Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 64: The Rise of Win or Bust Race Tactics, Uphill Treadmill Tips , and a WILD Weekend of Results!
23 Plays19 minutes ago
Welcome to Episode 64 of Peak Pursuits, your ultimate podcast for everything trail running in Australia. This episode is hosted by Sim Brick, Jess Jason and Brodie Nankervis and is filled with catch ups with Brodie’s travel, training and race updates from Jess and Sim, a listener question about uphill treadmill and results from around Aus - before a deep dive into the WILD weekend that was! Between Western States, Aussies in action at Lavaredo, Marathon du Mont Blanc and both a SkyRunner World Series and Golden Trail World series event, there is plenty to chat about!
Results
BTU: https://events.barefootsport.co.nz/event/1319/results?round=4005
Ultra Trail Jervis Bay: https://ultratrailjervisbay.com.au/event-info/results/
Freycinet Trail Run: https://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?raceid=396041&did=527652
Western States: https://www.irunfar.com/2025-western-states-100-results
Lavaredo https://live.utmb.world/lavaredo/2025/120K
Marathon du Mont Blanc: https://mbm.v3.livetrail.net/en/2025/races/42km?view=withdrawals&gender=FEMALE&limit=25
***Don’t forget, use code PPP at https://bix-hydration.myshopify.com/en-au for 20% off Bix products, exclusive to PPP listeners!***
Thanks for tuning in to Peak Pursuits! Connect with us on Instagram @peakpursuits.pod to share your thoughts, questions, and your own trail stories. Until next time, keep hitting the trails and chasing those peak pursuits!
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/trendsetter License code: K08PMQ3RATCE215R
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Host Greetings
00:00:05
Speaker
What number is this? Oh, 64. I got this. Hello and welcome to episode 64 of the Peak Pursuits podcast. My name is Simone Brick coming to you from Melbourne and I am lucky enough to be joined by Jess Jason over in, oh I was about to say over in Perth.
00:00:22
Speaker
My goodness, just as you were telling me off air that you finally settled into Canberra. Yeah. i must call Canberra, nice cold Canberra. Yeah, I wish I was in Perth at the moment, but um no, over in Canberra and surviving winter just.
00:00:35
Speaker
Good, good. Well, yeah, you're being thrust into it, so enjoy.
Weather and Health Updates
00:00:40
Speaker
um But also joined by someone who has escaped winter, and that is Brodie Nankervis. You are up in Sweden at the moment?
00:00:50
Speaker
Finland. Yeah, it's not it's not really not winter. It's a very similar temperature to Melbourne winter. The one good thing is the inside is a lot warmer than it is in in Australia. so and But the actual temperature outside is pretty similar. More sun, maybe.
00:01:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, well, we've been getting some pretty good sun. But anyways, we can get into that. Now, for this week, I do apologize about my voice. And if I cough too much, I will mute myself.
00:01:16
Speaker
um I'm going to try and make it through this episode. But you'll hear when we get to my week how that went down um and that I've managed to catch the lurgy. But someone that also – I think you've actually also been sick. I was about to say someone that's been well, but you haven't been, have you, Brodie? Yeah.
00:01:33
Speaker
I've been over smooth. It hasn't been the smoothest journey so far. um Tell us about it. haven't had from you in like three weeks now. Yeah, I can't actually remember what I last talked about when I was on the podcast. But yeah, a few weeks ago, I traveled to ah Europe.
00:01:49
Speaker
I left to on the So yeah, I've been over here for ah just over two weeks. um I flew to Sweden ah for...
Brodie's European Orienteering Journey
00:02:02
Speaker
an orienteering competition in Sweden um and then have sort of travelled across to Finland after that ah to prepare for World Champs, which my race is in 10 days ah in Finland where I am now. um So, yeah, just been doing orienteering. But, yeah, unfortunately, i got a bit sick ah either travel or some of the people i was travelling with early in the trip were also sick.
00:02:28
Speaker
I'm not exactly sure where I got fully sick from, but um came down like pretty similar to you, Sam, although I made it through that the orienteering competition I was doing had four races um and I stood on the start line of the first one feeling like okay, but then when I was running, didn't feel amazing and sort of had to sort of moderate my effort a little bit um and then after the first race came down sick so I had to skip the second race then there was a rest day um and then I sort of was able to race the last two days but was still sort of getting over the sickness so there's a bit of bad timing unfortunately but yeah the risk you take traveling directly before maybe and coming out of Melbourne winter where there was
00:03:13
Speaker
bit of sickness flying around. i was going to say it's everywhere. perhaps I've been trying to escape it this entire time and I thought I had, but um I'm not sure any, like even Jess, you were a while ago that it you were sick now though in um after Buffalo from memory, but so your immune system might have gone into winter a little bit boosted.
00:03:34
Speaker
Yeah. Thankfully. I'm hoping this is the sickness out of the way ah for, for for for my trip. But, yeah, so it was a bit bit unfortunate. It was pretty fun in Sweden, though, cool orienteering.
00:03:48
Speaker
um It was part of the orienteering World Cup, which is like the World Series essentially. um Yeah. So was there anything riding on those races? Or was it just a spot? Like, was there anything important?
00:04:00
Speaker
Like, well, the the reason I decided to go was because it was not that far away from World Champs, so you could sort of do both and not add too much additional time to a trip.
00:04:11
Speaker
um so not come over too early. um And the other main thing is that those races offer usually offer good world ranking points, and the world ranking points are somewhat important for world champs because for my race, they determine or they're involved in determining the start order, and start order and orienteering is becomes important especially in these european terrains where the terrain uh gets what we call tracked up so where people are running in the same play slots uh it the ground becomes like it's obvious that people have run there so it's easier to run and sometimes easier to navigate um for the later starters so usually it's a good idea start later
00:04:58
Speaker
Yes. Yeah. So it's this weird system that sort of reinforces the high-ranked people and it's hard for us to break in, often coming from outside of Europe. um But yeah, so I did go there as well to try and get optimize my start position. Unfortunately, I had to actually be able to compete well to get good world ranking points.
00:05:17
Speaker
um So it didn't quite pull it off. ah But it was they were really fun competitions and and I still got some experience running get back into running in an international competition, which is at a very different level to running in the Australian competition. So it was still worthwhile experience, just didn't get exactly what I wanted out of it.
