Training Log Archive: theway

To and from TTT, cafe, flan's house and home. New bike rides itself - so good! Bit more adjustment needed. After some dedicated eating this week I am feeling less hungry and desperate. It's a novel position to be trying to put on weight.

Gramps, flan, E+E, cortina and I walked up majura leaving flouro, cheesy and Liz to do a proper run. Very slow and easy today, found a rare plant that I made gramps photograph, Erica was singing for most of the way and all were in a good mood. Saw plenty of cockatoos in early morning flight; acejase, Grant (a trifle winged), GrantM, Marymac.

At wilburs I dared to order a pot of tea (nobody knows how to make tea! grrrr) and was shocked to receive something drinkable. Oh good, I can order it again but if there is any whiff of peppermint or camomile contamination in my black tea they'll hear about it ....

Gramps went off to a trampolining party with a bunch of 7 year olds and flan and I snuck in a quick lesson. R foot still complaining a bit (really shouldn't have raced parkrun) but getting better, also L knee bump a bit noticable.

PB for Gindy parkrun today by 47 seconds. I had about 5 walks. Improving but I'm not very good at continuous flat running. Great workout and brekkie at the cafe was a treat, well not the food as the toasted cheese and tom sanga is very disappointing, but the company and conversation were excellent (flan bhole erica gramps fluoro cheesy puffy carinna and me (who goes by a regular name)

Knees, foot still a bit niggly recovering from 3 peaks so altho I tried for a PB I didn't push too hard (hence walk rests).

C • PB 2

did w/u and c/d (because I lost my friends and realised they were prob cooling down so thought I should be good.)

Bike flat tyre, ran fast from home to dentist in Dickson, hence no warmup. Felt great and rather fast. Permanent crown finally fitted, at last I can eat and eat anything (a bit underweight at the mo).

Easing legs after dental tempo. To shops, to home. Feel like a fast parkrun may be a good idea. Mmmm PBeeee ...?

Mt Buffalo. Felt even better today, fully recovered. Very happy with my pacing strategy over the whole event. Just to complete 3 peaks is a good result all things considered.

Another beautiful day and everyone seemed to be happy to be running up an easier peak than yesty. Started alone, bounced over the suspension bridge then settled into special walk no.1 up the long hill. When it flattened (after about 3 k) I felt great running all the lesser gradients. Loved the lush bracken and healthy bush down low. Ate some banana at first road crossing but didn't dare touch my Very First Gel (yet).

Soon got to my favourite part which was the rocky section. I love running up this sort of messy ground, fun and invigorating with more good runners starting to come through from here. Delighted that I was not much slower than these. Here I took my FIRST EVER GEL. So frightened of sugared snot that I took only half. Continued run/walk until about 8.5k, took rest of gel. Possibly I was doing a little more walking. Feeling great and loving the scenery and the micro-chats.

Then it flattened a bit, Annie came past running very well and I sped up a tiny bit to stick to her, and I could! I would catch up a little on the downs if rocky. Then graham H came past and said "looking very comfortable" which was true. I felt like my running was smooth easy and flowing, pretty amazing really. When the track became more like a garden path I knew we were close, Annie pulled away and we hit the last few flights of killer stairs. My legs were completely empty for stairs so I forced up with the fastest walk I could muster, then chalet, turn left and it was ALL OVER.

Sunny and warm, great to watch friends come in, exchange congratulations, have fruit, chips and tea, buy 2 vegie burgers, find out that flan and baby smashed me by over 5 minutes - after passing so many people on the wall the previous day they had achieved legend status. I know how they feel (luckily I always had an early start).

Took both UD bottles but used only one. R forefoot still tender, L knee must have been ok but tender in car later.

FOOD for the 3 days: In general I took banana every 45mins unless very steep when 30mins felt about right. I didn't bonk on any day so I guess it worked and I might continue with actual food and leave gels alone. I peeled banana and put in little bags which made them a bit gooey - which was actually good. Drink was water only.

Mt Hotham: From Harrietville via the Bon Accord track to top of Razorback where I touched the pole, then across to road to finish at a hut. Hardest longest effort I've ever done, a most satisfying epic. The weather was perfect again, I never got hot yet it was clear with amazing views.

I went the wrong way from the start table but a chorus of yells; "Over the bridge!" brought me back. A few minutes later I was confused to see a runner go over another bridge so I stood still and waited for the next starters. Considering I lost to flan and baby by only 1:23 this is worth noting and crying about ;)

The first few k are flat which meant I could run and oh wow did it feel good to run after SO long. Reached the road, turned left onto Bon Accord and followed river. At start of single track (with park map and info) I called back the rest of the group I was with who had taken a wrong turn up the road (lost more seconds convincing them and doubting myself). From here, 4k of delightful undulating gently uphill single track where I passed lots of early walkers while I was still running easily and comfortably but making sure to walk all of the little sharper ups. This was my favourite part.

My race plan was "First hour is a warm up, second hour is steady but don't let it be hard at all, third hour is allowed to feel hard" and this worked very well. I soon noticed that I was following Bec ONeill (from our Hanny group) whose pace was just right. Then we descended to river at about 6k (Tom B flew past here) where the track was a bit vague but there were more runners coming through to follow. Best part here was crossing river by balancing on a log wheee! Some people got feet wet instead.

Then we hit first big steep hill. I was still following Bec (20 or 30m behind) but often with others between us. I used Special Walk No. 1 (short fast steps) and kept up with Bec's running spurts. I felt fine making sure that I wasn't pushing yet. Then we hit a longer flatter section which had been badly burnt, and I was happy to find that it was no problem to start running again, still keeping Bec in sight. I really enjoyed this section... robw zoomed past here, then Davo who was kind enough to notice I was running.

... And then we hit The Wall at 11.5k. The gradient was over 30% and sometimes above 40%. Back to tiny steps, but ahead I could see DavO doing Stu's moldavian grandma gait. So maybe they weren't joking? Should I try? Then LizH went past doing the same. Ok so here I go. Bend right over, bigger steps and hands pushing thighs. Each time I did this I gained on Bec - it works! I mixed up the 2 walks and added a third strategy call the 10second View Admiration Rest. Many tough athletes passed me here but I felt good enough that it was more inspiring than defeating. But I have to say this wall went on and on.

Finally at top of Razorback there is a marshal with encouragement and lollies. I didn't notice the lollies but Bec did and pulled away for the first time. I touched the pole at the top then did a drunk-stumble run all the way to the finish where my finish pic (thx graham hammond) looks fresh and coordinated (good faking).

The food and cup of sugared tea in the hut were heaven sent; watermelon, orange, chips!, cheese, an apple, more melon. Great to thank Bec for the tow who said she glanced back a few times and said "Damn she is still there!" After my ill state it was unexpected. From this point I was called Speedy Helen (apparently it was Shingles Helen before that) :-))

Finished my 2 UD bottles of water (nicer than soft flasks but look funny), used 2 small bananas only - fine I think. Shoes weren't done up tight enough and right one annoyed me a lot along ridge before wall. Spot under R foot was sore afterwards (old piano injury) and this lasted until thursday. Needed to have a second choice of shoes - Inov8 trailrocs too hard for 3 days running, but was a good sole for Hotham. Tender L tibial tuberosity also flared up (also feeling better by thursday).
Arm warmers and bucket hat were great.

Thorough stretch and recovery session with long quad stretches. Great!