On Saturday I ran the 24 Park Runs in 24 hours in Perth for the On My Feet charity, helping homelessness. ( https://www.onmyfeet.org.au/ ) The concept is simple, run a park run, drive to the next one, run that park run and repeat 24 times over the course of the 24 hour period. This gives you around thirty minutes for each park run with a small break for lunch, dinner and an early breakfast. Sounds easy right ? Wrong as Perth decided to present us with the hottest day of the summer so far with temperatures hitting 42c ( over 107F) and staying around the 40c for most of the early afternoon into the evening, chuck in brutal humidity and it became a challenge.

The donation page for the 2023 24 park runs event has now closed so the best way to donate, if you so choose, is to log on to the charities website ( https://www.onmyfeet.org.au/ ) and donate there. They also sell cool socks which would be a nice gift for any runner, donating and giving , a win – win situation.

Right , off we go. I had decided to run this event while training in the Perth hills the day before. It had been on my radar since last year but I had made no effort to prepare for it and in the end just ignored it. It wasn’t until the chat started to build and FMO (Fear of Missing Out) started to kick in that I eventually caved in and put in my charity donation to the On My Feet fund. (link above , just in case you missed it) I was in but had no food and only a few hours to get ready the morning of the event.  I had managed to snag a seat on the best ride in town, that of the famous Gore family van with Gemma and Phil driving, ably supported by Bradley.  All I needed to do was turn up to each park run , cruise around in less than thirty minutes and eat and drink in the van while being chauffeured to the next run, simples. Well as with all best laid plans, and in this case there wasn’t even a plan , things started to go awry when the temperature began to heat up.

Even at Park Run number one, Garvey Park, you could feel the heat and by the end of the first park run you knew you were in for a long day. We started at 8am but as soon as you ventured out into the sunshine you were rewarded with a reminder of what was to come, heat and plenty of it. On the plus side I was about to run 22 park runs I had not ran before so it was an going to be a sight seeing tour of Perth , in a heatwave, with some running in between long stints of eating and drinking while a member of the Gore family, or Bradley, drove.  How bad could that be ?

One of the major surprises of this event was the laughter , in the back of the van there was a lot of it and the six of us just had the best time together. Although we all knew each other spending 24 hours driving around Perth in a heatwave brings you all closer together, literally. Conditions were cramped but I’d managed to snag myself the seat behind Phil with my own door, that doesn’t sound special but trust me it was like being upgraded from cattle class to first class, I was stoked.  We had the right combination of characters and the time in the van was just ace, well it was for the male occupants. Sarah did leave us just before midnight citing space concerns when Gemma joined us but truth be told I think we had worn her down with our ‘special conversations‘ and theories regarding Stephen Hawkins and many other subjects that shall remain between the van crew only.

The thing with this event is if you have a good bunch of runners sharing a ride it becomes even more epic and I had a great crew sharing a ride.. so much laughter albeit it’s best it stays within the members of the van..

As well as running every park run in under 24 minutes. (get it, 24 park runs in 24 hours,  all finished in under 24 minutes..) Phil also drove the first three or so allowing me to ride shotgun. Once he stopped and Bradley took over I was moved back to economy class in the back, albeit I had a window seat with my own personal sliding door, luxury.

Over the twenty four hour period there were only a couple of times I really struggled and doubted I’d finish. The first time was Carine Park run at 3pm. The heat was incredible and close to 42c. We had just finished Whitfords park run and assumed the temperature would drop , unfortunately we had not taken into account the sea breeze which had cooled us the park run before Carine, this breeze was well and truly now gone and all we had were Sahara like conditions.   I had arranged for my Wife and Mum to meet me at Carine and hand over a Brownes Mocha Chill ( basically a protein drink with a kick and full of sugar) . They both witnessed me stumbling about sucking up icy poles like my life depended on it, actually at that moment in time it may have. Karen has seen this many times before and knew to leave me to it and not get involved, probably the best thing to do. They both left and I was escorted back to the van, we had a schedule to keep.

After Carine we ran the Yokine Park Run which was better as there was some shade and I had recovered a tad by the time we were ejected from the air conditioning heaven that was team Gore’s family van. I just had to survive two more park runs before a good break for dinner but better than that if I could survive Maylands, the next one post Yokine, there was a twenty minute drive to Applecross, in that time I could neck the Brownes Mocha chill. This was a risky move as 600ml of milk can go either way on a upset stomach, it really is a kill or cure move. Luckily in this case it was a cure and I ran Applecross better than all previous park runs finishing ahead of Phil, albeit I had started earlier due to worrying about what was going to happen.

Post Applecross we were eleven down with thirteen to go and hopefully better conditions. We had a good break for dinner and managed to find a Pasta Cup outlet which is built for runners doing this kind of event, carbohydrates in a cup and lots of them. I never finished the portion but it gave me the energy I needed for another six or seven hours of running. As I said earlier I had no real nutrition plan , mainly brought on by having no nutrition. I was surviving on Bix products and any sweets available in the van, thanks Tom, Bradley and Aaron.

As you can see from the image below I was a new man after my pasta meal, a similar story after my Mocha Chill, with ultrarunning it’s all about hydration and nutrition, get these right and you’re halfway there.  Unfortunately getting the mix right is difficult and it takes experience to judge the conditions accordingly and tweak your plan. In this case the humidity was a killer and we were taking onboard at least a litre of electrolytes an hour. I would run the park run , head back to the van and just drink as much as I could stomach before the next one. Alternating between electrolyte tablets and powder, all supplied by Bix. ( https://bix-hydration.myshopify.com/products/bix-active ) I made it through the night but for the last few park runs I couldn’t stomachs even water, the end was in sight so I knew I was ok for this one but for longer ultras I use more ‘proper food’ rather than hunting just calories and sugar.

The evening park runs became harder and harder with my average pace slowing accordingly. The meatball hit lasted a few hours but eventually the body starts to crave more calories and I knew I wasn’t providing them. My only saving grace was my bix powder which was full of carbs.  I actually felt better when I was running and the journeys to the runs started to become the problem.  As soon as you stopped you started to sweat and then sitting in an air conditioned van made this even more profuse, luckily my towel protected the upholstery (well it was better than nothing?). While in the van you had to prepare yourself for the next run as time was always against us. You had enough time to update Strava, maybe a quick post on facebook and then drink and eat as much as you could stomach before charging your shozk headphones and iphone. Once you arrived at the next location you had a few minutes to prepare whatever hydration you’d need and then off you went. Changes of clothing or applying sudocrem was a luxury you’d rarely have time to think about, it was that tight on time.  I did make sure I used fisocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com/ ) every four hours or so and it helped big time, combined with a couple of nodoze and a few paracetamol, don’t judge me.

Homestead, Champion Lakes, Shipwreck and Calleya came and went and by the time we hit 2am I was ready for a macca’s visit , albeit I don’t eat junk food but was hoping for a bacon and egg sandwich or a hash brown. As it was they hadn’t started the breakfast menu so I was left with a Chicken burger , fries and fanta. This was a mistake and it made the next park run, Bibra Lake at 2:31am, a real test. I started well enough but fell apart in the last few kilometres, I was not in a happy place. It’s amazing how long a 5km can feel , even after running 18 of them previously.

After Bibra Lake there were five more runs to complete but the next two, South Fremantle and Cottesloe, were particularly testing with beach sections. As we lined up at South Fremantle I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to complete the run in time, it was 3:30am, and we were well into the witching hours. ( between 2am and dawn, the most dangerous time for ultra runners !)  As it was when we started to run I found my rhythm early and actually enjoyed the time on the beach. Andy Baldwin got me through this park run together with Sarah and we ran the last few kilometres together , dare I say enjoying the moment.  This was then duplicated for the Cottesloe run and then the sun rose and all was good. In any ultra make it to sunrise and you’re good for another few hours, guaranteed.

Once I spied the sunrise I was never not going to finish. The final three park runs saw other runners join in as we were into early Sunday morning. As the numbers rose so did our energy levels and we could all start to see the finish line a few hours away.  Claremont park run was number 22 so a few of the lads put on their tutu’s and skipped around full of the joys of spring ( or summer in this case)  The morning temperature was a relief from the heat we had endured the previous day albeit we could feel the temperature start to rise by the minute.

Next it was Burswood before the final park run at Claisebrook. To comply with tradition all the nine runners who had completed all 23 park runs had a shot of Fireball Whisky, to warm the stomachs before the final park run, number 24. I’m not a big drinker in fact for 2023 I had two pints of Guinness after running Delirious West 200 miler  in February and maybe a glass of red wine on the plane to Run Britannia in May, that’s it.  That was probably my first spirit since the Tequila shots after finishing the Unreasonable East in 2021 ? I digress, the fireball went down well but must admit to feeling a tad ropey that afternoon although the previous 24 hours may have had something to do with that but I’m blaming the fireball.

So the image below shows the nine of us that finished all 24 park runs and I had to work very hard to get into it. In the end it was an incredible journey with good friends and so much laughter mixed in with some serious ‘pain cave’ time, mentally testing situations and an opportunity to find out more about yourself; what more could you wish for.

If I can ask if you’ve got this far then you show your appreciation by scrolling back to the top of the post and donating to the cause, anything is better than nothing, it all helps. I would really appreciate it.

Finally a massive shout out to Team Gore for letting me hitch a ride in their van , which unfortunately should now be destroyed, six sweaty runners for 24 hours in one van does not end well for anybody. At the end of the event I promised never again but after a few days I can’t wait for 2025. Next year I will insist on an esky full of icy poles, avoid macca’s like the plague and bring my own food. Assuming the temperatures are lower maybe next year it’ll be easier, maybe ? I’ve already asked Phil for my seat on the 24 hour bus and I’m hoping the rest of the 2024 runners do the same, it’s tradition and runner love traditions.

fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered.  It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

 

Fractel ( https://fractel.com.au/ ) have your performance headgear covered. I love the colours and the functionality of these hats, I guarantee there is one model you’ll fall in love with.

Shokz headphones, let you keep in touch with the world around while losing yourself in quality tunes or podcasts. ( https://shokz.com.au/ )

T8 running apparel is the best you can get, second to none. Designed for the ultra humid Hong Kong conditions the owners live in.  It is light and does away with any chaffing worries. T8 is the name given to the highest typhoon warning in Honk Kong,  storms and typhoons with gusts exceeding 180kph, which explains the branding. ( https://t8.run/)

Altra supply the best trail shoes on the planet, in my opinion, and none better than the Olympus five. Do yourself a favour and buy a pair. ( https://www.altrarunning.com.au/ )

https://www.osprey.com/au/en/category/hydration/trail-running/ Osprey Australia have come onboard and are supplying me with two running backpacks and travelling luggage for the Run Britannia adventure. I particularly like their running backpacks and am excited to test them over the event. I’ll be using the Duro 6 and the Duro 1.5 backpacks.

Excited to have Coros onboard who have supplied me with the new Apex 2 Pro GPS watch. I already owned the Apex 2 and was stoked when Coros reached out and offered me an upgrade. Even more battery life, can you believe 75 hours using GPS, wow! The watch itself is awesome, so light and well made. The watch is paired with a incredible application to keep track of all your stats, and runners love stats ! .  ( https://coros.net.au/ )

Feel free to follow me on Strava.