00:05:37
Speaker
Yeah, hear you. And that was your only one before World Champs? Yeah, and then we've sort of travelled, spent a few days in Sweden, just recovering, which was nice, and then travelled across to Finland And now we're just training um in the similar terrain to get used to our interior sort of an important part of it. I guess the same as trail running where you you go and check the course and that sort of thing. It's a similar type of thing, but we're sort of checking out the terrain, trying to familiarise ourselves with it, um the the mapping style and and what things look like in the terrain because it is very different too Australia.
00:06:12
Speaker
um So are you staying just as close as you can to the embargo zone or...? Yeah, yeah. So there's some like training areas that are either close to the embargo or in other areas that are like similar type of terrain. So you' not allowed to go into the competition area, but you can train on similar type of terrain.
00:06:29
Speaker
um So yeah, there's various different training maps that we can go out and and and and go on. So yeah, that's what we're spending some time doing. Trying to get the balance right because running in the terrain a lot also like makes your legs really heavy and you feel slow because it's slow running.
00:06:45
Speaker
So trying to do some normal running as well, but get the balance right. And yeah, unfortunately, like a lot of the other teams came here ah maybe like three weeks ago so that they could have this time spending at home resting and ah sort of tapering off. But we just because of travel and whatnot, we end up having to sort of arrive as close to the competition as as is possible.
00:07:10
Speaker
So yeah, but it's good. It's good. It's a it's nice to be here um in Finland. It's very pretty. um So yeah, settling in. Unfortunately, I When we got to Finland, I had this weird fever and fatigue for like a whole day. My heart rate was crazy high.
00:07:28
Speaker
um So I think either I relapsed or I may have got like some other separate infection. um So yeah, hasn't been very smooth sailing, but I'm hoping that's the end of it. And from here through to World Champs, like I'm back to normal, my heart rate and everything is back to normal. So yeah, I'm hoping from here to my race, everything is smooth sailing.
00:07:50
Speaker
Fingers crossed. How are you feeling for world champs at this point? Yeah, i was just like sort of reflecting on that before. Like you would have noticed I haven't mentioned the word Achilles, which is quite exciting, but um it's been pretty well behaved.
00:08:02
Speaker
um Like it's still, I'm still aware of it and it's still a feature in, in my runs but it's uh it's it's getting better and better and it's it's miles better than it was when i was orienteering in australia back in april so um i'm feeling pretty positive about that but obviously my build is is probably the worst field i've ever done for a world championships the most sort of interrupted and disjointed but my fitness still feels pretty good like in may my fitness felt really good i don't know if i'm starting to
00:08:33
Speaker
sort of lose it a little bit now like I did a lot of cycling in January and February because it was good weather and I had a lot of time but then I couldn't do as much in in April and May so ah don't know if my fitness is starting to decline a little bit although I've been doing more running so yeah it's just hard I don't have a good yardstick to know how good my fitness is i didn't I couldn't compete to my best when I was in Sweden so I don't have a great gauge um which is pretty good. Like I've just got fairly low expectations of world champs, which means hopefully I can be um nicely surprised.
00:09:05
Speaker
was going to say, that leaves the door open for you to surprise yourself. Like sometimes those are the ones that actually turn out the best because you're not going in there going, yeah, I know I'm fit and I know where I should be. So like if you're even a couple of positions back, then you end up disappointed.
00:09:21
Speaker
Like it ends up being almost like, If you surprise yourself, you get that positive reinforcement, which can then make the next race better or like like they can turn out the best sometimes. Yeah, I think so.
00:09:32
Speaker
Like ah compared to Switzerland, which was the last Forest World Champs because last year was the urban one, I was very focused on that. I was very keen to get a good result.
00:09:42
Speaker
i was I thought the terrain suited me well, whereas here I've sort of the whole time for this prep, even without the Achilles like rehab happening, I've the this terrain is like the opposite of what suits us coming from the other side of the world like it's the the most difficult for us to perform well in um so I always had lower expectations anyway um so yeah it's it's nice i'm I'm actually really looking forward to the competition and I'm just doing one race there's four races so I get to sort of watch the other races and be a part of the Australian team and
00:10:15
Speaker
um yeah, I'm looking forward to it being, ah it's going to be tough.
Training Routines and Challenges
00:10:20
Speaker
It's a 16k, but it's like, this terrain's like hard in times to like, you're pushing really hard and not going faster than seven minute Ks.
00:10:28
Speaker
So it's, it's very demanding, very tough. um So I think, It's going to be a ah ah long grind. um But, yeah, I'm also good at long grinds. So hopefully it's a ah good day for me. Awesome.
00:10:43
Speaker
Well, best of luck. um We might chat to you again before then. We might chat to you after. I don't know. Hopefully, yeah. I raced on Thursday, so who knows? I might be on next week. We'll see. see how we go oh and the biggest highlight so far i actually went to i went to stockholm diamond league um i know way the day after i arrived and it was awesome that was so good there was a the plan to set the world record in the pole vault uh there's a record in the 5k um it was an epic meet and the stadium there is really cool um but the diamond leagues are so cool like such such fun events like
00:11:16
Speaker
In future years, if I'm coming across to Europe and I can somehow tee up going to another one, I definitely will. I would highly recommend if if people are in Europe and they can fit one in because it was, yeah, it was really awesome. It's like jam-packed.
00:11:29
Speaker
They just like race after race after race and they're all big names and, yeah, it was really cool. I think that one in particular would have been a good one with the records. I was in the stadium in Paris when Duplantis last broke the record and it was insane.
00:11:43
Speaker
Never forget it. Yeah. There's always like a home home crowd as well. And and the guy who, Armgren broke the 5K world record as well. and he European. Yeah, sorry, European record, um which was very cool as well. Like this when the last like four laps, there was just like a cheer following him around the stadium. Like the yell was so loud. It was very cool.
00:12:08
Speaker
Yeah, so that was cool. So yeah, it's been a good trip so far, apart from a few sicknesses. And hopefully that's behind me. I've got, oh my all the sicknesses is ticked off and i can just not be I can be healthy for the rest, hopefully.
