Planning the year. What a great idea. Not being swayed by social media and offers of reduced entry fees for Early Bird registration. Creating a periodised training plan with only one or two peak races.
Did I mention planning the year?
Such good advice. I read it last week in an expert coach’s approach to his clients’ race plans.
If only I’d read it six months earlier.
It’s been six weeks since the 28k Two Bays Trail Run. And this Saturday is the 21k Roller Coaster Run (RCR). Planning? Not so much. My only justification is that the RCR was traditionally in late March, so I assumed I’d have enough time between events when I jumped on board the Fairy Floss Special price six or eight months ago.
Only this year, the RCR is hot on the heels of Two Bays, which was already uncomfortably close to the Marysville Half-Marathon in November 2015. Within four months, I’m doing three half-marathons.
Is it any wonder I’m a little tired?
However, I’ve been very careful in the last six weeks to adequately recover from Two Bays, as well as train enough for RCR. Given the base I’d built, I only took one real recovery week with a 12k long run, then went back to a 20k long run, followed in the next two weeks by 18, and 21.5 (the full Roller Coaster Course) two weeks ago. I’ve kept the total km’s per week at between 35 and 40, supplementing running with two 2k swims each week, and teaching three Bodypump classes per week as well. All in all, I’ve held up ok. My feet have been sore, but they’ve been sore for more than a year. And I’ve been a little tired.
I’m feeling quietly confident for this RCR, given I’ve completed the whole course many times over. Yes, it is steep, hard, unforgiving. Yes, I’m going to take the downhills slowly, as I always do, and push hard on the uphills. Without much flat terrain to worry about, my pace won’t be fast, but that’s okay. This is my first race in the 50-59 age category. I’m not worried about pace – I want to complete this event injury-free and elated.
This is, after all, more than a race for me. Over the last few years, Mount Dandenong has become my soul-place. I used to pine for the woods, saying each weekend, “I wish I could go to the Dandenongs.”
I had young children and a husband who could not hike. I was afraid it wouldn’t be safe alone. But I finally opened up that door, with the help of some trail running friends, who showed me the trails, which I eventually got courageous enough to run alone.
I drive up alone, often after school drop-off or late in the day on a weekend. The drive takes an hour, and is one of the few hours of solitude I have in my busy family life. After not driving for six years in Hong Kong, that drive gave me back my driving confidence, and opened many other roads to me.
I often run just the top loop of the Roller Coaster Run. My companions are the wallabies, the sulphur-crested cockatoos, and Fern Trees. Once in a while, I see echidnas. Sometimes people out riding horses or hiking, but not very often. More often, there are brilliant orange butterflies or blue and red Rosellas. Kookaburras laugh at me. I sweat my way uphill, and fly on the downhills.
A friend on the trail
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Tree ferns in dappled sun
I have spent solitary hours here singing in joy, and others howling in despair, when life has seemed to much to bear. This mountain has sheltered me under its blanket of fog, and warmed me with the winter sunrise. I have been scared senseless by the boom of its thunderstorms, lost on its flanks, and challenged to keep going when I wanted, more than anything, to stop.
I am a little lost for words, trying to say what the Roller Coaster Run itself means to me. I suppose it is but one chapter in my long relationship with this mountain, and will be one of the few occasions I push myself to run fast here. It is also one of the few times the mountain is peopled with friends, with laughter, with adrenalin. The contrast is always a surprise.
Then there is the matter of my goals for the rest of 2016. I want pain-free running. Speed. Power. Agility. After this race, I’m re-jigging my training to get all this back. I’m not succumbing to any offers of cheap early-bird entries for several months, at least. I’m heading back into the gym to lift big heavy things, and do some plyometrics.
But this weekend, I intend to fly.
And to feel this happy at the finish line…
Leila enjoying a roll…
patriciaabowmer 