Day After Day After Day

Today I find myself on the couch. On the couch after 14km that included 6.2km of sweet, sweet speed. For the last eight weeks I have followed a running program to the letter. The program will hopefully have me set for a PB at the Canberra Marathon on April 15. The beauty of the program is that every week there are fresh challenges. This week has been great fun already and there’s more to come. On Saturday I will be doing a 34km run with the last 10km at marathon pace, ie: 4.28 per km.

A few weeks ago I looked at tonight’s challenge and Saturday’s long run and wondered how on Earth I would be able to even get close to completing them. The thing is when I wondered, I probably wasn’t capable, but small steps, day after day and all that sort of blah, blah, blah actually works really well.

So many times in the past I have made new year type resolutions or wished that by a certain stage I would be bigger, faster, healthier etc.. Other big plans may have included cleaning out the shed or weeding that area down the side of the house that gets ignored and turns into a jungle. So often these aims and targets have not been met. It all comes down to one reason. Wanting it and doing it are two very different things. I can’t expect to clear the jungle in one session. But if I keep going back every day, eventually it will be under control. Luckily for me I keep going back each day to do more running. Unfortunately the jungle continues to grow, guess I don’t want it enough.

What do you want that requires a commitment day after day?

I think really hard work includes an extended amount of time. In my training I find speed work to be an easier option than a long run. In both, there are the same demons in my mind telling me to stop, telling me it’s too hard and the clever demon trying to convince me that I’ve done well enough already, I don’t have to push hard for that extra 10 or 15% effort. But in the ‘long run’ the demons have more time to work me over. In the speed work they don’t have too long to do their thing. Smashing them can take seconds rather than hours.

I guess that day after day commitment is where so many slip up. It can be all too daunting. I admit to watching Biggest Loser and wonder how many of them will still be exercising several days a week this time next year.

I’ve got a few things going on with running at the moment, outside of my own training, that I hope will continue for years to come. I hope all those involved keep going back day after day.

Up until a couple of weeks ago I was coaching two kids. They got better at running and achieved great things. They went from running as little as 500m to smashing 8km and yesterday one of them won his school cross country event. That’s all fantastic but I think the best thing would be if they just continue to love running, love fitness and stay active through their teens and beyond.

My brother recently got married and on the morning of his wedding he went for a run. He is at the start of his fitness fascination. When he meets his kids one day, they’re going to have a great role model.

My school recently appointed a guy to the new position of ‘Director of Community Sport’. The school will be taking part in the Marysville to Melbourne multi-sport event. http://www.marysville2melbourne.com.au/default.aspx

There will be parents, teachers and students as young as 14 all forming teams to participate. These health and fitness opportunities are giving a bunch of people a focus and direction that will hopefully last forever, day after day.

Oh yeah, remember this bloke on the left?

He featured in a blog post over a year ago now…. http://www.running4urlife.blogspot.com.au/2011/01/success-what-is-it.html

Well he has lost 25kgs. He’s been going back day after day. Now have a look.

What Am I Doing?

That was the question that immediately entered my head at 4.50am on Sunday morning. A full double handed slap to the face and I was back on top of any negative thoughts about the day ahead. For 12 months I had been looking forward to running Two Bays again but there’s always a smattering of trepidation before any ultra. They’re never easy.

Having said that I was pretty confident going in. Marysville in November had been my best ultra yet. It still hurt but I finished strongly and felt good-ish all the way through. Two Bays is pretty flat in comparison. Arthurs Seat is the only real nasty section. One thing against me might be an interrupted few weeks of training over Christmas. Honestly I haven’t really trained with the single minded obsession that was so prevalent pre-stress fracture. That is about to change but more on that later.