00:12:22
Speaker
he writing Is there anything you've been doing to sort of keep the Achilles happy or is it just decided that it's all good now uh no I've so like I'm still working with Lockie on strength stuff like it's a bit trickier now I'm traveling to get access to gym and and because I've been moving a little bit um and also because I've been unwell I know that for me like gym is actually quite stressful on my immune system so I I haven't done like full gym sessions but I've been doing the Achilles work at at the bare minimum um yeah
00:12:55
Speaker
Which is fun. One of my teammates, Lockheed's put in my program because it's hard to get weights over here and Achilles, you have to do heavy weighted stuff. So he's put in yeah my program that ah my my eccentric calf raises is Laura plus a backpack.
00:13:12
Speaker
But unfortunately, Laura's still at home. So one of my teammates has been very helpful. Oh, my gosh. Helping with the... Can you please film that?
00:13:23
Speaker
I told him we had to film it. We had dinner at Brody's and when Lockie was saying, Laura was just there like, am I going to have to get on his back again? And Lockie was just like, sorry. It's very funny because and Lockie discussed it, but even like he didn't just put like,
00:13:39
Speaker
the calf raises like 70 kilos in the like the strength and conditioning app he uses he specifically said laura plus backpack oh my god i thought that was very good and we definitely need footage of this place yeah i'll get i'll get a video um but I had to like do a deal with one of my teammates that like some sort of trade because it's a bit annoying.
00:14:01
Speaker
and But it it is actually, it's annoying because like if it was if it was like a something that wasn't important, I just would like, it's the sort of thing that you would, like if it was one percenter, you just let it slide. But for my Achilles, it's like super important that I continue it. So yeah I sort of have to make some deals and and and make it happen. and Love that.
00:14:21
Speaker
Whatever you have to do. It's commitment right there. I love it. I love it. See if I can set up a picture and we can put it on the podcast episode post.
00:14:33
Speaker
Oh, yes, actually. That is definitely this week's thing. Yes, love that. Everyone will get to see it. Although we do have a lot of awesome races to talk about later that might take precedent. It can go alongside it. I'll just do my one of my great, amazing edits that everyone loves where I chuck you in the corner like yeah alongside like the Western States winners or something. It'll be great. I'd love that. Absolutely amazing.
Jess's Training Insights
00:14:59
Speaker
But awesome, awesome. Well, it's good to catch up and it's good to hear how you've been going. And yeah, if we don't talk to you next week, best of luck. And I'm sure everyone will ah agree with that. But yeah, be cool to hear how it goes afterwards.
00:15:12
Speaker
And then bringing it back closer to home before we do get to all of the races that went on this weekend, because it was a wild weekend in trail. Jess, how's Canberra winter going and how's training treating you? No more almost throwing up mid-sessions, I hope, this week?
00:15:28
Speaker
um No, I've been good. Like, ive my training's going really well. I did one of my biggest wakes I've done since August last year, so pretty happy and, like, feeling really good.
00:15:40
Speaker
um Yeah, I've been, like, really focusing on fueling. I know I should have been doing this, like, ages ago, but um Just like really like purposely having like more gels, like even when in like short runs and like sessions when I never used to do and I'm just feeling so much better. um How good does it feel? It's like you have this little moment of going, uh-huh, right, this is what everyone's talking about.
00:16:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I really noticed it today actually. Cause like I did one of my first sort of big run long runs on Sunday since UTA, which is like 30 K. um and I fueled really well during that. And then just like ate so much Sunday, Monday, and then track session today just felt really good. Like my legs, I just noticed they recovered so much better, yeah which is amazing. yeah,
00:16:34
Speaker
going to keep going with that. I have found like the like a little bit of gut issues um still like particularly with tempo sessions which is interesting.
00:16:45
Speaker
I'm not too sure why like um I've always had like trouble with um nerves before a tempo session, like in the morning. ah um So I'm sort of used to like waking up before them and being like a little bit nauseous from nerves.
00:17:01
Speaker
um But this is kind of different. like I don't feel as nervous now because I've been sort of doing it with a group. which kind of helps. But then i find like, like when I'm in the last few minutes of the tempo effort and I'm kind of like pushing to get to the end, I just like, all of a sudden I'll just start dry reaching and then either like having to stop or actually vomiting. um Yeah. Okay.
00:17:29
Speaker
And that's happened to the last three weeks since I've been getting back into tempo sessions. So I have been like having a lot more carbs than usual. Um, so I don't know. What is your, what's your heart rate doing at the end of these sessions? Like at the point where this happens is, is your heart rate just at normal sort of tempo ish heart rate or do you reckon you're above threshold kind of stuff?
00:17:54
Speaker
Yeah, I reckon it's like my heart rates at tempo for most of the session. And then in the last few minutes when I'm just like trying to finish hard, it creeps up. Yeah. Um,
00:18:05
Speaker
That's when I noticed it, yeah. Like, and I, because when it first happened, I was, like, running in the cold and I was kind of, like, my body felt like it was going into shock, so I was, like, oh it's just the cold. But then the next few weeks, like, I did my session at midday and one of them was just, like, um a hilly tempo where I run a bit slower, but I noticed it when I was pushing on, like, the lot the last uphill. It just, it happened again, so it's definitely, like, to do with the effort.
00:18:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah Tempo, just maybe not the time to push at the end. Yeah. I don't know. For me, it's, I suppose, but this is the way I like training because I'm always thinking, I suppose, about the next thing. But most of the time, if it's a tempo, I kind of just want to finish a tempo effort as opposed to pushing too much at the end. I might choose one or more, but I guess...
00:18:55
Speaker
If you were feeling fine, if you were doing that and pushing at the end and feeling fine and nothing was going wrong, then 100% go for it. But I think might be worth worth at least for a couple of weeks just trying to continue the effort and not push at all, even if that means slowing down a little bit.
00:19:11
Speaker
But it looks like based on Strava on your last tempo, you were finishing pretty fast, compare like you were faster at the end than at the start. So it might be worth just trying to keep it at a more steady effort to just partially just to break the cycle, like yeah let your body get used to that slightly, slightly slower effort or slow slower pace or like the proper tempo effort the whole way through.
00:19:34
Speaker
So it continues to digest and absorb the carbs you've got. And then you might find that then your ceiling kind of goes up and up in order in terms of like digesting the carbs and things.
00:19:45
Speaker
Because if you're just going over every single week, then your body's just going to reinforce that. Yeah, we go over, we have stomach problems. We go over, yeah we have stomach problems. So might be worth just this week, not pushing the end of the tempo, keeping it like steady Eddie.
