Training Log Archive: Craney

Early morning run with Jase from Thredbo. Up (and it felt it after yesterday) some of the Merritts Nature Trail, then a contouring trail to the back of the golf course, then a bit of the Dead Horse Gap single track. Felt alright all told and good to have company for a run again. Beautiful sunny morning and, as ever, it was an inspiring delight to run in the fresh alpine air. Made even more delightful by Jase whipping out a $20 note near the end of the run and shouting me (and the child-minding mothers) a coffee.

C • Slightly sceptical 3

2nd place, 50secs behind Mark Bourne. Grace and I decided to have a weekend in Thredbo so that she could do this race and I could do a nice long run. Unfortunately she has a lingering sore throat so couldn't run, so I ended up doing the race instead. And it turned out to be a pretty memorable one too... Firstly, the race course - at 2km with 600m climb up a steep grass bank underneath the cable car route it's a really silly course, but exactly the kind of thing someone with UK fellrunning background would lap up (just a shame it ends up at the top and not back down at the bottom). Then it turned out that a pretty loaded field had turned up this year, in particular with much anticipation of the Bourne v Dent showdown, so I had a few pangs of nerves as I warmed up. But then just told myself it's a fun really silly thing to do so just enjoy it, if that's possible.

First section was super steep and unsurprisingly Mark and Marty were away. I tucked into 4th and actually felt pretty good. ~5mins in it flattened off a bit (this is all relative) and I noticed that Mark and Marty weren't pulling away and I was now clearly in 3rd. Marty had been ahead but Mark had got a better line and overtaken him again. Thought to myself that I'd never normally be this close to them, that I was feeling ok, but on looking up there was still a hell of a lot more climb. Maybe I'd mis-paced?

Then it got really really steep for the final half of the climb and I noticed Mark pulling away from Marty. Didn't think much of it at first and just focused on carrying on running myself. I started to make some ground on them and soon enough Marty wasn't actually very far ahead of me. A weird feeling dawned on me - I was going to overtake Marty Dent. Resolved within myself to activate as many conscious memory-storing parts of my brain as possible as a true one-off event was about to happen (that wasn't easy as my heart rate was through the roof and I was dribbling). I'd say I resisted a cheeky comment as I went past but the truth is that talking wasn't a realistic option.

Still a fair way to go though and now I'm in the position of Marty chasing me down and the adrenaline burst having given way to lactate. Temporary thoughts of catching Bourney too disappeared pretty quickly. Hit a road section and heard Marty's breathing a bit closer to me so dug in some more. Then it got grassy again and my legs popped, so it was a case of power-walking the final bit. Really tried to power hard though and noticed that I was keeping ground with Mark ahead, so figured I wasn't opening the door to Marty too much.

Finally we were up with the supporters and I could hear Gracie cheering me in. Slight worry about which way to go for a second but fortunately someone pointed me the right way. Ended up 50secs down on Mark and 20secs ahead of Marty - obviously not Marty on his best day and a pretty 'unusual' course but I'll take that.

Despite the gun field and the perfect weather, times weren't actually that good - Mark was 3mins off the record for example. Crossing all the MTB paths might have slowed it a bit but I figure no-one really trains for this kind of race (hence I was able to do ok as a fluke one-off) - minutes could be shaved off with some specific training.

C • Great description 8

20mins of warm-up jogging (mainly mincing with Jase trying to avoid anything too steep), then 60min run back down via Dead Horse Gap with Tom B and Jase. Lovely single-track though and nice to have a good natter.

Gentle run around Red Hill and Griffith with Tomas.

Early morning IW - sunshine! (well, from Davo trig onwards once I was no longer shaded by the ridges)

C • I've been watching with int... 1

HFW - has been a while since I last did this, so it was a bit less boring this time. Cut through some of Mugga for a change and was rewarded with an echidna that almost climbed up my leg.

6x3mins around the East Basin in the drizzle. Feeling very slow so didn't completely gut myself.

1min recoveries plus warm-up and down.

Lunch run up Red Hill. Drizzly day.