The Ultra Zone

My race plans for the year are far from set in concrete. A number of competing interests and opportunities that may or may not come around means the racing schedule is at best only written in pencil. Already there have been a few revisions. At the moment I will focussing my efforts into the Emergency Services Games (10km Cross Country and Half Marathon) in April. Beyond that I might be heading towards an early marathon, but that is just at the maybe stage. Later in the year I want to try my hand at a trail 100km race. So all training throughout will keep that in mind.

One race which I have changed my mind about a lot is the Maroondah Dam Trail Run 50km. At the end of 2011, it was a definite. Into 2012 I had other plans (a potential holiday) or just that I didn't trust I my conditioning leading in. After a few changes I finally decided to run it.

Today I entered. So on 19th February I will trying my hand (or feet) at my first trail ultramarathon. Given my other goals, and where my fitness is at, I don't plan on racing this flat out. Instead I am treating it is an extra long, but solid run. One where I can get an insight into what I have or don't have yet for this sort of distance. Quite a few years ago I did compete in a 24 hour Rogain, which was a reasonably humbling experience, and despite some significant navigation issues and some long down time due to a mixture of injury and hypothermia between my partner and myself we still managed to score 4th overall.

I won't be doing anything drastically different in the next two training weeks. Each week will see just a continuation of the build over the last few weeks. Up a 3.5 hour long run, 2 hour aerobic conditioning run, threshold over hills and all the rest easy. No substantial taper, just 4 days very easy to iron out any niggles. Then its time to cruise through the bush and hills.