Follow me on

or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/

Over the Christmas break and into 2024 I have been putting in some serious trail time and double days and hitting some big weekly distances. Infact last week was my biggest weekly total (excluding races) since week 38 2016.  I know this because I have been tracking my running totals using an excel spreadsheet since 2009.

I’m up to 65,662km’s now and  4,409 separate runs; of course with Strava I have a detailed record from about 2013 onwards but still manually log every run in my good old trusty spreadsheet.

Looking at the table you can see my big years were 2011, 2013 and 2016. These were when I raced often and regularly got PB’s (PR’s for the Americans among us) I feel 2013 was my time and I wish I had jumped onboard the TRC coaching program but instead waited until 2016 when I had a ‘second coming’ so to speak by amping up my training volume to 11.

Some context behind the figures above. In 2007 I started to get hooked on running and this culminated in my three Comrades runs in 2008, 2009 and 2010. After that is was on for young and old and I started to compete regularly moving from a middle of the pack runner towards the front. My marathon times dropped virtually every time I ran one, happy days. My Comrades training was what allowed me to ‘kick on’ in 2011 and have a stellar year, PB’s in all events over all distances.

2012 was looking to be similar but my Father passed in February and this together with a calf knot knocked me about and for a time I lost my running mojo. It wasn’t a complete disaster though as I managed to drop my marathon PB at Melbourne to 2 hours 43 minutes, also managed the biggest prize money of my career with a $6,000 cheque for first Australian at the Chevron City to Surf Marathon.

In 2014 I was running the best I have ever ran, adopting a new approach where I tried to keep the average pace of every run under 4min/k. I highlighted these runs in red in my spreadsheet and as you can see from the extract below I was doing a good job. Coming into Bunbury I had ran a course PB at the Darlington half and was ready to defend my crown after winning the previous year. Unfortunately the wheels fell off in the race as I pushed too hard and blew up when really I didn’t need to. I may not have won as a young Michael Ho ran an incredible time but I could have cruised to second and maybe even a PB. In the end I had to settle for fourth but this result affected the rest of the year.

In 2015 I hooked up with Raf Baugh from the Running Centre in Perth and then carried what he taught me through to 2016 where I went all out and started to hit some big weekly totals, with double days becoming the norm. This was my last hurrah, so to speak, at fifty years old I was still running good PB’s but I was putting in some serious kilometres.  The highlight of the year was my 1 hour 15 minute half at Fremantle after a massive month of training, over 100 miles week in, week out. I remember sitting in the car before the event thinking I was about to embarrass myself as I felt so tired. In the end I decided to run with the front runners, ignoring pace,  and see how long I could hang on.  I managed to hang on and led for most of the race before being pipped at the post by two far superior runners.

Things were going well at the start of 2017 but a calf tear put an end to my year after the WAMC Bridges 10k in April albeit I did manage a win at the end of year 4k City Beach race, after three second places.  In 2018 my running year was again cut short by injury, this time the dreaded Planar Fasciitis. This , together with my advancing years, was the end of my PB days in anything less than an ultra, my pace was gone.  Thus in 2020,  and beyond,  I have been concentrating on ultra marathons as I am still able to race at the top end of the field.

So the point of this post is that when I look back at my training spreadsheet I can see a correlation between the distances I run in training and the PB’s . One small caveat , to supercharge the improvement race often, this together with the added distance makes a massive difference to your finishing times.  Racing often makes you comfortable with being uncomfortable.   This is incredibly important, the only person who can get you to the finish line quicker than you have ever got there before is you and there will be time in the ‘pain box’ , that’s just the way it is. You’ll never get use to it but familiarity, in this case, does not breed contempt, it breeds acceptance.

So to sum up this post, if you want to improve run more and if you really want to improve run more and race often, simples.

fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered.  It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

 

Fractel ( https://fractel.com.au/ ) have your performance headgear covered. I love the colours and the functionality of these hats, I guarantee there is one model you’ll fall in love with.

Shokz headphones, let you keep in touch with the world around while losing yourself in quality tunes or podcasts. ( https://shokz.com.au/ )

T8 running apparel is the best you can get, second to none. Designed for the ultra humid Hong Kong conditions the owners live in.  It is light and does away with any chaffing worries. T8 is the name given to the highest typhoon warning in Honk Kong,  storms and typhoons with gusts exceeding 180kph, which explains the branding. ( https://t8.run/)

Altra supply the best trail shoes on the planet, in my opinion, and none better than the Olympus five. Do yourself a favour and buy a pair. ( https://www.altrarunning.com.au/ )

https://www.osprey.com/au/en/category/hydration/trail-running/ Osprey Australia have come onboard and are supplying me with two running backpacks and travelling luggage for the Run Britannia adventure. I particularly like their running backpacks and am excited to test them over the event. I’ll be using the Duro 6 and the Duro 1.5 backpacks.

Excited to have Coros onboard who have supplied me with the new Apex 2 Pro GPS watch. I already owned the Apex 2 and was stoked when Coros reached out and offered me an upgrade. Even more battery life, can you believe 75 hours using GPS, wow! The watch itself is awesome, so light and well made. The watch is paired with a incredible application to keep track of all your stats, and runners love stats ! .  ( https://coros.net.au/ )

Feel free to follow me on Strava.

Follow me on

or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/

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Whenever Christmas comes around I’m reminded of the time I doubled up after a full roast dinner on Christmas Day, inspired by Sebastian Coe. This post below always brings a smile to my face and true to my word I have never doubled up on Christmas Day since.

One of my favourite runners growing up in the UK in the early eighties was Sebastian Coe who , together with Steve Ovett and Steve Cram, dominated middle distance running between 1980 and 1984. Coe and Ovett between them won four gold medals at a time when the UK middle distance scene was in disarray with Brendan Foster the only real athlete of note.  My favourite all time Seb Coe quote is below and I have mentioned this before on my blog.

In the winter of 1979, during the lead-up to the Olympic Games in Moscow, I remember training on Christmas Day.

It was a harsh winter (harsh enough to bring down a government) but I ran 12 miles on Christmas morning. It was a hard session and I got home, showered and felt pretty happy with what I had done.

Later that afternoon, sitting back after Christmas lunch, I began to feel uneasy but was not quite sure why. Suddenly it dawned on me. I thought: “I bet [Steve] Ovett’s out there doing his second training session of the day.” I put the kit back on, faced the snow and ice and did a second training session. I ran several miles, including some hill work.

Not long ago, over supper in Melbourne, I told him the story. He laughed. ‘Did you only go out twice that day?’ he asked.

Well Christmas Day was too good an opportunity not to try and repeat what Seb had ran on that cold day in 1979. Admittedly it was a tad warmer in Perth, mid thirties I think, but it was about getting out there after a ‘monster Christmas dinner with all the trimmings’ cooked so beautifully by my lovely Wife. I did give myself a break after wolfing down the meal by watching ‘the Trolls’ on TV with the family before announcing to my Wife I was off for a second run for the day. (I had sneaked in a 10k earlier after the kids had devoured their presents and it was quiet time as they scurried off to their rooms to do whatever young girls do in the privacy of their bedrooms?)

So I off went on another 10k thinking how much fun this was going to be as I had noted on Strava earlier in the day there was quite a bit of activity earlier in the morning but so far no double runners, to good an opportunity to miss. Initially my bravado was rewarded with a 4k pleasant enough run into Star Swamp and I must admit to feeling quite smug with myself. This feeling was not one that was to continue with me on the rest of the run unfortunately when, around 5k, the wheels fell off big time. Actually thinking about it now it wasn’t just the wheels that were ejected I suspect the head gasket, cylinder head and all accompanying items on the engine decided to seize at the same time. This was not good 5k into a 10k loop. I had nowhere to go but forward and to finish it was a 5k run in either direction.

The next 5k was a regressive run at it’s best (or worst?), each kilometre got progressively slower and more painful and luckily I managed to find some comfort in a toilet break at 8k. I say comfort in the broadest sense of the word by the way, more a place to sit down for 5 minutes and try and regain my faculties. I did eventually get home where I stumbled past the onlooking Wife mumbled something about being ‘ill’ , survived a shower and straight to bed. It wasn’t even 8 O’Clock on Christmas Day but my day was over, big time. ! Luckily I had arranged to meet the BK posse for a 90 minutes easy run at 5am the next morning. As you can imagine this gave me great comfort as I lay in bed replaying the whole sorry affair.

In my defence , as a family, we all suffered a small dose of food poising on Christmas Eve eating some fish and chips while watching the sunset. (Funnily enough we all remarked at the time how good the meal was.?) I’m not sure Lord Coe had this issue before his run, and if he did he never mentioned it? Anyhow the moral of this story is two fold. First never ever attempt to run a second run after a full Christmas dinner with all the trimmings (luckily I was too full for sweet and had planned to eat it after my run ! Yeah right ! It’s still in the fridge). Secondly I now realise why  Sebastian Coe has two gold medals and two silver medals at two Olympics and I haven’t and never will. It takes a Olympian , and a bloody good one at that, to run twice on Christmas day.

Next year I’m going stay with the family and go for the Trolls and Dr. Seuss’s ‘How the Gringe Stole Christmas ‘ double header…….

 

fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered.  It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

 

Fractel ( https://fractel.com.au/ ) have your performance headgear covered. I love the colours and the functionality of these hats, I guarantee there is one model you’ll fall in love with.

Shokz headphones, let you keep in touch with the world around while losing yourself in quality tunes or podcasts. ( https://shokz.com.au/ )

T8 running apparel is the best you can get, second to none. Designed for the ultra humid Hong Kong conditions the owners live in.  It is light and does away with any chaffing worries. T8 is the name given to the highest typhoon warning in Honk Kong,  storms and typhoons with gusts exceeding 180kph, which explains the branding. ( https://t8.run/)

Altra supply the best trail shoes on the planet, in my opinion, and none better than the Olympus five. Do yourself a favour and buy a pair. ( https://www.altrarunning.com.au/ )

https://www.osprey.com/au/en/category/hydration/trail-running/ Osprey Australia have come onboard and are supplying me with two running backpacks and travelling luggage for the Run Britannia adventure. I particularly like their running backpacks and am excited to test them over the event. I’ll be using the Duro 6 and the Duro 1.5 backpacks.

Excited to have Coros onboard who have supplied me with the new Apex 2 Pro GPS watch. I already owned the Apex 2 and was stoked when Coros reached out and offered me an upgrade. Even more battery life, can you believe 75 hours using GPS, wow! The watch itself is awesome, so light and well made. The watch is paired with a incredible application to keep track of all your stats, and runners love stats ! .  ( https://coros.net.au/ )

Feel free to follow me on Strava.

Follow me on

or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/

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Post Run Britannia I took my recovery from COVID seriously and basically did nothing bar put on about eight kilo’s in weight.  As you can see from the Strava extract below ( you have Strava right ? http://www.strava.com )  I didn’t run again until early August, giving myself seven weeks off completely.  Could I have ran ? Yep, did I want to run, nope. I wasn’t injured just devastated and mentally broken. Run Britannia was to be the pièce de ré·sist·ance of my running career, a new high from which I would contemplate my  future running goals and even maybe start thinking abut retiring from these ultra races, I did say only think about it.

