One thing I have learnt about myself during my preparation for Gobi is that I am NOT a natural blogger. Apologies to everyone (anyone?) who has been reading my blogs, I was originally aiming to do a monthly update on my training but this has fallen a little by the wayside. 

I'll start with the most important update first which is an update on my fundraising campaign for the children’s charity Barnardo’s. I have been left absolutely overwhelmed by the support and generosity of my friends, family and colleagues. My original goal was to raise $5,000 for Barnardo's. I can now happily confirm that as of 9:57pm on Sunday the 5th of June, I have raised over $7,300!! Thanks again to everyone who donated, thanks also for the kind messages you left on my fundraising web page.  

The last time I blogged was in late April after Gian and I completed our training camp up in Port Stephens. In the seven weeks since then I have been able to put in some solid km’s with most weeks totalling somewhere in the region 100km’s in length and every weekend bar one consisting of a long run on Saturday and Sunday. I did 35km today and for me that marks the end of my training phase and a switch over to the ‘taper’ phase. Now whilst it may sound like I know what I am talking about when I throw around terms like ‘taper’ and ‘phase’ - I really don’t. All I know is that in this taper phase I don’t have to do anymore 40km training runs and I will only be running once on a weekend from here on in (you should hear how happy my wife and daughter are about that second fact).  

With 21 days to go there is still a little to organise however the bulk of the preparation is done. I have bought all the mandatory equipment we need to take to be allowed to participate. I have worked out a meal plan that ensures I get 2,500 calories of food into me a day (I use that term ‘food’ very loosely indeed). I have got my VISA, flights and travel insurance booked. I have even bought a new pair of bright red ‘trail’ running shoes which put Jarrod Hayne’s boots to shame.....hopefully Jarrod being selected in Origin 2 is a good omen for me. By the way Gian if you’re reading this, Ros told me about the disparaging remarks you made about my new shoes.....lucky for you we will soon have 250km of running together where we can chat and sort the comments out.  

Well that’s about it from me, will try and squeeze another blog in a little closer to race start!

It’s been a while since I last blogged and there is a lot to report, so here it is....

First of all and most importantly thanks to everyone that has donated to the charity I’m raising money for, the children’s welfare charity Barnardo’s. We have almost hit the $4000 mark and I still have many friends to hit up for their hard earned so hopefully I will get to my target of $5000.

A quick recap on the training front. My focus over March was to increase the amount of back to back weekly runs I was doing. I ended up doing 3 or 4 shorter back to back runs during the week (approx 12-15kms each) and a long run on the weekend (minimum 30km). Weekly totals for March were 76km, 80km, 85km and 32km (I got sick in the last week).

Over April and May we are looking to increase the workload again before tapering off the distances over the first few weeks of June for the race starting in the last week of June. So far in April we have done an 81km week and a 118km week. Last weekend my training partner and fellow Gobi competitor, Gian Minns and I (along with our very understanding wives and children) travelled up to Port Stephens for a bit of a training camp. The goal was to do 3 x 4 hour runs over 3 consecutive days, surviving only on the freeze dried food we would be eating during the race. The first day we ran 38km in 4 hours, mostly on dirt road with a bit of dry sand running. The second day we ran about 60% of the run on sand which slowed us down considerably, managing 30km in total over the 4 hours. The final day we were pretty wasted but managed another 38km in 4 hours. So pleasingly we accomplished our goal for the weekend, getting in 3 x 4hours runs on a mixture of terrain.

The biggest lesson for me over the weekend was getting some idea of just how mentally difficult Gobi is going to be. As an example we got up at 5am for our last 4 hour run on the third day and I honestly didn’t think my legs were going to last a single kilometre, let alone 38km. Sure enough though after some breakfast and a GU (and about 30 minutes of very uncomfortable running) I actually felt relatively good again. Unfortunately the feeling didn’t last and the run ended up being a mixture of highs and lows, but the confidence gained from completing it was great. In terms of food, I didn’t find the freeze dried dinners too bad (may need to take some salt and pepper along to spice things up though), however I found the breakfasts to be basically inedible (oats in sickly sweet powdered milk/cream) so it looks like I will be having beef Kormas and Chilli Con Carne for dinner and breakfasts during the race. Finally to help with the training over these last few months I have decided to give up alcohol. It’s a small sacrifice which I am hoping will pay big dividends preparing for the race.

With a little over 2 months to go I think we are on (or at least near) where we want to be in terms of preparedness. If we can keep up the big weeks of training over the rest of April and May we may well be in a position to actually finish this thing!! 

Well another month has passed by and it’s time to update my Gobi blog.

February was a short month but I was relatively pleased with the training we got through with weekly totals of 45km, 55km and 72km. Last Saturday we were meant to do a 5hr training run, unfortunately I had to stop at 4:15 however completed 40km relatively easily which gave me confidence my fitness is improving. Weight loss has slowed down considerably over the past week; I guess (I’m hoping) it isn’t a lineal process.

I have decided to support the children’s charity ‘Barnardos’ for my Gobi campaign. Even in a country with the wealth and privilege of Australia there is a reported case of child abuse every two minutes and an Australian child dies due to abuse or neglect every 3 days. Barnardos is a non-government, non-denominational welfare organisation that has been helping children in need for over 120 years. The work of Barnardos Australia deals particularly with the prevention of abuse and entry into care. Children of all backgrounds and cultural heritage are helped through their welfare programs. Through these programs, Barnardos directly assists over 8,000 children, young people and their families annually, and indirectly assists thousands more. If you would like to support my Gobi campaign you can donate to Barnardos at http://www.everydayhero.com.au/laird_abernethy 

I had a wonderful experience with my running socks last weekend (how sad it is to be writing about this stuff). Seriously though, during long runs my cheap cotton socks have been getting drenched with sweat after only an hour of running. It literally feels like I have been running though mountain streams (I hadn’t). So last week I decided to go out and by some ‘Experia Thorlo’ socks. They are not cheap at $32AUD however they were amazing. On my long run last Saturday my feet stayed dry and felt much more supported around the foot and heel areas. Life changing, seriously it was like the difference between French Champagne and a sparkling white! 

The only other Gobi point of interest over February was Gian and I booking our plane tickets to Urumqi (the host city for the race). I believe Urumqi is Mongolian for ‘beautiful pasture’. It has also earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the most remote city from any sea in the world (approx 2,500km). Can’t wait!!