Shit!

This afternoon I went and did the 15.4 km run that is actually 14.99 km (bloody Garmin!).

I had all the wrong omens before I went out. Went to the toilet before I left and was obviously dehydrated – don’t know why, though we had no sleep last night, really hot (and not fun hot!!)

I left at 3:00pm and just couldn’t get into it. Have a sore quad and knee on my right leg too (not bad, just feeling it a bit) which I suspect is attributable to my favouring my ankle a bit (run wasn’t helped by the fact that I had a couple of calls on my mobile from Fone Zone (some of my old team asking how a few things were set up, etc.). Didn’t mind but the disruptions didn’t help the mood.

Ho hum, lessons learned. Very comfortable pace fore the GH 100 in September, if I could keep it up for 160 km I’d come in at around 17 hours ... I must be on the right track!!

The Garmin is a revelation (apart from the inaccuracy of the distance of course).

Aren't Garmin's amazing?

Went out and got one today - a Garmin that is (Forerunner 301).

Been putting it off as I couldn't justify it (not to me, to the wife!).

What a reveleation, not only the detail and data it captures but how far out is the odometer on the 4x4 (over reading sadly, I haven't been doing more k's than I thought)?

Running a little bit, planning to up the tempo a bit and start back seriously this coming week. Hares and Hounds in five weeks.

Got out for a run this evening. I had planned it this morning, got up at 4:00 am but as I was getting ready my ankle was pretty stiff so I decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Much better to put a lamp on and take off into the bush for 9k in the dark this evening!

Bit of an acid test I thought. Anyway, it went well, nice and easy. No apparent adverse effects (we'll see what it's like tomorrow) so here's hoping.

End of the road?

Well, it had to happen.

I’ve struggled with motivation and momentum over the last few weeks, sometimes simultaneously.

Did a gentle 6km tonight and rolled an ankle (actually heard something go I think). Bloody stupid too as I just switched off for a second as I was finishing, literally as I was about to press the stop on my watch.

This was going to be a quiet week anyway so will just have to wait and see if this is something that’s going to clear up pretty quickly with a bit of rest, but it doesn’t feel like that. There’s no swelling though, but it is painful.

If it’s not good by end of next week, that’s probably the end of Hares & Hounds for me (50+k race in January).

Not too depressed, yet. I've been pretty lucky this year, what with killer dogs and running through the one, albeit lesser, injury I had in April.

Learned a lesson that I probably already knew in that you can’t switch off at all when you’re running on the trail in the dark, so there's a small positive there.

Bugger.

Mt Beerwah

For those who have only viewed the Glasshouse Mountains from Steve Irwin Way or even the Glasshouse Mountains lookout, you cannot truly appreciate how spectacular they are until you get close up to them.

Luckily, Ian Javes took this into account when he included the Mt Beerwah loop in the Glasshouse mountain series. This section takes you right to the foot of the tallest peak in Glasshouse Mountains and it's truly stunning. Unfortunately, the section is probably the most testing (I think anyway) of all on the western course.

After a couple of weeks of sporadic training, I managed to get out today and do two loops (the second with a mate) starting each from the lookout.

I raised a nice blister (taped the existing one up and didn't bother with the good foot and paid a small price) that I caught just in time to carry out some running repairs but it was worth it.

It wasn't at breakneck speed but it was a good workout and will hopefully give me the impetus to get back on track. Happy days!

Yes, I am a wimp after all

What a non event this week has ended up being.

Had a good week last week, only a little bit short of my scheduled target, only to be sidelined this week by a blister. Ok, I know what you're thinking, "If he were a 'proper' runner he'd just put up with it". There's the problem. I'm not a proper runner!

All healed up now but Stacey (my darling wife) is away this week leaving my son and I to fend for ourselves.

Amend the schedule and start again next week.

Now ... where was I?

Lot’s of motivation at the moment but I’m struggling to achieve any momentum

Been pretty quiet for the last few weeks. Did no more running during the week of the last entry and only managed one 12km run the following week.

Got some order last week and managed about 50km and have started well this week. Scheduled to get a reasonable long run in on Saturday (about 26km) which will give me a real indication of how far I really have to go.

