Race Report: Hoka One One Anglesea Trail Race 2016

Pre-Race
Since I live in Gippsland my race preparation started at 8.30 on the Saturday (3^rd September) morning. The reason being I was finally using up my Physiohealth massage voucher that I won back at Plenty Gorge. It was good, I even learnt a new term; fascia line. 

Since I live so far away from where the race was being held, I had planned to stay with some family friends, and catch up with a mate that I haven't seen for years. Unfortunately the one day I was there he got called into work early, so the only time I spoke to him was saying hello and goodbye as I walked out the door the next morning. Thanks to the Low's for housing me and feeding me for that night!

 

The pre-dawn morning, on my way to the race.

Race day. 
Race 4 of the Hoka One One trail running series is held in Anglesea in conjunction with the Surfcoast Century, which this year is National Long Trail Championships. My race is on the Sunday with the 100km SCC held on the Saturday. 

The morning started off smoothly, I arrived at the start line an hour before the race was due to begin to do my warmup and get ready, but then something unexpected happened. I had to use my first aid skills. On my way back from my warm up run I stopped to get a coffee, whilst waiting for it to be made the person in front of me suddenly collapsed. When he was on the floor I was starting to put him into the recovery position before myself and the other bystanders could figure out what the next course of action was. However while I was doing this he came to, and we realised he had fainted. While we had him sitting down we discovered he had run in the 50km the day before, and that he also didn’t suffer any concussion as he remembered all the events leading up to the incident. After sitting down for a couple minutes he said he was fine, collected his coffee and then 5 meters later as he was about to leave the café, he fainted again. That’s when we made the decision to call the ambulance, as something wasn’t right. We got him sitting down on a bench after that and he kept on insisting he was fine. After that point though I don’t know what happened, as this was 20 minutes before the race was due to start; so after checking that the other First Aiders were good to stay with him, I left.

From reading other race reports you would have seen that for me, a warm up is vitally important and due to that incident the only warm up I did was a jog, which isn’t enough. 

The start line, photo thanks to Bernie Larson

Nevertheless I lined up on the start line, and what a start it was, on the beach with a huge number of spectators and the sand was a dream to run on, nothing like the stuff I train on. Hard and flat, almost like running on bitumen. In terms of effort I started out pretty conservatively, which kept me in touch with the lead group for the entire beach section (about 6.5km). The beach running was kept interesting with towering cliffs over the top of you which was just stunning to look at, along with a bit of rock scrambling at about the 5km mark, where one person excelled and looked like he was dancing. 

Those towering cliffs! © SuperSportImages/Rapid Ascent Content Pool

It was incredible and gained a good 100m on the front pack just by being nimble. I also got speaking to Francesco Ciancio, the winner of the 100km the day previous and he was saying he was feeling sore (understandable) and that he likes to come home fast, so a plan formulated in my mind of how to try and beat him. Off the beach and onto the Surfcoast Trail, Francesco and myself were sitting 4^th and 5^th and he was starting to slow down, so at about the 8.5km point I passed him. All was going to plan, but what was the plan? For trail running, it’s impossible to stick to a certain pace as the terrain is always changing, so I like to measure pace by intensity. 

The plan was to start off fairly conservatively intensity wise, warming up as it were and hit the middle section really hard, trying to put as much distance between myself and Francesco as possible, and try to make it home.

My Strava splits,
10th and 11th km's were a bit slower as
I gained some elevation

From the 9^th km I put the foot down, peaking in my intensity between the 12^th and 15^th km where there was a beautiful flowy single-track section. It was also during this section I had my Vfuel gel, to try and get me through to the finish line. From there though I started to fade a little and hit a really low spot at the 17km mark when I thought I only had 5km to go, as my brain can’t do math when I’m tired. When the maths was slowly ticking in over in my head and I realised that I had 6km to go I almost cried, 5km I can handle, but another 6km? It’s hard to explain, but running is a mental game. Your mind has to trick your body and at that point my mind wasn’t playing nice. Once I got through to the 18^th km though I was back in a much better mental space, back to being able to tell myself 5km to go, 5km to go.

Throughout this entire time I was constantly looking over my shoulder to see if Francesco was coming for me and even in the stretches were I could see a good couple hundred meters behind me, I couldn’t see anyone. When I got to the 21km point I was running along the cliffs that I was running underneath just a bit over an hour earlier, and I could almost see the finish line. 500 m later the course turned inland, and I had another glance over my shoulder to see that distinctive red buff that Francesco was wearing, and he was coming for that finish line super fast. 500m after that, he passed me. Looking back on Strava, Frank’s 21^st and 22^nd km were about 4 min/km. Mine were about 4.30 min/km. There was no way I could keep up with him, so I just kept plodding along in 5^th place. That’s all right, I’m still happy with a top 5 finish. Then we came to the final sand section that I was totally unprepared for, and it was soft sand too where I got passed again, coming across the line in 6^th place, 10 minutes behind the front runner; and 1^st in my age group in a time 1 hour 48 min and 5 seconds.

