Running adventures and finding elevation: A breakthrough week!

Monday: I found out today that running along with a handheld bottle and a DVD is not quite ideal. After a busy day of bits and pieces I thought I might as well run to the DVD store to drop the rental off we had from the night before. Just over 11km with a healthy average pace. It was a pretty hot evening and nice to have Liz come along for some company on the bike.

Tuesday: I had a long awaited massage in the morning from Nathan at MassageWorksHQ. I had been training the previous couple of weeks looking forward to going in and having the legs flushed out. In the afternoon I headed out with Mark and did an 11km loop around the river at just over 4min/km pace. It was a nice way to shake the legs out after a massage.

Wednesday: I met James at the Heritage Trail car park to do an out and back of about 15km. It was James first run in a while and we for some reason ended up running in the middle of the day which kept things nice and warm. It was good to catch up and get a fairly quick 15km in on some nice trails with even better scenery.

Thursday: Today's run started super early as I had an hour drive ahead of me before I could even think about getting on the trail. Not something I am ever keen on doing but sometimes it's worth chucking some gas in the car to seek some quality trails. The days leading up to this run I was real stoked and excited about where we were going to be running as I had only been there once before. The plan was to do two out and backs from where we parked so we could refill water after 30km or so. The first out and back included running up and over Mt Cooke which once again was absolutely awesome! The massive rock slabs you get to run down and then back up are really amazing. It was great having Dave along on this run to ensure the pace was kept high. At one point I said to Dave that if he wanted to push hard to the top that he might as well as I had my own plans for that run which included running strong through to the 50km finish and also to run within myself so I recovered well from this gnarly Western Australian run. After that brief conversation as we were slogging it back to the top of Mt Cooke we maintained a really nice pace to the summit and then over the other side. We got back to the car with a touch over 30km on the clock in bang on 3hrs which was a pretty good pace considering the hills and especially the terrain underfoot. After a quick refill we were off again in the opposite direction for a 10km out and back over Mt Cuthbert and Mt Vincent. From the 30km point I felt really strong. I was running within myself and we were still cranking along at good speed. The next out and back was really good trails and we once again were making good time. Today I was trying the new Clif Shot gels and chews for the first time and my initial reaction was that they were fantastic. One in particular that I had with about 9km to go was just the ticket and I felt brilliant despite running 40 odd km already. I'm hoping that it wasn't all the Gels doing and that my training is a big part of that too.

Friday: I pulled up pretty well after the big run yesterday which was awesome. All muscles etc were feeling really good. I'm not sure if I banged my knee or not but the only outcome from the run was what felt like a bit of a bruise on the side of my knee. I ran 9km this morning with Adam up at Bold Park. Knee felt a bit "weird" for the first couple of minutes but soon came good. The rest of the run went awesome.

Saturday: Rest Day/ Day One of the Disc Golf Tournament

Sunday: I had day two of the Disc Golf Tournament today. Luckily the course just so happened to be in Mundaring where there are so many quality trails around. The Hoka One One Kep Ultra just so happened to have their first recon run starting at 6am from Mundaring. The recon was to do an out and back totalling approx. 27km from Mundaring Weir out to Mt Helena and back. I only had a certain amount of time to run this morning so was kind of forced to keep a fairly quick pace. I took off on my own and after a km or so I was joined by a mate Tim for a few km who ran with me to his car where he stopped to grab his pack. After Tim left I had a really good run out to Mt Helena and got out there in 1hr2min. After topping up my water I was off again returning to Mundaring Weir. I had another great run back and managed to come home in 56mins and was pretty much in cruise mode the whole time. This run was one of the most pleasing runs I have done lately and let me know that things are definitely staring to come along nicely for Tarawera in March.

This was easily the best week training as far as how I felt at the end of it. I managed to get some really quality runs in this week and recovered really well which enabled me to train how I wanted to. There is nothing more frustrating than having a really good session one day and then pulling up sore the next day. The last few weeks have really felt like things are back on track, and after the last week I have had a real confidence/ego boost in the lead up to Tarawera which is what I needed after how things had been going. I always knew I was going to get on the plane to NZ and be racing but wasn't sure what kind of race fitness I was going to have. I'm getting more and more confident as each week passes. Still work to do so no easing up anytime soon. I'm really loving this gradual build up to Tarawera. It was also a fantastic week running with some mates who I hadn't run with in a while.