Downside – finally got around to buying a new pair of shoes this week (Asics Trabuco WR10). Took them for their first outing tonight and got a cracking 10 cent blood blister on my heel ... lovely. I’m blaming it on my socks! It should make for an interesting remainder of the week either way.

Surprise PB

Finally got out last night and decided to get on the tarmac as opposed to trail given the weather we've been having here.

Did a 12k run that I hadn't done for some time and surprised myself with a PB of 57:11 (beating my Bridge to Brisbane time of 2004). I ran in an old pair of favourite shoes that are pretty light, flat and snug but made the mistake of not cutting toe nails and bruised my middle toe.

I also had a run planned this morning with AT as I wanted to get some k's in my legs.

We did the same run at 5:00 am this morning and boy did I pay! 62:28 and my toes have been sore all day. Payback for Sunday you might say!

Never mind, I have all weekend to recover, though I might sneak out early tomorrow for a shorter one before we head down to Sydney.

Arrrgggghhh!!!

There's nothing as frustrating as simply not having the time to do something.

After a good week last week, this week is more or less a write off. My wife had commitments that she needed to keep on Monday and Tuesday that impacted on my evening time (which meant I needed to work earlier), so no running so far.

I have a longish run planned for tomorrow morning and a short one this evening, but given that we are away this weekend with no scope for any other runs, that'll be it for this week.

Just have to treat it as a cycle down week. Not happy, but at least the frustration would indicate that I'm motivated?

A long(ish) run

Had a good week last week and managed some regularity.

Monday - 8.8km
Tuesday - 8.8km
Thursday - 8.8km
Friday - 12.5km
Sunday - 23.3km

Not exactly world beating but the first time I've got past 50k for the week for a couple of months (other than running 56k at GH at the beginning of September)

As planned, we ran from the GH lookout (CP4) to CP6. There's a hill after a couple of km's that kills me for some reason - it takes less than 2 minutes (I think) and it wipes me out. Anyway, from there, we head out around Beerwah as we did last week and I think we had a better run this time.

Turned off into the bush and through the rough stuff, climbed out and past CP5 and back to the car at the lookout to change bottles. Weirdly we had a pretty much identical time.

It's a really pleasant run down the fire road (about 5-6k I think) before you cross the road and turn into the bush. Last time I covered this ground it was dark and soaking wet. While that was fun(!) it was a lot easier in the daylight. We got to CP1a, found the turn and promptly missed another before getting on the right track to 'hamburger hill'. A short run through the woods to the cemetary and up the gravel road to Andrews car at Beerburrum school. Surprisingly, he was complaining of sore legs which (cruelly I admit) pleased me a little as I know I run at a much slower pace than he does. At least this suggested he had got a decent workout!

We're in Sydney this weekend so will have an easy week, but I'm starting to enjoy it all again as opposed to feeling like it was all a chore.

We'll see how long it lasts, eh?!

Finally ...

Finally; because at last I got out for a proper run last Sunday (30th) I feel like I'm doing something and have some motivation. This is a bit belated but better than not at all.

Myself and a mate (Andrew Townshend) left the car at the Glasshouse lookout. Before we set off, Andrew set me up with a heart rate monitor and GPRS. He’s studying a PHD at the moment that’s heavily focused on the effects of endurance on runners in particular and I think he was using me as a bit of a guinea pig! In all seriousness, I found the information really useful (and reassuring) when I got it back.

We headed down the Woodford – Beerburrum Road toward checkpoint 6 (GH Trail runners will know where it is) which is pretty straight forward undulating fire road. From there, we set out on the GH Beerwah loop.

This was a new experience for Andrew as though he is an accomplished runner himself (way beyond my capabilities) he hasn’t experienced GH trails terrain first hand as far as I know. Having run down and walked up the rollercoaster type valley that you go through before heading right in to the woods that precede the long undulating straight that follows the powerlines (not to be confused with the powerlines).

This is a really pleasant run and I was looking forward to travelling it in relaxed mode having covered it twice before, the most recent during the 50k race at GH 100 and the first time being a night run with a few of the Cool Running guys some weeks before that .

