So, trailrunning. It's fun. And ultrarunning. That's fun too. And the two tend to go hand in hand with ultras probably more commonplace on trails than the road, from an organised event perspective. Although, that seems to be changing...
But what happens after running an ultra? Apart from the soreness and desire to eat everything in sight... Do you keep training? Do more ultras? Do the same ones, but faster? Do a series of shorter events? But what about when you've done those? Again? Faster? Age group? Overall?
There are plenty of races and events out and about, but being given a specific timeframe (i.e. an event date) means that you have to be ready to run it there and then. Which means specific training and preparation. Which can mean sticking to known trails or training sessions, finding familiarity and allowing for comparisons, easy to notice improvements.
But with life, with family - particularly young kids - there is always a trade off of selfishly training for that next event and missing the moments. Not being there when your daughter kicks her first goal at Auskick or seeing your son first jump into the pool...
There is the chance that your favourite section of trail or summit view remains undiscovered as you run around the local oval or do hill reps in the dark, unable to 'just run', because you need to train and prepare to give yourself the best chance to complete your event.
And then, there is overtraining. Or training when injured. And what if your friends have different goals? How can you train for your event on their schedule or vice-versa?
hmmm...
Enter the Iconic Trails Project.
By having a goal so big that you simply can't 'peak' for it, can't (always) finish it in a day, or a month, or probably even a year, there is a release of pressure from the typical time factors and constraints of 'races'.
Only able to do 5km of the Heysen Trail? Great, only 1195km left to go!
Got a week to get away and rack up back to back days of running? Sounds more enjoyable than a 6AM startline and running for 15+ hours straight to tick of a 100km event through cow paddocks when you are mentally not as invested in it.
And local races and ultras are still there. Still able to fit them in, if desired. Just not the sole focus.
This is the thinking behind the #iconictrailsproject. A long term project, big enough to continue to give you goals when you 'don't have any', but flexible enough to move aside when a particular race or other life factors need to take priority.
(updated July 2018. Again, should be studying...)
(updated 14 Nov 2017. Should be revising for exams, but you know...)
Labels: heysen, heysen trail, running, ultramarathon, ultrarunning, yurrebilla, yurrebilla trail