Sports & Fitness The Running Thread (All Abilities)

Good stuff @devank I'm not going to comment on training, I barely know what I'm doing myself have a look and see if there are any local athletics clubs she can join. Not sure how the proper clubs work, i.e. if you have to pay and there are try-outs to get in etc?

Here in Vic though, there are also few none-competitive clubs. I go to a club called TXR. They have 3 locations/groups and all free. Twice per week we meet at a local track for a one hour training session and they organise regular social runs, trail runs etc. There's are all ages, shapes and sizes of people and the training session rotates each week for variety. Speedwork, stead tempo work, sprints & rests etc plus technique drills. It's fantastic, especially if you're not a serious athlete and just want to improve and have fun. I also joined PTR which is the local trail running group. they also meet twice a week for an hours training in the local reserves and then monthly long social runs. They have accredited coaches in the group so whilst not one on one specialized training you are still following tried and tested training methods, but best bit it's it's all about having fun.

See if there's anything like that locally?

If she's serious about running and wants to really see what she can do with it then a proper athletics club would be the way to go. If she's just having fun and want's to get faster for school runs and just wants to have some fun then have a Google to see if there are any groups similar to above round near you?

 

@devank there may be a Harriers running club near you. Sydney Striders?

 

I would suggest, in order:
1). Do running drills every week. Focuses on good technique
2). Do more easy runs during the week. How many times per week does she run?
3). Add some strides
4). Sprinkle in some speedwork

Some running clubs have sessions for kids, and they try to make it fun and enjoyable.

 

So.... Saturday is the big day, Alpine Challenge 60k Ultra Marathon out of Falls Creek.

I've put the work in as best I can.

I've packed the kit, ticked off everything on the safety gear list (plus extras).

Prepared as well as I could have pretty much.

...but, I wasn't prepared for this!!!!! This is the starting area this morning, with more forecast on the way and an expected wind chill of minu 9 for race day:-

Numbnuts on Instagram: “Falls Creek Live Snowcam this morning. More forecast on the way too. Man, this Ultra Marathon is going to be horrendous!!”

Numbnuts on Instagram: “So, we’re 8 days from the start of the Australian summer and this is the view of the start line for Saturday’s Alpine Ultra Marathon, taken…”

I've been so excited for this adventure for months but now I have to say, I'm more than a little nervous.

 

Damn!!! That will surely makes things more interesting on the day @Propagate !!!! Rug up lol

 

@devank , kids have great running form usually so if you believe your daughter's running form is good, the only thing that i would do is simply add up 10% of weekly her mileage.

If she really want's to take things seriously though, i'd follow @mrdobalina great advice above

 

Good luck for today @Propagate

 

Thanks man, that was a tough day! 70k in rough conditions... will write up a bit later. Snow, fouls weather, course changes

Awesome adventure though!!

https://www.strava.com/activities/1981587417/shareable_images/map_based?hl=en-US&v=1543096614

 

Amazing effort

 

Thank you Propagate, RS Gumby, mrdobalina and paulF. Runners I came across all seem very friendly and helpful!

Only once. She does her running while younger brothers have their soccer. It all started when she didn't want to do the soccer. I said "Well.. you are not sitting at home. Come and do few runs. Then read a book if you want".
I have looked at our options. Little Athletics seems like a good option. Timing doesn't suit us.
I found a KidsOnTheRun close by. Going to send her.

Today, she was struggling with hayfever stuff. I asked her if she wanted to skip and take rest. She said "No.. I want to run 1.5Km and then do cycling". It shows that she is not doing it for me alone. Interestingly, two year younger brother (age 8) beat her today in 1.5K run

 

Also check out trail kids

 

Depending on where you are, check out parkrun on sat mornings too

 

Back at work today after a week in the High Country trying to relax and recover from the Ultra.

So, for those playing along from the start, last Saturday was my first crack at an Ultra Marathon. The Running Wild Alpine Challenge out of Falls Creek.

I registered for the 60k with about 1800vm of climbing.

Training went as well as could be expected generally through the year, could have done with a few more k's in the legs but I went into it feeling about as confident as I could expect. I had a rotten cold two weeks out, so a bit of forced tapering! Got a couple of short ones in in the lead up to get moving again.

Excitement was building in the week leading up, some mates went up the weekend before for the Ignition MTB festival, their photo's looked great, awesome scenery, blue skies, perfect weather so I was super pumped to get up there for the run!

Cut to the Thursday and the race director e-mailed everyone with the severe weather report. 12cm of snow had fallen, cars were being towed off the mountain (assuming they could get up there anyway), diesel freezing in pipes and more snow forecast. The Falls Snow Cams were amazing! Almost zero visibility, -11 wind-chill and a further 8cm snowfall expected on the Friday. I got a little (very) worried.