00:20:00
Speaker
yeah Yeah, it's interesting because then I don't feel it like in the track sessions where I'm running faster, but there's shorter intervals. So I feel like I stop before it heart rate creeps up.
00:20:11
Speaker
And are you taking, you're not taking carbs, like you're not taking carbs mid rep in this? ah No, I'm taking it like right before the session, like after the warmup.
00:20:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think that would probably make quite a difference because things that go in like it's already gone in when your heart rate's not super high. Whereas if you're taking carbs in, your heart rate's already up.
00:20:33
Speaker
There is like your body treats it differently because there's less blood going to your stomach. So yeah there is a pretty big difference between taking carbs just before a track session to during a tempo.
00:20:44
Speaker
Yeah, okay. so Yeah. Yeah, you go. Yeah, it's not too bad. I'll figure it out. Just playing around with a few things. But yeah other than that, like my body is feeling amazing. I just feel like super efficient at the moment. Like, you know, and you're just kind of covering the ground really well.
00:21:00
Speaker
um And like you don't really have any niggles or anything, which is really nice. Like I feel like I'm in a good spot at the moment. So hopefully i can keep that going for another couple of months and just slowly like build on a bit of fitness.
00:21:14
Speaker
Love that. Yeah. Absolutely love that. Well, that's awesome to hear. Awesome, awesome to hear. And you were still with the group on the track session on Tuesday? Yeah. i My plan that I've made for the next few months leading into my next race is to alternate – So every second week I'll do um like a hill session on a Tuesday rather than a track session and then um more of like a group tempo on the Thursday.
00:21:48
Speaker
um And then the other weeks I'll do a track session and hilly like more trail tempo on a Saturday, which I haven't done yet. I'm a little bit um apprehensive as to how that's going to go.
00:22:04
Speaker
with long run the next day um because usually my hilly tempos are pretty hard and then backing that up with the long run is going to be hard, but we'll see. like The first one will be hard.
00:22:16
Speaker
but Yeah. and and like But I think it will get easier as you go and there's some great adaptations you can get there. Yeah, it just means that I can fit in um another like decent midweek long run on the Wednesday and then I don't have to like, oh sorry, on the Thursday and I don't have to back that up with a session the next day. I can have like an easier day and then do a session long run rest day.
00:22:36
Speaker
I'm just going to try that out and so I can fit a bit more like aerobic work in in the middle of the week. Awesome. Well, you keep the fueling up and I reckon you'll be fine on the Saturday, Sunday.
00:22:48
Speaker
That's just where it becomes important too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. but What about you? How have you been... Oh, I just have a question.
Simone's Training and Race Preparation
00:22:58
Speaker
Go, go break.
00:22:59
Speaker
No, that's all right. um Jess, I think I heard in the last few weeks you don't have any races planned before that bigger race later in the year. um Will you do any like small like tune-ups or like will you do like some like harder long runs or like what do you have any?
00:23:17
Speaker
plans on what you do or just sort of standard training week to week until until the race um yeah i'm gonna do something at the end of july ah there's a couple of 30k races that i'm trying to decide between um so yeah either the sydney ultramarathon 30 or just a local one that's part of the Shri Chinmoy series.
00:23:38
Speaker
Nice. um And then I'll do the 100K relay, which is also part of that Shri Chinmoy series um where everyone does like 20-something K leg. That's in August.
00:23:52
Speaker
Oh, that sounds fun. That's a fun way to get a hard effort in. Yeah, I'm excited about that. Yeah. man Sounds good. um Yeah. Looks like you're in like a solid block and looks like the training's going well. So that's good.
00:24:03
Speaker
Yeah. Thank you. Good stuff. um Yeah. My week. Tale of two ends of a week. That's for sure. um So, and ah my week will, I suppose we can roll into a few results off the back of mine because I did have BTU. But yeah,
00:24:18
Speaker
but It started with I'd just come off my big endurance week um where I did have quite a big jump in how much I'd run. So I wasn't sure how the week was going to go. um And then I actually ended up doing, I did a track session Tuesday and it was the first time that i'm in a while I've gone back with the um Crosby Crew training group at night doing a track session in the cold and I tell you what I've there's not many nights at Olympic Park or in Melbourne anyone that trained last Tuesday in Melbourne will testify that it was one of the worst days for training imaginable um I think my Strava says 33 kilometer per hour wins um and it was it was kind wild but either way for me that was just a bit of fun
00:25:02
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I still, um, took Monday super easy. And then Tuesday, the track session, I did far four by 800, four by 400. And it was one of those interesting ones where I get to the start and I'm like, yeah, I can feel Sunday's descent. Cause me and Kel did like 1500 meters downhill sort of pretty much in one go. So my quads were a bit beat up.
00:25:24
Speaker
And Tim's like, just see what happens. You'll be fine. um Which shout out to, I think he does listen, Ross, one of the guys I train with and I've trained with for years. Absolutely love Ross. And there's Jess, you know, Ross.
00:25:35
Speaker
Yeah. There's just this comfort I have with going sweet. It's me and Ross today because of how many training sessions we've done together. And so very early on, it was like just me and Ross working together, but Ross was being an absolute beast and taking the wind every time. Yeah. in the 800s.
00:25:53
Speaker
So, and I was like, look, I feel like I want to take one for you. But then when I went to take one, like I'm slower than he was into the wind. So he just goes around and I'm like, you're a legend. So anyways, some great teamwork there and we i got through the 800s fine.
00:26:06
Speaker
And then the the reason I'm noting this is because I kind of in so many ways blew my own mind um in a cool way because I didn't feel poppy um up until that point. It was just like follow Ross around the track, do the 800s, whatever, Trevor.
00:26:22
Speaker
And then I felt like I felt a bit like I'd sandbagged because everyone um i was said to I was like, oh, I'm not going to go too fast in the 400s because I'm not like this is not my aim. Like I'm training for 100K. I don't need to rip some fast 400s.
00:26:36
Speaker
And my legs are a bit beat up. Anyways, we get to the full first 400 and i I'm someone that, for someone especially that trains for ultras, I can get out the gates pretty quick. Like I like starting fast in um track reps.
00:26:49
Speaker
So anyways, I go to start the first 400 and I'm genuinely not kidding when I say running has never felt like that. I was running along for the first 100 meters going, I feel like I'm flying.
