New shoes

The last week has been relatively uneventful really. I guess that I am marking time until the big show which is less than two weeks away. Yesterday morning I finished my latest set of nightshifts which present a challenge of their own. Nightshifts are generally between 10pm and 6pm and consist of seven consecutive shifts. The work itself is not any less or more difficult, it is more the change in sleeping patterns and can be likened to being continually jet-lagged. Before this round of nightshifts I worked seven days with a mixture of morning and afternoon shifts, had one day off and started my seven nightshifts at 10pm the next night (which is considered to be a day off). As of yesterday that means that I had worked 14 of the last 15 days. Luckily I am in the taper phase of my training and now I have 5 days off.

Last week I had three rest days to help with recovery. Monday was my first rest day and on Tuesday I ran a flattish 18km. I had another rest day on Wednesday which was unplanned. My in-laws arrived on Wednesday so I decided to hang out with them instead. I had only planned on an easy 10km run and was happy to have the extra rest. Thursday was a repeat of Tuesday's run but I was over 2 minutes quicker despite the course being 200m longer. I had Friday as my third rest day and decided to do one of my night shift fatigue runs on Saturday.

On Saturday morning I managed to get away from work at 5:30am after an early start the night before. Thanks to course maestro Michael, I knew the course the Rocky Road Runners were taking and because they started on the other side of town at 5:30am I was able to run and meet them after about 4km. I have run a few times after nightshift and am well aware of the mental challenge of running after working all night. That still doesn't make it any easier to prepare for. I had gotten up from my day's sleep at about 3pm on Friday and was still a bit tired from my restless sleep. So by the time I laced up my shoes and headed out the door I had been awake for close to 15 hours. I was very tired, my legs were sore from a busyish shift and all I could think about was going to sleep. If I had not made the commitment to run I might have gone straight home to sleep. I ran on figuring that this would be good mental training for when I am struggling in the early hours during the Glasshouse 100.

Maybe it was something I had eaten or a combination of other factors but I had an upset stomach and just felt like rubbish for the entire run. Thankfully there was a large group present for the run and I was able to chat away to help keep my mind off how tired I felt. My legs were also very heavy and I was wondering if that was because of the new Skins tights and calf-guards that I was wearing or because I was tired. I persisted on with the run and began to consider how far I should go. Initially I had planned on running 25-30km. As we ran on the group became smaller as time wore on and as we moved closer to Mt Archer. The plan for the latter part of the run was to head up to the saddle as we had done on previous Saturday long runs. I decided against going up to the saddle this time. I ran home and logged 24km in just over 2hrs 04mins. If I had gone up to the saddle I would have ended up with around 35km. This would not have helped me in my taper and would have done more damage than good, not only because I was tired but due to the higher than normal humidity which was in the 80 - 90% range.

Sunday's run was quite exciting as I got to run in my new shoes. My new Hoka One One Bondi B shoes had arrived and after walking around the house for a couple of days I was ready to take them out on their maiden voyage. I wanted to run in them on the Saturday long run but thought it more prudent to save it for the shorter Sunday run. Hoka One One are a brand of shoe invented by a couple of European Ultra runners and are a stark contrast to the current trend towards minimalst shoes on the market.

On first appearance they look clumsy and chunky which put many people off. The shoes feature an EVA rubber that is 2.5 times bigger and 30% softer than traditional running shoes and works to absorb up to 80% of the impact that occurs whilst running, thereby reducing muscle fatigue and damage, which is very important when running long. As I have only run in them once I am not going to put up a full review until I have had a chance to really break them in. I ran with the group on Sunday and put the shoes through their paces. Immediately I noticed how spongy and bouncy the shoes felt. Throughout the run I varied the terrain and my pace (including a sub 4min kilometre and running downhill on the road at sub 3min/km pace). The shoes were faultless, I ran on wet grass, wet roads, some dirt track, uphill and downhill without any issues. Afterwards my legs felt great with no tightness or tiredness. I was so impressed with them that I will run in them for all of my runs prior to Glasshouse and will consider using them for some if not all of the race.

Weekly totals:

Monday - Rest day
Tuesday - 18.05km - 1hr 30mins 55secs - flat to undulating
Wednesday - Rest day
Thursday - 18.25km - 1hr 28mins 41secs - flat to undulating
Friday - Rest day
Saturday - 24.05km - 2hrs 04mins 18secs - long run with group
Sunday - 12.15km - 57mins 15secs - run with group

Totals - 72.50km - 6hrs 01mins 11secs

With only 10 sleeps to go I am starting to get excited and nervous about the race. I followed the Ultra Trail Du Mt Blanc race on-line over the weekend which added fuel to my fire but as I get closer to race-day the enormity and reality of this challenge hits home. Bring it on. Stay tuned for my next blog post on Sunday and...

Keep running.