Two Bays has a unique feel to it. The race director awards a priority start to anyone wearing board shorts or hawaiin shirts or lays. At the start he holds a pirate flag and explains how this event with hundreds of competitors now has only been a legal event for two years. Before that runners had to tackle the 56km while on the lookout for any official council or Parks and Gardens workers. Before it was legal it was what is known as a FAT ASS event. This means "No Fees, No Awards, No Aid, No Wimps". FAT ASS was born out of a lack of enough competitive events for passionate runners to compete in. This is no longer so much of an issue as their are heaps of events now all over Victoria and Australia to choose form. The sport is exploding.

As an example of the explosion my race time this year was 6hours 39mins. That places me 91^st out of the 142 strong field doing the 56km in 2012.  However in 2008 that same time would have placed me 5^th out of a field of just 6. The last time Two Bays ran under the pirate flag there was 66 competitors in the 28km option and 18 in the 56km option. Two years later there was 646 runners across the two distances.

Not only quantity but quality is making its way to the trails. Last year a greying 41 year old smashed the course record to win the event in 4h 48m. This year the greying, now 42 year old, broke his own record by 7 minutes. That PB placed him sixth in 2012, the winner Mick Donges getting home in 4h 12m. The sport is going nuts. Mick beat Magnus Michaelson into second. Magnus has won the Melbourne Marathon twice. NUTS!!!

My race time mentioned above was a bit disappointing. I went 25 minutes quicker the year before when I had actually run a poor race. I went out too quick and blew up severely. I also took a wrong turn that probably cost the best part of ten minutes. So I had been thinking I’d break 6 hours without too much trouble. Problem was with about 20km to go I encountered ‘too much trouble’.

Everything had been going super smooth. I wasn’t even looking at my watch too much in the first 28km. Just cruising along, not worrying about getting caught in traffic. The slower I went in the first half meant the more likely I beat last year’s time. As I rang the bell to turn on the out and back course I felt great. I remember feeling so much worse at the same time 12 months ago. So more kind of cruising with a push at the end and I was in for a great day.

You expect your legs to be hurting after 30km. Mine were feeling fresh. Just some minor discomfort and tightness across my back was hinting at a possible problem. I had experienced this before though, in some races and training, and it never got too bad. I began passing people at regular intervals and was thrilled with how the race plan was developing. It was Marysville all over again.

I’m not sure when I first realised things might be turning. It was probably somewhere between the 33 – 36km mark. But with 20km to go there was no doubt in my mind that a six hour finish was out of the question. My back had tightened up to the point that each step was painful. Twenty more kms at the pace I had now slowed to, was going to equal no less than 2 ½ hours of tough times.

What am I doing?

The questioned entered my head again for the second time that day. Then another question, What am I going to do?

The answer was simple. Small arms, small legs, over and over again. Two days prior to the event I started training/coaching a couple of kids to run endurance. For them that will be an 8km event in a couple of months. I had said to them to have small arms and legs, don’t waste energy all over the track. It was time for me to practise what I had preached. My arms always swing small. But out there with each step shooting pain up and across my back I found myself having to check my stride many times to give myself best chance of finishing. Will and Tess came in to my mind more than once. Each time I brought the task back down to what was manageable. Small arms and small legs, I could manage.

I was pretty composed throughout the ugly period of the race. Winston Churchill once said; “When you’re in hell, keep going”. There was really no other choice. A DNF is something I only want enforced upon me if absolutely medically necessary.

As I got within a couple of km of the finish I started getting pretty emotional. All I wanted to do was get to the line and see my mates who had by now already finished. It was as about this stage that the answer to the question became clear.

What am I doing?

Three years ago I was turning into this bloke.

I needed to change that for these two.

Now I am this bloke.

I am doing what I am doing because of these blokes.

Thanks.

Marysville Marathon Festival

Sunday was a great day. 50km in the hills of Marysville. It had everything.

The start line was a pink tractor. I stood next to it with zero nerves, just excitement. Next to me was Seb, Dan and Toby. All three of them would end up running great races and finish in the first half dozen. Ahead of them from that pink tractor was the same 50km that I faced but in truth, for them, a much tougher assignment. They were racing, I was just running. I can’t imagine how tough that must be on top of the distance, the mud and the 1.5km of ascent.

