If Not Now, Then When?
Another race day under the belt, Kosci is getting closer and shit is getting real.
“When I go to the Boston Marathon now, I have wet shoulders, women fall into my arms crying. They're weeping for joy because running has changed their lives. They feel they can do anything.”
Kathrine Switzer
Sing When You’re Winning
Been listening to Robbie Williams old album ‘Sing When Your Winning’ when out on the trails lately, I blame Danielle K, but I’m not complaining, here’s an earworm for your Monday morning.
When Opportunity Comes Knocking
I’ve incredibly been spared the ‘post event blues’ that I’ve experienced other times I have run other big races. I thought at the end of Bright 4Peaks when all the noise had faded to black I’d get home and suffer the dreaded ‘post event blues’, but they never came.
It potentially has a lot to do with the fact that I still have a lot to look forward to, including spending 10 days on the Gold Coast to finish off my preparations for Ultra Trail Kosciuszko, while getting to spend quality time with my parents.
When I think about my parents I think of a lot of love. We were very lucky as kids to grow up in what I would say was a typical working class family, but we were never deprived of opportunity.
I think it’s that attitude that drives me today. If you have the opportunity to go out and do something then what is stopping you?
There have been two things this week that have reminded me about making the most of our opportunities, it’s something my old football coach Brent Fraser was very big at pointing out.
The first has been the tragic story of three bodies discovered in Yerrabi Pond, two of them young children. During lockdown Yerrabi Pond was my sanctuary, I live about 200 metres from the Pond, so it was the easiest place to get to and run within my hour of allotted time.
What hits me so hard about all of this is the lost opportunity for those children. They’ll never grow up and have the chance to live their lives to the fullest of their potential, it’s a heart breaking reminder that sometimes we treat time with a little bit too much disrespect, no one knows when their time will come, so go out and fill your cup when you can.
The second was waking up this morning and seeing that a former close friend from college has thyroid cancer. It’s a shock to the system to see someone who is the same age as you talk about their potential mortality well before they should be forced to face it.
Montana, has two young kids as well, not yet in kindergarten, in her post she spoke about pushing forward with tests even when you get dismissed despite knowing something is wrong and your bloods come back as ‘normal’.
Mon has promised to fight like hell, and it’s that sort of spirit I’m taking with me to Kosciuszko, because I have the opportunity to be at the start line.
Ripping Up The Road
Given how much rain we’ve had recently I was really looking forward to stretching my legs out for the Canberra Times Fun Run Half Marathon. This was the lowest priority on my racing schedule, but after finishing the event yesterday it might’ve been one of the most important.
My friend Emily Murphy had some serious self doubts leading into the event with a busted ankle, others were looking to chase personal bests. I haven’t been training for long term pace for my body type.
To put it in perspective my performance for those who don’t know me personally think of someone who by all metrics of modern medicine is considered ‘obese’ pulling off their first 11 kilometres in just under an hour.
For my American friends that’s 8:46 minutes a mile and 5:27 minutes a kilometre, but go out and do that for an hour. Realising I couldn’t hold onto that pace just based on how I’d been training I managed the last 10 kilometres in just over 63 minutes.
There was no personal best to be had, but Murphy picked up a personal best, Jilian from my Elevate Group picked up a personal best by about 45 minutes, her progress in the last six months has been incredible.
James from my Elevate group got in just over 90 minutes and was huge in getting me home when he shouted out to me just over half way in.
My friend Ellie ran her first half marathon after looking to sign up to the 10 kilometre race. Her hard work paid off and she got home in just over 2 and a half hours.
Our friend Bec ran a half marathon a little while ago and got in over 3 hours, yesterday she came in not long after 2 hours. These are the sort of results that absolutely fill my cup.
While I could be disappointed I didn’t set a personal best in incredible running conditions, I didn’t set out to run one, and getting to run at times with my brother Todd during the race was also quite special (for the record I beat him).
Training During The Week
Lots of rest and recovery after the Bright 4 Peaks event, you know what I did Monday and Tuesday so I won’t re-hash it here.
Wednesday: Rest and stretching post Bright. My quads, hamstrings and calves got particular love due to the battering they took in Victoria.
Thursday: Elevate session with Coach Shiree. I was feeling really good after the warm-up going up Red Hill. We did 7 sets of 1 minute uphill followed by 90 seconds downhill and flat work with 90 seconds moving recovery back to the start. Legs felt flat going uphill, much better coming down on the flat.
Friday: Was intending to go out and do 6x2 minutes (1 minute recovery), 8x1 minute (30 seconds recovery) and 10x30 seconds (30 second recovery) efforts which I felt got me very much fired up for Bright. Didn’t sync it so ended up with 400metre efforts at 4:30 pace with 90 second recovery x10. Got to 4:27 across the session which I was stoked with.
Saturday: Rest day, groin felt a bit tight after Friday’s effort, but was able to shake it off come racing on Sunday. Think the legs were feeling the 5 and a half kilometres of elevation they had gone through in the past 10 days.
Sunday: Half Marathon in 2:03:35.
Total: 68.7 kilometres, 2752 metres of elevation, 9 hours and 49 minutes
Again another solid week in the tank. Rest Day today, before a solid week and a bit leading into the Stromlo 30 kilometre race.
Monday Motivation Heroes
I first met Nik Beauman a few weeks ago at a training run at Mount Taylor, where we ran up and down the mountain 6 times.
I knew Nik was like me from the time we got talking, we were more just worried about time on feet, we were chatting about our goals I told her I was going to Kosci and she told me she was doing the Bondi To Manly Ultra.
I’ve learnt pretty quickly that when someone tells you their goals you don’t question it, because deep down if someone was brave enough to sign up to something they have the belief they’ll be able to finish it.
Nik was only going to do 2 to 3 hits up the hill and then go off and and get some more time on feet elsewhere, but we sort of pushed each other along, she sort of reassured me in a way (and she also kicked my ass going up the hills).
She’s been a really positive supporter over the last couple of weeks particularly when I was in Bright. I tried to repay the energy somewhat by following her ultra over the weekend, and cheering quite loudly when she crossed the finish line at 80 kilometres.
For me she is the embodiment of going out and chasing the opportunities while they are there, as well as being an incredible ultra athlete. Well done Nik, looking forward to more runs when the body has recovered!
‘Mumma Poutine’ or Danielle Kuhn is the positive runner that everyone needs in their life. While I was crunching elevation numbers at Bright Danielle essentially said ‘that doesn’t mean anything to me so I’m just going to run’.
I tried to stitch Danielle up a few weeks ago by saying she wanted to do a Neverest Challenge, but in her good humour it’s actually growing legs and might become a thing.
Throwing in that we recently went out for Poutine as a group (my first time trying it) she has nicknamed me ‘Bubba Cheds’ and I in turn call her ‘Mumma Poutine’.
On the last day of Bright I genuinely thought I was going to motor past Danielle, but she overcame her fear of the major downhill (I had it too don’t worry) we went down 200metres+ downhill over a kilometre, before she turned on the jets and beat me home quite comfortably.
Danielle has made me realise that sometimes it’s important to just go out and run and stop worrying about all the other metrics we can get caught up in. A hill is still a hill and mountains are still mountains, and worrying about it isn’t going to change it.
Great run on Sunday and SO great to meet you in real life!
Can't wait until you get to the Goldie, you will have a great time Love you buddy. 😀