Anyhow now it had turned into a new low, an event that offered so much and , to me, was a runners dream , had turned into my worst nightmare. As well as not finishing , or even getting close, it had cost me so much financially and also I had sacrificed so much family time to make the run happen.  There were no family holidays of note for the last few years, the entry fee for the race would have paid for two or three foreign holidays for the whole family, with all the trimmings. This played on my mind heavily. The final nail in my running coffin was losing both my dogs weeks after returning. This hit me hard, real hard. The reason I had two dogs was the last time I lost my dog I was so destroyed my logic was by having two I would always have one to grieve with. I never imagined they would both leave me within days of each other. Thus my plan back fired , big time. Even now I suffer with their passing but each day it gets batter, albeit only slightly.  So it took me until early August before I could lace up and start training for the Feral Pig 100 miler in early November, one of my favourite races. (  https://feralpigultra.com.au/ )

So off I went again, slowly at first but week by week I started to see some improvements and my waist line started to recede.  After a month I started to add in double days and some pace ; things were really looking up. My mojo was back and I was excited about running with the Feral Pig well and truly in my sights.  I had also found a new favourite run, a one mile loop in Bold Park which had a nice combination of terrain plus a nasty little hill that always tested me. I would run it six timed for my 10k fix, normally twice a day. Towards the end of my training block I also add a 6k addition where I would add pace, a kick as I called it. Things were coming together nicely.

My third and final Strava image shows the last five weeks since my injury. The two small green spots are my latest two attempts at running. The first I managed about a kilometre on a Yelo run before it became to painful to continue (even taking into account some seriously good pain killers and anti-inflammatories that would fix an elephant) and the second was yesterday when I managed 500 metres on an oval, albeit I was careful and pulled the pin early, a technique I think I will have to embrace over the next few weeks.   The orange spots are cycling activities , cocooned in lycra on my Giant bike as I was finding the Elliptigo  aggravated my injury. The injury that keeps on giving…

My Daughter recounted this to me a few days ago in reference to my ongoing battle with injury. She reckoned I was moving into the depression stage and truth be told she’s probably right.

The 5 stages of grief can be virtually mirrored for injuries when you’re a runner. Well they work for me. The first stage is denial. I would go to the physio, grab a few exercises and still make Feral, hell, I had five weeks. Five weeks later I’m still not running and a MRI has shown nasty hamstring tendon damage, the kind that takes time to heal.

Next comes anger. Boy, I was angry missing Feral, this had been a goal race and my come back after Run Britannia. I was a fool for probably pushing myself too hard, too soon after such a long lay off. Funny enough I even felt a slight hamstring niggle on the morning of the injury but sat down to work from home and ignored it. I had decoded to run again lunch time so I could take my Mum to the Crown Casino for a show in the evening. Fatal mistake, I lasted three laps of my Bold Park route and pulled up lame, knowing instantly I had done some proper damage.

Next come bargaining. For me this was about convincing myself I’d be right in a few days after physiology. Again . no problem, I bargained my injury window down to a week or two max with the upside this would be good ‘rest’ time, something I never do normally, pre Feral.

Once bargaining fails it headlong into depression, which is where I am now. Depressed at what could have been and also depressed that I’m still injured and my 2 days blip has become a five week road block with little sign of abating. Worse still my last 500 metre run was as bad as the first run five weeks ago which started this sad tale.  Oh yeah, I’m depressed. It gets even worse, I’ve had to resort to spending two hours a day on the bike to try and save my cardio fitness. This is depressing but also painful. How these cyclist breed is beyond me.?  The family jewels have taken a right royal beating on the Perth bike paths and I either need to man up or get cycling shorts with more padding. (maybe a cushion! or even better a cushioned seat as the one I got seemed purpose built to inflict as much pain as possible. Maybe this is why cyclists spend so long in cafe’s drinking coffee and eating cake, to rest their ‘how’s your fathers’ ‘ ) 

Finally comes acceptance, with the 6 inch Ultra in December and the ADU 100k in January . I realise that the five weeks of no running (with more time to come.) is too much for me to give a good account of myself at either of these races. The bigger picture is what I am focues on now, Delirious West 200 miler in February, this is non-negotiable, I am running (or walking , or crawling!) this race !

Injury wise I’ve been lucky over the last 10 years. Planta Fasciitis a few times, four calf knots which accounted for maybe 4-6 weeks of no running, less than one week a year. I know that it about as good as you get but as I sit him typing away I’m not overly excited about my previous track record. If you’re a runner you get injured, this is as certain as the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening. How long and when depends on so many variables but I could kick myself for missing the signs (for missing substitute ‘ignoring’!) and allow the two day injury to morph into this five week (and counting) career threatening hamstring tendon damage from hell. Off course I did sell my soul to the Devil for this good run but was hoping to get longer than 10 years. That’s the problem with dealing with Lucifer, just can’t trust him. Oh well, onwards and upwards, the bike is calling and how much more pain can the family jewels endure? Surely over time the jewels will ‘harden up’ or maybe they just fall off ?

I have also got my treadmill back, the one  that I brought when we entered COVID lockdown early 2020 and then loaned out to Adam for a few years. I don’t think I’ve ever used it in anger truth be told but it should help as it’ll be easier on the legs, I can also add a good gradient if necessary ; without leaving my a garage. Not a fan of treadmills but I’ll get a TV set up in the garage and catch up on all my Netflix movies while exercising, winning.

Finally as prevention is better than cure I’ll be hitting my massage gun, every runner needs one of these , they are ace. I use an Australian made product, the Stryke recovery gun. ( https://www.strykerecovery.com.au/ ) I have had mine for over two years and it still does the job, I just need to use it more. This weapon has saved my life many times on the longer ultras when you have time to really get into the aching muscles. This together with humantecar spray ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) and fisiocrem  ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) are must haves for longer events and also injury prevention.

I’ve also purchased a Theragun, mini,  ( https://www.therabody.com/  ) and  Vibit. ( https://vibit.com.au/ ) both excellent products.

.

fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered.  It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

 

Fractel ( https://fractel.com.au/ ) have your performance headgear covered. I love the colours and the functionality of these hats, I guarantee there is one model you’ll fall in love with.

Shokz headphones, let you keep in touch with the world around while losing yourself in quality tunes or podcasts. ( https://shokz.com.au/ )

T8 running apparel is the best you can get, second to none. Designed for the ultra humid Hong Kong conditions the owners live in.  It is light and does away with any chaffing worries. T8 is the name given to the highest typhoon warning in Honk Kong,  storms and typhoons with gusts exceeding 180kph, which explains the branding. ( https://t8.run/)

Altra supply the best trail shoes on the planet, in my opinion, and none better than the Olympus five. Do yourself a favour and buy a pair. ( https://www.altrarunning.com.au/ )

https://www.osprey.com/au/en/category/hydration/trail-running/ Osprey Australia have come onboard and are supplying me with two running backpacks and travelling luggage for the Run Britannia adventure. I particularly like their running backpacks and am excited to test them over the event. I’ll be using the Duro 6 and the Duro 1.5 backpacks.

Excited to have Coros onboard who have supplied me with the new Apex 2 Pro GPS watch. I already owned the Apex 2 and was stoked when Coros reached out and offered me an upgrade. Even more battery life, can you believe 75 hours using GPS, wow! The watch itself is awesome, so light and well made. The watch is paired with a incredible application to keep track of all your stats, and runners love stats ! .  ( https://coros.net.au/ )

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Last August I signed up for a 1,000 mile (1,634km) race running the length of the Uniked Kingdom. Starting at the most southerly point, Lands End, and finishing 36 days (yep that’s days not hours!)  later at the most Northerly point , John O’Groats. https://www.ratrace.com/run-britannia )

In August it was easy to press that enter button and then forget about it for a few months. In the meantime I had Birdys backyard Ultra, Not time to die backyard ultra, Melbourne marathon, Feral Pig 100 miler, Hysterical carnage backyard ultra, 6 inch trail ultra marathon, Delirious 200 miler, Herdy’s frontyard ultra and finally the 24Lighthorse ultra to attend to. These have all been dispatched and suddenly I’m sitting her with less than three weeks to go with a knot in my stomach and a mix of incredible excitement and numbing anxiety.

The race starts , funnily enough, just outside my old home town so it’ll be weird returning home after so many years. I left Penzance nearly thirty years ago and haven’t been back for many years. My childhood was idyllic growing up in , what I consider to be, the best part of the United Kingdom, but we all consider our childhood town to be special I suppose ?  My brother and his family never left so it’ll be good to see them again for the first time since my father passed away in 2012.  Time disappears so quickly and I am no longer the young man that left Penzance all those years ago but a part of me hasn’t changed and I am worried that that  part will find it very hard to return and then leave again. When I left it was not going to be permanent, a year max to earn some coin for a surf sabbatical, life got in the way and eights years later I’m emigrating to Australia with a new Wife and a young daughter ?

This is another reason the fist few days of this adventure will be more testing as I once again leave my hometown, a place I love and will always love, as well as my childhood friends who have been distant memories for so, so long. Seeing them again is going to be hard as in my mind they are all young men in their prime, I’ll be returning to very different versions and these memories will be with me from then onwards, replacing the younger versions. I will also be leaving the beautiful scenery that is the South West coastline and trust me it is really is incredible. Maybe that knot in my stomach is more about my impending visit back to my hometown rather than the race anxiety ? So many memories, some good , some bad will come flooding back like a tsunami, any I ready for them ? One of the main reasons I don’t return to Cornwall is because I’m worried I’ll never leave , at least this way I know I will of course. As the image below shows ,  St. Ives in all her glory , Cornwall is magical.

As Run Britannia is a stage race there is the benefit of a good nights sleep every evening which will help with recovery for the next days adventure. As part of the race entry you get accommodation, transport and all meals as part of the deal. In theory I can turn up at Land’s End on June 2nd with my running gear and a bag of clothes and not spend a cent for 36 days before being deposited at Inverness in early July. Sounds good in theory but I’m sure I’ll find ways to give my credit card a beating, it’s in my blood according to my Wife.

There will be 29 starters, as of a few weeks ago, for the event which is a surprise as it sold out in a few hours and all forty places were initially taken. I got in after a short time on a wait list, it seems pressing that enter button is easy, you then have to tell your partner, family, work or friends of your impending challenge and maybe they talk you out of it , or life just gets in the way ? Anyhow it will be more intimate  and maybe I won’t have to share my accommodation so much , although it would have been nice to have the full forty for company.  To me I’m going to have 29 more friends , as well as support crew, after the event who will be able to share some great memories together, as well as some not so great ones ? This is the point of the Run Britannia event , memories to last a lifetime, the organisers aren’t even calling it a race and won’t be keeping a track of times (of course I will, c’mon, really?) This is about the experience, making good friends along the way, finding who you really are and finishing , that is all. Albeit I will be posting on Strava every evening and FB , Instagram etc… so everybody can come along for the ride, at a discounted rate of ‘free‘.

We’ve had a few zoom meetings with the organisers who have passed on the lessons learned from a test pilots who ran the route last year. I think three of the eight finished but all the non-finishers were beaten by injuries rather than distance. The daily distances didn’t seem to be a problem but the build up of fatigue which would eventually lead to fractures, strains, pulls, breaks etc.,  which was the issue, funny that? Mental note to self to  spend an hour in the evening, at least,  post run on stretching , massaging and general maintenance before scuttling off to bed. I’ll be taking a massage gun and my vibit ( https://vibit.com.au/products/the-vibit ) , as well as my humantecar spray ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) and fisocrem. ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ). I’ll be using Bix hydration products over the course of the event , for hydration and recovery .  ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ ) These will make a big difference, especially the recovery tablets in the evening. Luckily I also have a load of Bix power sachets which contain carbohydrates, these are yet to be released to the general public., I’m a guinea pig?

As the images in this post show the scenery is going to be epic and this is what I’m most excited about. From the website :-

RUN MAJOR SECTIONS OF BRITAIN’S MOST FAMOUS LONG-DISTANCE PATHS INCLUDING THE SOUTH WEST COAST PATH, WYE VALLEY WALK, OFFA’S DYKE, CLYDE WALKWAY, THE ENTIRETY OF THE WEST HIGHLAND WAY AND THE GREAT GLEN WAY.

There are some pretty wicked trails right there as well as some awesome b-roads snaking through some of the most beautiful parts of the country. I will be stopping for a few pub lunches, coffee breaks and places of outstanding beauty for sure as time is not important , its all about finishing. There will be cut off times for each stage but they will be generous and the organisers encourage you to soak up the adventure you’re on rather than be a slave to the GPS watch on your left arm. Of course my Coros watch ( https://coros.net.au/ ) will be recording time but I may treat myself and put on the auto-pause option.

Thus event will really test the theory that the mind is stronger than the body as I really believe the mental toughness you need to succeed in an event this big is as important as the physical training you put in before the start. Can you train for a 1,000 mile event ? I don’t think you can really, you just hope you adapt during the event itself and your body learns what’s expected of it and just performs with the mind opening all the possible road blocks along the way, well that’s the theory anyway ?

Over the last few months in Australia we’ve seen some mega-runs by normal athletes. Nedd Brockman for example :

When Brockmann arrived at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Monday – his unmistakable, bleach-blonde mullet pinned down under a baseball cap – it signaled the end of a 2,456-mile (3,953km) running voyage that had started on the opposite side of Australia 47 days prior.

It’s difficult for the 23-year-old to know where to start when recounting the physical toll placed on his body since setting off from Cottesloe Beach in Perth last month – the countless injuries, the endlessly aching joints, the sleep deprivation, the blisters or even the maggots growing in his toes.

That all explains the joy and relief etched across Brockmann’s face when he finally arrived to hordes of people at Bondi – Australia’s iconic surfing beach – and marked the occasion by draining champagne from his sweat-soaked shoe.

“I’d been through hell and back 10 times to get there – through every injury, all the sun, the rain, the road trains, the roadkill, the weather, the headwinds,” Brockmann tells CNN Sport. “Just to get through that and then to finally see that amount of people in Bondi was out of this world. I couldn’t believe it.”

Brockmann, an electrician originally from Forbes, New South Wales, has endeared himself to the Australian public over the course of his transnational run, so much so that many are calling for him to be crowned Australian of the Year in 2023.

As of Friday, he has raised two million Australian dollars ($1.26 million) – almost double his initial target – for homeless charity We Are Mobilise through his run across Australia, covering an average of more than 50 miles a day for 47 days.

Another example  is Erchana Murray-Bartlett who ran nearly 4,000 miles :-

The 32-year-old on Monday finished her 6,300km (3,900 miles) journey – a marathon every day for 150 days.

Ms Murray-Bartlett’s effort sets a new world record for the most consecutive daily marathons by a woman.

Makes my Run Britannia seem like a fun run ?

fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered.  It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

Fractel ( https://fractel.com.au/ ) have your performance headgear covered. I love the colours and the functionality of these hats, I guarantee there is one model you’ll fall in love with.

Shokz headphones, let you keep in touch with the world around while losing yourself in quality tunes or podcasts. ( https://shokz.com.au/ )

T8 running apparel is the best you can get, second to none. Designed for the ultra humid Honk Kong conditions the owners live in.  It is light and does away with any chaffing worries. T8 is the name given to the highest typhoon warning in Honk Kong,  storms and typhoons with gusts exceeding 180kph, which explains the branding. ( https://t8.run/)

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Before Strava and GPS watches, yes such a time did exist, us runners had Excel spreadsheets to record our running history. Mine goes back to 2008 and I still manually add every run I make, religiously.  Of course since around 2014 I have been using Strava so have a backup, thankyou Andrew Ziepe for putting me onto this mostly cycling app at the time,  but my Excel sheet is still my go to for historical data. My friend Jon Pendse has a spreadsheet that just borders on AI although he is an accountant. It has pivot tables on pivot tables, I’m sure with a bit of work he could get it to predict the lottery numbers.

Anyhow last weekend on the weekly long run with the boys we were discussing whether we still enjoy training as we age. Personally I enjoy racing more as I have transitioned to Ultra running from Marathon and shorter distances of my youth. I say youth in the broadest sense of the word, I was running PB’s into my early fifties.  Back when I was a road running show pony I would train all year for maybe two or three big events, with a few half marathons and 10k races thrown in to keep me focused. As you can see from the Strava and Excel extracts below I ran a lot, between 10 -14 times a week, averaging between 140-160km.

Back in the day I’d awake at 5am and run ‘old faithful’ as I called my early morning run, a scenic 10k around Star Swamp. Depending on the time of year I’d see the sunrise on that run. I’d then have my weetbix (normally four) with banana’s and then get on my Elliptigo and cycle the 15km or so to work.  A lunchtime run to get my double day and then a long run with the boys Sunday, with a shorter run afterwards of course.  Week in week out for a year before a 5cm calf tear after the bridges 10km put me on hold. After I recovered from the calf tear I had a run of about another year of hard training before plantar fasciitis finished my running career , well the personal bests anyway.  My last marathons of note were in 2019 , a couple of sub threes but in the high 2:55’s; not the early 2:40’s of yesteryear.

In the extract from my spreadsheet for the end of 2016 above I recorded my fastest 10k at the WAMC (West Australian Marathon Club) Peninsula run for a win, 34:18; then the following weekend a half PB of 1:15 dead. for third.  Add in a 2:41:44 marathon at the City to Surf for a 5th place finish and a 2:44:30 World Masters marathon,  age group second, as well as PB’s for the Rottnest half and the City Beach 4k. It was a wonderful time in my running career.  Unfortunately a few months into the following year a calf tear brought this golden streak to an end and I never ran those times again. In my defence I was 49 at the time so a slow down was inevitable but the injury just hurried the process along I suppose.

I did manage an AURA age group record for the 100km ( 7:47) early 2018 but then it was a barren three years before three victories in 2022 in ultra marathons.

I’ve attached a video of me discussing Ultra marathons in 2017, looking back some of the comments I made in this film are now amusing. This was years before I discovered my love of Ultra marathons. It was before the 2017 ADU 100km where I finished second I think running just over eight hours. I returned to the following year to win it and claim an AURA age record.

After a disappointing 2020 I  entered eight ultra marathons in 2021 and added two more for ten in 2022 with three wins in the Lighthorse 24 hour race (207km total), the Kep 100km and the No time to die backyard ultra (33 laps) Training wise I was racing as much as I was training because I enjoyed the racing so much more once the pressure of a finishing time was taken away.  I also finished my first 200 miler after DNF’d in 2020 and also ran the Feral Pig 100 miler and Hysterical Carnage backyard ultra , with an assist to the great Phil Gore.  My running mojo was back but my training mojo not so much.

Running so many events gave me the opportunity to race, recover, taper, race..repeat; very little need to actually train as this was taken case off while racing.  Gone were the double days and also double digit run weeks. Infact I my last double digit run week was early 2021.  Despite that I managed to win three events in 2022 and finish top 5 in many others. You gotta love ultra’s.

The last couple of years I have spent more time racing than ever before , in 2022 I raced over 2,000 kilometres, 40% of my total annual mileage. That is a lot where as in my show pony  marathon days it would be around 100-200km , about 4% .

In 2022 I just managed to scrape 5,000 kilometres for the year but managed three wins and a Stella year on the back of a busy 2021. That year set the foundation for the following years success. Over 18 ultra marathons in the two year period. Very little training just recovering, tapering and racing. As you can see from the spreadsheet 2011, 2013 and 2016 were standout years for PB’s. I consider 2013 my breakout year when I had the training in my legs from the previous years and started to hit personal bests whenever I ran, a great time in a runners career. I plateaued in 2014 and 2015 before training with Raf in 2016 and increasing weekly distance as well as adding pace. ( https://therunningcentre.com.au/ ) I was eventually derailed by injuries in 2018 and 2019, which resulted in losing my running mojo in 2020 (and COVID?) before finding my mojo with ultra running in 2021 onwards.

As well as distance unlocking personal bests you need to race more. In 2016 I raced 21 events, virtually a race every two weeks. Nothing pushes you more than a bib on your chest, healthy competition with yourself and your fellow competitors. You will never replicate the desperation of a race in training, it’s just about impossible. That is why it’s so rare to run a personal best alone on a training run, you can’t replicate the conditions of a race.  Even in my ultra career I race long and often, this makes up for the lack of ‘proper training‘ so to speak. Although the pressure isn’t as intense for the longer distance you still push yourself harder than on a training run, it’s in a runners DNA to want to run as fast as possible in a race, otherwise it’s just an expensive training run ?

So the point of this post, you want to improve add distance, you want to really improve add double days and distance, you want to excel and reach your potential, add distance, double days and race a lot.. and don’t ever get injured. That’s it, that’s running, simples ! 

If you need to find out more about how increasing distance helps improve running performance research Arthur Lydiard, Phil Maffetone and Matt Fitzgerald.

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

Fractel ( https://fractel.com.au/ ) have your performance headgear covered. I love the colours and the functionality of these hats, I guarantee there is one model you’ll fall in love with.

Shokz headphones, let you keep in touch with the world around while losing yourself in quality tunes or podcasts. ( https://shokz.com.au/ )

T8 running apparel is the best you can get, second to none. Designed for the ultra humid Honk Kong conditions the owners live in.  It is light and does away with any chaffing worries. T8 is the name given to the highest typhoon warning in Honk Kong,  storms and typhoons with gusts exceeding 180kph, which explains the branding. ( https://t8.run/)

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Start slow, finish like a train. For the last three years I have always started Delirious at a steady pace rather than  race pace. The goal is always to get to Mandelay Aid station (around 122km) and then sleep before attempting the difficult twenty kilometre or so stage to Mount Clare. As you can imagine any aid station with the word ‘mount’ in its title is going to have some serious elevation, and this stage does not disappoint. This year without my wingman Adam Loughnan, who was washing his hair!, I started quicker than I normally would and was running in the top five for the first day. Mark suggested I run through the night and try to make Warpole , or at least Mount Clare before taking a ninety minute break. Getting to Mandelay in the early hours of Thursday morning it looked like Warpole could be a possibility, being a small ten kilometre hop from Mount Clare and predominately downhill of course.

I told Mark to set up the swag at Mount Clare and we could decide once I arrived if we would rest there or continue  to Warpole. As it was the run from Mandelay to Mount Clare was as bad as we expected (probably worse!) and there was no way I could have run on to Warpole, maybe crawled? It was only the company from Julie Gibson that made the journey bearable.  Arriving around three thirty in the morning would mean we’d be leaving in daylight to Warpole,  after a ninety minute rest.  At this point in the race I was actually leading the male runners as the previous leader had got himself lost coming out of Mandelay and eventually retired.

