Sydney Trailwalker 2008

7am Friday at Brooklyn

1am Saturday at Mosman
Mission accomplished! :)

Willy to Billy 2008

Before I signed up for Trailwalker, the Mt Wilson to Bilpin 35k was a goal race and I was targeting under 3 hours. After joining my TW team I abandoned that plan, but the girls were all planning to do it, so we agreed that we would do it but take it easy.

I car-pooled with Keith, Simone, Geoff and Jocie. We left Balmain at 6.45am but after a scenic detour through Rooty Hill, we only arrived at Bilpin in time for the last bus to Mt Wilson. Fortunately there was still time to eat some of the famous scones. I've stared tapering for TW and had 2 complete rest days on Thurs and Fri last week, so I was feeling fresh on the start line. I also felt like a celebrity because we had our ACZD Girls team t-shirts on and got lots of photos.

I started out running alone and trying really hard to run "easy" - a bit of a contradiction. I didn't feel very comfortable for the first bit, I guess just trying to settle into a pace. Then I ran with Danielle for a while and that was good - we chatted and I started to relax a bit. There are lots of little ups and downs in the first half and it felt good to run and stretch everything and get rid of some nervous energy. At 22k there is a long gentle descent and here I was very conscious of going gently and not pounding the legs too much. It still felt fantastic to be running and the scenery was very nice. Then came the 6k gentle climb. I ran the whole way but I didn’t push. Just before the top I put on a bit of surge and then I ran steady along the road to the finish. It felt great to finish strong with plenty left in the tank. My finish time was 3.03. I am sure I could have gone under 3 if I had raced it, but I don't know by how much. Next time.

Keith had a blinder and finished in 2.41 in 11th place. Geoff, Jocie and Simone were nursing various injuries but ran together, had a nice social day and still did a good time. The other ACZD Girls all had very good days too. The organisation by the Rural Fire Service was amazing, including blankets and personal drink givers at the finish, wonderful hot showers and even towels provided!

On the nutrition side, I was not as regular with gels as I normally am, because I was not concentrating on it properly. But I had 3 in 3 hours, which is enough, and I stopped for water or sports drink and jelly beans at every aid station. On Sunday I was a bit sore but nothing serious. Tom and I went for a gentle walk at Kurnell and it felt good to be moving.

Now its 4 days till TW. My taper plan is pretty simple. I do nothing and sleep as much as possible. A swim or two and lots of stretching, that’s it. I don't see the point in trying to 'sharpen up', especially for 100k. I am really, really excited. I think we are a great team. Everyone has worked hard and is very dedicated. We have the same goals and intentions. No one is injured. We have done all the planning and have a great support crew. We are as ready as we can be.

City to Surf 2008

This is a quick report for City 2 Surf, so I remember it for next time. In 2007 my time was 71 mins, which I remember I was disappointed with and came off not much training. This year I wanted a big improvement, close to 60mins. But in the end I was not expecting a good time due to Trailwaker training (70k run the weekend before) and no speed work. I was hoping for under 65 mins but thinking it might be slower.

In the Red group Tom and I tried to get a good start position and lined up more than an hour before the gun. After an hour I was busting for the toilet but decided not to go. It only took a minute or so to get over the start line. It was pretty congested through the tunnel, but no walking at all unlike in previous years. I had planned to go easy till Heartbreak Hill, then try and run up hard. But I found myself running pretty quick for the first few k. Its hard not to with all the excitement and other runners. After 5k I knew I had to stop for the toilet. I found a port-a-loo right by the road with no line, so the whole thing was probably done in 30 secs to a minute. I felt much better after that and set out to try and make up the time I lost. I didn't feel strong on HBH (who was I kidding about that?) and just slogged it out along with everyone else. From the top of HBH I felt better and seemed to be passing people. I flew down the hill as hard as I could - I love that section of the course when you can see and smell the ocean. I died a bit in the last kilometre to the finish and I didn’t manage to hold my pace. But looking at my watch I realised I was going to be closer to 60 than 65, so I didn’t really care. So I finished with 61.xx gun and 60.40 chip time. I was pleased and surprised with this. And wondering how much better I could have gone with a more dedicated preparation. Now I at least want to go under 60 mins next year.

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.

4th in line to the throne

I can so rarely think of decent post titles, but this one came to me riding home tonight. Yesterday was the Shoalhaven King of the Mountain 32k race and I came 4th lady.

I didn't have any great expectations. I thought it would be nice to try and run an average 5 min pace, but I didn't want to spoil the fun doing it. I decided to start out conservatively and not try to stay with anyone like at W2G. This worked well and meant I gradually gained on and passed people all along the way, which was nice. At the half way point I realised that I was feeling really good and should go with the flow and not let any negative thoughts get to me. I felt really strong on the hills and employed my 6ft "power shuffle" to good advantage. From the top of Mt Scanzi there is a rather step descent and it was lots of fun fanging down it. From there it wasn't far to the finish and I tried to concentrate on keeping a steady working pace. With 4k to go I thought I could probably go under 2.40 which would be good, so I pushed a bit harder. The last section down the main street of Kangaroo Valley seemed to go on a bit, but then there were a couple of bagpipers there, "piping" us on. It was really cool.

