The race switch

Tend not to race often. But when I do I don’t seem to be able not to fully commit to the race and ‘race’ it. Even in a ‘training’ race I’d go a bit faster than I should have.


Last weekend I got to visit one of New Zealand’s premier multisport locations for a ½ marathon trail run. It was the usual NZ bush run in a great super-scenic setting .

I didn’t have any ambitions, as it was at the end of a busy week. We travelled 200 odd kilometers on the day, which meant a 4:30am start. We didn’t have a lot of time for stretching or warming up. But it didn’t matter, it was good to be out in the trail ready for a bit of action. I’ve been unable to go out of the city for over a month and was keen to get back in the soft surface.

A bit underdone by lack of hill-specific training, I thought I still had a chance to do well. All of a sudden it was less than 2min to go. I placed in, and for the next minute and a half I enjoyed the effects of turning the race switch on:

The heart rate slowly raising, the muscles tensed and alert. The breathing getting lighter and the head thinking on the past weeks training and how every session was clinically placed to produce what would be today’s outcome. The eyes scan for the competition, look for familiar faces and the ones that look to make the front pack. The chest broadens and the arms get into swing.

And then we’re off.

A shot of adrenaline shoots through the muscles, we all go hard for 100/200 metres and then harder, sorting the field as we advance. The mind gets focused on the road ahead, any obstacles and a check of form, of the self and the people around. The eyes move 5 to 7 metres ahead and start looking at clean paths that the body will follow.

It is not aggression, is the alertness, determination and synch of it all that makes the turning of the race switch an exhilarating experience.

The fun continues for a few minutes and then is back to business, another check of the form, tactics, banter and the other more mundane aspects of racing.

As for the race itself it was a great result, 3rd overall. I paid for my lack of climbing, but I was proud to hang on to the two tough guys that beat me. I was even prouder of my downhill running.

It is good to be reminded of another reason why I race. I race to turn the race switch. And what a great feeling that is.


Stay safe out there, and get muddy.

Two weeks and two races

Yeah… time flies when you’re having fun. It was some time since the last post, in that time I managed to get myself into a run and a cycle race. Both of them were fun and I will report both of them from the point of view of the questions the race throws at me.


Stride for success running race (5x2km loops up and down):

Pre race: How are you feeling? Those calves ready? Will it start as fast as last year?

Start: Why is it not going that far this time around? Shall you stay with the front pack? Shall you hurry the front pack up? Will you hang on to the this front pack for the rest of the 5 loops?
Lap 2.5: Ooops, eat a gel or hang on to front pack? Catch the pack or wait in no-man’s land?
Lap 4: catch the guy in the front up the hill or run him down the hill? Pass him or stay?
Lap 5: long drag or sit and wait for the sprint?

Cycle for life cyle race (1x107km lap)
Pre race: have you done enough hill training? Have you done enough interval training? You sure you want to race in the elite group?

Start: can you hang on to this fast pace and the upcoming hill? Can you catch the peloton 200m ahead down the hill? Are you able to time trial your way back to the bunch or will you wait for the next bunch?
Middle: do you really want to risk a fall in this rain and wind? Are you able to sustain this rate of exertion for another couple of hours? Have you eaten enough? Do you have enough water till the end?
End: do you want to sit and wait for the sprint or make this peloton work hard? Will you let those guys go or catch them up the next hill?

Races keep throwing us questions and the answers open a series of paths that one can’t return from. If the front pack is gone… it’s gone, there’s no way back. Similarly, if one commits to a hill 100%, then it’s useless to stop ¾ of the way there because the damage is already done, the ticker will be at a high work rate already. Interestingly, though , the mental answers to the questions and the ability to physically back up the replies with action depends a lot on the way we prepared for the race, how we rested, what we ate, what we drunk et cetera.

Another race to go in a bit over a week and then into hibernation, exams and who knows… maybe a bit of mountain action.

Euclid, pizza toppings and Sabina

What do a greek mathematician, a Spanish songwriter and a lot of veggies and cheese have to do with anything?

But they occupied my ‘eadspace over the last workouts. Not in sequence, more like three recurring themes over and over during a long run or a long ride. Thankfully it doesn’t happen in the swim. We’ve got a beeping machine put in our heads for our swim workouts (true, annoying little beepers).

Reading a book about Euclid’s “Elements…” got me back into filling my day with abstract thought of the purest quality: Points, lines and polygons. So much that I found myself revisiting theorems and formulae learnt 15 years ago.

The Spanish songs are always there, this was a good classic that I haven’t listened for a while and filtered into my head via some random electric pulse.

And every Saturday is pizza day @ my place, so there is always the worry to keep innovating on the toppings front. This weekend was prosciutto and rocket for pizza 1 and potato and teriyaki infused red onion for pizza 2. Both were outstanding successes.

I purposely put the pizza last because the reason of this post was to raise awareness of the importance of mind drifting, it helps dealing with the chaos of everyday life and training. It also helps to think of scenarios for a given race, or training goal or the day ahead.