00:27:00
Speaker
Like this feels amazing. Like nothing hurt. Everything was even. And I just felt like, as you just you described, covering the ground well. But it was just like I could put power. i don't know if I was just hitting the right spot on my shoes all of a sudden or what was going on. But it was just I felt smooth, smoother than I've ever felt.
00:27:19
Speaker
And I was like, this feels amazing. Let's just see what keeps happening. And which it's still not that fast. But for me, I if i go run the first 400 and I get to the end and no one's caught me. And I've just led the whole group round for a 72 for the first one.
00:27:34
Speaker
And I'm there going, I've only ever broken 70 once in my life. Like what have I just done? And normally... I've done that before and then I've absolutely blown to shreds, like cannot hold it. My power is gone. I'm done.
00:27:46
Speaker
And so I'm there like we haven't got a long recovery. Let's just go again and go again and go again. And I think I've done this before as a 400 only session when I'm doing speed work.
00:27:57
Speaker
But to do this off the back of sort of a four-hour run on the Sunday and a 17-hour training week the week before, I think I went 72, 73, 74, 72, which –
00:28:07
Speaker
which is more speed than I've ever managed um in this sort of block of training. So I got to the end of that and I just looked at Tim and went, what the hell was that? And he's like, don't question it. You're doing good.
00:28:18
Speaker
do not Do not question. Don't want questions. I'm like, sweet. Okay, cool. um So yeah, it was just one of those, if they come once on a blue moon, I reckon, these sorts of sessions where you get to the end and you're like,
00:28:29
Speaker
damn, like that was cool. um Especially for track sessions for me, because that's not that's not my forte, let's say that. um So yeah, that was definitely the highlight of my week, let's say, on the Tuesday, because then I get to the end of that session and I thought I was going to get to Saturday for Brisbane and I'm like, oh, my legs might be a bit tired.
00:28:49
Speaker
And that's what I was thinking on the Monday. But then after the track session on the Tuesday, I'm like, no, we're good. Let's go. Like I'm going to rip on Saturday. Like I was just in that mindset of going, this is amazing. I'm going to like, I'm informed. Let's go.
00:29:01
Speaker
So anyways, I was still was fine. Wednesday, two hour easy run. Thursday, I still did another session. I think I did four by eight minutes uphill on the treadmill and still feeling fine. Like heart rate response, all totally fine.
00:29:17
Speaker
traveled on Thursday after that session, still was fine all Thursday evening. Friday, I was like, yeah, okay, I've got a bit of a scratchy throat and like things aren't perfect.
00:29:28
Speaker
But I was like, and it was even messaging you, Jess, saying, I've just got a mild head cold. It's so fine. Like my my immune system's amazing. I'll be so totally fine tomorrow. Um, so I still, like, I didn't taper off much for the race. I still did 18 K the day before. I think I did 60 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes in the evening on Friday.
00:29:47
Speaker
And both of those, I think that was what was giving me the confidence. Like my heart rate was fine. I think my heart rate was like one 30 for both. The effort wasn't off. And so it was like, yeah, I'm a little bit congested, but I think I'm fine
Simone's Race Day Experience
00:30:00
Speaker
here.
00:30:00
Speaker
um, And then it was Friday night, the night before the race. Like you never expect to have a good night's sleep, but I couldn't sleep because of how much like I needed to just get up and blow my nose and my throat felt like daggers.
00:30:14
Speaker
And I was just like, you know, that feeling where you've been breathing through your mouth for so long that then the back of your throat just feels like it's, it's just never going to not be dry. Um, so i got almost no sleep and I like,
00:30:27
Speaker
Then the alarm went on what race morning and I was like, okay, it's here. Like I'm done. So ah for context as well, the week before, like the weekend before, um Matt had been sick for like a few days as well.
00:30:41
Speaker
So I was like, but I was doing the whole, like not touching him, hand sanitizing, like staying away. in like fear of getting sick. But anyways, managed to get sick just in time. So woke up Saturday morning and would definitely like, if I wasn't already in Brisbane at the start, like having done the travel, there was no way I would have actually rocked up.
00:31:03
Speaker
Um, but Yeah, we did. We got there. And it was also kind of, I suppose, the decision-making process here was pretty much that with everything that's gone on in the Golden Trail series, which we've covered in the targeting the tickets and stuff, like I pretty much needed to finish and I was going to win the series, which comes with a prize purse.
00:31:22
Speaker
So it was like, I don't need to like blast the doors off here. I just need to get the race done. And there's something worthwhile at the other end of that. hoping that it didn't put me too far back sickness-wise.
00:31:35
Speaker
And me being me, also being the eternal optimist, um when it did come to the race, like we take off at the start and I take off like I'm racing. Like I went off at the front and I was like, okay, just you might be fine.
00:31:47
Speaker
Like there was still that question of going, I might be fine here. Like I don't feel great, but we'll see what happens. And I think it was about 4Ks in when I was still with, I was only like 15,
00:32:00
Speaker
30, 40 meters still behind um Zoe and ah Joanna had taken well off at the start. And I was like, within two Ks, I was like, yeah, I'm not at that pace today.
00:32:11
Speaker
Like there's no way, but I was still with Zoe for about the first four K. And then there was just this one climb where I went, what am I doing? Like I'm four Ks in. And if I, if I keep this going, I'm actually not going to finish.
00:32:22
Speaker
Cause I had that whole like cold sweat, heart rate, super high, breathing off like it was just I was like okay you're being dumb now so yeah essentially from 4k up until about 17k like just before Kokoda um if anyone knows the course Brody I don't think you ran it last year did you or you did No, but I've run BTU before and I've run some of those trails. I've been up Kokoda before.
00:32:50
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Well, it was amazing conditions, much cooler than last year. Like the conditions were much more, like like much better for um racing. And then some of the trails had been graded too. So it was like actually really nice running most of the time. Yeah.
00:33:06
Speaker
But yeah, I got to 18K and I hadn't seen anyone for a while. Actually, sorry, I had seen Zoe because she'd taken a wrong turn. So Zoe had been ahead of me out of sight, taken a wrong turn. I've gone past where she's taken the wrong turn. And then all of a sudden she appears behind me again and she runs past and i'm like, Zoe, what the hell? Like, where did you come from?