If anyone was nervous on the start line it wouldn’t have lasted long. Every single runner missed the first turn off and suddenly a couple of hundred people came to a stop as Toby redirected us. Much laughter ensued and one guy at the tail of the field got a huge buzz as he realised that for a moment he was in the lead.

My plan was to go out slow, keep myself in check until the highest elevation point of the course which was at about the 26km mark. I wanted to finish with just general pain, not the pain you get when you blow up and slow to an ugly, excruciating shuffle.

Heaps of people went past me in those early stages. I was hoping I would see them again later on. For some though it didn’t take long for me to get them back. Once we hit the mud the difference between trail shoes and road shoes was amazing. It was the first time I had worn trail shoes in an event and it was like cruising on roller blades past people just out for a Sunday stroll. Almost felt unfair but I loved it.

Passing people to achieve a higher placing is not a motivation for me. I don’t even know where I finished up and may never know. It’s not important whether I finish 33^rd or get pipped to drop back to 34^th. Having said that though, for much of the run on Sunday I concentrated hard on passing people and people passing me. It serves two purposes.

 The first is that it gives you something to think about. Six hours is a long time to be out there with nothing much to do. The second thing is it just gives you an indication of how well or badly you’re travelling. If you pass people who had moved away from you earlier then you’ve probably put in place a race plan that is within your means and you’re executing it. It means you are staying relatively strong for most of the race.

On Sunday I ran within a couple of hundred metres of a guy and a girl for the last 25kms. It was amazing. Very interesting. We all took turns of passing and being passed. The girl in particular made me laugh. Her Garmin stuffed up and wouldn’t stop beeping. I could hear her coming, without having to look I knew how far away she was. It was like ‘Jaws’ mowing me down. She passed me 3 or 4 times in the second half of the run. Every time she went by me I thought, "she is travelling so well, looking so strong. No way I was going to pass her back". But every time I somehow managed it. It wasn’t a big fist pumping moment of beating her, far from it. It was just confirmation that my race plan was working ‘for me’. Simarlarly her race plan was probably working as well, just different ways of going about it. I was keeping it together at a consistent pace. I was having good and bad moments, not fantastic and disastrous moments. Big difference. It was the first ultra that I have ever felt in control.

There was a new feeling for me at Marysville. It was massive, Massive, MASSIVE appreciation for the volunteers who make the event possible. I have always been thankful for their work but I had so much fun at Marysville, I almost felt guilty. They put in so much effort it’s unbelievable. Many of them are runners themselves and instead of joining in on the day they work for hours for no pay so that I, and hundreds of others, can have what turned out to be the greatest trail run I have ever been involved in.

Sincere thanks to all.

·         Below is my day in digits. There’s a story in every km. It won’t show all the friendly faces of runners and volunteers though. You’ll just have to register next year to feel the full glow.

·         http://connect.garmin.com/activity/131478815

Post Marathon Blues

It’s 36 days since the Melbourne Marathon. This event for many people is their grand final. It’s held up there as the pinnacle of the running calendar for thousands of people. In one way that’s a great thing because it means in the lead up, a huge amount of us are training hard for months on end. Getting fit and healthy. Becoming mentally stronger and feeling a whole lot better about pretty much everything.

Then on marathon day people put themselves through what can be life changing experiences. They achieve amazing things and everything is just about perfect.

Normally at the end of a season, and especially after a grand final, teams will cut loose big time. Training comes to a complete stop and healthy habits are broken. It can be a similar scenario after a marathon. There is often a mental let down as well as a physical one.

I was on a huge high after the Melbourne Mara and wanted to get into training for next year straight away. There was no motivational issues this time. I’d never felt so keen after a marathon. About a week later though my body started to shut down a bit. There was no real injury, just complete body tiredness. I had experienced this in previous years so I was almost expecting it this time. A quote that a mate and I often throw at each other came to mind – “This too shall pass.” – and it did. In other years though the physical has affected the mental  and I have struggled for weeks to get back into loving it.