As we were half way across, we came across a farmer in his land cruiser and asked where we’d been and had we seen any of his cows. We hadn’t, though only ten minutes earlier Andrew had thought he had seen a black and white one crouching in the woods. It turned out to be a rock which was fortunate because had it been a crouching cow it could only have had mischief on its mind. Anyway, thy guy asked where we were heading and to look out for some black and white ones (spooky eh?!). I’m not sure what he expected us to do with them if we did come across them.

Anyway, this section is over too quickly and we turned back right into the bush. We went through here pretty well and came to the first climb pretty quickly and I remember Andrew commenting on how Ian Javes (Glasshouse Trails race director) must be something of a sadist. I expressed what I was thinking which was pretty much, “Wait until you sees the climb out back to the fire road!”

Once you get to that climb and out it’s a steady few km’s back to the lookout. It took about an hour and a half and I was looking forward to seeing the data from the system I was hooked up to.

The plan next week is to park a car at Beerburrum as well as the lookout and once we complete the Beerwah loop to continue down to CP1a and then to the school. Havent suggested this to Andrew yet so we’ll see.

Ah well ...

Predictably, went out and did my 10k but didn't back up this morning and am going out tonight ... in the dark ... again.

Shouldn't complain as it's pretty good conditioning for running in the dark and it's becoming second nature now. First week back is always tough though.

So much for focus ...

I was really focused last night and set my alarm for 4:30. Plan was to get out by 5:30, 10k and home. First proper run since Glasshouse and was keen. I got a relatively early night too.

Alarm went off this morning and I couldn’t do it. Really annoyed with myself and will have to double up tonight and tomorrow morning now. We’ll see.

Glasshouse 100 - September 8/9 2007

Lots of good intentions with not enough substance I guess!

The day started off with Michelle Healy, Glenn Hendry, John Sellars and I driving over to CP8 for the start (56k).

We trotted off down the hill to begin 8a and along the single track. John set a pace that wasn’t particularly quick but took us both away from Glenn and Michelle. It wasn’t long before I was thinking it was too quick for me and I knew something was up. As we got to the more technical part of the section, I had to let him go.

I was starting to struggle a bit uncomfortable, not sure if it was heat, humidity or whatever but something wasn’t right (not sure what it was like for everyone else but I couldn’t get on with it). I hadn’t even got through the first 10k yet ... this wasn’t going to be pretty.

As I was approaching the top of the climb back to CP8, I heard a couple of voices behind me chattering away about the latest odds for the footy and new it was Glenn and Michelle. They couldn’t have sounded more chirpy if they’d been singing ‘I love to go a’ wandering’!! I got back to CP8, gathered my thoughts and a few other things before 8b and set off up the hill with Glenn and Michelle. Well, not so much with them as hanging around behind them ... further and further behind them.

I’d convinced myself that I needed to just get through this as conservatively as I could and look to settle down from CP8 back to CP7. After all, it was relatively easy running through that section and I might be able to settle in. No such luck. I was uncomfortable with everything. Laces not right, Camelbak bouncing around everywhere (whatever I did with it), etc., etc. This was obviously going to be a learning experience and I would just have to get on with it.
As I left CP7, I reassessed my likely splits determined what I needed to do to get home.
I could ditch the irritating Camelbak at CP6. It was doing my head in and I had left a fuel belt there. Also, I had stupidly forgotten to take the GU out of my drop bag earlier, so at least I could pick that up and get enough on board to give myself a preverbal shot. I would be well over halfway by then and though Beerwah would be straight after it I was quite looking forward to it as a few of us had run this section a couple of weeks ago in the dark. There was nothing really nasty to get through on the way there so CP6 had now become my Mecca.

As I was running up to CP6 Whippet passed me and that was inspiration in itself as he was in a pretty poor state when I passed him earlier on 8a. I got a change of socks and a few nibbles, picked up my sachets and was on my way.

The relief running out of 6 was immense. My time had blown out anyway but I was conscious of the need to get to CP5 by about 6:00 pm as I had left my light there (anticipating a much better time of course) but so no problems on the horizon. I was actually running a lot more than I was walking and I felt a lot more comfortable with less baggage. It might have had something to do with the couple of sachets of GU I got down me!