00:33:26
Speaker
And she's like, I took a wrong turn. I got lost back up there and blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, Great. And so it's like, cause then obviously our speed is not very matched at all. So she comes flying past me and I'm like, okay, see ya, off you go again.
00:33:38
Speaker
um but I got to 18, like I got to just before Kokoda and I just called Matt, um, in the middle of the race. Cause I was like, I just need to know. how easy I can go to the finish line to stay in third.
00:33:51
Speaker
Um, cause I couldn't see anyone behind. Like I couldn't even see any guys. Like I had no one ahead, no one behind. I was just in this like little solo area of misery feeling pretty damn sorry for myself.
00:34:03
Speaker
Um, And so, yeah, called Matt and got – because I'd just run over a timing checkpoint um and he told me it was nine minutes back to fourth. So, thankfully, that's pretty much what got me to the finish line is that call and going, okay, there's like 7K to the finish and I've got a nine-minute gap.
00:34:22
Speaker
So, I can – someone has to go like a minute a K faster than me over this next bit for me to lose a spot. So I was pretty like content with chilling, um on my way up Kokoda and just getting the race done because yeah, my body didn't have like, my body didn't have much more than what I did anyway.
00:34:41
Speaker
Um, but yeah, not the race that I was there for, but came away with third, got enough of a result to like secure the series and still land on the podium. It was like, okay, my when I was reflecting on it, even just in the middle of the race, I'm like, okay, my position for Golden Trail Series this year is just third because I've kind had three thirds on three days where like,
00:35:04
Speaker
Nothing went right um on many of them, on all of them. So, yeah, anyways, it was just, it was what it was. Joanna had a ripper run out front.
00:35:14
Speaker
um I've actually never met her and i because I was trying to stay away from everyone on the finish line and stuff, I didn't say hi um or get a chance to. So I've tried to a message her since and hopefully I can connect. think she's a Brisbane local.
00:35:29
Speaker
Yeah, I saw she was an obstacle course racer. Yeah, she does more of those like Tough Mudder. ah love it. course type races. Love it. Well, yeah, she had a ripper run, um which was very cool to see.
00:35:43
Speaker
and um And, yeah, there was a few people poor like that behind. Like, it turns out the only reason there was actually a bigger gap behind me was that um I think Maddie in fourth and Kerry in fifth and a few others had actually taken probably, I'm assuming, the same wrong turn.
00:36:01
Speaker
as um ah Zoe, but I think someone had actually moved the flags. And I didn't notice because I just follow the blue line of my watch. Like I have the blue line of my watch.
00:36:13
Speaker
Also, so I knew where I was. yeah I didn't know where I was going. There was actually many times I was looking down going, am I right? um But because the only watch face I have showing when I'm racing is the line, I didn't like any question. There was no question of where I was going for me.
00:36:28
Speaker
um But, yeah, poor Maddie and Kerry and a few others a bit further back added about a K trail. on this on a trail And, um yeah yeah, so that's unfortunate.
00:36:39
Speaker
But I think that was literally just course tampering um or so yeah someone actually moving one of the arrows to point the wrong way, which absolutely sucks for those people.
00:36:50
Speaker
um Yeah, the importance of having the – like it shouldn't be the case that it's really important to have the map on your watch, but I suppose these are the times that it highlights that it's not always the race not marking a course right that is the problem.
00:37:04
Speaker
um Yeah. We are in public spaces. So, yeah, sad times there. um But, yeah, it was a cool day overall. And flew home, not thankfully, straight after the race and I've been in bed since and hence why i still sound like this now Saturday.
00:37:20
Speaker
Tuesday evening. um So we're paying the price ah for being out there, but I'm hoping I can keep this limited to as few days as possible. I did run today actually, but it was just a sort of ten k test run and I'm at the point where i'm yeah I sound horrible and I'm really congested, but my energy levels are actually okay.
00:37:41
Speaker
And my legs feel actually amazing because they really rested at this point. So I'm not sure when I'll be able to actually like train properly, but I can hopefully at least jog the next couple days.
Race Results and Analysis
00:37:54
Speaker
and see how we go from there. um But, yeah, so I suppose the rest of BTU. Brodie, did you keep up to date with the results and have you actually chatted to any of the guys afterwards?
00:38:04
Speaker
I haven't spoken to anyone. I watched it. I saw the results sort of come up, but, yeah, I'm a bit disconnected over here from being a lot going on. Fair, fair. um Well, yeah, Leo, i got a little bit of a rundown in my post-race horribleness.
00:38:20
Speaker
um But Leo ran away with it. He was a bit faster than last year, which doesn't surprise me because, yeah, conditions were much better. um But he also won by seven minutes, I think, in the end.
00:38:32
Speaker
I have it here. ah Yeah, 148 to 155, Ben Duffus in second, and then another four minutes back to Nath Pearce, um who only beat Thomas Banks by about 40 seconds.
00:38:44
Speaker
um And run of the day probably in some ways goes to Zach Newsham because he was up in third most of the race, um went off at the front with them. It was on his 21st birthday.
00:38:56
Speaker
um And he did hold on for fifth, beating Toby by three minutes. so Zach Neuson was in fifth and Toby from the podcast from targeting the ticket was in sixth.
00:39:08
Speaker
But yeah, that was some ripper running by them and by the sounds they had. a bit more of a battle for much longer and a bit closer racing because on the women's side, um yeah, Joanna, she ran away with it for 2.11 for the win. So she got my course record, which good on you, Joanna.
00:39:24
Speaker
Absolutely love it. And then Zoe Manning in second 2.23 and came in 2.27. and i came in into twenty seven um four And then fourth was Sarah Ryan because I went back in the men's and in 240. And fifth was Romy Wollstonecroft in 244.
00:39:43
Speaker
So was still a very cool day. that The series obviously went to Leo because two wins and then a win at the final. Absolutely no one can beat that.
00:39:54
Speaker
um Thomas Banks, though, he got um he got up on Toby for second. So Toby got relegated back to third. Thomas Banks came in comes in for second in the series because of the being ahead at the final.
00:40:07
Speaker
so Yeah, nice. That was cool. there yeah was it How much faster was Leo than what did he run in last? It was about two minutes, I think. Yeah, okay. He looked like he was flying.
