Week 9...

Week 9…21/7 – 10k Up and down. 55min 16sec. 184m gain.This morning I head out and enjoyed my run….the first of taper week. I don’t know why but yesterday my medial left knee started to hurt a bit and it continued this morning. I don’t know why, weather it is just a taper phantom pain but who knows! I hope that improves this week! Today was a nice day at work and the girls arrived home early too which was great! We all hung out a bit outside, finally got the internet connected (YES!!!) and relaxed tonight sending some emails and watching YouTube….my favourites! So far so good with the taper. I loaded up on good food too which will surely contribute to a good race performance this Sunday!22/7 – 8k Beautiful morning. 43min 31sec. 143m gain.I started today with a nice, peppy 8k outing. The stars and moon whilst running up Buderim mountain were so so beautiful! Loved it! Work was also super fun and everyone was in a crazy mood! I think I have taper madness as I was all loopy! Loved it! Again stoked up on some great food and feel like my diet is really improving and I am being more and more present every day. The arvo was spent catching up with some of my mates on the phone, watching YouTube, relaxing and generally having a nice time. Today was super nice and a real enjoyable day.23/7 – 6k Little hill fun. 32min 49sec. 40m gain.This mornings run was nice and cruisy and I kept it nice and flat. The weather has been much nicer but still not warm enough to get the shirt off! Ugh! The day dragged a bit at work but got through. Tegs and I finally got to check out the new café on Buderim called The Shak. It was super nice and relaxing. We also had our good friend Katie over for dinner which was super nice. She has always been such a special friend to us and we treasure her in our lives. I did eat far too much at dinner and Tegs healthy yummy desert. I learnt from that though and feel like, although I make mistakes at times with my diet now, I am learning from them, aiming to come back stronger and leaving those ‘not so good decisions’ in the past. This is awesome and really helping me progress my health and eating choices. Onward and upward!24/7 – 4k Leg turnover. 21min 28sec. 0m gain.This mornings run was just about having a nicer morning out and turning the legs over nice and quickly. It was fun however as the day went on I have started to feel a fair bit fluey. Ugh! Always happens in taper week! Over it! I am praying I heal quickly and it wont affect my health and energy levels going into the weekend. The rest of the day was fun and tonight I am aiming to just take it easy and try and recover.25/7 – Rest.Well, after yesterdays worry, I woke up feeling like crap this morning. I dragged myself out of bed and decided to go to work. Whilst there, I got fed all sorts of concoctions, some of which I have no idea what they were but they tasted TERRIBLE…..trust the naturopaths! All that being said, by the end of the day, whilst I was still feeling pretty dusty, I was feeling a little better. I spent the arvo relaxing, getting good food into me and hoping/praying I am good by Sunday. I have trained hard for this race, one of my goal races for the year and I really hope having the flu doesn’t ruin my goals! Time will tell.26/7 – 3k Pre-Race sick cruise. 16min 43sec. 0m gain.Well, I am still sick. I went out for a run to turn the legs over before tomorrow but it was a bit ordinary. We then had a nice brecky together and went to the Kawana Markets and got some seedlings to plant. Nice vibe and times with the girls. We then grabed a brew at The Velo Project….a super nice café in Mooloolabah We had a relaxing arvo with a visit from one of the guys I coach Jody and his family and then Andy Dower and a new friend Luke from Victoria came to stay the night before the race. We had a nice dinner then sat down and watched Unbreakable. Super nice time, good laughs and fun times. The boys are a hoot. Whilst I am worried about being sick for the race (it feels like it has moved to my chest….I used to get a heap of bronchitis when I was a kid) I am still looking forward to going out for a jaunt at the Glasshouse Mountains. Good times.27/7 – 52.9km Flinders Tour. 4hr 53min 38sec. 749m gain.Well after a bit of a broken sleep and going into a race with a chesty flu, I got up and was ready for a fun day out! The boys and I had some breakfast then head down to the start. This was a goal race for me and I made it well known that I wanted to go under 4hrs 30min…..quick on trails!So, I started out the morning running strongly, feeling the flu but putting it to the back of my mind. There was a group of five guys about 100m ahead of me (which would have made up 4th-8th) and they were running only slightly than I wanted to. I decided to settle into my own routine and trust that I would real the boys in later. The first lap of two went well, running within myself and trying to keep positive in my mind. The morning was magic and the course changes were great, especially the pass through a couple of the Glasshouse mountains. Technical and decent steepness. I continued on the first loop, holding my position and keeping the boys ahead in sight. They started to break up a little and I was making a little ground on them.I reached the end of the first loop, back at Beerburrum School, at 27k and change in 2hr 15min ish. Super super stoked with that! Fast, but I still felt good! After a quick change of bottles, I was off again and saw a bit of the competition behind me, coming in for their first lap. I ran a distance back on the loop and for some reason thought I saw some chalk markings on the ground pointing me down a forestry road. I followed this and after running about a kilometre and not seing any markings I knew I was on the wrong track! Frustrated at myself, I tried to stay positive and ran back to the correct course, adding about 2k onto my run. I know guys passed me while down this road which was pretty annoying but what are you gonna do?!I kept on down the correct path and started to feel the pinch. I don’t know if it was from the heat or flu but I started to bonk hard. I did it pretty tough for probably 45min ish. Really having no energy. I usually love the heat but felt like that was getting to me too. I started regularly dousing my head to keep cool but it dried so so quick! On the pretty loop,my tired foot caught something and I stacked pretty hard, taking skin off my right knee and bashing my left knee cap on a rock. OW! I sat there for a bit and eventually composed myself and kept on.I kept going in a bonked state, knowing that I would eventually work my way out of it but realising my goal time was now unlikely. Eventually I came a little better but by then it was a bit too late. I worked as hard as I could to the end and ended up finishing in 4hr 50min ish. Whilst I am still pretty darn stoked with that time, it is always disappointing when you don’t achieve your goal. The other thing that happened is the inside of my left knee was bloody sore the majority of the race. This started about a week ago and I’m not sure what it is. It is pretty painful so I am looking forward to some time off to let it heal.Overall, regardless of the mishaps, the day was magic, I had some great laughs with some old friends and generally just have so much love for our ultra trail family! Im looking forward to a couple of days off now, focusing on my diet and resting up before a block of big ks in prep for the miler in September. Good times!A couple of extras……Gear used – Altra Lone Peak Zero Drop Shoes with Injinji socks. Head over to the link on my main page to see the awesome gear Injinji Performance Products stock. Garmin GPS watch, Ronhill shorts, a Buff, Ultimate Direction Handheld bottles (also found at the above link), five Gu Gels, two Clif Bars (thanks Kunara Organic Marketplace who also sponsor me), coke and a crap load of water.Shoutouts – Tegan and my beautiful girls for their crewing and support. Andy for making the trip and providing lots of laughs. Jody Fisher, one of my coaching clients who did his first ultra in uber style! Amazing job mate, you should be so proud! New friend Luke who also smoked his first ultra. Dion and Lee for the laughs, Sammy for making the hike in the van I want, Scott and Maddy for being an awesome father/daughter team, Anderson for toughing it out, Meagan for being awesome and persevering when things didn’t go to plan, Deb and Katie for being inspirational ladies. Coach Jeff for being a general clown and good fun! Anyone I forgot, sorry but thanks for being amazing!Weekly total – 84.3k. 7hr 39min. 1115m gain.