It's taper time!

So I now have a matter of days left before we fly out to New Zealand for the Tarawera Ultramarathon next weekend. Since signing up for the race a couple of months ago time has absolutely flown by. The past couple of weeks have been pretty low key, especially after having a really paranoid 2 days where an old injury flared up last week. I think the majority of the "niggle" was mostly in my head as after a massage with Nathan and some acupuncture from my physio Ali, things came right within a couple of days.

The last few days have been busy in patches where I have been in front of the laptop trying to work out a bit of a nutrition & hydration game plan for the race. This period of time for me is almost the time where I get rid of any nerves that I might have for the race. As most who know me well will know, I am generally pretty chilled out and a bit of a clown on race day as I love having a laugh and having fun as thats why I do it, so I get through the serious stuff before the race to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Since my brief encounter with the paranoid niggle last week, I have had a couple of really great runs which brought back confidence after losing a little for a couple of days. I have been speaking to quite a few people lately asking where I think I'll finish and what time etc. Doing my race splits it's kind of hard to get a gauge of where I might sit. All I know is that I am super stoked to be running my 2nd 100km race, in New Zealand and that regardless of what time I my or may not run it's going to be AWESOME!!

We fly out Wednesday night and arrive Thursday afternoon when we will then drive to Rotovegas to make the 5.15pm fun run. I'm really looking forward to seeing Dad and my Uncle who are coming up from Christchurch especially for the race, and its going to be incredible having the two guys who got me into running and motivate me to run there supporting me along the way. It's going to be a massive buzz seeing them with Liz and good friend Sarah at aid stations along the way.

One other thing I think worth mentioning is the Race Director Paul has had to change the course due to fire risk. So now at the 60km mark, we turn around and head back to Lake Okareka which is where the 100km now finishes. This basically makes the run tougher, hillier and more technical. The course change doesn't really bother me too much and I think running on scenic single track beats forestry road any day of the week. Hopefully i'm still thinking that at the 60km turnaround :)

Not many photo's this week, just a couple of nice ones from running with Liz up at Bold Park yesterday as I periodically misplaced/lost my camera for a while there :)

If my Suunto is ready I must be right...?

Not a bad view from Bold Park

Liz and her fancy new Hoka's

An Emu that scared the s*#t out of me on a run last week!

Consistency is the key

The last couple of weeks have been an absolute blast and really satisfying. I have had a really consistent couple of weeks and the last week involved 2 P.B's on a couple of my "bread & butter" training loops. These P.B's have been coming really easily and I have felt like I have been in cruise mode whilst on these runs. They have also both been in weather about 10-15 degrees warmer than when I ran my times last year before the Glasshouse 100km. I couldn't be happier with how things are at the moment.

The first one came last Tuesday when I was out doing the normal 31km from Kalamunda out to Mundaring Weir return. At the Camel Farm I was only 12secs ahead of my previous P.B but by the time I got back to the car I had a time that was nearly 5min quicker and the fastest I'd run that. It was a really nice morning out on the trails. See my move HERE on Movescount.com

In and around the couple of best times I have had the last few weeks I have had easily the most consistent patch of training since well before the Glasshouse 100km. When I was getting back into the swing of things a couple of months ago I kept reminding myself to ease into things and not over-do it, this was because of how October/November went in 2012 as I did not want a repeat of this. Part of me feels slightly underdone and a little bit gutted that the Tarawera 100km isn't slightly later on in the year so I could have a couple of races in the build up to it. But then on the other hand I feel that after how the Busselton Half Marathon went and how some of my long training runs have gone I feel like I could really put in a good performance at Tarawera. At the end of the day, regardless of how amazing and quality the field is, it is just another race I keep telling myself. The competition at Tarawera is going to be incredible but I am more excited about just pulling on the Hoka's and doing my thing for 100km. The feeling and happiness I get from doing long hilly runs is kind of hard to explain. For people out running and seeing this tattooed skinny kiwi bloke out charging along trails with a slightly over sized smile, it must look pretty funny.