00:40:17
Speaker
The pace for his run is just crazy. Yeah, he ran 150 last year from memory um and then, yeah, 148 this year. So was about two minutes or so faster and without being pushed the whole way. So which like it, yeah, i or I remember last year feeling really hot on the day and there was not that, like it was like 20 degrees.
00:40:41
Speaker
And I think last year it was like 27. So doesn't surprise me um at all that he went quite a bit faster. So yeah. um But, yeah, that's BTU. We'll hear from the Targeting the Ticket guys ah hopefully later this week.
00:40:57
Speaker
um I've just realised I've got to put that together. So we'll hear from Toby and Nath. Nath had a really good run for the fact that he's been sick and had a few problems in the lead up. So um that was good by him.
00:41:10
Speaker
And yeah, I think that covers enough of BTU. um We'll go to a couple of other results on the Oz front later or should we just do them now and then do listener question?
00:41:22
Speaker
Yeah, let's just do them now, I guess. Awesome. um Well, the one one other that I picked up, Ultra Trail Jervis Bay. Now, when I go through the results every week, I suppose I'm always looking for names I know or just really close races.
00:41:35
Speaker
And I reckon this almost takes the cake for one of the closer ones. And I would love to hear the story behind it. We might see if we can try and get it. um but Ultra Trail Jervis Bay um on the women's side, I'll go through the men's results after, but on the women's side, this is the 53K Coastal Trail.
00:41:52
Speaker
It was won by all Anna Pillinger, so a name that we've mentioned before, in four hours, 39, 20. Second place was Marika Walsh. And they might also recognize, so I think we might've called her out on a podium before, um in four hours 39.53.
00:42:09
Speaker
So what's that? 33 seconds back. And then third place was Catherine Fulginiti in four hours 40.41. So another 50 seconds back.
00:42:21
Speaker
So first, second and third in a 53K were separated by 80 seconds, which is pretty damn close. I love it. Absolutely love to see it. On the men's side in the same race, it was a bit more of a runaway win for Will Draper in four hours 18.
00:42:37
Speaker
Second was Matt Lewis in four hours 32. And then third male was actually behind all of our podium females. um He was four hours 46.53. for third but would have been sixth overall at least because the three women were super close and ahead of him.
00:42:57
Speaker
So that was cool to see at Ultra Trail Jervis Bay. I'm not entirely sure even where this one is but um also had on the men's side in the hundred and six k mega What looks to me like a really fast time by George Knight in nine hours and three minutes and 23 seconds for 106K.
00:43:16
Speaker
um Pretty sure that would be right up there. Second overall and first female was Lucy Holman in 10 hours 13 for the 106K. So, again, super fast time.
00:43:29
Speaker
So, yeah. I've run some of the trials around there. They're, like, mostly – fire road through like national park but a little bit sandy. Nice. And then I think they, I sort of looked at the course um because it's like on the south coast between Sydney and Canberra.
00:43:44
Speaker
Okay. Really beautiful part of Australia. um Yeah, I think some of it went like on some bike paths and things. So there was a bit of like footpaths in the course, which probably explains the faster times.
00:43:59
Speaker
Yeah, still ripping fast times for the distance. So, yeah, cool. And Brodie, you're taking us through Freysenay down in Tassie? Yeah, so we had the Freysnay Trail Run, um which is in Freysnay National Park, Coles Bay.
00:44:15
Speaker
um So it's a sort of loop of most of the peninsula, um but not the whole peninsula. um But it's been run for a fair few years. I think it's the same race, but it seems to run this time of year every year.
00:44:31
Speaker
um and we had some strong tasmanian runners doing the course uh so in the men's uh angus tolson uh who ran well earlier in the year at uh the overland track race uh he actually got cradle mountain that's it sorry cradle mountain ultra i forgot what it was called off the top my head um He got the win over Alex Hunt.
00:44:58
Speaker
ah And Alex Hunt, ah we've sort of spoken about him before, is a very accomplished multi-sport athlete. He won, you know, going to The New Zealand coast to coast.
00:45:12
Speaker
Wait, Brody, your mic's gone. Hello. Yeah, you're back. I really need to get better mics. Too late. You do. Sorry, in Europe.
00:45:25
Speaker
Oh, my God. Sorry. All right. ah So, yes, Angus Colson. Just that way, Coast to Coast. Yeah, Coast to Coast. So he's in pretty good form this year, and he's a very good runner. And Angus managed to get the win over him time 2 hours 45.03. ran 2 hours 48.11, and Oliver Williams was third 2 hours 59.10.
00:45:43
Speaker
ran two as forty eight eleven and oliver williams was in third and two as fifty nine ten I had a look to see maybe what time people had done previous years. I think Piotr Babis has maybe done it in like 2 hours 35, but it may have been the other way around.
00:45:58
Speaker
I'm not sure the exact – I don't know if they do the same loop every year. So ah still some impressive running there. um And then in the women, we had a really – Sorry.
00:46:10
Speaker
Another close race in the women's. Mel Clark got the win in three hours, 26.05. And Kate Pedley in second in three hours, 30.46.
00:46:22
Speaker
And just ahead of Jill Lyle in 3.31.01. So pretty close there. And then fourth, Amy Lamprec was not far behind in 3.32. So some some close running there in the and the women's class again. So very impressive.
00:46:36
Speaker
Love it. Awesome. Well, yeah, that's our Aussie results for this week, just while we were on topic for one, but there is still plenty of this podcast to go because there's a few more things.
00:46:47
Speaker
and We have a few listener questions. And then in the global scene of trail running, there was whole heap that went down.
Listener Questions and Treadmill Training
00:46:55
Speaker
This episode is proudly brought to you by Bix. Bix has supported the show from the start and personally, I'm really loving the Big 40 gel.
00:47:03
Speaker
Whether you're just going out for a 60 minute run and want the one gel, you're a moderate carb fueler and have 80 grams an hour, or like myself, you're trying to hit that 120 grams an hour range, it makes the maths super easy.
00:47:14
Speaker
Not only is the 40 grams of carbs, but I really like the fact there's 200 milligrams of sodium. It's a nice number that's not going to overload you if you're going high carb fueling, but it also means you don't have to carry around any annoying little salt tablets.
00:47:25
Speaker
And again, the natural flavor, I've always been a fan of that. There's no palate fatigue. The consistency is really nice and thin. It goes down super easy. So I've become a really big fan. If you want to give that a go or try out any of the rest of the range, head over to the website, use code PPP at checkout to save yourself 20% off the entire range.
