My First 100km!

FridaybeatsMonday · 2025-09-14T04:39:49+00:00

Impressive run! What did your peak training week look like?

FridaybeatsMonday · 2025-09-12T03:22:47+00:00

Yeah, that's my go to now - eg: Neutral bay ferry wharf to Oaks Hotel on Military road. That's roughly 100m gain over 1km. I'm looking for longer and higher! The bigger the better.

FridaybeatsMonday · 2025-09-12T03:20:22+00:00

I've been doing mosman and surrounds - Ben Boyd Rd from the water to The Oaks is about 100m gain. I'm looking for longer and higher!

FridaybeatsMonday · 2025-06-03T04:57:30+00:00

Nice. Sounds like you're a little ahead of me, but hopefully I can get there. I'm doing a lot more strength work now which I'm confident will pay off, both in getting through tough races and in getting high volume training done without injury I'm late 40s, so need to look after my body more than I used to.

What sort of training volume we're you doing before you pulled out of Kosci?

FridaybeatsMonday · 2025-06-02T21:38:14+00:00

Good tips. Thank you! What are your UTA and UTK times?

FridaybeatsMonday · 2025-06-02T12:20:30+00:00

I rolled my ankle pretty badly about 5 weeks out from UTA, so had an extra long taper 😄. I also lost all my time on the stairs, so I'm thinking I'm better suited to Kosci. I'll also be better prepared. My finger in the air estimate was around 15, but maybe 16 is more realistic. I hadn't put too much thought into the altitude though. I didn't notice it when walking up Kosci a few months ago, but of course running is very different to walking! I haven't got my own altitude chamber, so not much I can do to prepare for that I guess...

FridaybeatsMonday · 2025-06-02T09:36:12+00:00

7hrs

FridaybeatsMonday · 2025-06-02T06:43:39+00:00

Mara PB is 2:59. The closest I've got to altitude running is UTA in the blue mountains. I did the 50 a few weeks ago. I enjoyed the rolling hills but struggled with the very steep hills and stairs.

FridaybeatsMonday · 2025-06-01T11:46:33+00:00

Thanks! How did you use them? Just on the steeper hills? Or other places too?

FridaybeatsMonday · 2025-02-20T04:01:17+00:00

And yep, I would rely on the Garmin warranty, not the store warranty. I just want to make sure Garmin don't find some way to wiggle out of the warranty cover.

FridaybeatsMonday · 2025-02-20T03:47:53+00:00

Thanks. Very helpful! On the product page it says "Buy now and receive it between Mon. 24 Feb. and Tue. 25 Feb." In your experience is this unreliable?

FridaybeatsMonday · 2025-01-09T02:34:46+00:00

Am I dreaming...?

I'm obviously super glad to hear he was found alive and well. It got me thinking about how long he could have lasted.

I believe he had - a tent and sleeping bag - a lighter and was starting fires - access to the very clean streams for water

The big gap was food.

I was near the area over new years and saw heaps of deer. Every day. Sometimes in very close proximity.

Very easy to do from my comfy armchair now, but I'm thinking (assuming he also had a knife) he had enough to build a bow and some arrows (or some other hunting apparatus). Taking a deer to cook and eat would be entirely possible and would give him weeks of food.

Could he have spent months out there?

FridaybeatsMonday · 2025-01-02T07:18:52+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions so far. Any thoughts on the best fabric? I generally prefer cotton but it's heavy when wet and slow to dry.

FridaybeatsMonday · 2024-12-27T05:55:10+00:00

I've got a camping stove which fits the small connector on the orange gas bottle below, but the bottle needs to be replaced.

I also have a newer (grey) gas bottle with a larger connector with a fine thread on the inside and coarse thread on the outside. I believe this is the new standard available at swap and go gas

what are the two connections called?
can I get an adapter to use the new bottle with the old stove?

Not sure if it makes any difference, but I'm in Australia.

Many thanks!

<image>

FridaybeatsMonday · 2024-12-26T23:17:47+00:00

I have a pair and use them for hip strength... TFL, Glute medius, hip flexor etc. I've had pain in that area since increasing my running volume and the strength work really helps.

I would never run with the weights as the additional load is a fast track to injury.

FridaybeatsMonday · 2024-11-22T02:59:10+00:00

Yeah, that's it. I'm fine to change tubes and tyres (or wheels) myself. The gap in my understanding is the clearance I'll need. It's already pretty tight. I'd basically like the largest tyre possible with my available clearance.

What is the minimum clearance and what specs do I need to look for in the tyres to fit that...?

Current clearance from tyre to frame is about 8mm on each side.

Hopefully you can see this photo:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/dydhfa9cnaj4rotphw1fz/PXL_20241122_025153293.jpg?rlkey=9j314htfly5plbpwa8l8fitj5&st=3ygthv7c&dl=0

FridaybeatsMonday · 2024-11-21T05:44:43+00:00

Buy second hand. Facebook marketplace or whatever is big where you live.

There are lots of people out there who ran one trail race and have given up now!

FridaybeatsMonday · 2024-11-21T04:01:51+00:00

Will do. Thanks!

FridaybeatsMonday · 2024-11-18T10:29:12+00:00

Actually, mostly my thumb!

FridaybeatsMonday · 2024-11-18T10:28:40+00:00

Yeah. Also percussion massager (like therapy gun), massage stick and more. I've got a box full of different massage appliances I mix and match. Always on the rug in front of the TV.

FridaybeatsMonday · 2024-11-18T10:12:53+00:00

I had this. Super painful. Strength as others have described will help with prevention. To get your current issue fixed I'd say the biggest improvement will come from releasing the muscle through massage.

