I’m beginning to have some doubts about my sanity

Have a look at this and see if you agree.

Last weekend I competed in a 60km foot race across a mountain range and down to the sea. It was a hot, hard day and after 9 hours and 18 minutes of running, I finally crossed the finish line.

That’s not the crazy part.

The top of Wright's Hill

Apart from being short of breath after the first 25kms or so, I felt fine. The next day my calves were a bit tight, but after about two days I seemed to have completely recovered. But despite feeling fine, I resisted the urge to go for another run, until this weekend.

I wanted to see if my breathing issues were related to the heat, or bad posture, or both. So I decided to go for a long run. The course I chose was steep and rugged. It would be hard running on fresh legs on a good day. I was coming off a hard race, and despite feeling fine, I was quickly reminded of just how hard the race had been.

I targeted the infamous Tip Track – about 4kms of unrelenting uphill. That would sort my lungs out!
I ended up walking most of the steep parts of it. There was just not enough gas in the tank to tackle that challenge just yet.

Undaunted, I carried on up to the Brooklyn Turbine, and then turned left to follow the perimeter track around Zealandia – the Karori wildlife sanctuary. This eventually took me to the top of the next big hill – Wright’s Hill.

It would see I was still to learn my lesson, and I carried on, running along the shady and cool track called ‘Salvation’.

I was congratulating myself on still actually running, and doing quite well, when my toe caught on a stone and I took a full on head-first tumble into the blackberry on the side of the track. I was laughing so much at the irony of the timing, that is was difficult to get up for a while.

But up I did get, and on I carried, all the way to the bottom, and then to the Makara Peak mountain bike carpark.

This was about 20kms from home – half way.

I filled up on water (as it was another scorcher of a day) and then headed back towards home. This time I had to run UP Salvation.

Half way

I walked up this track during the WUU2k race last July. I had done about 20kms of the race and I was already spent. I went on to finish the race, but at a painfully slow pace. It would be interesting to see how I fared this time. I had loaded my body with a similar amount of hard running (20kms) so would I manage to run any of it?

I did actually manage to run almost all of it, to my surprise. I was really happy about that. I means my fitness has improved a lot, and my recovery from the race last weekend is well on track (despite not being able to run up the Tip track).

I carried on towards home, noting how my legs felt like they had done a lot more work this weekend and how my body was coping with the fatigue.

At about 30kms my core folded, and I felt the same difficulties I had encountered during the race, at about 25kms. Consciously altering my posture, chest open, head held high, helped quite a bit, and I was able to continue to run (as opposed to shuffle) until I reached home at the end of 40kms.

This is very encouraging.

I also noted how my running was affected by the heat. Where I was running in the shade, I felt I could push the pace, even when I had covered 30kms. But when I hit the full sun, especially when there was no wind, I really struggled to run freely.

So now I think I have a good handle on why the race last weekend was so hard for me, and what to do about it. So now I need to fix my poor posture, with stretching and strengthening exercises, improve my lung performance by swimming and holding my breath for longer and longer periods.

As for the heat, there is not much I can do about that, but be aware that this is a problem for me and try to adjust my pace (and expectations) accordingly.

It’s a constant learning curve, this ultra running thing. I’m still enjoying finding out what my limits are and finding ways to push past them.

All I need now is another race…….

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I’m beginning to have some doubts about my sanity

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Also don't forget to check out my Dad's blog