I really enjoyed the Beerwah section in the light – you have to love the scenery before you dive into the woods – and even the climb out was good. I caught up with Ray (James?) not far from the bottom of the climb out. He took off ahead of me to CP5. I got there just on 6:00 as he was leaving so I had a quick refill, picked up my light and I caught back up with him just before the lookout. I figured even though it was 11k to go it would be good for both of us to have a bit of company down the mountain.

Ray helped me down the mountain and maintained enough impetus to keep me moving. We had a bit of a two way street going when I realised where we were (having crossed the sealed road heading toward Tibrogargan) and though we walked a lot through the bush we were moving pretty well.

We got to CP1a at about 7:00 (still can’t believe I’d been out there for 7.5 hours) and both had to make a phone call – mobiles, where would we be without them?! – Ray was a bit longer on his and I needed to keep moving. It was only 4k but I had momentum and I didn’t want to lose it. So I said my ‘see you later’s’ and off I went.

We all know what the run through there was like - over your ankles in water for the most part, but by know it was of no consequence. It must have been nightmare for you guys going on to do the 100m and trying to avoid the blisters (ask Susannah H!), but I didn’t care. Not a lot to Hamburger Hill when you only have to travel it the once and you know you’re around the corner from home!

Coming to the finish, I got an inkling of how some of you guys can push yourselves for the longer ones. I felt pretty reasonable toward the end. I wasn’t running well, but I was sort of covering the ground at a reasonable pace (last 4k in about 26 minutes which was ridiculously fast compared to some of my earlier pace). Having said that I was more than pleased to get back!
I came in a bit over 8 hours (hoping for 6.5 to 7) but John’s winning time put that into better perspective.

Ray was running the 100m. I haven’t seen his name in the results so I guess he might have pulled up. If you read this mate, many thanks.
Lessons learned:

• You can’t expect to run 50k without paying a price when you haven’t even done the 30k training properly - duh!
• Sour snakes taste even worse when they’ve been in the back pocket of your cycling shirt for half an hour!
  

All experience to take forward to the 80k in May.

As ever, support was amazing. Too many names to mention

Until next time

Glasshouse 50 - May 20th 2007

Just a short account of the Glasshouse 50 last month.

I've run a few half marathons in the past (none since 2003 despite running the B2B for the last four years) and was at the beginning of the year, looking for a similar - local - event to train up to as motivation to get running again and get into reasonable shape.I have never been motivated to run a marathon let alone an Ultra, but while looking for a suitable run, I came across the Glasshouse Trails site and discovered the world of Trail and Ultra running and was bitten.

I determined that I was going to run the Glasshouse 50 in May and through the ensuing months, read as much as I could about the event, similar event and many accounts of events with lots of mentions of some of you guys (AB, Ladies Man(?), Undercover Brother) along with looking at lots of pictures of past Glasshouse events.

Most inspiring of all have been Sean Greenhill's detailed accounts and imagery of people like Roger Guard and the Waugh's. The Waugh's, what can I say. Rachael passed me on her way to finishing the 80k (on the single track with about 7-8 to go) and passed on her encouragement. David passed me about 15 minutes later on his bike, asked how I was going and checked to see if I needed anything (water, etc.) and passed on his encouragement.

Roger Guard is unbelieveable? I was lucky enough to run with Roger through the power lines until we got back to the fire road when he left me! I caught up with him on the single track on 8a (he greeted me with "a bit demoralising this section, isn't it?"! To which I agreed). He left me again at the foot of the climb back up to 8 and that was the last I saw of him during the run. There's nothing you can say about this man other than he's awesome! The word is used lightly so often but it fits here.

Last, but by no means least, though he wasn't there, Mr Greenhill. Not sure why other than he appears to be of similar build to me and obviously was on a mission to finish the 100. Those two DNF's a few years ago must have planted such doubts but he just kept at it, revised his strategy and got on with it.

Suffice to say, I had a fantastic experience and finished the fifty in reasonable shape and I don't think I could have done much more to prepare myself in the time I had. The satisfaction I had just in training was immense (regularly running distances much further than I ever had prior to undertaking this challenge really humbled me to think of how you guys who run the big ones must prepare)

The obvious thanks go to the support on the day but to Ian Javes and the many volunteers who make it happen, you don't realise how big a job it is to put one of these events on until you take part in one.

I intend to run one of the shorter events in July and one of the events in September barring injury. This should take me nicely into summer and then to prepare for the 80 next may.