Then there was the second P.B when I was out at the John Forrest National Park, Eagle View loop. Once again I took this run at what felt like a really 'nice' pace and even power hiked one of my favourite hills in thinking that I am needing to just look after myself for the next few weeks. I ended up having about a 1min30sec better time than my previous best. Really really stoked with that considering the effort it took to do this.

There were plenty of other runs the last few weeks and I'll let some of the photo's explain those.

Some other exciting things that happened this last week was getting my new Hoka's from Hoka Australia. My new Evo's are as comfy as ever and I'm really looking forward to trying the new Bondi 2's and seeing how they go.

Not long now until we fly out to NZ for the big race. I cannot wait to leave and it's pretty safe to say I am pretty pumped about the whole experience!!

Dan, Thomas and me after a great 30km around Serpentine N.P

My new Hoka One One Evo's, super grippy on the rocky stuff :)

Serpentine Falls, an awesome place to finish a run.

Dan, Adam and Mark on the Kalamunda Circuit

Me with my new UD vest, also pretty happy I found some new trails up at Lesmurdie :)

Adam and his not so lucky ankle...

Hoka's are slowly taking over WA

Dan getting his TNF100 power hike on!

Irish Thomas having some "fun" on a nice climb

Puzzles aren't just for kids and grandparents...

When I was younger and my Great Grandad was around I remember helping him put together puzzles that he was working on. There always seemed to be so many pieces but I always remembered seeing the puzzle finished and thinking how incredible it was. That's kind of what each week is feeling like at the moment. Every run I finish, every massage, every stretch seems to be all part of a big running puzzle. There is no sure finish date of this puzzle but there will be some moments of joy along the way including a few races I have in the upcoming months. I am relishing every moment I pull on my shoes and hit the trails, and I look forward to the next time running the moment one run finishes.

I knew at the beginning of this week that I was going to be doing the Busselton Half Marathon on Saturday, so as much as I could I eased into the week training as well as maintaining a good flow with how training has been going.

Monday: Finally I managed to get a run in up at Lesmurdie Falls. It had been so long since heading up there. I was a little short on time but had time for just over 12km of great trails and a super fast tiger snake. Glad he wasn't chasing me! An awesome run with some choice hills.

Tuesday: Today was to be my "speed training" for Busselton. Late Monday night though I decided to run early morning with Dan while he did his intervals at around 4:20/km pace which I figured was a nice pace for me to tag along at. The morning run was more about catching up with a mate and having fun. I managed a quick swim between runs, more of a survival doggie paddle... I think I'll stick with the running. Then for the lunchtime run.... I kinda forgot the fact that in a few days time I was going to be asking my ultra running legs to go a bit quicker than usual. So I put a bit of pep in my step and headed out for a few km of what some might call intervals. The issue that became apparent was that it was approx 32deg and rather hot! I met up with Mark and we took off. I ran my 1st 2km at 3:18 and 3:27/km, followed by about 4km of cruising back to Mark and then carrying on. Before deciding I should probably do another 2km set which ended in 3:25 & 3:39/km.... Did I mention it was hot?

Wednesday: Massage & Stretching day.

Thursday: I ran with Liz straight after work this morning for a touch under 8km. When I'm in full flight with my training I love our runs together, it slows things down and reminds me of some of the reasons of why I run. Mind you it might not be slow for long the way Mrs Hawker is running now! Then Liz jumped on the bike and I laced up again to head out for 10km around the river. It had heated up a bit but I wasn't pushing things hard at all so just enjoyed a sunny afternoon running.

Friday: After finishing work we packed the car and made way for Busselton. After a massive detour due to fires near the freeway we made it to Busselton. After setting up the tent and getting organised we left to go and pick up our race packs. Liz was doing the 10km run as well as me doing the half. After getting our race numbers we decided to do a cruisy 5km along the course to see whereabouts we were going for the race. It was absolutely stunning along the coast and a really enjoyable run. After the run we had a quick dip in the ocean to cool off before heading out for dinner.

