Week 3 & 4

                                          EAGLES - TAKE IT EASY

City Beach ...Start of Sunday Runs 5.30am

As the month of January ends , the first month of training for the Ultra-trail Australia 100 come to an end. Lots of mileage, little elevation , tired legs , hots runs and weight coming off. That sums up the first month.

Even at this early stage of training I am hitting more mileage than I did last year. The past 2 weeks of run training had me doing about 65km and then 81 km of running with more trail running and some small hills but nothing like the elevation we did last year.

The legs are not getting as sore and I have had a slight discomfort in the left knee but having started running in new Hokas the discomfort is easing .

The runs these past 2 weeks have been warm and humid so  they have been hard but I am happy at this stage with the progress .In addition I have been riding once or twice a week and doing the cross fit sessions . Nearly all the runs are at easy pace with my heart rate staying reasonably low .just one real tempo run a week and I have been keeping the pace slow as much as I can .the long runs have been out at City Beach and the last 2-3 km have been on the beach soft sand. That has been the hardest bit and the runs up on the Zamia trail near Reabold Hill .

Zamia Trail

Trails Near City Beach 19 January 2016

The past 2 weeks :


Monday      11 January      Time 46:54   Distance 7.07 
Tuesday      12 January                50:03                 7.86
Wednesday 13 January                57:02                 7.53
Thursday     14 January             1:30:30               12.70                   
Friday          15 January             1:00:01                 7.81
Saturday      16 January             1:01:17                 8.70                      
Sunday         17 January            2:22:38               17.85                    

Sun, 24 Jan 2016                        2.50                   21.5km
Sat, 23 Jan 2016                         1.15                    11.2km

Fri, 22 Jan 2016                          1:18:03              11.05                       

Thu, 21 Jan 2016                        1:00:47                9.08                       

Wed, 20 Jan 2016                        1:15:04              10.70                      

Tue, 19 Jan 2016                            37:47                2.68

Tue, 19 Jan 2016                         1:00:58              10.14                      

Mon 18 Jan 2016                            40:00                5:00

This past week also saw the running of  the Hurt 100 in Hawaii .A hard to get in event with 24,000 feet of elevation on 5 loops .There was a good article by Jeff Browning who won the race this year and his experience on OFM . HURT 100: Experiment of One and OFM

Jeff  Browning

The weekend always ends with a Walk in the Park

Ultramarathon: Training for Ultra-Trails Australia 100

Last Year's North Face 100 Run

Dogs are natural Paleo Eaters

Cross Fit

Sunday's Run

There is no rest for the wicked. The first day of the New year was also the first day of my new training program by  Zach Bitter . I found out about Zach after listening to a podcast by Christian Manietta on nutrition ( The Lowdown on OFM with Zach Bitter )    Zach Biter has the following current achievements:

1. 12 Hr. World Record Holder (101.7 miles)
2. 100 Mile American Record Holder (11:47:21)
3. 200 Kilometer (125 miles) Track American Record Holder
4. Sixth fastest 50 mile time by an American (5:12:36)
5. Three time USATF National Champion 50 mile (2012,15) 100k (2014)

and in December last year came within 12 minutes of breaking the 100mile world record .But that wasn't the reason for reaching out to him for a program.The philosophy of training and running is different and it was worth a try . I found my conversation with him easy and he was genuinely interested in helping and yet not trying to force a wholesale change on me.  I have 2 A races , The Australia  UltraTrail 100 at Katoomba in May and then an Ironman in the latter half of the year.

This year I hope to make a more concerted effort at training and getting my diet and weight under some control.There is more information and correlation between the diet and weight and endurance events.I have found that in my last ultra run that the pace and  fatigue were compounded by just not taking enough nutrition partly a result of the fatigue and partly from just having the same mix for 15 hours did not help . Similarly whilst I had no issues with Ironman nutrition I could not stomach more than 5-6 gels on the run and possibly looking at adapting so the body is using the fat for energy with some nutrition coming from the sugars in the nutrition.this may help balance the amount I need and help me survive the longer runs . That is the theory , the hard part is trying to get off sugars and carbohydrates. I have started but I am not going cold turkey . Avoiding as much of the carbohydrates I can but it is in a lot of food and trying to get the fats and protein up.

As for the training, I had a good long Skype chat with Zach and he has seen great results . It isn't for everyone and this is an experiment into the unknown but I hope will set me up to be fitter and stronger for the races ahead. The body weight does have to come down and I have started to focus on eating more healthy foods.No breads, rice or potatoes or sugars including drinks but there are smoothies that will have some sugars in the fruits .So can't quite escape them.

The training program starts of easy enough .Just building base for the next month starting on the 1 of January 2016. Ran an easy 1 hour doing about 7 km in and around the trails near Trigg.Saturday again a 90 minute run in the trails in Trigg bush land and did about 10km and on Sunday ran for 2 hrs near Reabold hill and the Zamia trail covering about 13.5 km .All really slow and easy runs but with the less carbohydrates and no sugar diet , the body was adjusting and I was slow.

Tuesday WOD

The next full week started with a free Monday and a choice to run any distance .I chose a rest day . On Tuesday , I had  a 60 minute run in the morning and then rode to Cross fit .On Wednesday another 60 minute run in the morning . Thursday it was really warm and I ran in the evening with the temperature at 40c .Dis a 20 minute warm up and then 20 minutes at 45 secs faster than the warm up pace followed by a cool down .Ran about 8.5km at about 6.30minute per km pace in the heat.

Saturday's WOD

Friday an easy 60 minute run and on Saturday I rode wound the river a circuit of 40 km and then ran for 45 minutes instead of a 90 minute run . In the afternoon a cross fit session .On Sunday another 2 hr run at Reabold and Zamia with the last 2-3 km on the beach sand for a 14km run . The weather was better and I felt better with less fatigue . The weight is slowly coming off . I had only water with a bit of cordial for the 2 hr run.