Made it across the finish line! Photo thanks to Bernie Larson

This race was my longest race to date, coming in just shy of 23km and I wouldn’t change a thing. I wouldn’t have started off slower and I wouldn’t have saved myself for the last bit because I haven’t ever been a great finisher; even when I used to run track. I think I wasn’t able to hold on at the end because I just wasn’t fit enough, and maybe because the course didn’t suit my strengths. I’m not that speedy and this course was relatively flat, and since I’m training to do well at 4 Peaks (Bright Alpine Climb), I’ve been focusing on strength and powering up hills rather than being fast on the flatter stuff. But I’m constantly improving and I’m happy with that. At this point in time last year when I did my first trail half-marathon at Walhalla, I don’t think I could have predicated I would be able to do so well at this sort of distance, and now I came 6^th out of 238 people and rubbing shoulders with national champions. 

The National Trail Champion, Francesco

Unreal. I’m coming full circle with running the half marathon at Walhalla next weekend, but going to have some fun with it. I’m not treating it as a race but more of a training run as my racing schedule is so full, and 4 Peaks is just around the corner so I need to get some solid training in rather than just racing all the time. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to try and beat last years time though.

 

Stoked to finish top of the podium for the U20

Thanks to Sam and the Rapid Ascent crew for putting on another great race, the volunteers who crewed the aid stations, the fans for cheering us on and to Sale and District runners who are my loyal training partners and never cease to stop inspiring. See you next weekend Walhalla!

The TRN

How much is too much?

I was looking at my calendar recently and my mum was wondering when my next race will be, when I realised that between now and November I’m going to be very busy. And the question that arose in my mind, is it too much?

In a space of 3 months I am racing 7 times, with one of those races being ‘4 Peaks’, which has 4 days of back-to-back races. In the space of these 4 months there is an occasion where I am racing 3 weekends IN A ROW. That means I get 1 week to recover, is that enough? I guess the good thing is that 2 of those races are a bit different then usual. I’m participating in the ‘Melbourne Half Marathon’, but I’m not looking at doing a PB; instead I’m going to be a pacer running at a pace that is well below my PB time. I’m also going to be competing in a ‘short’ distance race, the ‘Maffra Mile’ that will be over and done with in under 6 minutes (hopefully).

Another good thing is that the longest race of these 7 is only 23km, which is comparatively short in the world of trail running. This still doesn’t alleviate any of my fears of being injured due to my hectic schedule though; chronic fatigue is well heard of due to over-training but can it be caused due to over-racing? I don’t know, I’ll just have to do my best to properly rest and recover between each race.

All this racing does have an immediate side effect though, it significantly reduces the days I can work behind the bar at a local hotel, and make money. The reason I entered so many races is because I’m moving north to Queensland next year for Uni, and I wanted to enter all the races that sounded good as I don’t know the next time I’ll be able to compete in Victoria. Let’s hope it’s worth it!

Racing Dates for the Rest of the Year:

Rapid Ascent Trail Running Series: Anglesea- September 4 (23km)

Walhalla Wound Up- September 11 (21.5km)

Rapid Ascent Trail Running Series: Studley Park- September 23 (15km)

Melbourne Half Marathon- October 16 (21.5km)

Maffra Mile- October 22 (1.6km)

4 Peaks- Melbourne Cup Long Weekend (>40km over 4 days)

Dinner Plain Half Marathon- November 20 (21.5km)

The TRN

Race Report: Silvan Trail Race 2016

The beautiful park in which the race started

Along with the dam that is also a part of the park

Since I ran in a trail race yesterday, today’s blog post is going to be a race report and the race report begins last Thursday, with a killer migraine. I went to bed that night hoping that a good nights rest would cure it; I get migraines once in a blue moon, but I get headaches a little bit more regularly and sleep always cures those, but this time it didn’t. I woke up on Friday with what felt like no energy at all, feeling lethargic. I still went to work that morning against better judgement, but got sent home pretty much as soon as I arrived, for which I’m grateful for. I then spent the rest of the day in bed hoping that all this extra rest will set me right for my race, I was worried that if I felt like this come Sunday I wouldn’t be able to run. Lucky for me all that extra sleep on the Friday was the only doctor I needed and I felt fine on Saturday, and then again on the Sunday morning. And what a morning Sunday was.

