It was what I wanted to try to get sorted last time I posted; being consistent in training, in programming, in structure and the like, in order to head towards GSER 2021.
It's been a while now, and I feel that I am getting better at that. Not 'perfect' by any stretch, but certainly better.
I've kept easy runs easy. I've got the time on feet most weeks. I've adapted things when needed with the summer heat and life, but not just canned stuff and let it all fall over. One of the biggest things though, has been to not try and do everything when it doesn't work. I've moved on, stuck to the plan when a session has been missed, not felt guilty about it and tried to cram it back in. And having the plan has meant that even when I've missed runs, I've still got a decent number of kms in.
It's funny. The other week I 'only' got 40-odd kms. I felt a bit lie I'd dropped the ball. But then running buddy Jess mentioned how it was still way more than he'd got in a few weeks. And I then compared to 12 months ago... Xmas-NY/summer last year, I was averaging 20km weeks. I was in the thick of a few parkrun launches over on the Yorke Peninsula and was therefore doing 5km runs and a heap of driving. As such, I'm theoretically way ahead of the eight ball, leading towards 5 Peaks.
I really do, however, need to get the resistance training side of things nailed down better. That is still quite inconsistent. Might need to take a look at the program again and tweak it a bit.
Nutrition is heading in the right direction, but still needs work, too. But still no alcohol since August, reduced coffee/caffeine. Need to just get away from the junk food that some of my work shifts make 'easy' to consume. But really that's willpower and being better organised with snacks so I'm not hungry!
I've also firmed up a couple of other runs for the year. I'm in for Hubert 100km in May. As I mentioned before, 5 Peaks will be a 'big day out' - the last one leading towards Hub100. The distance and the 'remote' feel of the Flinders Ranges should be good for GSER.
And talking of GSER... after some um-ing and ahh-ing, I decided to put my name in for the 50 mile option. I figured that if I get in, I get a great run in itself, some time on the course and, should I complete it, a qualifier sorted for the full monty, next time around. If I didn't, there was still the points qualification way to get to the hundred in the mean time.
Well, I got in! So now, in November, in the midst of exam period at uni - I know, hows the timing?! - I will be heading over to Buller to climb a bunch of mountains. I'm pretty pumped at the thought. We'll see as we get closer as to how it shapes up, but this, in particular, is giving me a pretty solid focus to train at the moment. At ~92km, with ~5200m of up/down, it's the biggest challenge I've taken on in running to date. And yet, only half of what I'm planning for 2021! Scary, exciting and intriguing and... so many other emotions in one.
So, so far, that's three races booked in for the year. Wonderland is yet to open, and is probably the only other one I'm really pondering now. I've looked at the Melrose King of the Summit, and Peaks and Trails (also in the Gramps) but they are all so close together, it's probably one of the three. And the 36 at Wonderland, over Mountain terrain, is probably the one that is likely to fit best with training for GSER50. But we'll see - no reason that I have to do an event; could absolutely just go camp somewhere and hit up a solid bit of training. Still pondering that...
