Goals and Winter Races: Just Don't Fall Over!

Well, this wasn't quite the blog I was expecting to be writing in the middle of winter, especially after having such a productive (and consistent) period of early season 'general prep' training.  However, it is as it is, and here we are. There's no point dwelling on what we can't change.

Goal Setting
At the end of the last summer season I spent some time reflecting on what had gone well, and not so well over the course of the previous season.  In general, I was very happy with my fitness, but felt that I had underperformed in a number of key races throughout the year. Whilst I could easily attribute my average performance at the Freycinet Challenge to being very underdone as a result of illness, my later season results were less clear. I'd mentally 'talked' myself out of a good place at Anaconda Lorne, and not given enough consideration to pre-race preparation for the Bullen-Merri Challenge. Notwithstanding, I'd had a great race with a 5th place at the King Valley Challenge in November.

Previously, I had spent some time with former ACT Academy of Sport (ACTAS) Psychologist Jason McCrae talking about the importance of race goals.  Jase pointed out to me that perhaps I was 'under-aroused' when it came to racing, and having raced so many times I was now 'going through the motions' on race day. I tended to agree, and had set out working on this over the coming season. In hindsight, what I hadn't done was set firm goals about the season; largely because I was doing a number of [new] races for the first time (so had no time goals to aim for).  In many ways my season goal had inadvertently become 'to do well in races.'  Its therefore, not too surprising I was feeling underwhelmed.

So, this season I've set a clear goal of 4:45hrs for Anaconda Lorne, my key 'A' race for the season. I've also made a clear choice to only race 'A' races that I've done before. I've also returned to the pool (partly to increase my kayak speed), much to the amusement of the squad, and each session is motivated by '4:45'.  I've also found a new level of consistency, equally motivated.  Where I do compete in new races, success will be measured by being within 110% of the winners time.

Training on the Salomon Trail Series course at Kew in May.

Winter Racing - XCR

Another take-away from last season was that I was lacking the ability to 'race' races out. I wasn't blowing up per se but I was definitely fading.  To address this we put two steps in place.  Firstly, I wanted to increase the specificity of my training, really working on aerobic power development and secondly, I wanted to do some 'tough' races over winter to practice shoulder to shoulder racing.  I set a race calendar that included three Athletics Victoria XCR races (Wendouree, Brimbank & Bundoora) and three Salomon Trail Series Races (Kew, Macedon & Ferny).

Wendouree 15k Road

Wendouree was first off the block after only a few weeks of 'transition' phase training.  The Wendouree course is flat and fast, and I was comprehensively shown out for being under prepared. I say this not because I was slow or felt unfit, but because my race brain wasn't switched on.  After the race I kicked myself for not doing what I'd committed to at the start of the season. A timely kick in the butt.

Kew 11k Trail

Like Wendouree, Kew was relatively flat and fast (for a trail race) with a number of short steep hills. This time I prepared carefully and raced well from the outset. If not for a hard road ride the day before I would have been closer to the front time wise, but because I'd 'raced' well I was happy with the result (finishing well in the top 10 with km rates as fast as Wendouree three weeks beforehand).

Brimbank 16k XC

Brimbank is known for its very soft course and the killer hill that you run up on two of the three laps.  Again I prepared well mentally, but forgot to grab my pre-race gel from my car. Thinking nothing of it I sailed around the first 4k loop in a very comfortable pace.  Unfortunately, I started to go flat on the second lap, and by the third was quite light headed.  In hindsight, I'd under-eaten on the previous two days (having been in all day meetings) and got caught out with the mid-afternoon race start (ie. no lunch). Despite this, I was reasonably happy with the outcome as I fought the race out to the end. This was another reminder about how important race preparation is.

Brimbank XCR, Second time up the hill...

The Crash

In preparation for the second Salomon Trail Series race Soph and I headed up to Macedon to run the specific course of the race. We have run a lot at Macedon and know the trails well, but equally wanted to run the course in order so we had some idea about how the hills would feel, and make an informed decision about shoe choice. The trails were quite slippery after a wet month of July and a couple of sections in particular were quite innocuously dangerous. If I can give any advice to someone running this weekend at Macedon, take some trail shoes that like mud (Inov8 X-Talon or Salomon SpeedCross), and get in a decent position before the single trail starts at the Camels Hump car-park.

After about an hours running we returned back to the main car-park at the Cross and had a short but steep descent down the north face of the mount before a slow climb back to the finish. This downhill section is always slippery, even in the dry, and Soph encouraged me to slow down before we got to the steep section so I didn't go tumbling over. Just as I started to half turn around to tell Soph not to worry I slipped on what otherwise was some fairly moderate, but rocky trail. My brief lapse of concentration was enough to have caught my toe on something and I stumbled, landing heavily on my right knee.

Soph pulled up my tights and went pretty white after looking at my knee telling me only that 'you don't want to look at this' before covering it up again. We carefully straightened out my leg, and Soph supported me slowly walking back up to the main path where there would hopefully be some help. I felt like I was going to vomit.  We asked some girls passing by to stay with me while Soph went back to the car to get the first aid kit and some blankets. Soph raided my car and came back with a tarp, my GoreTex jacket, my first aid kit (with space blanket) and a woollen blanket. In the meantime, I convinced one of the girls to call an ambulance as I didn't think I'd be able to tolerate the pain for too long.

The damage. The bottom cut was estimated as 20 x2 x4 cm.

By now I was shaking pretty bad, but despite the close to zero temperature, fog and rain I wasn't too cold. The girls wrapped me up in the blankets, and put an umbrella over my head to keep me out of the rain. The shaking must have been from the panic because every time I started shaking the ex-Ambulance officer that had now emerged put his hand on my shoulder and kept telling me that it was OK, and to relax and that seemed to stop the shaking. After a while the pain started to subside and I was starting to wonder if I was being soft, and whether we should just go back to the car, and drive to hospital. Having said that, part of me also remembered Ailie's experience and I decided I'd let the ambulance decide what to do, that is why I pay them after all.

After about half an hour the Ambulance showed up, and they loaded me into a wheelchair. I couldn't bend my leg, so Soph had to walk along holding it out whilst we rolled back to the car park. Once in the back of the Ambulance they cut off my tights so they didn't restrict blood flow. I still hadn't seen my knee, and was a bit delirious from the green whistle so asked the officer whether I'd needed to call an Ambulance.  Her response was along the lines of 'are you kidding?' which was closely followed by 'can I take a photo? it'll help get you processed faster in emergency.'  Off to hospital we go then...