Some people call it visualizing, I call it mind drifting, it’s that process of having a movie played in your head, and, on certain great occasions, getting that movie to play in real life. Exactly the same movie. Some people call that success. I call it bliss.

I value mind drifting as one of my best allies to succeed in a race. Playing up falls, dehydration, food stops, flat tyres, rain, heat, GI distress and all sort of scenarios in my head helps me find a way out of them. Sometimes it even works in real life too!, The latest example was during the Tarawera ultra, when I had to switch to fruits and coke diet. I’ve done in my head a few times. Doing it in real life was not the end of the world?!, was it?

The pizza scenario and the fruit and coke scenario are not too distant.

Keep dreaming everyone

To "see the point"

A very good friend of mine has been pestering me for years to get into mountain biking. For some reason or other I can’t seem to find the time for a new hobby and I’ve kept passing from the invites. Last weekend I said yes, as I thought it was good to have the chance and, as I said, he’s a good mate and the MTB is just an opportunity to catch-up and have a good time.


The experience was fun, great views, nice scenery and good climbs. It all came down pronto when I had to go into a singletrack grade 2 hill and lost any ability to coordinate the descend. I overshoot one corner, slipped and hit my privates with the bike’s seat. Then I got too tense to even try and keep a good balance. Hated it for some time.
I went a bit more comfortable on round 2, but still not OK.

Then it was time for me to park the bike, and follow my make while he went for a couple of more shots. I could run the same speed up and down the technical descents, so overall it was still very good training.
But not my thing.

What’s different?
I just couldn’t see the point on purposely putting myself in danger of falling over trees or roots to go down a hill and not even going fast or going point to point. I’m unsure about the fitness or bike-specific gains for me.

It felt a bit of a pointless exercise.

But hang on a minute?
What about bike or running hill reps?
Or swimming up and down a 25m pool 150 times three times a week?
Or running like a madman for 5km down a hill to a point where stopping is not guaranteed?
Or waking up and going to work every day to have money to pay the bills to continue to live to go to work everyday to have money to pay the bills

It is another case of “a matter of perspective”.

This is how I felt

This is what I wouldn't mind

Moral of the story for me?
Always try something new, but don’t stick to it if you don’t like it.
And moral number 2:
Close the ‘new hobbies’ account for a few months and get great marks at Uni.

A few days on the mountain should come handy. Stay dry out there

One year un-coached

It was about 1 year ago that I moved from being a coached triathlete. I realized that the old “crap in/crap out” saying was catching up on me. I wasn’t able to get all the bang I wanted from my buck, basically because I didnt have the time to fit in the workouts. The result was that I still had a swim squad which I go and a run squad that I aim to go as much as I can. I play around in the middle filling spaces here and there according to what events are up and coming.

After a year, there’s a few pro’s and cons that I’d like to share:

The half empty version:

There’s a perception of loss. May be top-end run speed, or race ability or something. I guess this is caused by the big void of not having a programme that comes to you. You are the programme and have to keep on your toes otherwise there’s plenty of room for distraction.

There’s the less social-more business side of training too. But that’s easily overcome.

The half full view:

There’s a bit of extra money for doing other stuff. Like buying kit, or going to the gym or doing more events or coffee.

There’s a lot of learning to be done. Finding out what and how and when different stages of a periodised training should be fitting in my world.

There’s the satisfaction of a good outcome. Each race finish takes a new meaning. I am as proud as an athlete as I am as a coach. Double brownie points!.

 

Results so far have been good. two PBs and a smooth switch to ultra running, all injury free.

 

The bummer of it all is that this is soooooooooo particular to each individual that I would not advise anyone to do it or not to do it because I know for sure that it would come and haunt me. But if you’re out thinking you might give it a try, all I can say is go for it. There’s plenty of pride to be had by being your own master.

 

Happy training for the wet week coming!

Mutations

I like to think myself as an endurance beast, although the reality is that I am more of an endurance puppy. This came out of the realization that I’ve been ‘in the sport’ for 5 years. 5 fun years of pounding the asphalt, threading the water and rolling over all sort of terrain in all sorts of weather. From the time when I swam in the sea-year round, to the wettest cycle tour in history with my mate Gordon, there’s so many stories to tell. I will sound like an old man, but there’s so many snapshots of different training rides, or races that provide plenty of motivation to get out there an do it all again.

A common treat of these endurance mutations is the moments of solitude and isolation (even when around a lot of people) and the moments of lots of laughs in good company. I don’t remember feeling more alone than when racing against 3000 others in Budapest, a day to remember for the wrong reasons. Both extremes (solitude and great company) are the backdrop of some learnings I took from these 5 years. On the one side, I’ve learnt a lot about self reliance and resilience, backing myself to achieve a given goal. On the other side, I’ve enjoyed many winters with great people with common goals and great races with lots of camaraderie.

Someone said that the only thing constant is change. And while I continue to enjoy change, I’ll enjoy these endurance mutations.

This is comeback 3.0

I guess comebacks are another constant too : )

Stay safe out there.

