In a rare moment of spare time on a recent flight, I started reflecting on 10 years of ultra running, how I have adapted training in my 40s, and the effect of some ‘magic’ berries. Nearly 23 years after tackling my first marathon to raise money for the British Heart Foundation following my father’s heart attack, I feel blessed that I still love running and have kept fairly free of injuries.
Though with limited time and energy due to a busy corporate job and young family, one of the questions I battle with at the start of each year is which races to focus on for the next 6 to 12 months. Factors I tend to consider are, when do I think I can squeeze in a good block of training, what does my work calendar look like, what are my priorities, and like many others I then decide on priority ‘A’ races that I will focus on and taper for ‘B’ and ‘C’ races that I will just aim to enjoy.
Of course, I’d love to race every weekend, travel the country, race overseas in the big city marathon events, and target some 5kms and 10kms races. I also want to run Comrades again and have targeted the 100kms World Championships in six of the last seven years. Of course, I also would like to set a PB every time I race too! However, that’s probably not all possible so we have to set our priorities based on family time, work, and budget, and I have learned that it’s hard to set 5kms, 42.2kms and 100kms PBs in the same training block.
I’ve been privileged to be part of the Australian 100kms team for the IAU World Championships each year since 2010, but in 2017 with no 100kms scheduled, I decided to focus back in on some shorter distances and just race a few local ultras for fun.
I’d found over previous years that putting in long, long runs on Sundays made it hard to push the speed sessions on Tuesdays, and this impacted my ability find good speed for shorter races.
In 2017 at 43 years old, and after 23 years of running, I still wanted to challenge my PBs, so targeted breaking the following milestones for the first time: sub 33 minutes for 10kms, sub 48 minutes for the 14kms City to Surf, and sub 18 minutes for the 5.6kms JP Morgan Chase Challenge – all distances a number of my running mates put a big focus on.
No easy feat at 43.
I’ve never had a run coach and have preferred setting out my own training plans. Whilst I’m not an expert, years of running have given me a good sense of what my body can handle, so I figured that to PB over my target races, I needed to push weekly interval sessions harder, get more comfortable at 3 minute 15 second per kilometre times, and learn how to deal with the discomfort.
One thing you do get from years of ultra running that serves you well in shorter races is mental toughness. It’s also something that comes with age, and in part makes up for the headwinds that may be associated with age, like more niggles, less time, and slower recovery.
With a solid base of run fitness over the summer of 2016/17 and after a few weeks of really targeted intervals sessions, I started to feel that I could push harder and hold a faster pace for longer. Of course, it can be hard to do this solo but running with the Sydney-based ‘HuRTs Squad’ I had plenty of others to chase and hang on to in our lunchtime sessions.
I trained well through March and April and aimed to peak for key races from May onwards. All this despite a big house renovation which luckily proved to be less stressful than expected!
The one other change I made was to start taking a supplement that a British elite ultra running friend made me aware of. You may have read about the positive properties of beetroot, but recent research has showed New Zealand blackcurrants had stronger beneficial properties, so I read the research, listened to referrals, gave them a go.
Touching on the research briefly for the technically-minded, numerous studies on endurance athletes since 2012 have showed that blackcurrant anthocyanis can influence performance and recovery. Athletes using blackcurrant extract were proven to be able to work harder for longer with greater oxygen update.
Of course, it’s possible there was a placebo effect, but after a week or two on the blackcurrant supplements, I honestly started feeling lower levels of DOMS and so I started training harder. I also went through a big block of winter training, busy work and family life with no flu or colds.
The first target ‘A’ race of last year was the Gold Coast 10kms in early July. I used a few local parkrun races as time trials, and began to find it more and more comfortable to cover the 5kms at a target 10kms pace. On race day, I set a new PB of 33:01.
Not quite the sub 33 mins I had hoped for, but pretty damn close. There as life in the old ultra runner’s legs after all.
For the past few years I’ve had intermittent tightness and soreness in my left Achilles, but despite more short and faster intervals, for once it wasn’t flaring up. I wondered if the blackcurrants were helping, but it’s also worth sharing that I started taking a daily teaspoon of turmeric so perhaps the anti-inflammatory benefits of that were helping too.
I managed to squeeze in consistent 100kms weeks throughout July and August of 2017, and hit the next targets. In August I tackled the City to Surf, and finally nailed a sub 48-minute race.
As an added bonus, I won my age group again in a big city race as I had done in the Gold Coast and SMH Half Marathon. Confidence was high and carried through into September. I had been contemplating the CP Ultra 50kms or 100kms, but the race cancellation made that decision for me and I continued to focus on the road.
In September, I ran the NSW Half Marathon Champs (Sydney Half) in 73:20 – my fastest half since pre-ultra days, and then two weeks later a race PB of 2:38 at the Sydney Marathon despite little taper. I took a bit of a rest, backed off the mileage, but kept up some quality sessions and managed to race well again in November for the Carcoar Cup and breaking 18 minutes at the JP Morgan 5.6kms, ticking off another target.
It was so satisfying to have such a great year, and probably no surprise to learn that specifying my training towards shorter races led to better results in those races.
So, what to do in 2018? Once again, I’d love to do everything, break 16 minutess for 5kms, qualify for and wear the green and gold at the 100km World Championships again, and break my marathon PB.
Oh, and I’d love to do Comrades and the Spartathlon too, but can’t have it all.
Happy running and good luck out there.