Funny things that happen on the trail

Playing catch up here a bit, so far behind I have no hope of catching up on events that took place so I thought I’d share a story with of what happened to me on Monday, March 26th of this year. Aside of some tendonitis in my right foot for a short while this was really the only thing that impaired my training leading up to the Glasshouse 50.

My parents were visiting from the UK and my Dad and I were walking our dog in the forestry (that’s what we call it in Wales anyway). We had stopped for him to take a photograph of something or other (my Dad that is, not Jerry the dog!), I think it was an ants nest or something.

Anyway, before we even knew what was going on, I could hear deep growling and as I looked up, two bull mastiff crosses and what looked like a wolfhound cross were bearing down on Jerry. I think that’s what breed they were as it would have been easy to have mistaken them for a small herd of mustangs given their size.

I was vaguely aware of a red Land Cruiser ute’ about 50 metres away and some clown screaming vainly at the three ‘dogs’ to quit whatever they had in mind while he raced to the scene. Obviously he had decided to take the dogs for a run behind the vehicle and the last thing he expected to encounter was someone else actually ‘walking’ their pooch!

Anyway, for what seemed like about five minutes, but was probably a lot less, absolute bedlam ensued. The pack immediately laid into Jerry and I couldn’t get to him (I wasn’t sure what I was going to do if I did). They were at his throat and belly and I couldn’t see him getting out of it. I was kicking dogs, my Dad was kicking dogs, and even the feral oaf was kicking dogs, “Pick your dog up!” He yelled, “you pick your f*cking dog up!” I yelled back!

Trying to ‘save’ Jerry, I was bowled over for about the umpteenth time and as I rolled on the ground I was confronted with the bizarre scene of the hysterical idiot with the giant dogs that he had absolutely no control over and my Dad trying to beat them off with a thong!
Now my Dad doesn’t wear thongs (flip-flops in Wales) and all that went through my mind was, “where the hell did he get hold of thong?” The futility of beating on a 150kg dog with it never entered my head. Nor Dad's obviously.

Anyway, I finally got hold of Jerry. He’s black and white and his white bits where completely red from the dust as he was wet and thought he must surely have some serious injuries. The dogs were still trying to get at him and all I could see in his eyes was blind terror ... he promptly turned around and bit me in the hand as I grabbed him! He let go when I yelled at him and this coincided with the fuss dying down.

The guy ran off toward his ute' with his dogs following him and a thong missing (ahhh!). I didn’t have the presence to get his number and he was on his way. Besides, I was in agony and my hand was bleeding pretty badly. Also, I thought Jerry would be in serious need of a vet and I wanted to get back to the car. The bugger didn’t have a scratch!

To cut a long story not so long, I spent the rest of the evening in casualty waiting for examination and an x-ray, with an ever swelling hand that the locals of Caboolture assumed was the result of my belting something. This followed by a week off training as I had to strap my arm up to shoulder height.

Funny things happen while you’re on the trail, eh?

Why?

Well ... why not?

I've been threatening to do this for some time now and for some reason haven't got around to it (the blog, that is).

In January of this year I was looking for a local half marathon that would give me the motivation to train up to and by default get me into decent shape (something I hadn’t been in since I stopped mountain biking back home in Wales).

I came across the Glasshouse Mountains trail running series in the process and my interest was pricked. The whole concept of ultra running was new to me – looking back I can’t believe I was totally unaware of it. I’d never been remotely interested and much less motivated to run a marathon on the road but an ultra run was different (this is where my ego kicked in!). But this had more.

Think about it. However many millions of people there are who have run a marathon it still puts them into a pretty elite group globally, so it follows that if you run an ultra marathon, the group is even more elite … if you see what I mean (I know, I know, the ego, right?)

The trail aspect of it was exciting to me and the more I read about some of the distances these guys were covering the more I wanted to do it myself. There were 25km runs, 30km runs, 8, 10, but I saw no point in doing it unless it was an ultra (i.e. anything over standard marathon distance) so it had to be a 50km event for me.

And so I embarked on a schedule that would see me run close to 900 km to train for the ‘Glasshouse 50’ on May 20th. My schedule started from mid February and I pretty much stuck to it all the way through.