The best thing that I have found to work in keeping things moving after the MM is another event. Thousands did City to Sea yesterday. A smaller number did the Moonwalk Ultra in the Dandenongs on Saturday night. I’m signed up with a couple of legends for Marysville in a less than two weeks. After Marysville there’s a short event with the ‘Running Club’ kids from school around the Tan and after that.......well there are an endless amount of options.

In no way am I down playing the Melbourne Marathon. It’s an amazing event. I’ve done three and had tears welling up while crossing the line in two of them. If you can get such an amazing feeling by just turning up and having a crack, why wouldn’t you do it more often. Maybe not once a month, but surely more than once a year.

It is 36 days since the MM. If it’s also 36 days since your last run and you’re not injured then it’s time to shuffle. Not because you should, not because you feel you have to. It’s time to shuffle and shake off them Marathon Blues. Lock in a new event and feel that glow again.

There’s about 330 days until Melbourne Marathon 2012. That’s too long to wait.

Marathon Stories

It’s not often you can look back on a marathon and your first instict is to laugh. It may not happen often but this is exactly where I find myself just three days after the Melbourne Marathon. The photo itself is pretty much hilarious to me........now.

It has been well documented through this blog that 2011 has been a year of frustration and injury. It’s only been the last couple of months that I’ve felt like I was able to train properly. With that under done preparation it actually freed me up. There was no pressure on me to chase a PB because there just hadn’t been enough work done for that to be even a remote possibility.

I had planned to run slow with my mate Gully who was using the marathon as a final prep for the Great Ocean Road 100km ultra. He ended up erring on the side of caution and missed the mara to hit the ultra fresh. So now I was going in with no set plan at all. That turned out to be a painful decision but also a humorous one.

In the day or so before the race and even the morning of, I searched right in the back of my mind and I thought maybe 3h30m would be nice. That had been the goal in my first marathon. I figured if I could match that it would be massive. Hmmm 5min kms, I actually hadn’t run more than ten of them in a row since last year. Now I wanted 42.2 of them. This was gonna be some kind of day.

So it would make sense to start conservatively, sit at the back of the ‘3.30 bus’ and see how long I could stick it out. It would make sense but it wouldn’t be funny, it wouldn’t make me laugh three days later. No instead I started right up the front near the elites. I like starting close to the front. You get dragged along pretty quickly and bank a couple of quick kms before you settle into your groove at your desired pace.

My first km was 4m11s. That’s even too fast for a drag along km.Had to slow down, find my groove at five minute pace. My first km at 5min pace was the 26^th km. All the preceding ones had been well under. Ridiculous. Funny. What was I thinking?

Well, I guess I was thinking that this year’s marathon was a free shot, no rules, no expectation – so just have a crack and see what happens. So even when the pain came, it was just physical, no mental anguish or disappointment about missing a PB. I blew up pretty big and was being passed by plenty. It was my way of helping others feel good about reeling in another runner. Yeah sure.

That said, I was pretty happy that I didn’t just toss it in when it went pear shaped. The front of the 3.40 bus had gone past me but I held on to the back and was happy when a few hundred metres from the line I was pretty sure I was going to be under that mark. As we got closer though I saw the clock saying 3.39.50 and ticking. The girl next to me also saw it, we both went to sprint and almost knocked each other over in the process. We made it.

I think it was just before the 20km mark that I started to fully understand how much of a big mistake I had made and there was 22kms of pain to come. It was too late at that point to recover the situation. I had bought the ticket, now there was no way off the ride. It was pretty horrific but I think I was expecting worse. That's a plus.

The link below leads to my km splits plus other info about the run. They tell a story all by themselves. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/120660139

Other stories on the day:

Micka in his debut clocked in at 4.37

Sharon also on debut crossed the line at 4.47

Micka is a sure thing to go again next year. Sharon is a sure thing to slap me if I suggest this is just the beginning. Both were fantastic results. Try doing anything for nearly five hours, it’s a really long time.

