Boys and Girls,

Turns out I'll be in Santiago for the weekend Fri (27th) / Sat (28th) of Feb.

Anyone keen on hitting the town for a few beverages? If so give me a shout.

Cheers

Matt

Just a short post to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Indulge a little... 

Happy Training.

smiles :)

Matt

Hola Chicos!

The Good:
Two guys (Glen and Greg) have signed up from Brisbane. We met up and went for a bit of a run through the local state forests. Top blokes! Definately makes it easier knowing that there are some people locally that I can train with - particularly on the longer runs where I struggle motoivate myself. Looking forward to the next few months training now.

The Bad:
Over the last month I have been travelling through Argentina and Chile - I got to do a fair amount of hiking (Torres del Paine, Los Glaciers and Tierra del Fuego Parque Nacional) but not alot of running and specific training
I tried to look at the positive (the glass is always half full) as it could be good strength training + time on your feet is good + practicing walking is a bonus as well (we were having a bit of a laugh about practicing walking on the weekend sounds strange to practice something that you do on a regular basis)

The Ugly:
I had my first ultra race on the weekend, nothing huge - 50kms. I was a bit concerned as I hadn't "trained" for a month, but just figured I would go with it. The first 25 clicks were sweet, then the clouds lift and the 28 degree day + 68-98% humidity kicked it - it was brutal. I think my biggest mistake was to run it with a 6.5kg bag - its not a huge amount of weight, but it makes a HUGE difference when you haven't trained for a while... I ended up tweaking my ITB as well... guh! Went to the physio and he thinks I didn't do any damage (yay!) and gave me some streches and things to do to make sure it doesn't play up again.

Smiles :)

Matt

Following the Sahara race / blogs was nothing short of inspirational! Awesome Work! Congratulations to everyone involved.

Have I bitten off more than I can chew?

This weeks plan:

*Saturday - Swimming
*Sunday - 3 hour run
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 1 hour tempo run (20 easy, 20 harder 20 easy)
Wednesday - Double header (40 minutes in the morning / 40 minutes in the afternoon)
Thursday - 1 Hour easy
Friday - Rest

(* indicates already completed)

3 months out, I guess this is really where the game begins. Until now I have been building a solid base to leverage for the "real training" (which I guess is essentially going to be the same but with more miles thrown in)

I have been trying to mix it up to make it a little less boring by throwing in other "stuff". Saturday we hit up the Sunshine Coast (had a pretty solid swell) and had an absolute ball swimming out past the break, then body surfing back in... and repeat. A good day out.

Who would have thought chucking on a backpack with 6 or so KGs it it would make so much difference and be so brutal -> definitely recommend training with a bag sooner rather than later. I have been training with the bag for the last few weeks and enter struggles-ville alot earlier. But in 3 weeks I am starting to get stronger and it is taking longer to tire. yay!

Remember... Chuck Norris wouldn't quit!.... (to answer my question at the top)

Smiles :)

Why don't they start races like that? Ready, Set, Go (or Beep / Horn) is so overdone - Boring!

Training has been a bit slow for the last 2 weeks. Which has been a bit depressing - I guess a really it is me being slack and lacking a bit of motivation.

Anyways... This weekend I ended up heading down to Melbourne to catch up with a few mates and decided to hit up a marathon as well.

The marathon went really well, I had a really enjoyable run, got to chat to a few people so it was a good day!  Around the 10km mark I was chatting to some dude when I noticed a Sam! (I was going to write something else, but I didn't know how to delicately put it :P [yes Sam a height reference ;)]) Spoke to them for a few minutes then decided to catch up after the race and kick on. I ended up absolutely smashing my previous marathon PB.. yay!

Afterwards I briefly caught up with Sam and Dan (who is appropriately coined "Atacama Dan" in my phone). Sorry guys I couldn't chat for a bit longer... next time, eh?

What next? Looks like a week of recovery is on the cards then slowly work up the miles with a few spin classes thrown in for good measure.