Saturday: So there I was, standing on the start line of a HALF MARATHON! I was kind of pumped and kind of not. I really wasn't too sure how things were going to go. Optimistically I was hoping to beat my Esperance p.b of 76:42 but really didn't think that was going to happen as I'd only run under 4min'km 4 times in the past few months so didn't know how my legs were going to like it. The gun went and we were off. Dave Kennedy a fellow ultra running mate was also doing the race and planning on a similar time so we started off together and let the crazy fast buggers go off and do their thing. A km or so later I slowly started passing a few of the keen ones who took off at the start which was cool. Before I knew it I was ticking off the km's so easy and the Tarmacs were feeling soooo good! It's so nice in races now that even when the legs are sore or the lungs are bursting my feet are so happy. The race went really well and I continued to pass a couple of runners and I eventually caught the next closest with approx 5km to go. We played a bit of cat and mouse probably due to me not knowing how to 'race' a half as far as taking turns in front? He eventually made a move with about 2km to go and I thought he was gone. However I did a bit of a crazy man lactic acid build up sprint from about 300m out and nearly caught him. Crossed in 76:02 for 6th place. Super happy with the result and really happy with how the body pulled up afterwards. Note to self for next time would be to set up my watch so I can see total time as I should have gone under 76mins had I known how close I was. Always next time :)

Sunday: This morning was another early start to head out to the Bibbulmun Track from the Kalamunda Camel farm. James met me and we were off running. It was an awesome kind of hilly run with approx. 850m elevation in the 26km and some new trails. We ran some trails that I have looked at for ages now but not ventured off the Bibb, probably due to normally running on my own and in summer with some wildlife I'd rather not get too close to on my own. I found one of my old/brand new RaceReady shirts in my suitcase from shifting so was nice to run in a brand spankin new shirt :) Got dirty pretty quick though!!

Another sweet week running and nice to be in a race again. I think I'll leave it a while though before lining up in my next half marathon..... They hurt too much :)

Me and Liz on our evening run in Busselton, sweet self portrait whist running skills :)

I'll probably be pretty chuffed to see these in the end I reckon!

Registration tent

Our sweet campsite by the river

Some nice rutted out trails from Sunday's exploring session.

James stoked to be back on the trails

Me trying to find the handbrake on my Hoka's on Sunday's run

Busselton is a beautiful place to do anything, especially running and swimming :)

C'mon quads, lets do this!!

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.

My new best friends, the Hoka One One Stinson Evo's

The crew from the Ultra Running Seminar last week.

Before the start of Sunday's Hoka One One Kep Ultra Recon run #1

Some awesome views from up Mt Cooke

Dave running fast uphill as usual

Back in one of my favourite spots to run, pretty sure I have almost the exact photo from a few months ago..

On the descent before heading up Mt Vincent from Mt Cuthbert

Top of Mt Vincent

Me with my RaceReady running shirt on, by far the best running gear I wear when on the trails!

Dave running some nice sub 5min km on a good section on the Bibb.

Dave coming down a cool rocky slab

Some fun single track

The new local residents at work, nothing to do with running but they are awesome :)

Back on track...

Monday: Perth Zoo :) 

Tuesday: Beautiful 10km run along the coast from Trigg Beach. Me and Liz headed there early morning and had a great morning running. Liz also did her run while I was out running and we then hit the beach for a swim afterwards. I ran this one pretty steady and had a nice average pace for the run and it felt like minimal effort so that was pleasing. 

Wednesday: After yesterdays run on the bitumen path I was keen to get back on the trails today. The plan for today was to increase distance from yesterdays run and to finish feeling good. I ended up doing just over 15km along the Munda Biddi trail from The Dell. About 200m from leaving the car I had some mountain bikers going past me just before hitting the first hill. These opportunities are always too hard to pass up so I proceeded in passing the mountain bikers and charged to the top of the hill. It doesn't seem to matter when in my run this happens but I always find myself racing mountain bikers up the hill.

Thursday: I headed up to Bold Park early this morning for a short 8km along the Zamia Trail. A nice way to start the day and I finished running around the grass oval barefoot for about 1km which was cool.