Michael Rogers aka Superman: 14 months after taking a few moments at the Tan Track to have a heart attack, completed the 42.2 in 4 hours 38 minutes. Phenomenal effort to make the choice, after the tan track setback, to stick with running. I imagine it would have been scary at times to push towards this marathon. What an inspiration.

Rod Port: Porty had a tough day at the office. He was super keen to break 4 hours and was flying in a recent 32km training run I did with him. I figured he was well on his way to achieving that goal. In the run though his quads went to shizen and both of them kind of said, ‘sorry Porty, today aint gonna be your day’. He finished in 4h 25m. So what you got there is pain. Physical pain and a mental battle for hours knowing that it’s all heading for relative disappointment. When in this situation you’ve got two choices. The easy choice is to pack it in, take your bat and ball and go home. The tough choice is to guts it out and finish the beast. Porty finished the beast, his fourth beast in total. Super effort.

Eddie Dickens: Just a gentle cruise for the man who floats along like an African elite. 3h47m this year but look out 2012. The quote is: “Planning next year to do a good time or injure myself training. No in between.” You gotta love that.

Seb Mannix: Tough to do a PB when your best already stands at 2.54. Heaps of hard training went into this year’s event. Two hard, fast sessions every week meaning there was a stack of kms at 4 min pace or better. That type of work puts you on the brink of possible injuries striking you down at any time. Seb smashed his PB doing a 2h49m beast. It was also a beautiful scenario that he crossed the line together with Johnny Clothier, a guy he first met in primary school and has been mates with ever since. Johnny also PB’d by about 6 minutes.

Noel Mannix, father of Seb: First in his age group 70 – 74yrs for the 10km. It’s not a big field in that age group but that doesn’t make a difference to the fact that of all the 70-74 year olds in Australia, whether they turned up or not, Noel was the quickest over 10kms. Got home in under an hour. That is outstanding.

Clare McGinness, sister of me: Half marathon in 2h32m. This is super impressive. All along Clare has doubted that she would actually be able to run that far. 14kgs ago it probably looked a long way off. The achievement is not just about the day, it’s about all the hours of training and the battle with the mind to climb a seemingly impossible mountain. Wow!! How proud as a brother....VERY. Getting emotional just typing right now.

Chris Harrington: Another one in the heart attack club who has turned his life on its head since. Harry is chasing that two hour mark for the half mara and almost got there this year with 2.01.12. A week out from the event and the big H pinged his calf. Lots of ice, stretches, compression and no running meant that he was able to at least get on the start line. Under a cloud he powered around the course and picked up a PB. Injury free next year and he smashes the barrier. The difference in photos from the ’10 & ’11 events is huge. Harry is on the rise.

Ben Wintle: Limped to the start in race gear but sadly as a late scratching. His foot had swollen up massively the day before the event and he was struggling to even walk but he was there to support his D-Mac crew mates. Ten minutes before the start of the half mara, he peeled off his top and said F*#k it, let’s just see what happens. If it was to be pull out after five kms then so be it. In the end he got to the end in 2.00.21. Brave, gutsy performance.

Scotty Tucker: Chasing a lightning quick 1.30 for the half, the Big T had some doubters after a relatively disappointing lead up race. T had done a 10km event at the Teacher’s Games and come home in 45 mins after blowing up severely. All D-Mac Crew members were to say the least shocked as he has shown blistering speed around the 1.2 Duncan McKinnon course on a weekly basis. However the massive unit hit back hard and posted a time of 1h35mins. Awesome comeback, inspirational running.

All of the above inspire me. Their stories motivate me to get straight back into it and work harder to get faster. Next year I hope to run a PB and even get close to 3.10. That means a heap of kms at 4m28s in training and 42.2 of them on Marathon Day. Stay tuned.......

