The Wrong Side (of 30)?
The inevitable decline is less a month away, but recent performances have shown me there is a lot of life left in these legs just yet
You know where you are? You’re in the jungle baby, you’re gonna diiiieeeeeee! One of the absolute classics that shape my musical taste thanks to my mum and dad.
I’m Back?
It’s been a while, I don’t know if there is a need for any reintroductions here. It’s been a frustrating middle part of the year in terms of any sort of athletic endeavours, but rather than sulk about it until the end of time, I’ve used this time as a spring board to come back stronger, so that when I was able to build my aerobic tank again through running I’d be ready for it.
This involved changing up who was giving me medical advice, as I felt my physio wasn’t working. I’d been going for two months without improvement, but after two weeks of seeing Mark Trbojevich at Peak Health, I was able to start seeing improvements that became more substantial as my treatment was ongoing.
We set the goal of capping my initial run period at 8 weeks and under 30 kilometres, and worked on getting my adductors used to load and rewiring my brain response, it was incredible how a different approach was a game changer.
During my time being injured, some good advice from a friend Clare helped me switch my mindset from focussing on what I couldn’t do, to what I could do, and that in turn has helped me refocus my energy into some other little projects that has helped my mindset immensely.
Another critical turning point was recently hosting a Q and A with the incredible Hanny Allston, a World Champion athlete and an even better human. Hanny shared a critical insight that as runners we can often just focus on one thing, and when we get injured it’s like the world crashes down, so diversifying our training so if we can’t run we can put our energy into other pursuits, and that way we don’t feel like it’s the end of the world if an injury occurs.
One thing I have learnt is that strength is King (or Queen) and that you can’t get by in this ultra game without focussing on your strength training, something I’d neglected for a while so I could go out and do some extra running, now realising that spending a day or two in the gym will actually see me perform much better down the track.
The Wave
Something really cool I’ve implemented since talking with Hanny has been ‘The Wave’ I’m not going to try and paraphrase it too much, because there is already a lot of information out there and I can’t remember the exact details of it all. But, basically instead of smashing myself for weeks on end, I implement ‘The Wave’ style of training, where you might have two harder weeks, and then the third week is not necessarily a de-load week, but is a comfortable week, Hanny said for women this can be done to coincide with the menstrual cycle.
Essentially the easier week, which might involve a bit more cross training is designed to let the body recover, and it’s worked wonders for me. The other aspect that Hanny throws in is a mission weekend, often we’ll throw a long run in on a weekend, but we don’t think about the potential stressors in our lives, if we’ve had a big week at work, is it wise to follow our training plan and go out for 3-4 hours? Or is it better to cut it in half and just switch things around?
Normally the long mission week or weekend comes when there aren’t those big stressors in our lives. I know I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but one of my frustrations recently has been everyone talking about combinations of nose breathing, deep plunges and meditation, when no one wants to actively identify that potentially running on a high stress day could actually just create more stress and be detrimental for your long term training and potentially see you get injured.
It’s the type of chat I wish I had 7 months earlier, when after getting into a new role, my sleep was essential cut in half for the first few months while I was working out a routine, how to manage stuff, it was stressful, and I didn’t identify how that could impact my body, and I was still pushing hard when in reality I should’ve eased off and done a lot more stuff in Zone 2.
These are the lessons we learn and it’s better to learn them than to continue in blissful ignorance until you get injured.
Age is a Number until it Isn’t
In the football world when you hit the age of 30 (the death of my 20s is drawing ever closer) there is a common theme that’s thrown around which is
They’re on the wrong side of 30
It’s been drilled into me since I was a young kid playing football, basically when you hit 30 that’s the end of your sporting endeavours, that was my mindset until I discovered running and I realised there was this whole other world out there, where you don’t actually peak until you’re much older than 30.
So I thought I’d highlight some recent examples that have really inspired me.
