Little did I know at the time that it would be two years before I would get another chance to do it again after many, many months of dreaming and planning, injuries and training. During that time I'd had achilles surgery, calf strains, inflamed nerves, tedinopathy and more. But finally I was fit enough to target, enter and train for the 2012 event, scheduled for Saturday 10th March.
History will record, however, that 2012 turned out to be the first time in the history of the race that it was cancelled, due to the raised level of Cox's river. Rather than dwell on what might have been, this post is to document my approach to the 2012 event and the training I did.
September and October 2011 were months of frustration with an injury to my plantaris tendon which took 7 weeks to fully recover from, and forced me to skip the New York marathon...again. This was the third year in a row I'd entered and then pulled out of an international marathon, so my track record with training for big races wasn't looking good, and history might suggest the same for 6ft Track. But if nothing else during those injuries I'd learned a bit of humility and what my body can cope with, and what it needs to perform. Plus I still have a burning desire to see what my 40+ body can do as I still feel I've got some fast running in me...I just need to manage things to give myself the opportunity to do so.
Anyway, I began running again during a trip to Noosa in late-October, and suffice to say, I thought about 6ft Track during every single run. It was the burning goal that fueled my motivation almost to the point of obsession. I thought about the race, the course, what it would take to improve from last time, my approach for training, schedules and more. Each run was thinking time, and I was equally daunted by the task as I was motivated to give it good shot.
Looking back on my 2010 attempt at 6ft I saw two main weaknesses in my race (three if you include not knowing the course), the first being that I bonked at about 30km...although managed to pull things together with caffeine, coke, gels and lollies, and the second weakness being my slow-down on Black Range Rd, which is about 9km long from Pluviometer (26km) to Deviation (35km). The fact this coincided with the bonk is not surprising, but it did my head and body in with the gradual incline and the repetitive nature of the terrain. Also, in 2010 my legs were smashed from the hills (not surprisingly) which slowed me in the last 10km.
Putting those things together I could see where the improvement I was seeking would come from...basically, more running and more hills at solid pace, and race fuelling. Specically, I set my target at the 40+ age group record of 3:27:11hr, which was 4:04min faster than my effort. It would take a huge effort to get that...or even close to it.
My plan was to do as many long runs in the Dandenongs as possible, using my knowledge of tracks from 2010 to plot the course each week for maximum effect...although this would involve quite a bit of reptition over many of the same hills each week. One Tree Hill would be home away from home on Saturday mornings, with routine even dictating parking in the same spot each week!! This time around I wasn't alone in my 6ft Track quest with Monty (Michael Montgomery) from our running group also signing up for the challenge, which helped in sharing the effort and torment of the training.
After a couple of easy weeks in early-Nov getting my legs back post injury, I made my first trip to the D'nongs starting with a fairly ambitious 32.5km and 1204m ascent. The metres of ascent became as important as the distance and time with my goal being to do a run including 40km+ and 2000m+ of ascent. 6ft Track (only) has 1528m of ascent and 1788m descent. The Saturday long run became the key staple and top priority each week.
The remainder of the week took a little time to work out a routine that would be sustainable and repeatable, although this became harder as the weeks went by and my fatigue grew. Training needed to fit in around work, coaching and home life, where I became very conscious of the knock on effects of the time and cumulative fatigue of it all at home...but fortunately Ms A was supportive, even if she thought I was nuts. All this meant most of my mid-week running was done between 5:30-7am, with a wake-up time 20+ min earlier to get my body moving.
A standard week looked something like this:
Mon - AM Run 13-15km easy (+ ride to/from work (25-30min each way) + some core strength)Tue - AM Run 20-22km undulating tempo
Wed - AM Run 12-13km to work, PM Run 12-13km home
Thur - AM Run - 6-8km easy, Lunch Run - 14-16km hills/fartlek
Fri - AM Swim 40min (+ ride to/from work (25-30min each way) + some core strength)
Sat - AM Run 40-48km hills
Sun - AM Run 18-20km easy
The hardest thing about this routine was getting out of bed in the morning and just getting going. Firstly I was always tired; sleepy tired and muscle tired/stiff, and my left heel was an almost constant source of morning soreness. This is the same heel as the achilles surgery from 2010 but a different issue right at the base of my heel, related to some irritation (inflammation?) of the fascia tissue around the back/bottom of my heel. It was not an "injury" as such, just a spot that was sore every morning and took 10-15min of running to fully warm-up, and not helped by running hills... Just getting going each morning was hard work, physically and mentally.
