Trailwalker training

I finished my last post saying I was going to have a recovery week. And I did. I did next to nothing, just one ride and one run, for 5 days. Then I was invited to join a team for the Oxfam Trailwalker 100k. Its an all-girl team of experienced runners and I couldn't say no. So since then I have jumped right into training.

Last Saturday I did 40k with the girls on the trail, starting from Brooklyn and finishing at Mt Kuringai. It was a gorgeous day and I really enjoyed being out on the trail. But geez, its really tough, lots of up and down and rock scrambling. The team was doing 60k, but I decided that was too much for me. I finished up feeling like I could do more but happy to be stopping too.

During the week we did a great night run on the trail, over the last 20k from Davidson Park to the finish. It was heaps of fun. We got a bit wet, but I loved being out in the dark, it was a real adventure. I would like to do more night trail running, it feels similar to mtbing at night.

Today I am down at the coast and I did a 50k run on my own. Well, Tom came with me for the first 15k or so, but I was on my own for the rest. It was slow (average pace 6.30) but I was happy to make the distance. I was perhaps stretching the definition of "running" towards the end. Particularly the last 2k, it was along the beach on soft sand and was pure hell. I was singing ABBA songs out loud to myself just to keep going.

Together with a couple of other runs during the week, this has been my biggest (kilometres) week ever, at 90k. It'll be interesting to see how I pull-up, but I think it'll be alright as all the running has been slow or very slow.