Friday: Rest Day

Saturday: Today I headed out with good mates Dan and Mark for a 30km run along the Munda Biddi. We decided to meet at Pickering Brook for an early 6am start as it was Australia Day so we all had places to be afterwards. The run was a nice one, we all stayed together until the 15km turn around where I decided to go out another km from where Dan and Mark turned. I picked up the pace to around 4:10min/km for the next few km and eventually caught up to them after about 23km I think. I was definitely going along faster but just rolling with the undulations and loving running along some sweet trails at speed. After catching up to the guys me and Mark picked up the pace a little and finished a bit quicker. Although Dan came in not too long after us so had run the last 5km or so pretty well too! 

Sunday: This morning I headed out with some of the guys from the Northern Suburbs Running group. Another 6am start and it was quite a cool morning which was nice. The first 15km I ended up cruising with a new mate Mark who I had caught up with a few days earlier to give him an old pack of mine to use. We ran pretty steady to the Camel Farm (8km) and then on to Mundaring Weir (15km). I did a few out and backs when some of the others were waiting for other members of the group which by the time we got to the weir I had added on an extra 3km. For the return leg back to Kalamunda I decided that I was going to head off at my own pace back to the Camel Farm and then turn back towards the weir and run to the back of the group where mate Rob D was. After a quick chat with Rob I was off and heading back to the car at Kalamunda. The last 5km were pretty tough going back up the steepest part of the run today. And by that time it was about 10am so definitely heating up. Definitely no inclination to sign up for Badwater anytime soon for this Kiwi! Total km's for the day was a touch under 39km. Normally a 30km out and back so I was pretty stoked to get some bonus km's in and felt really good the whole way apart from the last couple of km where I started sulking and wished I was at the shop buying a chocolate milk already :) It was a great run meeting some new runners from the NSRG who are all a great bunch of people.

So the week training went really well without any hiccups and no sign of the random calf niggle I somehow picked up a couple of weeks ago. I think the few days rest and icing heaps definitely prevented it from turning into something bigger. It was nice to get over 100km's for the week with approx 2,500m elevation. Still plenty of sharpening up to do before Tarawera in March but I am confident I should be getting on the plane in pretty good shape. It's looking like I might be lining up for a half marathon in a couple of weeks so should be doing some speed work between now and then. One other exciting thing to happen this week was I created a new running group called Run Eat Sleep Repeat. Basically just a group of runners from all over Perth that can catch up and head out for a run together. Look forward to heading out with them soon!

Mark and Dan on the Munda Biddi

The look out from the top of Reabold Hill at Bold Park.

Start of the Bibbulmun Track at Kalamunda

Some of the guys from NSRG

One happy trail runner!

The reason behind me sulking was coming up these running hard in 36deg :)

Mark on the bitumen descent into Pickering Brook

Mark and Dan on the Munda Biddi

News and more exciting news!!

What an end to 2012! The reason behind the lack of blog updates lately I am proud to say is because I have been out running more often :) I had in the back of my mind the Tammin to Cunderdin Adventure run which I thought would be a pretty sweet way to end what was an awesome year or running. I was able to get a good few weeks of training in, nothing too full on but enough to let me know I was ready to race.

The race weather forecast was for a 43deg high for the day so I knew it was going to be a hot one! Mum and Dad were over from NZ for Christmas holidays so Dad decided to do the 25km as well as my good mate Adam.

I was approaching this race knowing it wasn't going to be my best race of the year, I was more intent of running well and hoping to pull up well afterwards to continue training into 2013. From the start line I quickly settled into a nice rhythm and was ticking over the km's quite nicely at around 3:45-3:55 pace. The unknown for me was how much the heat was going to hit me when it really heated up!!

I went through 10km in just under 38minutes which was pleasing as I was feeling pretty good and the legs were going well. 15km clocked in at exactly an hour so I knew I had slowed down a bit, mostly because of a really rutted out rough section from 7km to 15km alongside Great Eastern Highway. Being in front with a bit of a gap on Adam the plan as it got hotter was to try my best to maintain pace as long as possible.....