Unfortunately the crew next to me got very excited when runners came in so my sleep was disturbed at best. I was in the swag for ninety minutes but probably an hour sleep at best. Before I knew it I was peeping outside and it was daylight, albeit very early. I think I got a bacon sandwich before setting off to Warpole where I’d grab a well earned  shower and breakfast.

So is this the right tactic , starting quicker and getting deeper into the event before the first sleep? The jury is out on this one. Mandelay to Mount Clare in the early morning after a sleep is a nice section to run, in the dark, after a hard days running, it is brutal. Of course the benefit of running through the night is you are closer to the finish and further up the field on Thursday morning. You can attack the section to Warpole with added vigour. I’m still not convinced but I was certainly closer to the pointy end of the field on Thursday morning albeit not as fresh as I normally am but  twenty or thirty kilometres ahead of my normal position. It really is a trade off but facing the Mount Clare section again without a rest does not fill me with joy.

More sleep, better finishing time.  This year I had less sleep then the two previous finishes, probably less than two hours in total.  I also tried to spend less time in aid stations. In 2021 I had a lot of sleep, or attempted to, but this year was all about finishing with time a secondary issue. I tried to sleep at Mandelay and Tree Tops with little success but eventually got a decent sleep at Conspicuous Cliffs and the rest of the race was superb. Another couple of hours at Denmark and I finished like a rocket,  catching quite a few runners towards the back end of the course. I was eventually a top ten finisher overall (6th male) after being nearly last after the first day.  Last year was a similar story when my crew forgot to set the alarm and we had about four hours sleep at Mandelay. Again ran through the field from nearly last to finish fourth overall.

Both years sleep early made the last two days a lot easier and I was able to make up positions easily. In 2023 Mark and I decided to start quicker , get to the front of the pack and sleep less, hanging on to our position rather than chase runners down. Although this tactic worked and I finished second overall I was struggling on the last two days rather than exploding to the finish.  I held second place for the final two days but when I put in an effort to catch the leader I was undone by tired legs, funny that.

So is this a tactic I will use again in 2024 ? Again the jury is out. With last year being an out and back this was the first time on the original point to point course since 2012. That year I ran over 83 hours , so a sub 72 hour finish this year is a massive course PB, but 2021 was all about finishing where as this year there was a racing part to the adventure. If I had slept at Mandelay and ran to Mount Clare would I eventually made up the time. I hemorrhaged time after Mandelay due to fatigue and running the testing terrain in the dark. If I had ran this section in the light and not stopped at Mount Clare would I have got to Walpole quicker ?

It is a fine balancing act getting the right amount of rest to allow yourself to perform at your best during the event. I know Shane Johnstone, the 2012 winner hardly slept at all albeit he finished in just over 54 hours. I would suggest that is about on the cusp of what is achievable before you start to see a massive downside with your running ability compromised, it isn’t called the Delirious West for no reason.

The beach is so much better in the daylight.  When I ran 83 hours in 2021 I hit the beaches perfectly, very little night time running instead faced with glorious days in perfect conditions, breathing in the beauty. This year I wasn’t so lucky and ended up running in the dark along some of the best scenary.  I left Conspicious cliffs early afternoon and so coming into Peaceful Bay I was in the dark and with my second head torch, the less powerful one. This made navigation difficult as there was some rock hopping with little signage. On the bright side it would have been very hard to get lost as long as you kept the ocean to your right shoulder ! The coves which were so inspiring in the daylight became a challenge at night especially when in you add in some rock hopping close to the ocean.  Luckily I picked up a pacer at Peaceful Bay , the lovely Sarah Dyer, and company makes up for the scenary you know you’re missing. Boat Harbour was also missed as in the dark it is just a head torch beam of light infront of you, pity as that section is so good in daylight.

Reaching Parry’s beach in the early morning meant I had the run to Monkey Rocks to look forward to in perfect daylight conditions and the coves and beaches in this section are so good.  In 2021 I ran Monkey Rocks section in dark, wet conditions, not ideal. It was so much better in daylight albeit I had a full stomach thanks to Chris Gerdei and his wonderful Wife.  Again the inverse was true around Cosy Corner where I was faced with a never ending section in the dark and then the run along the beach to Mutton Bird car park. From 2021 I know this section is glorious in daylight.

I suppose the only way to see the whole course in daylight is to do the event twice and make sure you run twelve hours slower or quicker the second time ? Simple really.

Grabbing a poduim is worth it.  In 2020 I DNF’d Delirious at Mandelay, 112km into the event. I was a broken man but the result was not unexpected. I had lost my running mojo months before and had ran very little the three months prior to the event. I was uncrewed and so unprepared. The fact I got to Mandelay is mainly down to Glen Smetherman taking pity on me early in the race and keeping me fed. I had no hydration or nutrition plan and eventually the quads seized up, giving me the perfect excuse to exit stage right.  Although the ending was not the result I had hoped for I had fallen in love with the event and in 2021 returned to finish in just over 83 hours. As I said earlier this was all about finishing and having a great time with my crew, and we had a great time. So much laughing , in between the running, and again I couldn’t wait until 2022 to go again.

In 2022 I managed to sneak to a fourth place finish thanks to a fast finish, sorry Trevor, and although there were less laughing due to the racing I still loved the event.  This year it was about trying to go faster again and this was achieved with a massive course (on the point to point course) PB. It was harder this year as I pushed myself to keep in the top three but the end result was worth all the pain and suffering. A second place on my fourth attempt more than makes up for my DNF in 2020. It’s a mission accomplished moment truth be told but I know I can go quicker next year so we still have work to do, and that’s why we do what we do. This event just keeps on giving.

Finally as always I give a shout out to some of my favourite products…

fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered.  It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

Fractel ( https://fractel.com.au/ ) have your performance headgear covered. I love the colours and the functionality of these hats, I guarantee there is one model you’ll fall in love with.

Shokz headphones, let you keep in touch with the world around while losing yourself in quality tunes or podcasts. ( https://shokz.com.au/ )

T8 running apparel is the best you can get, second to none. Designed for the ultra humid Honk Kong conditions the owners live in.  It is light and does away with any chaffing worries. T8 is the name given to the highest typhoon warning in Honk Kong,  storms and typhoons with gusts exceeding 180kph, which explains the branding. ( https://t8.run/)

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Right, numbers for 2022. Overall I’d give myself a B+ for distance, good enough to break 5,000km’s for the year, by one kilometre, but what could have been. Earlier in the year I was on target for my initial 6,000km total but after the No Time to Die Frontyard ultra I dropped off the pace and did very little training in between races. Average of 96 kilometres a week but take out the 2000km’s of racing and the training weekly total is a lot less, significantly less, more around the sixty km a week.

Another statistic that sums up my stop , start year is the number of actual runs , only 229 for the year. This is my lowest total since 2010, twelve years ago. Basically I’ve ran less but when I have ran it’s been longer distances, down to running ten ultras of course.

Last three years I’ve been an Ultra racing machine, 21 races in the last three years including 18 in the last two years, and one marathon thrown in. Lots of racing culminating in 10 ultra’s in 2022 alone. I was either tapering, racing or recovering; very little training.  It was working until injuries started to affect my training from September onwards. Only downside for the year has been my lack of pace and some personal worst racing results including the Feral Pig 100 miler and the 6  Inch Ultra. I struggled in both of these events but was happy to finish and not embarrass myself.

From my running spreadsheet, you have got a running spreadsheet right ? As a backup for Strava, you never know when the next Russian mafia group will try to blackmail Strava and wipe all their data ! It happened at Garmin and those Russian hackers are always looking for their next pay day. Please note my Mum said I am not allowed to pay hackers any blackmail albeit I’m not sure www.runbkrun.com is high on their list of possible targets.

Another surprise for 2022 is no double digit weeks for runs. Back in the day I’d regularly run 13 or 14 times a week, I say back in the day I’m talking about five years ago. Double days unlock running dreams,  one of my favourite quotes. These days I just can’t get that morning run in, I’ve lost that discipline to get up every morning before the sunrise and run an easy 10km before breakfast. I’d then cycle to work on my Elliptigo (or Bionic)  , run lunchtime and then Elliptigo home. Four separate exercises a day, I was a cardio-machine. The results followed so if you really want to improve just run more than you are running now, and don’t get injured. Running is simple.

Ten ultras, three wins,  highlighted in yellow, and many top ten finishes. Plenty of running early on in the year but injuries after the No Time to Die Ultra killed off the second half of the year and I limped, literally, to the finish line in 2022. I’ve joined the Valetudo gym ( https://www.valetudohealth.com.au/  ) and go three times a week currently to try and finally get my flexibility back, maybe touch my toes for the first time this century ? It was a tad daunting at first but starting to feel the love for gyms again now and not being as weight conscious as I was in my marathon days I can put a but of muscle on, it’ll keep No1 Wife happier as she was never a fan of my Schlinder’s  list extra look.

Its been a few months since I’ve posted my nine golden rules so with the end of 2022 upon us this seems as good a time as ever.. I wrote these six years ago but they are timeless, in my view.

