Training for my first 100km mountain race, Jan 2016

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

WED 29th: 19.5km / 1:42.45 / ave 11.39kph (tough run in the sun, got burnt and dehydrated)
SUN 2nd: 19.5km / 1:41.00 / ave 11.58kph (solid night run at close-to goal marathon pace)

TOTAL: 39km

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Nice article in one of our papers this week

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

I haven't updated in a couple of weeks as I have only managed to log about 20km for each week, hardly worth updating.

Hopefully the next few weeks will be better and I'll get some good, solid training blocks in before the race.

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Well I'm a week out from my first marathon in four years. My girls are helping to ease the pain of a punctured eyeball that I sustained during a run in the hills yesterday

Back to hospital in the morning to find out how it is healing and whether or not it needs surgery. Life is all about challenges and overcoming them ~ I have never ran an off road marathon with one eye before !! MF

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Enjoying some great food while I rest up, just about to eat a couple of sliced-up Quorn burgers with fresh salad on a spinach wrap. Huzzah!

[vegan_rossco]

Shit mannnn hope you're okay! I saw that photo on Facebook how exactly did it happen?
Thinking of you bud! You'll be fine in the marathon

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Cheers Ross. I was running along a trail and there was a tree branch pointing right at me ~ ran straight into it and it hit the top of my right eye luckily just missing the pupil.

This week's been a funny one, seems to be healing well one day and then the next it's all blurry and watery. Still looking forward to the race, haven't been able to train this week due to my vision, so at least I will be well rested!

Heading out for around an easy 20-25km run tomorrow morning followed by a fasted (and faster) 10-12km run first thing on Friday. Then I leave for Wanaka about 9am Friday morning, it's a long drive from Christchurch so we'll get there sometime Friday afternoon. Race is Saturday morning.

My only goal is to finish sub 5 hours. Tough, hilly course with numerous freezing cold river crossings. Will be great

[AndiMorris]

Cheers Ross. I was running along a trail and there was a tree branch pointing right at me ~ ran straight into it and it hit the top of my right eye luckily just missing the pupil.

Oh man, that made my balls rise up into my body! Hope it's not too painful and you're recovering.

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Report and pics on the way, another one done and dusted

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

RACE STATS

DIST: 42.2km
TIME: 5.33:55

AVE HR: 160 bpm
MIN HR: 120 bpm
MAX HR: 190 bpm

CALORIES: 4,753

AVE SPD: 7.58kph
AVE PCE: 7.54min/km
MAX SPD: 15.5kph
MAX PCE: 3.52min/km

MAX ALT: 2,896ft
MIN ALT: 1,237ft
TOTAL ASCENT: 3,710ft


Just waiting for the official race photos to be uploaded, but I have a few that my friends took




Just enough time to stop for a quick fruit cider on the way down




Pre-race dinner, the others were kind enough to order all vege Thai food just because of me. So lots of tofu, veges and other yummo stuff




I think I chased this guy for a while during one of the more lonely sections of the course

[mrbear666]

is there anything you cant do mf? well done mate, that last pic is beautiful, reminds me of snowdonia

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Cheers Mike, yeah it truly is a stunning run. Shame I didn't quite get to see it with two fully working eyes! I have taken an easy couple of weeks to allow my body to recover, I'm feeling great right now and this weeks runs have been really good.

Just got back from a 6.5km run where I averaged 4.51/km pace ~ felt like an extremely easy pace (almost a little slow to me) so that's promising going into the next block of training. I'll start logging my training again from next week, this downtime is important but I do like having structure and rigidity to my training weeks.

Diet has been on-point, very clean and nutritious and I'm sure that's why I am feeling so good in myself Here's a couple of meals I ate yesterday...




Vege sushi with shiitake mushrooms, seaweed salad




Black pepper 'steak' and steamed veges, bowl of coconut rice

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Last nights dinner was to die for, mushroom steak with tofu, steamed veges and coconut rice....

Just enjoying my morning coffee before heading out for an 'easy tempo' 6.5km, would like to clock a sub 30min time.

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Just enjoying my morning coffee before heading out for an 'easy tempo' 6.5km, would like to clock a sub 30min time.

Good fasted run, pace still felt comfortable and definately still room to go a lot quicker.

DIST: 6.5km
TIME: 29.40
PACE: 4.34/km

[Mini Forklift Ⓥ]

Looking forward to head out for an hour or two this afternoon to Hagley Park, a beautiful place to run and I believe it's also the second largest park in the world (behind NY's Central Park).




Just about to take the girls to swimming and then we usually pick up some beautiful, freshly made shiitake sushi on the way back home. Man I love the weekends