Here you get to see that when I ran up a hill my pace dropped off the charts

This race was Race Number 3 of the Hoka One One Series, which was held in the Dandenong Ranges National Park, near Silvan. It was about 20km in length with 750m of elevation (according to the website). I reckon this race was probably one of my best races yet this year, sitting alongside Puffing Billy. I got there nice and early so I could do a proper warm up. This meant when I got to the start line I was ready to go. I also did my homework for this race, which meant I knew what I was in for and was mentally prepared for hills that I would have to climb up, and also knew that I would most likely have to power-hike up some of them.

I honestly reckon that was the biggest difference between this race and the last trail race I did in Plenty Gorge, I don’t think I’m much fitter between now and then but every time I had to walk last race I was mentally beating myself and I wasn’t in a very good head space, for this race I was in a good head space the entire race.

 

Some of the amazing single track I got to run on

The final hill I had to run down

I started off with the leading pack for the first 4ish km’s because; to my surprise, they weren’t going that fast. I also knew though that I wasn’t going to be able to keep up them for the rest of the race, but running with a group like that put me in a good position to try and beat the time I set myself. This meant by the time I got to the ‘hill from hell’ at about the 5km point I could still see the race leader, and that the race leader was power hiking. As soon as I saw that I thought that there was no point in trying to run up it at all, so I didn’t. To my surprise I even managed to pass someone whilst doing this, which was a great feeling. From this point onwards, until about the 8km mark I was running by myself and getting into a nice rhythm on some beautiful single track, when the major hill started. This was the point when I managed to catch and pass the leading female (who apparently is heading to some mountain running world champs later in the year) and when a battle with another runner started.

Just a little bit of the beautiful scenery

This other runner is named Owen and he caught me and stormed past me running up the hill, only for me to pass him at the water point (10km in) as he had to stop for a drink and I didn’t. He passed me again towards the top and got a good lead on me by the time we reached the top, but I must be a much better downhill runner than he is as I was able to catch him and beat him, and on it went for the rest of the race. Unfortunately for me on the flatter sections and for the last remaining bit that was uphill, Owen was much, much faster than me. So by the time we got to the final hill about 18km in he had a good lead that I just couldn’t claw back with the final downhill. This meant I crossed the line in 9^th place overall and getting the time that I wanted. I wanted to achieve 1 hr 40 and I was so close, coming across the line in 1 hr 40 min and 32 secs (15 seconds behind Owen). This also meant I won my age group, beating the next person by 15 minutes.

I also wish to make a quick mention to fellow Sale and District Runners who also ran in Silvan with me, but competed in the short course. Well done to Mel for beating her friends and to Kym for getting 3^rd in her age group!

 

Well done to everyone out there, it was tough!

The TRN

Food Part I

I was wondering what I should write about today and was looking for inspiration, when at lunch time I looked at my food. So that is what I’m going to talk about, as it’s a fairly major component of any athlete’s performance. I think I’ll do in 2 parts. This first part will be on my day to day nutrition and the second part will be on what I try and eat during my longer runs and races.

For breakfast in winter, nothing is better than a hearty bowl of oats

Food, an integral part of life and most Instagrammers feeds. It’s also what allows sports nutritionists to stay employed. I know because at the beginning of the year I used a sport nutritionist to try and sort out my eating habits. I’m exercising more now than I ever have before in my life, which means I need to try and get all the nutrients and energy I need to remain healthy and improve my performance. Hence the Sports Nutritionist.

Throughout the day snacks start with a tub of yoghurt.

Then some fruit

It turned out I was no-where near eating healthy enough last year, not enough fruits and vegetables and I was eating too much of saturated fats and sugar, but not enough complex carbs. The reason why I didn’t gain weight was because I still was highly active (and maybe genetics, who knows about that one). Improving on these baseline nutrition factors, according to the nutritionist, can help improve my overall sporting performance.

And a muesli bar

And some more fruit

So improve I did, I’m now eating a lot healthier and do genuinely feel better. I usually have more energy throughout the day and tend to bounce back from training a lot faster than I did last year. I guess the hope is to continue on with my good habits and; fingers crossed, will allow me to continue to perform and race better and better.

And some not so healthy snacks, gotta treat yourself right? And besides, it's balanced out with everything else

I also usually have a roll which has ham, cheese, tomato and salad mix; along with Salada's with cheese and tomato.

For dinner is usually something delicious that is pasta or rice based that my mum makes. Tonight's dinner is pasta, chicken, pumpkin, mushroom and spinach.

Followed with some steamed veggies that I usually eat while learning Deutsche!

The TRN