Then came the heat! Being a kiwi it is pretty safe to say that I am not really accustomed to the heat all that much. It seemed like one minute I was sitting on 4min km's and the next I was looking at 4:30-4:45km's. I was what seemed like jogging along thinking when the hell did that happen. I ended up finishing in 1:45:27 for first place which I was bloody happy with. To run how I did after how things had been going the past few months I was more than happy. Adam came in 2nd place about 6mins behind in a great run for him and then surprising us all, Dad came in 3rd place only 5minutes behind adam and 11minutes behind me.

It was so cool having the three of us on the podium and really special having the old man on the podium with me for the first time ever! It's something that I will always remember and think about when i'm out training.

The last few weeks as I mentioned have been going really well. I have finally had some consistency in my training and I am not going to bed at night worrying that I am going to pull up sore the next day. I ended up heading out for a solid 21km with James on the Bibbulmun the day after the race and felt quite good. The quads were a little shagged going up the last few km of hills but it was a good feeling to be running well the day after a pretty good race.

2013 has started off with a real positive feel to it. A few days ago, Dave Kennedy a good mate sent me a message saying something along the lines of "Tarawera? You should see if you can get an elite entry..." The Tarawera 100km Ultra is a race held in the North Island of NZ just out of Rotorua. After reading Daves message I asked Liz why we hadn't looked into heading over for the race earlier. Then I looked at the website for the race and saw the list of elite runners. The list absolutely blew me away.

So as usual when I get excited about a race, I approached Liz with a smile a mile wide and she knew something was up. I said what I was thinking about doing and then explained to her the runners that were all heading over for the race. I was getting carried away very quickly about the prospect of getting to run in a race with a lot of real fast guys and I hadn't even emailed the race director to see if I could get an elite entry.

I decided to call Roger from Hoka One One and get his 2 cents worth on what I was thinking about doing and my plans for early 2013. He liked the idea of me heading over so I decided that it was definitely a good idea to email the Tarawera race director with some sort of request to run the race as an elite runner along with my running resume.

I went to bed that night with fingers and toes crossed hoping that the reply would be a good one and hopefully I wasn't going to have to wait too long to find out the outcome. I was up early the next morning (5am) to head out for a run with a running mate Mick. Just before I pulled out of the driveway at home I thought I might as well check my email just incase Paul had emailed back. He had! And it was fantastic news!!!

For those reading this post you may be thinking I am a tad excited about this race, you are bang on correct about that. I imagine for a few of the other elite runners that this race may be "just another race" for them which is absolutely cool. As I am pretty new to this whole ultra running thing, this is my first opportunity to race against a world class field and I am stoked to be doing so.

It seems funny that I am going to be racing aginst a whole heap of guys whose blogs etc I follow and have been thinking for a while now that I would love to be doing what they are doing as far as travelling to different countries and running in some beautiful and challenging races. It feels like I am taking steps, (baby steps) in my pursuit to be running in races all over the world, and it's really exciting to think where things might lead.

As if the first week of 2013 couldn't get better, it did! I got an email yesterday saying I had been invited to race in the Miwok 100km Trail race just out of San Francisco. It was a race I thought I had missed out on entering in due to it being such a popular race and having a lottery to enter. Tia the Race Director messaged me saying she would do her best to get me in and I am more than stoked to be running in her awesome race.

So now I am going to be doing everything I can to get to NZ in the best shape I can be in. So here's hoping for a good couple of months of training and I'll be there in no time. Time to hit the trails!

Not a bad night for a New Years Eve fun run

The elusive Stirling Ranges. The only kind of mountains in WA apparently. I haven't managed to run here yet but will be soon :)

The Bibbulmun Track near Denmark is awesome!

Stirling Ranges

One of our many runs on the Heritage Trail with Dad

Winners are grinners. I managed 1st in the 25km and my speedy wife managed 1st Women in the 5km at Tammin to Cunderdin.