We set off from the Peninsula in good weather on the Friday morning, stopped in Myrtleford Caltex for a bottle of diesel ant-freeze and headed up the mountain to be greeted by a winter wonderland, freezing wind and very low visibility.

My biggest fear all along was navigation, not being very good at it. I had a laminated map with the course marked, off line GPS maps on two phones and a mapping GPS cycle computer, so when we attended race briefing Friday night I was somewhat concerned to hear the course would be radically changed due to weather and get your sharpies out for marking up your maps!

They brought the loop much closer in as a lot of the original course was simply not accessible by Alpine Search & Rescue any more with the snow drifts. So, instead of a big lap they created a 35k lap and each distance entry would do multiple laps. So my 60k become potential 70k (albeit with a little less climbing). The course was to be run Berkely style, i.e. alternate direction for each loop. Final course was still unknown until the race morning as they weren’t sure they could yet access the furthest point of even the condensed loop.

They pushed the start times back to give the day a chance to warm up a little to, so the 8am 60k start became a 10am 70k start, which meant if I finished at all then I’d be likely coming in in the dark on my predicted time.

10am race morning came around and off we went, ankle deep in snow. My feet were soaked within minutes and toes blistered up pretty soon in because of that.

The trails were amazing, so much snow up there, thick fog, rain, wind, then a little sun here and there.

I set myself a goal that if I came back at the end of the first loop in under 5 hours and didn’t feel totally smashed I would go back out and start the second loop regardless.

I went pretty strong the first loop, holding some back knowing it was going to be a long day. Up on the aqueduct trail I start feeling a bit off. I was only about 18k in but every time I tried to jog on what appeared to be flat ground my heart rate rocketed. I soon realised it was the altitude so back my pace off according and came good, especially as we dropped back down a few hundred meters shortly after.

First loop was fairly uneventful, thoroughly enjoyed it, such a diverse range of trail, scenery and weather! I ran into transition at 35k end of loop 1 feeling pretty good still and at 4:34, so I peeled off my socks, dried my feet on the microfiber towel I’d packed, sorted my blisters, fresh socks from my pack and I was back out on course 10 minutes later.

The end of the first lap finished with a climb up Mt Mackay summit before a cross country slop fest through snow and a downhill dash in to Falls village, so the start of the second loop with a slushy slog fest back up out of falls, over the pole line trail in reverse and back up the to the of Mt Mackay for a second time. As I ran up out of Falls I could see Mt Mackay in the distance and it was black! By the time I go to the base the weather was foul, rain, wind and zero visibility. I knew if I made the top again that even though there’d still be 30k to go I could probably finished the course.

On the way back down, around 40-44k mark I started feeling it a bit. I find it very difficult to run “slow”, so I adopted a 50 on / 50 off step routine for pretty much the rest of the course. This worked really well for me as it kept my heart rate down but still kept a decent overall pace, I was picking off heaps of people that were ”running” the whole time but their pace was so slow it was a waste of energy. My run/walk worked extremely well and kept me feeling good for almost the rest of the loop. On the really steep ups I adapted it to 10 on/20 off or similar.

By this time I was getting picture messages from my mates that had now finished the 35k and were sat in the hot tub with beers, I still had best part of 4 hours to go.

I know from the first loop roughly at what k marker the aid and check points were, so they became my intermediate goals. I knew that with about 13k to go I’d have to go back up a shocker of a sloppy single trail and then back across the Heaphy Spur, by which time after all day in relatively mild weather the snow had melted and the trail was just a rocky river.

With about 3-5k to go I felt euphoric! I’d still been doing my 50/50 run speed walk, when 100k & 160k runners were coming up toward me on their subsequent laps they’d say running strong mate, nearly there! This gave me such a boost. I’d passed heaps on 60kers on the second lap who’s body’s had just had enough and shut down, they were ahead of me from a fast first lap then were in a world of pain to finish the second. I kept chipping away with my run/walk wandering when was my turn to blow up and have to crawl it home.

It came with less that 1k to go, I ran down an embankment then went to hike up the other side, it was only about the height of a single story house, just a plain grass hill but very steep. I got half way up and my body sort of said, sorry mate, that’s enough for today. I could almost touch the top but it took every ounce of strength and will power to get there!

Just as I crested a young girl also doing the double lap caught me and said c’mon mate, run in with me! I tried, I just had nothing left. I said “you go” I’ll see you at the end…

As I bombed down the finish hill into Falls and the finish flag my mates were waiting just before the finish with a beer for me, I grabbed it and they ran over the line with me, beer in hand.

I was finished. Completely shattered but nothing broken and a smile a mile wide. It was actually quite an emotional feeling, the whole thing, the people, the support, the place the isolation and just being super proud that I pulled it off. What a great event.

My main goal was simply to go the distance and finish it. My secondary goal for the original 60k distance was to do it in under 10 hours.

In the end, I pulled off the full double loop of 70k with near on 1400m of climbing in atrocious conditions and came in in 9 hours 44 minutes, So stoked.