1. Run Further. Add distance, not speed.  As you can see from the table my weekly average has steadily increased year on year with this year being the first I will break the 100k a week average for the year. In 2012 I was injured with a nasty calf knot, that I didn’t treat, which explains the delta compared to the previous year.  2014 my training had plateaued which is why I turned to Raf ( http://www.therunningcentre.com.au ) to train me in 2105 where my distance increased by 10%. I have taken this training forward and will probably increase another 10% this year.  Distance first, everything else comes once the ‘foundation of distance’ has been achieved.
2. Run Faster. This is about adding pace after you have got your foundation after rule 1. 2011 was a break out year for me after 3-4 years of building a good running base. I had ran 3 Comrades campaigns in 2008-2010 ( http://www.comrades.com ) so my distance foundation was well and truly complete. In 2011 every time I put on a bib I was confident of a pb.  It was a wonderful year. Unfortunately in 2012 I had a nasty injury which set me back but towards the end of the year I was able to train consistently again and in 2013 I was again rewarded with a magical year of running.  
3. Don’t get injured. This is the hardest rule to obey as you always want to do more of rule 1 and 2 which can result in an injury. (I even hate typing the word!) In 2012 I succumbed to a calf knot which took me out for over a month. I struggled to recover from this and as you can see from the table I only ran 3 pb’s for the year compared to 13 the previous year and 10 the following year when I recovered. If this doesn’t back up this rule nothing does.! Don’t get injured, so easy to type but in reality one of the hardest thing for a runner to do, period.
4. Nutrition, nutrition and nutrition… Did I mention nutrition. It’s all about the proper fuel. So underestimated by so many runners. The number of times I hear the old ‘I run xxx kilometres a week so I can eat what I want’ . Not true, imagine putting low grade fuel in a Porsche, eventually the head gasket blows and you are faced with a serious bill, not to mention a misfiring engine. The human body is a finely tuned machine and should be treated as such, we all know what is good food and what is bad (normally the nice tasting stuff!), avoid the bad and put in the good, easy really. (bar the odd Yelo muffin of course, we are after all only human.)  I’ll be exploring nutrition more next year when I have one more go at a sub 2hr 40minutes marathon.
5. Weight. So important, use to believe because I ran 100k+ a week I could eat what I wanted. Not true. This is another golden rule so often ignored. Runners can run so much faster is they hit their racing weight rather than a running weight. My go to man , Matt Fitzgerald, when it comes to everything running even has a website dedicated to this. ( http://www.racingweight.com/ ) If Matt has a website dedicated to this subject it must be important.
6. Baseline, document and evaluate everything. If it isn’t on www.strava.com it didn’t happen. Once you set a goal you have to be able to know how far you have come to achieving this, small steps but constant feedback. So buy a Garmin and start recording , everything !!! Contentious subject here. I’m a Strava addict and I know it but the purest will be horrified. You need a baseline to see improvement, set new goals and realize your goals. Buy a Garmin and to quote a small clothing company ‘just do it’.
7. Sleep. So underestimated but the bodies way of refuelling and preparing for the next day of running. Common sense but so often ignored. Sometimes the most obvious, common sense tips are the ones ignored. Sleep is when your body repairs itself, the more sleep the more repairs can be completed. It really is that easy, go to bed and dream about running.
8. Consistency. No point running 100k one week and then nothing. Marathon fitness is built up over time and this works hand in hand with rule number 1. I feel the figures from my running log back this up. I’ve steadily increased the duration consistently year in, year out (bar injury) and have reaped the rewards with 2016 being my fastest year yet as I move towards my fifth sixth decade. (Thanks Dave Kennedy) Running is all about getting out there on a regular basis again and again and again. Time on feet initially and then add pace before targeting certain distance with different run types, most important thinkg to note though is always consistently putting on the trainers and just running. ‘If you build it they will come’ type approach, keep running, build the foundation and the personal records will come. (This also works for baseball pitches apparently.)
9. It’s all in the mind. After 32k a marathon is down to mental strength and the ability to persuade your body you can still perform at your desired pace without falling to fatigue, which is the minds way of protecting itself. Never underestimate the power of the mind in long distance racing. Finally another massive part of running, the Noakes ‘central governor’. I’ve talked about this at length in various posts on this site. With experience I believe I can mentally finish a marathon stronger now then when I first started. I know what to expect and to this end can persuade my old friend fatigue to stay away for longer allowing me to achieve better finishing times. The mind is such an important part of running and needs to be trained as much as the body. When you race a marathon you will spend time in the ‘pain box’, the runner who can spend the most time in this little box of joy, before opening the door and embracing the old enemy fatigue, will run the fastest. I spoke to Steve Moneghetti after the Perth Marathon this year after he ran the 3hr30min bus and asked him how the professional athletes are so much faster than us recreational runners. His answer surprised me as he replied that a professional runner can stand more pain and this gives them the advantage need to push through and achieve the faster times. Again turning off the ‘central governor’  and spending more time in the ‘pain box’ avoiding fatigue and thus not slowing down. Common sense really, thanks Steve.

 

So what does 2023 hold for me I wonder. I’ll start the year with the Delirious West 200 miler in early February ( https://deliriouswest200miler.com.au/race-information-2022/ ) and then Hardy’s Frontyard Ultra in March ( https://herdysfrontyard.com.au/ ) , followed by the Lighthorse 24 hour race in April ( https://lighthorseultra.com.au/ ) before the big one in June, all of June actually… Run Brittania. ( https://ratracerunbritannia.com/ ) . After that I have nothing locked in as I’m not sure what sort of state I’ll be in after running 1,000 miles the length of the UK. ?  Truth be told I could have done with a ‘down year’ after eighteen ultras in the last two years but when Run Brittania became available I had to take it, you’d be mad not to surely. ?

As always I give a shout out to three of my favourite products…  fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered.  It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

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or follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/runbkrun/

After the No Time to Die ultra I have been struggling with injuries and motivation. Running the Melbourne marathon in October was probably a mistake and I paid with tight hamstrings,  which made any sort of running at pace impossible. The only thing that kept me going was dry needling and strong anti-inflammatories; both dangerous long term ! Coupled with a knee niggle I have only really ran long twice in the last few months and both times were ultra races. Apart from a couple of back to back milers I have run very little and am struggling with motivation.

I have put this down to an aggressive racing calendar and I need time to recoup before more of the same next year. My only race for the rest of the year is the 6 inch ultra in late December. ( https://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com/   ) I’m hoping after the 6 Inch I’ll get my mojo back and head to the hills for my pre-Delirious West training block around Xmas and into the New Year. ( https://deliriouswest200miler.com.au/ ) This block of 4-6 weeks is paramount to success for the 200 miler, hours of trail running in the heat of a Perth summer.  Extreme heat is as good as altitude training apparently and I love trail running in summer so its a double bonus. Delirious is also my favourite race of the season so I don’t need much motivation to get up for it. The last few years it has been a very sociable affair due to COVID making it impossible for anyone but WA runners able to get to the start line in Northcliffe.  Albeit last year a forest fire almost put paid to the event coming a few days before the start. In the end it was turned from a point to point race to an out and back , which was still awesome as we got to start and finish at the Northcliffe pub , which is a great country pub and does the best food.

So this post is a couple of really cool posts by David Roche of  http://www.trailrunnermag.com website . One about does downtime lead to breakthroughs ?  and a second post on Kilian Jornet’s 2022 Training Data. This is epic and worth digesting. Kilian’s 8 tips may be a bit polarising for some but his thinking on double days , in my point of view, is spot on. As I have always maintained double days unlock your running dreams. Although I’m never sure why you would lock them up in the first place, anyhow locked up or not running twice a day will help you achieve your running goals. Run slow but run often. Another take away from Kilian’s tips is he runs slow nearly 60% of the time , active recovery he calls it. Again I must concur, when I saw the biggest improvement in my running times I was running between 12 to 14 times a week mostly at aerobic pace. (easy) This is what Maffetone ( https://philmaffetone.com/ ) and Athur Lydiard preach ( https://www.lydiardfoundation.org/ )

Why Downtime May Lead To Breakthroughs Sometimes it feels like the best/fastest/happiest runners never take breaks. But critical fitness adaptations happen when you rest. From an article by David Roche, March 2021 ( http://www.trailrunnermag.com )

Breaks make breakthroughs.

You know that statement is true because you could imagine it on a motivational poster of a puppy in a paw cast. To double-check the puppy-poster proof, I went through a list of the athletes that I coach. Every single one had some sort of layoff preceding their biggest accomplishments.

Injuries? This is running, so … yeah, it can seem like a cereal commercial with the number of snaps and crackles and pops. Some athletes had to stop running for months or years. Some were told they might never run again, only to come back and exceed anything they achieved before.

Here’s an objective, scientific fact: downtime is not a failure. It’s about more than that, though. The theory of this article is that if you play your cards right, breaks can lead to exponential growth processes that reset what you could have ever thought possible before the layoff.

Mental-health breaks? This is sentience, so … yeah, there were plenty of those too. Breaks come in many forms, good and bad, planned and unplanned, pregnancies and pandemics. Whatever caused the breaks, the act of taking downtime was often hard on those athletes. We all have those questions sometimes.

Champions don’t take downtime, right?

Maybe I’m not cut out for this?

Am I losing everything?

Here’s an objective, scientific fact: downtime is not a failure. It’s about more than that, though. The theory of this article is that if you play your cards right, breaks can lead to exponential growth processes that reset what you could have ever thought possible before the layoff.

Let’s start with the principles of fitness maintenance.

We’ll start here as an excuse to discuss how it’s easy to have misconceptions about how fitness changes and grows over time. A 2021 article in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research found that endurance performance can be maintained for 15 weeks on as little as two sessions per week, or when volume is reduced by up to 66% (as short as 13 to 26 minutes per session). The review article findings were based on a few studies that had untrained individuals do 10 weeks of six times weekly training sessions, followed by a detraining period of 15 weeks where participants were randomly assigned to reduced frequency, reduced intensity, and mixed groups. As long as there was some maintenance of intensity, participants did not significantly detrain.

Similar findings applied to strength training, with as little as one session a week being effective for maintenance in younger populations, and two sessions for older populations. The general conclusion of the review is that both frequency and volume can be reduced while maintaining fitness, with volume in particular being acceptable to drop by substantial margins over 50%.

The general conclusion of the review is that both frequency and volume can be reduced while maintaining fitness, with volume in particular being acceptable to drop by substantial margins over 50%.

I could walk 500 miles, and I could walk 500 more while reciting disclaimers. The studies apply in a narrow context for the general population, not for runners trying to optimize performance. And over longer time horizons, it’s likely that maintenance becomes short-term fitness loss as past adaptations start to fade. But the general principles overlap with the experiences of coaches and athletes about why it’s OK to take downtime.

All tie back to a general principle: once training levels reach a certain point, there might be variance around that point based on training status, but it’s always relatively quick to get back to those levels. Even if you feel out of shape, the past work you have completed is right there at the surface, ready to shine after a quick polish. That’s due to how the body retains training adaptations with time. 

Decreases in VO₂ max take time and levels rebound quickly.

A 1989 article in Sports Medicine found that VO₂ max decreases start to begin after two to four weeks fully off, tied to reduction in cardiac output and blood volume. Follow-up studies generally find around a 5% reduction after two weeks, and up to 20% at eight to 10 weeks.

RELATED: What You Need To Know About VO2 Max

While VO₂ max may drop with time off, it doesn’t take much to maintain it. For example, a 1985 study in the Journal Of Applied Physiology had athletes reduce training from six to 10 hours per week to one 35-minute session, and those athletes had no reduction in VO₂ max (but their performance decreased, likely due to changes in muscular output and efficiency). And even after total detraining, VO₂ max bounces back with some focused intensity.

However, that initial VO₂ max reduction may make running feel hard at first, especially when trying to go harder. After a few weeks off, even slight hills make my breathing sound like a broken harmonica. Don’t worry, you’ll be ready to rock within a few weeks.

However, that initial VO₂ max reduction may make running feel hard at first, especially when trying to go harder. After a few weeks off, even slight hills make my breathing sound like a broken harmonica. Don’t worry, you’ll be ready to rock within a few weeks.

Blood volume changes happen fast in both directions.

Similarly, blood volume and cardiac output are highly sensitive to both time off and reintroduction of training. Another 1985 study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found a 9% reduction in blood volume and a 12% reduction in stroke volume after two to four weeks of inactivity in trained men. On the flip side, a 1991 review in the Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise journal found that blood volume increases quickly as training is reintroduced. And a 2015 study in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found a 17.8% increase in plasma volume in highly trained cyclists after just four exposures to post-exercise sauna.

Blood volume and stroke volume feed back into VO₂ max, so the initial feeling of being underwater and gasping for air upon returning to exercise is likely going to be short-lived. Plus, as demonstrated by the 2021 study on detraining, it takes very little relative training to maintain baseline levels.

Detraining is gradual for the metabolic and aerobic systems.

A 2000 review in Sports Medicine found that after around a week, the body may start to rely more on carbohydrate metabolism, with reduced capillary density too. Those adaptations make the body work harder to get energy to working muscles and limit endurance—part of the reason why you might struggle immensely on runs over 60 to 90 minutes after a longer break. Again, the changes are reversed relatively quickly with reintroduction of training, and can be maintained at lower training levels.

Neuromuscular and biomechanical lag.

