The training
Every Saturday we woke up at
stupid o'clock to do these long bush runs. Yes – every-single-Saturday - over
the course of four months.
Gawd they were tough.
That was the primary reason
why I won’t be doing this marathon for a long time...or any long trail runs that
requires substantial training.
As tough as they were, these runs were
necessary in building our legs and mental strength. When I did the first 10K
bush run on 8 November 2014, every 500 metres felt like an eternity. (I looked
at my Garmin as was like – that wasn’t even a kilometre!)
18 runs later (including 7x30KM+
runs), 10 kilometres in the bush still feel like an eternity. However, I can handle eternity much better
now. Eternity also felt shorter when you have fun training buddies to suffer
with. Lucky us!
Things are easier when we suffer together!
Cox's River...15.5km into the course...
Random tree that looks like that tree in Mordor...
Around 10K to go till the finish - see the Jenolan plantation on the right...
11K to go - a map at the Black Ranges campsite
I find the worst trainings
were those where we have to commute to the race site (Nellie’s Glen, Megalong
Valley, Jenolan). Due to the sheer distance to the site, early starts (we had to
start early to avoid the midday sun), and the drive back – the sheer fatigue –
we were grumpy but we were too tired to be grumpy. Pretty much your day is gone
by the time you get time.
And you just HAD to do them.
You just have to. No amount of reading and chatting to people will prepare you
more than actually checking out the site yourself. The experienced ones that have ran the
course might be able to get away with doing less bush runs, but for
us noobs – no escape.
I think that’s the key
reason why my friend and I were successful in completing the race. Because - we
did every single training run. On occasions we did a different one due to
logistics, but every Saturday – without fail –we do our long bush runs. We are forever grateful that we did all of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment