Training Log Archive: o'man

Event: Tarawera Ultramarathon
 

Welcome to the "Cyclone Course"

Found out about the course change at 9pm Friday night which took a little while to get my head around ("ha! Only 55/65 km, that's easy isn't it?" - "easy?!??" - "hell no!"). Having sorted that out, my race strategy stayed the same: start slow; walk most hills; be in a good state once you get to ~50km. As it turned out they added a few km at Okataina so it was more like 60/70km. I had to decide early whether to go long or short as there was an extra 10/12km loop at the start. Well, as I'd already decided to give 85km a crack I had to go for the 70km.

Woke up nice and early (4am...) so plenty of time for an up&go, banana and some chia seeds

Weather was decent to start with, warm enough with only a slight hint of drizzle so started off with a light running shirt.

Loop over the top and back around took ~1:50 then back up the hill again, around blue lake through to Okareka. Swapped to a long sleeved merino top here as the wind and rain were both picking up and it was getting a bit cool. R hip/hip flexor started complaining (again) after ~30km but largely managed to keep it under control all day - although the cramp in the left hammie when I tried to stretch the left hip flexor after 45km was rather unexpected

I had originally planned to hit Okataina in ~6 hours (I had been taking ~5:15 previously and I think that was a little too fast for me). This took 5:50 (plus 1:50 for the initial loop) so pace was pretty much what I had planned to do.

The short out and back was OK except... about 800m/1km to go and people on the side of the track are yelling "Hurry up, there's only 5 minutes to the cutoff!") WTF?!? You wouldn't normally plan for a sprint in the middle of an ultra, but nothing for it but to leg it back as fast as I could. Hit the aid station with everyone yelling "Run faster!"; a guy hands me a banana as I run though; and as I exit I get told "30s to go, you're the last runner through". Bugger me, that was too close! No time to pick up anything at all - no food, no drink. Oh well, I'm not quitting so better geton with it...

As we found out later it was taking people a lot longer than expected going back to Okareka so they pulled the cutoff forward by 35 minutes as they really didn't want anyone out there once to started to get dark.

Going back was a bit of a mission - after 700+ people running over it (twice) and a lot of rain it was a bit of a mudbath so my road shoes were a bit challenged. Also legs were getting a bit tired by now so this was quite a bit slower than on the way over (3:51 vs 3:08). To be honest the legs were hurting and not all that keen, so the slipperyness was a nice excuse

Swapped to a dry top, jacket, woollen beanie and gloves part way up the hill as rain was increasing and temperature was dropping (and I wasn't generating as much internal heat) - that kept me pretty cozy.

Got through to millar road and my watch says 11:41 and I'm thinking "2.7km in 19 minutes, yeah, I can do that". Well I did according to my watch however the results show 12:00:06 which will be because it took me 66 seconds to get to the start banner which is where I started my watch. Dang, a measly 7 seconds...

Still, this was my first finish of >60km so pretty happy with that - the plan seemed to work well. I should note though that the weather was in my favour as I don't handle hot days very well.

Overall I drank no more than 4 litres all day (and was overhydrated - I had to pee 7 times coming back from Okataina!!) and ate 6 gels and 4 bars along with a small number of preztels (oh, AND a banana!). Felt great all day, stomach was good, head was good.

More long races in cooler/wetter weather might be good for me?

C • Well Done! 2

Last wee trot before....

(Short) Cruise around a few riverhead tracks

Easy around barlow rd tracks