Thursday 6 January 2011

A new year begins




Again very slow between updates, but as i type i'm now trying to get a handle on my races in the coming year, certainly January will begin soon with Hares & Hounds (52KM), Two Bays Trail (56 KM) and Mansfield to Mt Buller (50 KM) the next three Sundays.
January 6th 1992 was the beginning of my Ultra Career so as i type i am now contemplating the start of my 20th year of Ultra running, feel i have achieved many things as a runner, but also know that i still have unachieved ambitions maybe this year i will achieve these, so this blog will continue so people can see where me and my Drymax Socks end up.
Look forward to more regular updates as the year progresses and my plans become more concrete.
As for 2010, i was ultimately pretty content with my year, 3 100+ Milers, One overall win (to keep up my streak of at least one a year since 1994), a sub 9 Hour 100KM, and back to sub 90 Minutes for the Half Marathon, biggest downside was no sub 3 Hour Marathon (meaning i haven't broken 3 Hours since 8th October 2006 something i intend to correct this year), another ordinary Six Foot Track Marathon run (looking to fix this one up for my 20th !) and no Trailwalker complete team win still (not in my plans this year).
Still quite sure i can achieve more at Badwater but it's the one race i seem to have problems that i have nowhere else and due to that fact struggle to work out what to do different, unlikely i'll apply this year, maybe something else if i want to head overseas, time will tell.
Coast to Kosci also remains a conundrum, 2010 had a perfect run during the daytime sections on day 1 and after eating well at night and being paced by Anna Maria throughout that night was well ahead of my 2009 split, but again problems with my inability to perform well in cold weather, once night was over (and the coldest part in theory gone), simply couldnt get my legs supple again and couldn't run, so unlike 2009 when i was like a new man when the sun arose, i instead walked and struggled to run from Jindabyne onwards ultimately resulting in a time 90 minutes slower. This year will try some new tactics but realistically none of us will know whether they work until 11 months time.