Running economy decreases short-term as the nervous and biomechanical systems get slightly less efficient. That could explain why those first few runs after a layoff feel so foreign, even if you have been cross training. In coaching, I often see athletes start to feel less awkward after a week, and downright natural after intensity is reintroduced (usually via hill strides to start). And muscles may lose some strength, particularly after very long breaks (like severe injuries). But as reviewed in 2019 in Frontiers of Physiology, nuclei may not be lost from muscles during that process, possibly contributing to quick bounce-back cycles.

RELATED: Run Less to Run More

So studies and training theory are generally in agreement: detraining starts after a week or two, progresses for a month or two, and begins to level off, with some ongoing muscular changes. It can feel like you’re so far away from where you were!

But here’s why I’m never worried about that downtime, whether it includes maintenance or not. Athletes usually have a rapid return to previous fitness levels with a small dose of consistency, with it being much easier to achieve again than it was the first time. Restarting training is awakening a sleeping giant.

But here’s why I’m never worried about that downtime, whether it includes maintenance or not. Athletes usually have a rapid return to previous fitness levels with a small dose of consistency, with it being much easier to achieve again than it was the first time. Restarting training is awakening a sleeping giant.

It’s not just that, though. The sleeping giant may wake up with superpowers.

While the science is unsettled, there are so many stories of massive breakthroughs coming off downtime ranging from a few weeks to a few years that there must be physiological resets that raise the ceiling on long-term potential for some athletes. Let’s look at a few possible explanations. 

Long-term recovery.

Every training session introduces some acute stress—muscular fatigue/damage, increased cortisol, hormonal disturbance. That acute stress is the whole point of training, allowing an athlete to build back stronger after adaptation. But some of those acute stresses have long tails. Take muscle damage as an example. If we did a blood test after a hard training session, there might be elevated creatine kinase, indicating some muscle breakdown. An athlete may report some subjective fatigue mirroring those results, subsiding in a day or two. Then they’ll do another workout. Heck, yes, adaptation!

Downtime can wipe the stress slate clean. Sometimes, athletes find that they were carrying a chronic stress weight vest around without realizing it.

But wait. While subjective fatigue may be approaching baseline, if we did a follow-up blood test, there would be a good chance that the athlete wasn’t fully at baseline, especially in heavy training. That’s how acute stresses can add up to become chronic stress—the long tails get stacked up over time. While chronic stress can be optimized with plenty of recovery and fuel, it’s always a risk of hard training.

Downtime can wipe the stress slate clean. Sometimes, athletes find that they were carrying a chronic stress weight vest around without realizing it.

Nervous/endocrine system hypotheses. 

The interplay of the brain and hormones in long-term growth is weakly understood due to how hard the neuromuscular and endocrine systems are to measure and isolate. For the nervous system, overtraining syndrome is a prime example. A 2020 study reviewed what we know about OTS—a series of dysfunctional adaptations to excessive training and inadequate fueling, with major nervous system impacts.

While approaches vary, the general rule is that a full shut-down of training is needed in severe OTS cases. Athletes often can’t jog their way through OTS, they need to eat and sleep and chill their way through it. Even if downtime is not in response to overtraining specifically, the same rules may be relevant: the nervous system works on longer time scales when responding to chronic stress.

For the endocrine system, sex hormones estrogen and testosterone can be reduced in hard training for endurance athletes, with evidence that the hormones may increase during downtime. As with the nervous system, there may be longer-term endocrine system processes at play when it comes to how hormonal changes affect health.

Gene expression and epigenetics.

Our genetics are not just a set of instructions that we can’t influence. External stimuli change how our genetic code expresses itself via epigenetics, and there is even some evidence that epigenetic changes can be heritable. With endurance sports, relatively small stimuli may start turning some of those epigenetic switches toward endurance. While it’s debated, that could be one explanation for how bodies can undergo such fundamental and positive changes over time even if exercise routines are a few minutes a day.

If I had to venture a guess about why breaks precede breakthroughs, it would be that major reductions in training may have a priming effect on adaptations to future stimuli.

So what happens with downtime? We’re not sure. But if I had to venture a guess about why breaks precede breakthroughs, it would be that major reductions in training may have a priming effect on adaptations to future stimuli. That could involve some mix of all of these physiological processes, plus other cellular-level processes like protein expression or mitochondria changes. Or maybe it has to do with the brain and neuromuscular system.

Whatever the exact cause, breaks are not something to fear and certainly not a reason to beat yourself up. Call it the Dell PC Theorem—sometimes turning it off and turning it back on can solve problems that slow everything down.

What does it all mean in practice?

I don’t know. I don’t think anyone knows. And that concludes my TED Talk.

Wait, not quite done. Here’s what I do know: the “breaks make breakthroughs” principle is seen over and over again, in every sport. It might just be availability bias, but I don’t think so. What I think is happening is that the principles of maintenance of training interact with detraining and longer-term recovery in a way that compounds interest on underlying athletic potential.

When an athlete first starts training, the body takes some time to build up. You know the feeling—immediate gains followed by slow progress. From that new normal, our bodies can detrain and rebuild relatively rapidly, getting back on the slow progress trend.

But maybe every athlete isn’t designed for slow progress indefinitely. Maybe they even face stagnation or regression no matter how hard they work. Whether it’s due to chronic stress or just our baseline genetics interacting with training over many years, some athletes may find themselves on a trajectory that undersells their ultimate potential.

Break. Injury. Burn-out. Pandemic.

What builds back from that break? There’s no certain answer, but I have my theories. And if you have had to take downtime, just know that all of those theories point to four words when it comes to your future.

DREAM REALLY, REALLY BIG.

David Roche partners with runners of all abilities through his coaching service, Some Work, All Play. With Megan Roche, M.D., he hosts the Some Work, All Play podcast on running (and other things), and they wrote a book called The Happy Runner.

Eight Takeaways From Kilian Jornet’s 2022 Training Data

Kilian Jornet, aka the Greatest Of All Time, just published a summary of his training data and practices for all of 2022. His post is destined to be a legendary guide to thinking about training theory and what it takes to have the best season ever. Let’s break it down. Another article from David Roche, this time Spetember 2022. This is gold. 

Last week, I wrote a primer on Kilian Jornet’s training data between his course records at the Hardrock 100 and UTMB (data published by watch-maker Coros). After the article came out, Kilian messaged me a new link. In case you were wondering: finding out I was going to be a dad, my marriage, Kilian sliding into my DMs, in reverse order of importance.

I clicked the link and angels sang. Kilian wrote a post that is going to be a fundamental pillar of training theory, opening up the vault to his data, theory, and mindset. It’s almost unprecedented in the history of endurance sports–an athlete at the peak of their powers being fully transparent about the how and why behind their successes.

The most recent analogue I can think of is Nils van der Poel’s speed skating training. But I think Nils wrote his training manifesto with an understanding that it was unlikely that anyone was going to be able to repeat the wild block-periodization model with workout days that almost seemed impossible.

Kilian’s training, on the other hand, is far more mainstream, the type of approach that almost any athlete could use with modifications for their backgrounds. The GOAT just wants to add to the body of knowledge of endurance training, where he is both a student and a teacher.

The GOAT wants us all to be the GOAT version of ourselves.

Read his full post–it’s brilliant and important. In this article, I am going to provide context for his training, distilling eight takeaways that are relevant for everyone. My wife/co-coach Megan and I interviewed him on our podcast this week (listen here) for more details, one of the ultimate honors of our lives. Is it creepy if we name our kid Kilian? Before you answer, keep in mind that we already printed the sign to hang above the crib.

RELATED: Kilian Jornet Isn’t The G.O.A.T. of Trail Running Just Because He Wins Big Races

Kilian’s 2022 was absolutely astounding. 

Even as the ultimate fanboy, it’s mind-blowing to me that one athlete is the best short-distance mountain racer (course record at Zegama) and the best long-distance mountain racer (course record at UTMB) in the same year. The easy response to his dominance is to say he is a genetic outlier. But at the elite level of sports, it’s always a competition among outliers, and the genetic differences alone are not enough to explain dominance like Kilian’s 2022. Reading his post, it’s clear that he earned 2022 with a methodical, process-focused vision of long-term growth across decades of hard training.

On the podcast, he talked about how his training philosophy fundamentally shifted in 2018 and 2019, coinciding with the birth of his first child. Instead of long days in the mountains at zone 2, he shifted toward a different intensity distribution, emphasizing lots of easy volume and focused workouts. He made the changes without a coach (though he does work with exercise physiologist Jesús Álvarez-Herms). Instead, he made himself into an exercise physiology and training theory expert, applying what he learned and making changes based on what worked for him.

The GOAT wants us all to be the GOAT version of ourselves.

So his article is not a genetic outlier talking about the nuances of being an outlier. It’s a brilliant scientist talking about the process of maximizing potential based on universal principles of human physiology, adapted for specific variation in genetics and goals.

Time to get to it! Let’s dive into 8 takeaways from a training summary that will shape the sport for years to come.

One: Training is a long-term process of consistency and aerobic development.

A stunning figure shows Kilian’s weekly training volume since April 2009. While there is variance, most weeks average around 20 hours, split between running, skiing, biking, and other sports. There are big up-swings of skimo in the winter and running starting in spring, with his training following a seasonal cycle.

At the far right of the chart is a microscopic red circle encompassing 2022. It’s a striking visualization of how our brains can think short-term, but our bodies are playing on much longer time scales.

“There’s no such a thing as the magical session that will make you better or a training program that will work for everyone,” he says. “But the adaptations come from the repetition of training stimulus (consistency) and the individualization of those stimuli.”

Kilian has consistently averaged 1000+ hours of training per year, mostly easy, across multiple sports. His aerobic roots run deep. For all of us, the first principle of endurance training is to stack up easy volume over time. The foundation for all performance from the 800 meters up to 200+ milers is how the aerobic system processes energy and associated fatigue. That ability comes from the daily grind of easy training.

So, first? Put your own roots down. It’s a year-long thing, across decades.

Two: Most of his training is very easy, with a Pyramidal intensity distribution.

Now is the moment for every athlete to pay attention to specific guidance from the GOAT. You hear that most training should be easy, but what does that actually mean? Here’s Kilian’s breakdown of training intensity using the 5-zone model:

• 58% zone 1 (active recovery, nose breathing)
• 19% zone 2 (aerobic endurance, can keep for hours)
• 16% zone 3 (tempo, sustained fast and can say several sentences)
• 4% zone 4 (race pace, can say a sentence)
• 3% zone 5 (max)

58% in zone 1! That is an astonishing number, echoing the evolution of training theory more generally across endurance sports. Easy volume does not just allow recovery for harder sessions, but it provides the fuel that makes the hard sessions possible.

His intensity distribution is strongly Pyramidal with hints of Threshold, with 77% of his training in Zone 1 and Zone 2. The 16% in Zone 3 and 4% in Zone 4 is a high amount of threshold work, similar to some approaches used by Norwegian runners and triathletes. The smaller amount of Zone 5 work shows that he still develops his top-end speed, but with a much lesser focus.

It’s tempting to get on the trails and assume that faster is better. But stacking up faster work causes everything to decline after an initial period of growth, as the musculoskeletal system wears down, the endocrine system gets overstressed, and the aerobic system erodes via less efficient lipid metabolism and mitochondrial function.

