Wow Brent. Another epic run in the bank, you are going to crush Mt K. I had so much fomo scrolling through Strava on Saturday and seeing the sea of blue.
Thank you for the shout out. It means so much to have the support from the Canberra running community, especially the Blue Crew at Elevate.