Today I ran a comfortable 25.25km in 2hrs 06mins 55secs. I ran with my ususal Rockhampton Road Runners Saturday run group. This running group has been a big part of my preparation for TNF100. They meet every Saturday morning at 5am and every Sunday afternoon at about 5pm. The runs are all predominately on the road but it is great to run with a good group of people. On the Saturday morning I usually run from home and do anywhere between 45mins to 2hrs before meeting with them. We then run anywhere up to 35km as a group and I run home or add on some extra depending on what my goal for the day is.
Thanks to running with this group I have been able to knock out many 35km, 45km and even a 55km and 60km road run in preparation for next week. The group has lots of people with varying abilities and so there is always someone to run with, even when feeling flat or when feeling fast. A big thanks to Michael who orgainises the runs every week and to all the other runners who keep me company, but a special mention should go to Geoff who at 59 years young has been a mainstay at my side and has helped push me along when I am struggling. Geoff is training for the Great Ocean Road 45km run the day after TNF100. From all the training we have done together I'm sure he will do very well.
I have had quite a long build up for this race with a peak week of 182km but I have made sure that I had quite a few down weeks or weeks off to help recover and prevent burn-out. Initially I struggled with all the mileage in the heat and humidity through the Rocky spring and summer but with the weather cooling down a bit and tapering off my training I am feeling really fit, strong and healthy.
In the beginning when I was getting used to running with a full backpack my pace was quite slow. I did this on purpose to ensure that I could complete my longer training runs and get used to running with weight for extended periods of time. I believe that running with the pack has made me stronger and more efficient as I can now cover the same ground in a quicker time. Although I am not looking at speed for this race, I want to cover the course in an efficient manner all whilst conserving energy on the tough climbs.
Unfortunately living in Rockhampton there are not many decent hills for training and even less trails for off-road running. I have completed most of my hill sessions on Mt Archer which has a high point of a little over 600m elevation. Generally I would run about 5.5km from home before hitting the bottom of the big climb. The climb using the road is about 5km and is quite steep but entirely runnable. Running with a heavy backpack on has made it much more difficult and most of run hill sessions included some walking periods. These runs would total about 25km but would take me up to about 2hrs 45mins due to the terrain and gain in elevation (up to about 1300m of climbing).
The only real off-road training I have done is in the middle of my hill sessions when I run over the other side of the hill into the forest trails. The trails are very overgrown and rocky making it quite difficult going but good preparation. I have run up the trail from the bottom a couple of times on what is known as the 'Turkey', but I generally avoid it. The trail is very overgrown, narrow and poorly maintained. I have nearly been charged by a wild horse, had a wild boar in the bush beside me and come across numerous large spiders. The spiders were the last straw for me last year. I ran into one spiderweb just missing a large Golden Orb Weaver
The last four weeks of my training have been a bit disorganised but I am feeling quite fresh so it has all worked out well. I ran the Nerang 50km on the 3rd April, ran 35km the next Saturday before completing my longest run four weeks before race day. On the 16th April I ran about 20km before meeting the Rocky Road Runners and finishing up with about 3km on my own. I ran the 60.10km on the road around the Rockhampton Streets in a total time of 5hrs 24mins 08secs with an average time of 5:24min/km, burning 4841 calories and an elevation gain of 1267 metres. I followed that run with a 20km run the next day giving me my biggest weekend total of 80km. The next weekend I was working so had an easy week followed by a 104km week including a 35km run on the Saturday two weeks out. This week has included lots of rest days with 19.3km on Wednesday, 11.7km on Thursday and 25.25km today.
During my build-up I have not had any major injuries and have only had to deal with the usual niggles and a sometimes tight right ITB putting some pressure on my knee. I've kept up my stretching and been able to run through all these minor issues to now feel that I am ready to tackle this awesome challenge.
I have put together a list and checked all of my gear and equipment for the race. I had a bit of a scare when I discovered a hole in my 2L hydration bladder. I think this must have happened when I took a fall in the Nerang ultra but only noticed it about a week ago. Unfortunately the Inov8 brand is not available in Australia so I ordered online through the UK website Wiggle.Com who I have bought a lot of my gear from. Fingers crossed that the bladder arrives in time but if not I will not panic and have a couple of other options.
Mel, Holly and Ethan are all very excited about the trip as well. We will drive from Rockhampton to Brisbane on Wednesday and make a quick side-trip to visit our new puppy who is now 4 weeks old. We fly from Brisbane to Sydney on Thursday and will get a rental car and drive up to Katoomba after a quick detour via the city to show the kids.
We have been checking the weather very keenly and it is looking like it will be sunny but cold. After some recent heavy rain the course has been very muddy with another endurance event using some of the course a week ago. Thankfully there has been little rain since and with continued good weather the track should be in a runnable condition. The temperatures have been very cool with highs up to 15 degrees during the day and down to 2 degrees at night. This is a bit of a shock for us as we have acclimatised from Wellington's cold weather to Queensland's warmer weather which has lows of 15d and highs of 27d in Rocky at the moment.
They have introduced a new feature for the race this year with self-seeded wave starts. I am going to start in wave number 1 which is for people who have run a Sub14 hour TNF100(silver belt buckle)previously. There are four waves which depart in 2 minute intervals to prevent congestion on the course in the early stages which are run on narrow single track. My main goal is to FINISH but I am aiming at a Sub14 hour race to receive the coveted 'Silver Belt Buckle'. If I have a great race and everything goes to plan I hope to finish in about 12-12.5hrs which should see me finish around 7-7:30pm at night. Starting in wave 1 I will be in the company of some very good runners which will help me run a good pace but as I have learned from my two previous ultra's I need to run at my own pace.
I'm ready to begin this exciting event and believe that I am in the perfect condition both physically and mentally to have a great debut race.
Regardless of what happens on the day all I have to do is put one foot in front of the other for 100,000 metres.
Stay tuned.
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