Admittedly, 58% of training in Zone 1 may be Kilian-specific, requiring wonderful aerobic efficiency and very high volume. On our podcast, he talked about moving quickly through the mountains at 110 to 120 beats per minute heart rate, which is my heart rate when getting food from the top shelf of the pantry. But every athlete should probably have a more even split between Zone 1 and Zone 2 than might be our natural baselines, with those percentages adding up to around 80%. All easy is not created equal, and it’s valuable to slow down some of those days for workout quality, longevity, and growth along the entire aerobic spectrum.

Pyramidal training intensity is the predominant approach used by elite athletes whose training has been the subject of studies, meaning the next biggest proportion of training is tempo/threshold, with a much smaller portion faster than Critical Velocity and VO2 max. Lots easy, some moderate, just a bit hard (and make sure that hard work has a focused rationale for improving mechanical output).

Kilian leaves room for disagreement. “I know, for example, that I can absorb a great amount of volume and Z2 and Z3 training, but if I do more speed work for several continuous weeks (Z4 and Z5) I will get injured or metabolically not as efficient,” he says. “For other athletes, it is the opposite.”

What’s fascinating in the research is that an approach with a higher proportion of top-end Zone 4 and Zone 5 work (known as Polarized training) is very rarely used long-term due to its tendency to cause quick adaptations, followed by stagnation (or injury).

Three: Kilian periodizes his training across the year, with a base period preceding specific training blocks.

Kilian’s winter is spent on skis, where he’s a world-class skimo athlete. From December to March, he would do 2-4 hours on skis (mostly in Zone 2) in the AM, followed by a 40-60 minute easy treadmill run in the PM. His training graphs show no hard workouts that entire time. Interestingly, he did a 100-mile race in February to test fueling. As much as I think Kilian’s approach has lessons for all of us, doing a 100-mile race off a ski-focus may just be a Kilian thing. It’s like wearing white spandex at Western States–don’t try this at home.

That base period reinforced an already-monstrous aerobic system. The fact that he didn’t only ski shows a lesson that might be important for athletes that get lots of cross training time. It can be helpful to reinforce mechanical adaptations for running year-round, even if it’s not the primary focus.

Starting in March, he trained for Zegama at the end of May, emphasizing big volume (150-190km / 93-118 miles per week) with 2 quality workouts. In June and July leading up to the Hardrock 100, he increased training volume up to 200km (124 miles) per week, but did no longer sessions, and kept doing 2 speed workouts a week. From Hardrock to UTMB, he primarily focused on recovery and maintenance (read about that period here).

Reinforcing an aerobic base year-round is key for all endurance athletes, and it may help to have a more focused block of aerobic development in the off-season. This winter in coaching, motivated by Kilian and Nils, I am going to focus more on dedicated base periods, particularly for elite athletes. For athletes that don’t have Kilian’s background and VO2 max, it may include a small amount of intensity like in a classic Lydiard model, emphasizing the mechanical adaptations to handle faster work (like hill strides).

Kilian kept that aerobic focus going even when training for short races like Zegama. The benefits accumulate over time, so keep stacking those bricks.

Four: Most of his training sessions were relatively short, but with tons of doubles.

A big change in Kilian’s life was when he became a dad a few years ago. His wife Emelie Forsberg is one of the GOATs herself, and they balance the demands of family life, business, and training as a team. In practice, that means that one gets the early block, one gets the afternoon block, and then their nights are free after the kids go to sleep.

And that seismic shift in life’s demands may have also unlocked a training secret: Kilian rarely does “long” training sessions. Almost all of his runs didn’t exceed 4 hours in 2022 (with most far shorter), a major change from what I had heard in whispers about his training in the early 2010s. However, he still accumulated massive volume week after week. How does that math add up?

The answer is by using doubles–two sessions in one day. On our podcast, he said that he completed doubles almost every day. For all athletes, doubles may improve hormonal response to training, and avoiding excessively long sessions could reduce some of the chronic stress of high-volume training. These sessions can likely be as short as 10-15 minutes, running or cross training, and may have outsized influence on fitness growth. There’s a reason that almost every elite athlete training log includes doubles, even if we aren’t 100% sure on the mechanism of action that makes them nearly universal.

The outstanding question is whether other ultra athletes could excel from so few extra-long efforts in training. Kilian has completed so many ultras and long sessions that he has no doubts about his aerobic abilities, or how his body will respond late in events. Most of us step into the unknown, but nothing is unknown to Kilian. Interestingly, this approach focused on training frequency to accumulate volume rather than supersized single days overlaps with some of the training of ultra champion Camille Herron (and others), so it’s possible that very long efforts are an overrated part of ultra training.

Five: Kilian does workouts that focus on the specific demands of his events.

Now it’s time for some workout porn. I know that Kilian doesn’t want us to read too deeply into any specific session, but these are too good to pass up. He groups his sessions into 3 groups: speed, threshold, and tempo.

For pure flat speed training, he only did 4 workouts all year long. WOW! That includes track staples like 10 x 400 meters, which he says he limited due to risk of injury, a problem he faced in the past when focusing on road training. This may be a place where his genetic ability matters–he is very fast naturally, so it might not be an element that he needs to reinforce much, at least on flat ground. Most trail runners can probably limit their flat ground work, with just enough reinforcement to help hill strength translate into flat speed.

His staple session was an uphill/flat combination workout (like what I wrote about here). He starts with 1 or 2 intervals up a steep climb, with the downhill for recovery. After, he does a flat workout, such as a 10km tempo, 2 x 5km tempo, or 10 x 1k. On the podcast, he said that it improves his ability to run uphill fast and then on flats fast, like in a race. All athletes can likely use combination workouts, but scaled down to current levels.

His third big type of session was a longer steady run. He starts at high Zone 2 before increasing the effort, usually over 20 km to 30 km (12 – 18 miles). These long, steady runs are likely underutilized by many athletes in training, and they are a great opportunity to build specific endurance and musculoskeletal resilience. Just be careful not to turn them into races, since the intensity control is key to avoid an excessive amount of time in the upper intensity zones, undercutting aerobic growth.

The magic simplicity of Kilian’s training is that it’s usually 2 of those workouts a week plus easy running across daily doubles. Rinse and repeat, with specificity before races indicating higher volume preceding long ultras and a greater workout focus preceding shorter events. Finish up with a taper that is very easy and includes rest days for ultras, and a bit less easy with fewer rest days for shorter races.

Six: Most of his aerobic training is on steep and technical trails.

While Kilian consistently does moderate/hard workouts on flat ground or non-technical trails, many of his easy runs are on the trails where he lives in Norway. Just looking at a photo of those trails gives me a stress ulcer–they are steep and technical in ways that are rarely seen in the US outside of climbing routes.

He likes workouts to be on smoother and/or flatter surfaces to “privilege the metabolic and muscular capacities”–optimizing raw output. He likes slower days “on terrain that challenges other aspects (cognitive, mental, technique, visualization…and they’re much more fun!).”

Make sure that you aren’t sacrificing output in your harder sessions. On a steep and technical climb, an athlete’s grade-adjusted pace may be 1-2 minutes per mile slower than on a less technical climb. While the efforts feel equally hard, that translates to lower output, and likely to fewer adaptations. However, on purely easy days, you can have fun with it! Plus, working on technical abilities requires constant reinforcement, like all cognitively and neuromuscularly demanding physical movements.

Seven: Strength work is not a part of his training.

Readers, I know that you know that I am not a big fan of a heavy emphasis on strength training. But my views are far outdone by Kilian’s views. “I don’t do any strength sessions,” he says. “Having limited time for training, I believe that the stress to the body from strength training would be too much to be able to give the best at the running or skiing sessions, where I want to put the focus because they are more specific.”

However, it’s important to note that skiing is a bit like one long strength session, and the way Kilian runs up hills is similar to plyometrics. So he may be playing by a different set of rules than most athletes. I like a minimal-dose program, focused on the least amount possible to get the necessary adaptations, often as little as a few minutes 2-3 times per week.

Eight: It’s all about the process.

Near the end of our podcast, we asked Kilian about the one piece of advice he’d give an aspiring young pro. We had been diving deep into training theory, so I was trying to ask a leading question for him to give away his ultimate methodological secret. Instead, he swerved the conversation.

“Focus on the process, not on the results.”

He described the importance of developing a deep love of daily training, through ups and downs, wins and losses. It’s going to take many years to see where the limits are, and it’s way better when it’s fun.

RELATED: Five Elite Coaches On The Biggest Change They’ve Made to Improve Their Training

Kilian talking about training is Kilian talking about anything. He’s a founder of the shoe company NNormal, which is set to be a major player in the future of the sport. Yet even as he’s probably being roped into conversations on growth models and projections, he’s still focused on the process of making a fulfilling workplace for himself and his employees. The same goes for parenting, with his eyes lighting up at the mention of fatherhood and all the new stressors that come with it.

Over the last few weeks, I have learned that Kilian is not the GOAT because of genetics. He is the GOAT because he loves it. We asked him how he reconciled a love of the mountains with all of the data he collects on his training. He had a genius reply: to him, science is a manifestation of his love, of his respect for the sport and the mountains and what they require.

I have never been so motivated to get out there tomorrow and run. I’ll be doing it for the love of the process, and all the messy narratives that entails. I hope you are as inspired by Kilian as I am, helping you get out tomorrow and embrace a love of that messy process.

And I hope that we all can do that year-round for a few decades in a row to find our true limits…with a substantial portion of those days in Zone 1.

Finally as always I give a shout out to three of my favourite products…  fisiocrem ( https://www.fisiocrem.com.au/ ) is just bloody brilliant and does exactly what it says it does , it just gets the major muscle groups moving again. I use this extensively towards the end of the race when my quads are hammered.  It really makes a difference and allows me to move back through the gears towards the end of an event when most runners are stumbling home.

Bix hydration is just ace, a product brought to life by Vlad Ixel a professional ultra runner who knows a thing or two about hydration. ( https://www.bixvitamins.com/ )  The best thing about Bix is it tastes good with many different flavours and you never get sick of drinking it, this is a big plus as Maurten and Tailwind (both great products)  can be difficult to digest later in the event.  From the website :-

As an Australian elite multiple trail running champion, with wins in over 40 ultra-marathon races across Asia, recovery from training and races has always been my top priority. 

In searching for a solid recovery and hydration supplement, I recognized that critical vitamins and minerals – both in diversity and quantity – were missing from almost all supplements on the market. I had the feeling that in an effort to maximize their bottom-lines, companies in the hydration space, failed to deliver a product that could meaningfully assist athlete performance. 

In order to address this, I began the development of a hydration product. After two and a half years of development alongside a leading German sports scientist, BIX Recovery, an advanced, high-quality recovery drink was born. 

BIX boosts 12 active ingredients scientifically balanced to replace lost electrolytes and assist in immune function. It’s designed with quality vitamins and minerals, in quantities that work! 

BIX is a recovery solution for everyone, that will get you to the top of your game!

What can I say about HumanTecar,  ( https://athleticus.com.au/ ) it looks great, smells great and is awesome for recovery or even pre-run/workout. Read about the science behind it first and then try the products. The compression bandages are just magical after a long event. Put these on and the next day you are recovered, I have used them on a number of occasions and they never fail to astound me albeit the family poke fun at me as I look like a ‘mummy and smell funny’ !

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