But I was loving running. I was getting tired from doing a lot of running to the point where I limited by easy-peasy bike commute in favour of the scooter...my rule was if I ran > 20km in a day it was the scooter. I also found that the nature of my core strength eased a little so as not to fatigue my legs too much more than they already were. I was pushing the limit of how much I could actually cope with, and to my surprise found that a few stiff/sore niggles gradually improved the fitter and stronger I got, which proved to me the value of strength and endurance in building a resilient body.
Respecting my age and the vulnerability of my legs, I had regular contact with my fabulous physio, Rosie, and got regular massages from Brad, both things which helped to stay on top of little issues. In particular, my on-going relationship with Rosie - since my achilles surgery - has been fantastic. I've learned a lot from her about my body, insights into how it responds, how to recognise issues and what to do about them...pre-emptively. As I have throughout my sports career, I've used body as an experiment of one, with all the things I learned through first-hand experiences helping build my body of knowledge and how to apply different approaches for athletes I coach. It's on-going and never ending.
Anyway, the weeks ticked by and the training volume built steadily. Here is the weekly progression, including noting the long run.
| W/C | Wk Tot | Long | Time | Ascent | Run Location | Other Notes |
| 7/11/2011 | 119 | 29 | 2:09 | 535 | Studley Park | |
| 14/11/2011 | 122 | 32.5 | 2:40 | 1204 | Dandenongs | |
| 21/11/2011 | 125 | 36 | 2:55 | 1336 | Dandenongs | |
| 28/11/2011 | 115 | 15 | 1:07 | Lorne (race) | Anaconda team (15km) | |
| 5/12/2011 | 117 | 38 | 3:07 | 1435 | Dandenongs | |
| 12/12/2011 | 138 | 41 | 3:20 | 1513 | Dandenongs | |
| 19/12/2011 | 133 | 40 | 2:55 | 634 | Studley Park | |
| 26/12/2011 | Strained thigh | |||||
| 2/01/2012 | 136 | 43 | 3:46 | 2036 | Dandenongs | |
| 9/01/2012 | 128 | 28 | 1:54 | 681 | Two Bays | Two Bays (28km), 3rd |
| 16/01/2012 | 147 | 45 | 3:42 | 1679 | Dandenongs | |
| 23/01/2012 | 153 | 45 | 3:44 | 1923 | Dandenongs | |
| 30/01/2012 | 108 | 48 | 3:43 | 1459 | Dandenongs | Mid-wk race (8km), 3rd |
| 6/02/2012 | 152 | 46 | 3:42 | 1710 | Dandenongs | |
| 13/02/2012 | 70 | 30 | 2:19 | 950 | Yarra Ranges | Mid-wk
race (8km), 1st, Maroondah race (30km), 1st |
| 20/02/2012 | 77 | 28 | 2:16 | 780 | Canberra | |
| 27/02/2012 | 85 | 21 | 1:31 | 100 | Melbourne | |
| 5/03/2012 | 88 | 42 | 3:35 | 900 | Katoomba | Mid-wk race (4km), 1st |
There were a few things I noticed over these weeks, in particular after xmas-new year and a weeks forced break due to a mild strain, which were two pronged. On one hand I was getting fitter and stronger, noted particularly by how I was running over the hills each Saturday (notwithstanding the massive bonk in early-Jan), but then things got harder as my cumulative fatigue increased. By the start of Feb my legs were hammered, the quality of the mid-week sessions suffered and Saturday became an epic physical and mental effort. I've never experienced this feeling before...my glutes and hips almost seized up with stiffness and fatigue, almost feeling like an injury but actually just muscular overload from the hills.