Race report – Tarawera Ultra 100km solo - Race report - Even splits my arse!

making sure it's all going to be allright

I got to the Humphries bay aid station thinking about a spreadsheet that was doing the runs on facebook with split times for each aid station. The spreadsheet was calculated on even splits, which I thought was weird given that there was a decent amount of climbing to be negotiated. I still naively adopted it in the hope that it will make me faster.

How did I get to the Outlet thinking that? here’s the story

I signed the Tarawera Ultra by Christmas, which was about 14 weeks out. Since my sporting interests are many, the proper race training wouldn’t kick in until I got the Auckland 70.3 triathlon out of the way which was right after  3 weeks holidays tramping in the South Island. I made an attempt to do the Hillary trail with the Huia bush runners in early Jan, but had to give up at 30km to save the knee for later races.

So… by late January I was ready to dive into the lore of running. The preparation included lots of running at some speed in net downhills, to prepare the quads for the 40km dash from Tarawera Falls to Kawerau. It also included new nutrition strategies which involved ordinary food (burritos, ham and cheese croissants and my very own chia bars) both the speed running and the nutrition worked great in training.

happy trails

Came race day we had to adapt to the fire course, so I thought I’d use some speed to start out relatively fast and enjoy ‘clear track’ between the start and Okareka. Paul sent us off in style, and a bit of a drizzle. Surprisingly, though, the track was dusty from the speedsters up the road and I coughed my way out of the first couple of k’s. Keeping the gas on but the ticker at low bpm’s I reached the Blue Lake aid station 10min ahead of schedule my chia bars proved a great success for nourishing me through the first leg. That was part of the plan, now it was time to slow down a bit and get to Okareka within the 1:45 mark. There was chocolate milk and croissants waiting.

Okareka was a flash, so much of a flash that I forgot to drink my Milo. Got the pack on my back, loaded with chia bars and burritos for the road ahead. The idea was to get through the savory stuff before mid-race and then switch to sweeter stuff from aid stations. I didn’t count on the 3km uphill to Millar Rd aid station, whatever I ate at Okareka was now trying to come out to daylight. It all got better at Millar and a nice group formed. I made a point to stay with this group, as they were pacing to get to Okataina in a similar time as me, somewhere in the 2 hour mark. The group was the lead 60km woman and a Darren, a guy I knew was much faster than me in the only other trail race I did. We chatted a little during this leg, Darren tipping Steph about the steep descend from the western Okataina track into the lodge and aid station. She flew down the last 5km and I decided to take the foot off the pedal and not to race wildly to the aid station, used the time to get half a square mea.l down the trhoat. Got there in 2:03 wich was OK but not great.

Nat being briefed about the race ahed

My wife, love of my life and the greatest crew ever was arriving to the aid station as I stepped out of the bush. I did get my chocolate milk and ½ burrito and  was off. I struggled a bit in the technical trail with unsettled stomach, and lost the plot for a few km, which should had been run faster. That was the first turning point of the race. I realized that I could not continue to slow down to digest the food that Nat and I put so much love and attention to prepare. I cogitated about what to do for a couple of km and it became overly clear that I could run the next 6 hours the same way I did the Auckland 70.3 race: Gels, sweets and coke and electrolytes to stabilize. I started with oranges and apples at Humphries. I also realised that the splits were getting waaaaaaay our of the plan, and not in a positive way. That’s when I though “even splits my arse” I was not letting a spreadsheet get in the way of my good mood and the finish line.

When I got to the Outlet aid station I was already in a different mood. Not only have I passed the halfway point in a relatively good time. I was already much lighter, clear in my mind and sure that I’d get to the end even if I had to walk. What is more, I was hanging on relatively comfortable to a guy that I knew was much more experienced than me. This leg was 2:08, a good 15 minutes over the planned time.

The next leg was for me to run free. I left my pack at the aid station, ate a few pieces of nectarines and left for the trails. This is where I would start counting the pros coming my way. Sage went in and out in a flash. Tim followed a good 12 min behind and Vajin was running happy 20min from Sage. All of them cheered us back, which was uplifting. The turnaround at the Tarawera falls was another milestone. My plan was to start with coke from 60k, and what a difference that sweet shit makes!.  I was back to Okataina in 2:18, again, a few more minutes than originally planned. But it was quite clear at this stage that not only my planning had been optimistic, but everyone was going slower than usual. The pit stop at Okataina was very long, I realize in hindsight that I was losing a bit of concentration and should plan better for those moments. Left the aid station as fast as I could, knowing that a- I was 14th overall and b- It was a matter of 2 hours to get to the finish. I also knew that the steep downhill of this morning was now a bitch of a hill to get through and that I would have to walk it as fast as I could.

Finishing in style

It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t pretty, but once it was over, there’s a net downhill to the finish and a 3km downhill on the road to the aid station. I was doing the same kind of pace in the last 3km as I did on the first 3km. Nat ran the last 600m with me, and we crossed the line just below 11:50. Not the grandiose sub-11 I had planned for, but still within my top 15% target (just)

A few days later the itchy question of what would have been the story on the faster course is stuck in the back of my mind. Can't wait for next time.

\(^-^)/