Peace

Just been reading through some of the blogs about how everyone else is tackling their training. Is Eric a machine or what? Damn! Nice work bud. My schedule is looking a little like this:

Sunday - 2 hour run
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - 1 hour run
Wednesday - Double header (30 minutes in the morning / 30 minutes in the afternoon)
Thursday - Strength session (Stair climbs / beach running / Hill climbs)
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 40 minutes

At this point I'm really not to worried about doing massive runs, just trying to work on building up a fair amount of strength in my legs.

Some lessons learnt this week:
1. Don't have a massive (was off the hook) night, then go running the next morning. I've done this 2 weeks in a row - you would think I would have learnt... Doesn't say much for my common sense.
2. Hydration is important!
3. Don't drink a couple hundred mL after realising your de-hydrated, continue running and then expect for it to stay down.... It doesn't ;) (I think on Nicks dowomenfindmeattactive-o-metre I would have rated -12 by the looks I was getting)


Saw this while reading something else, and thought it was blog worthy:

"Your feet hurt right now because you've been kicking so much ass!"

haha love it!

Peace.

Over the weekend I participated in the Brisbane Marathon. Going in completely under prepared I was incredibly anxious about whether I was going to be able to cover the 42.2km course.

I was using this is purely as a training exercise to see whether I could make the distance and keep running the whole way.

I decided to chillout and not work to hard for the first 21.1km (trying to keep some fuel in the tank for the second half of the course) so ran at about 5:45 kms. I had a fair amount of fun running with a few girls. As they peeled off to finish I started to pick up the pace ever so slightly, to catch a few of the people that took off to fast.

At around the 35km mark I felt I had a fair bit of juice in the tank, so picked up the pace even more. Then at the 38km mark I "hit the wall" and struggled to keep my legs moving. I convinced myself that I had to keep running... no matter what! Under no circumstances was I going to walk. As we hit the last km marker I knew the end was near I looked within myself for a bit more juice that I can finish hard on, and found it! Getting over the finish line in 03:45:28.

... the things we do for fun!

Looking back at the race I learnt 2 main things.
1) Make sure you have enough fuel in the tank to get you home.
2) Don't worry about the distance of the course, focus on goals along the way ie. drink stations

Still working on trying to minimise blisters. I ran in a pair of Injinji Tetrasoks, with a pair of IceBreaker socks over the top, this proved to work pretty well - only getting a few small blisters.

Peace!

OK, it is five minutes to midnight and I'm sitting at home (when, really I should be at the pub knocking down a few with the boys) browsing the interweb trying to find something that will push me both physically and mentally and satisfy my hunger for adventure. I stumbled upon the 4deserts website, a series of 250km ultra marathon events through some of the most hostile deserts on the planet. As crazy as it sounds this was exactly what I was after - running 250km through a desert is crazy! (Some would almost say insane!) With little hesitation I signed up for the 2010 Atacama Crossing the next day...

...Now I'm committed, Preparation is everything!

I started getting back into running a bit more at the beginning of the year when I moved across the country (Perth -> Brisbane). Getting out after work to run along the river is fairly relaxing and is beautiful to watch the city light up at dusk. After getting a bit of training under the belt I started to run a few half marathon fun runs and have since grown quite comfortable with the distance. What next? A marathon? Yep! - so I have entered a few marathons (the first one is in approximately a weeks time).
I initially had no plans to run further then a marathon distance, I was looking forward to hopefully running one or two of the Big 5 (London, Berlin, Chicago, NYC, Boston) dressed up in my SLSC gear for a bit of a laugh (an Aussie dressed in surf life saving kit - the ladies would love it! - I will eventually get around to it [maybe at the end of next year]). An adventurous impulse changed my mind - Atacama will be fun! Sure it will be alot of hard work, but nothing worth having in life comes easy... so here I am.

I'll try and post weekly with my training routine, and information I find out about different pieces of equipment.

The first  two items on the agenda is to find a suitable backpack that is comfortable to run in and to test out different varieties of socks to try and limit getting blisters.

I look forward to the challenge!
I look forward to the adventure!
I look forward to meeting people along the waaaaay!

Attitude is everything!

Peace!