Harvey Lewis
Probably my favourite runner and once again the Backyard Ultra World Champion, Harvey is rewriting the record books on what is possible for the human body. He’s had an incredible year, it’s worth noting in the months leading up to Big’s, Harvey completed 90 loops at Dead Cow Gully:
That effort was just a fortnight before he finished for the 12th consecutive time, Badwater, arguably the World’s toughest foot race and one that Harvey has won on two occasions.
To then go out and run 108 hours at Big’s on very little sleep across the entire time is just incredible. Even more impressive is that Harvey isn’t a full time runner, and does quite a few kilometres on a run commute to the school where he teaches, he’s also a vegan, so there is something to be said about plant power, he’s also achieved this incredible year at the age of 47, 17 years after being on the wrong side of 30!
Courtney Dauwalter
Courtney is incredible, if there was one person you’d want to run your favourite loop with I think a lot of people’s first answer would be Courtney.
This year she became the first person in history to win the three major 100-mile mountain trail races within one calendar year. Guess what? She was a teacher so maybe there is something in that.
Most recently, she has promoted a new line of running shorts designed for women that are longer and looser than traditional shorts for women on the market. I simply love her, and she achieved this all at the age of 38, again on the wrong side of that 30 ledger!
Locally though there is one legend that stands out and she’s my Monday Motivation Hero
Beth Bowen
I was quite struck by a post that Beth wrote earlier this year after completing the 103 kilometre race at Buffalo, it’s an incredible race with 5,000 metres of elevation thrown in, but most importantly was what Beth wrote after the race.
She talked about rebuilding confidence, some soul searching, because there is a belief when someone hits 50 they should be ‘slowing down’, Beth decided she wasn’t ready to slow down and wanted to push her athletic limits.
So what does she train for? The Sri Chinmoy Triple Tri here in Canberra and mind you yesterday the temperature dipped into the 30 and it was hot!
So what is the Triple Tri? Well I’m glad you asked:
Swim 1.5km + Mountain bike 36km + Run 18km + Swim 3.5km + Mountain bike 36km + Run 11 km + Swim 1.2km + Mountain bike 23km + Run 13km = Triple-Triathlon
Simples! Not so much, it’s been incredible to watch Beth prepare for this, and then to see it all comes together is actually quite special, it was history making as well, Beth is the first woman over the age of 50 to complete the Triple Tri so it’s history making, if that doesn’t get you up and about I can’t help ya!
Finding My Mediocre
Recently, I became a dual run club citizen, as well as my great love of the Blue Crew, I recently joined the Ultra Mediocre Runners of Canberra, it’s a great group and feel that joining the group will help me in surrounding myself with people with similar goals and ideals. It feels a bit funny though the group feels anything but mediocre, but everyone is so damn lovely.
I also received my group nickname ‘Toast’ because apparently I have a smooth velvety voice like butter and what goes well with butter? You get where I’m going.
The Grindfest was spectacular a 1km out and back on the shores of Lake Tuggeranong, and I’m looking forward to Jingle Balls and next year’s GUMBY.
The Takeaway?
If there is two things I’d want you to get out of this it’s that taking advice from a podcast isn’t going to solve your world’s problems, and always stop to think what someone has to gain out of giving you advice. Are they getting a kick back for telling you something? What do they actually have as credentials to back up their advice.
Number two is that it’s never too late to set athletic goals, no matter what people might say, as the trio in this blog have shown, if you just believe the common narrative, you may never find out what you’re truly capable of.
See you out on the trails soon.
Welcome back mate.
“when no one wants to actively identify that potentially running on a high stress day could actually just create more stress and be detrimental for your long term training and potentially see you get injured.” - ah, I think anyone who listens to their body does this
Offft Welcome back my friend!!
You could say you're becoming a master now haha. (Welightlifting just changed the masters age from 35 to 30 and I found out last week the 27 is considered masters in rowing haha).
I think it depends how many years you've been doing the activity rather than age. A 30 year old might retire if they've been doing that sport since they were 15.
it's really cool to see many older athletes pick up new sports or continue with their current ones. Masters Games and similar events are becoming popular and I think it's because especially when people retire from full-time work, they have more time to invest into themselves and training for competitions as well as being important for socialising too.