I finished in 2.38, very pleased with the time and how I ran, both physically and mentally. Then there was scones with jam and cream and hot tea for the finishers. All in all it was a really great day.

Today I feel great, not particularly sore or tired. But I am going to have a recovery week anyway.

Go Cadel

The Tour has started and for the first time in 3 years we are not away on holidays and can watch every stage. I am excited.

It has been a fairly good week for me, training wise. Fortunate, otherwise I would have been miserable thinking about everyone running up at Gold Coast. I would have loved to be there but am commited to doing local stuff at the moment.

Monday
2k continuous easy swim at ITAC and 20 mins in the sauna, 10 in the steam room. Ahhhhhhhhh.

Tuesday
Pain in the Domain. I went with group 5, my legs were a little bit sore but not too bad considering W2G. I got around in 29.45 and it felt (almost) easy.

Wednesday
I had a real mental battle about running today. I wasn't sure what the plan was until I started running, but I felt quite good and did my 14k with 10k "tempo" at well under 5 min pace. I don't seem to be able to run 5min pace very well, I either go "hard" and its faster, or "easy" and its slower. I guess that’s the idea of practicing.

Thursday
Ride with LACC. I went with Group 4 and felt a bit wimpy, but I think that was a good call. Group 4 pace felt quite quick and I was really pushing on the last lap. Also a couple of the regular Group 3 girls seemed to get dropped. I'd like to get back to doing this 2x a week and Group 3 feeling easy. One day.

Friday
Morning squad at LPAC. I was pretty much "alone" again. Its still better than trying to swim 4k on your own, but I would so love to find a squad with lots of other swimmers at my speed and a dedicated coach. Still, 2 swims this week is good. And its winter.

Saturday - Striders 10k at Homebush. I had a reasonable run, doing 42.56. I actually thought I was going a bit faster than that and could get a PB, but nope. I was happy enough though, under 43 for the second time and that is where I need to be. I was pushed by a couple of other girls near me which was really good.

Sunday - I planned to do the STAR at Dee Why but the temptation of staying up last night and watching the first stage of the Tour was too strong. So I slept in instead and did a long run from home. The first 20k was a gentle pace with Tom and then I did another 10k by myself. I aimed to run the 10k at 5min pace (NOT faster). For the first 7k this was easy and felt quite slow, but then a started to struggle and I actually had to dig pretty deep mentally to keep it going. I tried to think of all the runners at Gold Coast and how they would be hurting but not giving up. I was quite pleased with myself for this run, but rather exhausted for the rest of the day.

Total running for the week: 65k. But it felt like more.

So this week Triathlon Australia announced the dates for the new National Series, now dubbed the Challenge Series, which will be the qualifying races for Olympic Distance Worlds at the Gold Coast next year. I was disappointed that there is no Nowra race, which has been a good race for me the past 2 years and lightly attended. All the races except one are in Jan-April 2009, with only Adelaide in late November 2008. The Sydney race is the day after the BMC Mountains to Beach, which I really really want to do. Perth, which is double points, is the day after 6ft. So some very tough decisions are going to have to be made.

Woodford To Glenbrook 2008

I targeted this race for a good solid run and a good time. I had heaps of room for improvement over last year's 2.20 (when I was underdone and recovering from a cold). After studying last year's results I decided under 2 hours should be achievable for me.

My plan was to take it steady for the first 15k and then put the pedal down for the last 10k. The plan went straight out the window with a sub 4 minute first k. Everyone seemed to be running really fast and I wanted to too. I eventually settled down to a more comfortable pace. I found I struggled a bit on the hills, and I walked some of them, which I am pretty sure I didn't do last year. Too much 6ft training! I really don't think its necessary to walk such short climbs in such a (relatively) short race. I think my problem was that I didn’t have a plan in mind as to how I was going to tackle them. It wasn't a big deal as there are only a few uphills, but that’s something I can improve next time.

I passed Geoff E at about 12.5k and the time was just under 1 hour. I commented to him that as long as we did a negative split we would go under 2 hours. But not long after that I had a small disaster when my shoelace snapped. I tried to quickly tie it back together but it kept coming undone. I eventually had to stop and fiddle with it for a minute or so. I was really annoyed to lose that time and set off to try and catch some of the people who had passed me. I thought I would have to push a bit more now to reach my goal. I felt like I was moving well on the gentle downhill and I tried to concentrate on good form and not slowing. I really enjoyed this section and the feeling that I was fit enough to run it "fast" and not be struggling in the second half.

With about 5ks to go I got sight of Geoff in front of me in the distance. He didn't look to be running particularly fast, but his legs are about twice as long as mine. I slowly made up ground on him, but I didn’t quite get there. A few runners came past me in the last k or so, really accelerating. The end was a bit different this year, down a steep grassy slope, across a bridge and up a small rise to the finish. I surged a bit to try and get Geoff but he crossed the line just in front of me.

I finished in 1.57 and 13th female. I was pretty happy with this. Maybe I could have run a bit smarter and pushed a bit harder, but maybe not. Tom finished in 2.07, enjoyed himself and easily beat his time from last year. I have pulled up really well this week. Tired and some soreness on Monday but nothing serious. I think the solid downhill running the week beforehand in Canberra may have helped.