When the results came out later, of 98 registrations for my distance only 78 decided to turn up and start. Of that 78 only 50 actually finished and I placed 21st!!!!! Winning time was just under 7 hours, slowest time just under 15 hours and me at 9:44. I was absolutely blown away, still can’t believe it.

Looking at the results breakdown I was 4:34 lap 1 and 5:10 lap 2 with about 10-15 minutes of lap 2 spent in transition fixing blisters and socks so my two laps were really quite similar in overall pace. In the results there were so many runners that had ran 4-5 hour first loops then 7,8,9 hour second loops. Tough day out for those.

I felt pretty good that night, although didn’t sleep much as my knees started to ache. Next couple of days were tough, lots of pains on various parts of my legs, They’d walk off after 10 minutes or so (about the time it took to walk form the accommodation to the Bright Brewery) but sit down again then get back up and have to loosen everything again. It was Thursday before the legs felt 90% normal so I went for short 5k loop along the Canyon Trail at the Ovens River, Bright. Legs came good but any effort sent my heart rate rocketing.

Feeling pretty good now, will have an easy week the rest of this week and then start with some short easy runs before building again.

So, would I do it again? You bloody bet ya!! Will be signing up for the Buffalo Stampede in the next few weeks, 75k and 5000vm vertical meters from Bright to the top of Mt Buffalo and back. Can’t wait.

Here’s some pics of my ugly mug doing it tough up the High Country and to anyone that fancies having a crack at one, just do it, by far the biggest sense of achievement of anything I’ve ever put myself through, particularly as I could only run about half a kilometre when I started this running lark less than two years ago!

Numbnuts on Instagram: “Well, this is going to be fun...”

Numbnuts on Instagram: “Frantic map re marking....”

Numbnuts on Instagram: “Let’s do this!”

Numbnuts on Instagram: “27k in and still smiling fir now... 43k to go...”

Numbnuts on Instagram: “Topping out on mt Mackey”

Numbnuts on Instagram: “Reverse loop... up Mt Mackey again off there in the distance. 37k down just over 5 hours. Probably at least another 5 hours for the reverse…”

Numbnuts on Instagram: “Done!!! 70k in 9.75 hours...”

Numbnuts on Instagram: “#alpinechallenge2018 #ultrarun #run #running #trailrun #trailrunning #runner #adventure”

Cheers.

 

@Propagate , well done on such a great adventure. Your strategy and preparation paid well on the day

 

Just did my first longish run in many many years ... a 15 km of uphill and downhill and was pleasantly surprised with the result of 1h 10 min at 4 min 40s / km pace. Was aiming to run a lot slower than that as it was meant to be an easy aerobic long run but kept on finding myself ramping the pace up... need to work on that. Shaping up really well afterwards too.

Cheers for all the inspiration @Propagate !

 

Good work mate! Good pace too @paulF is this the start of looking to bigger distance running then? (Gets addictive). Maybe see you on an Ultra start line soon?

I haven't ran since the little shakeout jog after the Ultra, been a bit low (stress I think mainly, from work and trying to sell houses plus buy our next one!). Determined to get one in today and break the drought, just a short one from work at lunch time to turn everything over and see how things feel. Still got a little niggle here and there in my right ankle, shin and foot so don't want to push it in case I damaged anything the other week.

A few easy ones to Christmas then start the proper training again in the New Year.

 

Seems like it @Propagate! I really enjoyed yesterday's run and feeling pretty good today too so the plan is to include a long run every weekend moving forward and take it from there.

Take your time to recover for sure but yeah even though running helps with stress, running while under stress can lead to injury due to being too stiff...

 

Good stuff @paulF

Just been out for a 5k @ 5 minute pace, first run in over 2 weeks and first one (other than the little loosener along the river) since the Ultra.

Boy, did I feel it! less than a minute in and my knees were screaming, they took a few k to settle down. My right ankle isn't very happy, not bad, just niggly, right foot the same.

I felt super uncoordinated and heavy. I'be put about 3-4 kg in the few weeks since the Ultra (beer and overeating combined with no running), I felt every extra gram.

Feel much better for it though. No speed work for a few week, regular short easy run until Christmas I reckon, just get the body used to moving again then starting building up from there.

 

Pretty stoked with today's effort at the gym. My car was getting some work done on it so had a few hours to kill. Usually when I'm at the gym I do interval training on the treadmill as I'm often pressed for time.

I was in the zone today so settled in the for the long run (pun intended! ) and cracked a PB with furtherest distance (previous was just shy of 12k's on the open road).



I'm not the fastest runner going around with 11-12kmh being slow sprint territory for my short legs but find 9kmh a good long haul treadmill pace and if I'm running on the open road where I usually run around 6k's and I find my natural speed is an average of 9.9kmh.

 

Nice work @Kinnon - next stop Ultra Marathons