Marathon Festival of Winning

I know a guy doing his first marathon on Sunday. He just wants to finish

I know a girl doing her first marathon on Sunday. She just wants to finish.

I know a guy who will do the marathon slower than 4 hours so that he doesn’t pull up sore for his 100km ultra six days later.

I know a guy who will be around the 2h50m mark, probably, maybe.

I know a bloke who was going to be there until injury delayed his marathon glow.

I know a bloke who was destined to smash his PB but right now is busy in a routine of ice, stretch, compression, ice, stretch, compression etc.

As for me, I plan to turn up and run slow and enjoy the experience. Injury has delayed my assault on any PB chance this year.

I know on the day we will all do our best.

I know we will all want to be on the start line again to see if we can do better.

That’s the beauty of running, there is no opposition apart from ourselves. We get to play in the grand final every year as long as we turn up. As long as we keep turning up, we win.

Good luck to everyone who has trained to turn up. Whether or not you achieve your goal this time, everyone of you has done amazing stuff for yourself and your families.

Loved It.

The amount of people who are the best in the world at anything is a miniscule percentage. Most of us won’t even ever meet a ‘Best in the Worlder’. No matter how good you are at something there will always be someone better. So why do so many get so disappointed when they come up against someone faster or stronger?

I went to an Athletics meet today and saw a wide variety of kids competing at ‘Zones’ which is two levels down from State Titles. There is a huge difference between the fastest and slowest at this level. Some kids have just scraped in to qualify and will be soundly beaten on the day. Others will go on comfortably to the next level,  ‘Regionals’, then a smaller number on to ‘States’. Maybe one or two of the 500 kids there today at Zones will get all the way to ‘Nationals’. Of the two getting through, one will get beaten,  one will win. Or that’s how it has happened in the past.

A girl who has gone on to break national records in the past was there today running in the 800m and 1500m. They just happen to be the same events that Philli from my school runs in. Each year Philli comes up against Laura and gets beaten by big margins. She jokes on the way to the track that maybe Laura will just somehow not turn up today. Deep down though she knows what lays ahead. I watch both races closely and once again I’m amazed by this super talented girl that runs so effortlessly yet so quickly. It’s actually a bit of a privilege to be trackside as she flashes past breathing just loud enough to be heard. Behind her are a group of girls who are all the best runners in their respective schools. So how will they handle defeat today? If I was looking to answer that question it wouldn’t help to ask Philli because she felt far from defeated.

All Philli wanted to do was beat her time from last week which was 5m57s for the 1500. I showed her after the race the watch had been stopped at 5m54s and her smile lit up her face. She was deservedly extremely happy. Philli won’t go on to the next level but when it mattered today, she dug deep when she was hurting and ran strong. The little voice in her head would have been suggesting she slow down but she wasn’t there to be dictated to. She wasn’t running Laura’s race or the little voice’s race, she was there to run as fast as she could go on the day. That’s all anyone can do.

In other events I saw kids in tears, I saw kids making excuses and I saw kids and parents blaming someone else for the fact that today, they met someone faster or stronger. It’s not like there was billions of them but there was just enough for me to think about it. I wonder how many of these upset kids had just run a PB and how many of them didn’t even know. Not winning should never equal failure.

When I got home today I was procrastinating about heading out for a 10 km run. I thought about the kid who dug deep and worked hard when she was hurting and I thought about how much she loved it. I finally did my ten km and I loved it. Didn’t run a PB, didn’t beat a soul either, just loved it.

·         Laura ran 2.18 for her 800m and 4.52 for her 1500m. Get yourself down to a track and see how hard it is to get close to that. Only 5 years until Rio Olympics, 2016, or 9 years until the games after that where she will probably meet someone faster than her. I hope her face still lights up like Philli's did today. Everyone deserves to be happy with their best.

 Below is a link to Laura setting a national record against the best kids in the country in the 800m a couple of years ago.

·         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBo9nFAkEMQ