In hindsight, I should have taken an easy week in late Jan, but decided to push on to complete a 6 week block before an extended taper. During this block I also did some races, both trail and road, which worked well. Two Bays was a really good run to do early in the block, but by the time of the mid-week races in Feb my legs were on the edge of being over trained, and were unfamiliar with the intensity and speed of the shorter (8km) events.
The last long Dandenongs run was 4 weeks pre-6ft - I was exhausted and my legs nailed. I knew it would take a while to recover and adapt to the load, but perhaps underestimated how long. During the first recovery week I did another 8km race on Wed and then on Sun a 30km trail race in some serious hills - both were great runs. But the flip side was how long it took to recover...a full 7-8 days to get some life back in my legs, however this was more frustrating than concerning as there was still 2 weeks to go until 6ft, so things were generally going to plan generally beside feeling behind the 8-ball.
This plan included having a moderate week 2 weeks out, then a final easy week. I did two really good mid-week sessions during the moderate week, running well in both - Tue 15km hilly tempo at 3:45 min/km, Thur 8.5km fartlek tempo @ 3:29 min/km. But as well as I ran, these sessions knocked my legs around indicating they weren't as fresh as I'd hoped. I really needed the last 7 days to freshen up.
During race week I'd planned to do a short tempo run about mid-week, Tue or Wed, and decided to use the final of the mid-week Super Sunset series to do the 4km event as the tempo session. On the day I was on the edge of feeling OK and in hindsight would have been better to skip it. A race is a race and although only 4km, I ran it pretty solidly, but perhaps a little too hard and I woke up on Thurs, 2 days before 6ft, feeling leg tired. Uh oh!!!! I knew I was in good form but might have just sacrificed my race to being tired...it would be line ball about feeling better by Saturday.
As it turned out the race was cancelled on Thursday, to my disappointment but in a very small way, also my relief since my legs were a few days away from being ready to race...I judged it to be 2 days after race day. But we'll never know what might have happened since the race was never held, but had my legs been fresh on race day I think I might have bagged my goal.
So from this training campaign I learned a lot about what I can cope with, what is a good training strategy for 6ft and more. Some key learning's:
- Nothing replaces long, hard and very hilly training runs. But I should have broken my training block into smaller blocks and/or had a weakened away from the Dandenongs.
- The hilly running added great resilience to my body and legs, and actually allowed me to get on top of some niggles through developing all round run strength.
- This much hill running also weakened me a little, mainly from fatigue. In bouncing back during the taper I've come through a lot stronger.
- This time I did less tempo / speed work and more emphasis on the long hills, with (obvious) consequence that my road race pace fitness and speed is down.
- It was really valuable going into the training with a good level of core strength fitness since this aspect became neglected a bit.
- This build phase went beyond what is sustainable on a routine basis. I think perhaps 10-20% less volume (120-130km/wk) is more sustainable, with bigger volume weeks during focused build phases.
- The trail races were invaluable, to really see how well the training fitness would convert to a race situation, over extended distances. Two Bays and Maroondah Dam were really well placed in the schedule.
- The shorter, mid-week races were also good but my lack of specific race fitness meant they took a little more out of me than I gave them credit for.
- My practice with fuelling in training and races went well. My plan for 6ft was built around a much higher intake of gels to avoid the bonking situation.
While it is really disappointing not to get the chance to race 6ft Track this year, there's always more races coming up, and for me these are road races and the aim of getting some speed back. The goal event is Gold Coast marathon where a PB (sub-2:32hr) would be fantastic - the 6ft training has set me up really well for this, and have gained some training time in not having to first recover from 6ft Track.
As for next year...I don't know. Prior to the cancellation I wasn't planning to, thinking to run a summer of track races for a change, which would involved less time...a big consideration with a kid due to arrive in mid-June. Either way, it will take a while before I'm ready to take on One Tree Hill again. Right now I'm enjoying keeping things flat for a while!!!
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