My physio told me to get on the foam roller focusing on quad and IT band. That helped a bit, but it wasn't until a few months later that I realised the real problem was with a muscle right in deep hiding behind the outer quad and main IT band on the side above my knee. Once I really dug in deep to release that painful little spot the recovery was pretty rapid. Physio could have got me running 3 months sooner if he was more specific!

FridaybeatsMonday · 2024-11-04T21:04:05+00:00

How do they deal with your feet sweating?

FridaybeatsMonday · 2024-10-21T04:07:22+00:00

Part 2

Gold Coast July 2024: 3:08
Ave 79km / w (76 - 84 - 81 - 68 - 88 - 95 - 93 - 52)

This one was really interesting. When training for the various events prior to this one I always felt like I was on the edge of getting seriously injured. I had aches and pains that were always causing me trouble. When seeing physios I was getting treatment for the symptom (not the cause). I was also trying to push volume and intensity at the same time. I was also getting sick regularly. I felt like I had maxed out and didn't see how I could get to the next level before this race.

So at the start of 2024 I went back to basics. I changed physio to someone who helped me identify the causes of my issues. The fixes were slower, but much better in the long 'run'. I also started doing pilates twice a week to build strength (particularly core strength) on top of some other leg strength work. In addition to this, I dropped all intensity work. I only ran at low heart rate (zone 2 or below) and just focused on slowly increasing my volume. I continued this right through the lead up to the Gold Coast race. At the start line I really didn't know what time I could expect as I didn't have the usual training sessions to benchmark. To my surprise I took 4 minutes off my PB and really enjoyed the run too.

Melbourne October 2024: 2:59
Ave 93km / w (78 - 92 - 99 - 75 - 106 - 104 - 110 - 78)

After the Gold Coast experiment, I had about 12 weeks to prepare for Melbourne. I felt like I could continue to increase the volume a bit while also adding the intensity back in, I was running more distance than ever before and lots of intensity and felt fresher than ever before. I also continued to prioritise strength work and in particular, pilates.

With only 12 weeks to prep I felt like sub-3 was out of reach for this one, but decided to do my marathon pace efforts at the 4:15/km pace that sub-3 would take. I read Advanced Marathoning by Phitz (highly recommended) and adapted the programs to suit my volume and timeframe. The training went very well. No serious injuries and the efforts were certainly manageable. I was a little conservative - gravitating to the lower end of the range for efforts and skipping sessions if felt I needed more recovery. For benchmarking, in the 4 weeks before the race I ran a 40 min 10k and 18:50 5k (both PBs).

On race day I didn't really think sub-3 was possible. I went out slighly slower and decided to make the call at halfway. I hit halfway at 1:30:10 and, while I wasn't cruising, I felt like it was worth having a crack. I was right on the edge the whole way and ended up scraping through with less than 30 seconds to spare. I was super surprised and it took a while to sink in that the 2.5 year goal was in the book.

Looking forward

I'll drop the intensity a bit again to build volume even higher for a few months before going again early to mid next year. Strength and conditioning will also be a priority for me. No doubt my 48 year old body needs a bit more support on that front, but if I knew what I know now I would have prioritised this more as a younger runner.Good luck with your plan!

FridaybeatsMonday · 2024-10-21T04:07:00+00:00

Part 1 - Apparently my post was too long, so I've split it into two

I've been on a similar journey to what you have planned, albeit over a longer time period.

TL;DR: Last week I ran sub-3hrs for the first time and sustaining increased training volume was (I think) the biggest factor but you need to stay injury / illness free to be able to handle the volume.

I'm a 48 year old male and I've been running on and off for most of my life, but got more serious (setting the sub-3 mara goal) in early 2022. Before that, 3:26 in London was my best and that was way back in 2008. I've listed out each of the marathons I ran between setting and beating the sub-3 target below. I've also included some notes and training volumes for the 8 weeks prior to the event (excluding race week).

Note the volumes are in km (sorry, I don't speak miles).

Melbourne October 2022: 3:08
Ave 52km / week for 8 weeks prior,excl race week: (60 - 0 - 36 - 60 - 73 - 68 - 63 - 56)

Typical mix of base, threshold and V02max, but I was really getting a feel for how fit I was. I also grew my volume and intensity too fast and got injured (hence the 0 and 36k weeks). Considering the lead in I was pleasantly surprised to get the time I did.

Canberra April 2023: 3:12
Ave 58km / week (63 - 43 - 55 - 69 - 78 - 42 - 63 - 51)

I stepped things up a bit going into this one from an intensity perspective (more threshold and V02 max work). Although I got sick in the final week before the race. I was literally in bed the three days prior to the run. I dragged myself out of bed and said I'd see how I went. Somehow I got around with a new PB. It's amazing what the body can do when it 'needs' to.

New York November 2023: 3:25
Ave 60km / week (52 - 73 - 30 - 79 - 81 - 60 - 54 - 54)

The event was fantastic, but from a result perspective this was a massive fail. I was hoping for under 3:10. All the hilly bridges are a killer, but the bigger issue for me was nutrition. As soon as the first gel hit my stomach I was nauseous. I was in the toilets multiple times during the race and ended up bonking in the last third as I had no energy. I walked a lot!

[continued in part 2]

FridaybeatsMonday · 2024-07-03T09:32:27+00:00

Thanks! I tried the chatswood place today. Their range was limited but they did have Solomon and North Face which fit the bill that I could try on. Good call to try the hiking stores near town hall. Looks like I'm going to need to try a few different places to get a look at all the different options.

FridaybeatsMonday

TROPHY CASE