00:47:43
Speaker
And with that, let's get back to the show. So I'm going to start with a couple of listener questions that are unrelated to the weekend's events, and then we'll go through the weekend's events and answer a couple that were related.
00:47:55
Speaker
um This one and think will be a pretty simple one in terms of just giving some stats for us, but we got asked by Greg on um one of our Spotify comments, thanks Greg, for um what incline we put the treadmill on and speed.
00:48:13
Speaker
for uphill treadmill training. um Brodie, Jess, I know you don't do a huge amount of uphill treadmill. um Brodie, you have before. What, do you have any,
00:48:24
Speaker
like things you stick to or things you like to do in terms of uphill treadmill? That's a big, ah it depends. that's it on is it Because it there is a large variation. It depends on what your treadmill can do. Most of the general gym treadmills that is not like a specific uphill treadmill will do maybe max 15%.
00:48:45
Speaker
um And then, yeah, you get those other treadmills, the specific ones that can go up to, i don't know, I've seen some up at like 40%. So yeah, that's probably the starting point is like, what do you have access to?
00:48:57
Speaker
And then it's probably around like, what are you actually training for? um and And trying to sort of use it as part of your training program towards that specific goal. So if you're not doing a really...
00:49:10
Speaker
mountainous really really healy trail run and it's like a flat coastal one then you probably don't need to do heaps at high percentages but you might still want to do some at 10% to take the load off um like you're doing some yeah' you're using it to take load off a hard running session so you're not banging ah going at as fast a speed then 10% might be a good a good gradient um but then yeah if you're training for most trail races have got percentages of 15 at least so you're probably we might want to do a bit at 15%, but yeah, it did it sort of depends what the goals of the session are, I guess.
00:49:44
Speaker
um If you're doing hiking, then it probably needs to be at least 15%, if not more. so um Yeah. um So I'm going to steal something in some ways that, i would to be fair, it's something I've stolen as well for my own training. But for my training,
00:50:02
Speaker
I always play around with the percentages. um I do have a treadmill that I sometimes go on that is my treadmill that goes to 40%, but all my runs recently have been on normal gym treadmills that go to 15. I find 15% is great if like I really want to go slow that day, essentially,
00:50:21
Speaker
o um I want to do, I do want to do the steepest that the treadmill goes when it's only fit up to 15%, just to get the elevation that I want um for the run. But I do find sort of the 10%, 8 to 10%, I feel like I'm running smoother. I don't know, like it feels more like a run yeah if I'm at 8 to 10%. So some of my easy doubles and easy runs. Yeah.
00:50:46
Speaker
I tend to put those at eight to 10% if it's just that I'm trying to take the load off for an easy run. Like it's an easy run that I could do outside. i want a little less load or I'm doing maybe some heat for me. But if I want to feel like I'm running a bit more than eight to 10% for me is my like happy place.
00:51:02
Speaker
Then if I'm specifically getting on the treadmill to get elevation gain and the aim is not decreasing impact, obviously it will anyway, but then I'll be more in the 12 to 15% range.
00:51:14
Speaker
um However, this is something that I think I saw again, good old David Roach. He's going to come up and probably later when we talk Western States. But he gave what to me looked like really good guidance in terms of he had the, um for that he was in miles per hour, which I have figured out.
00:51:32
Speaker
He says put it on six and a half Ks an hour and then Whatever gradient sick at six and a half Ks an hour is is your sort of zone two or steady heart rate, go for that. And this is this is to improve your uphill.
00:51:44
Speaker
um He then says, increase the gradient as you get better at doing this and your heart rate sort of stays in a similar spot. So six and a half Ks per hour, not going above that. And then he said only increase the speed when you can be at six and a half k's an hour at 15% at a steady heart rate, which for me, i can like I can already do.
00:52:06
Speaker
So like my my normal for sort of 15% is more in the seven to eight k's per hour range for when I'm at that gradient. So, but that was his guidance, which I think is actually really good guidance. I would suggest like if you're yeah six and a half pace per hour.
00:52:21
Speaker
Because that's the speed he suggests that you would be still running at. he's a very he's an advocate of He's an advocate of running every hill. so And no matter what, yes like even if you even if you run the hill slowly, you should run rather than hike is sort of his rationale around it. um Obviously, that not everyone can run six and a half when it gets over certain...
00:52:45
Speaker
and over speed But that's that's part of his his his thing as well is to run it. so and But that varies, again, the different coaches and athletes will do different things. So um whether you're hiking or running, you've got to figure that out as well. It's a good guide.
00:52:59
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. um And because you may never get to six and a half case per hour at 15%, that's fine too. Just go longer for where you can get to. Like you might be six and a half case per hour at 8%, that's fine.
00:53:10
Speaker
um Just, yeah, then extend the time instead of going up the gradient and making it. Because yeah I do find that six and a half case per hour on a steep enough gradient, I do still find I'm like running.
00:53:22
Speaker
And it feels like a run and not i don't want i don't like I'm not tempted to drop into a hike, I suppose. yeah. Yeah, I guess that's semi the main reason I give an it depends answer is you can use the uphill treadmill for many, many, many different training sessions and training approaches.
00:53:41
Speaker
hey um and And I think what you said before, Sim, about that 8 to 10... percent feeling like you can still run, whereas going too much over that, not still run, but you feel like you can run normal mechanics-ish.
00:53:55
Speaker
I think that's really, yeah that's really important when you're thinking about something like doing a session on there as well. Like if you're thinking, okay, I'm i'm doing a threshold session and I don't, I want to do the threshold session in on the treadmill to sort of take the load off a little bit, but still get that sort of physiological response.
00:54:14
Speaker
then somewhere between that 6 to 10 is probably a good aim for what percentage you put it at rather than a 15%, unless you were training to be able to threshold up a 15% climb. so But I agree with what you're saying there in that sort of 8 to 10 is good to sort of too much over that and I start to feel like your your running mechanics will change a bit, which you also want to train that if you're training for those percents, but it's a good point.
00:54:39
Speaker
we don't Yeah, you don't need to a huge amount. Like, for example, I did uphill threshold um this week, but i this is my favourite way to do an uphill threshold. I did 4x8 and it was 10%, 7%, 4%, and then I did 1% to simulate flat. But that's actually one way I love doing uphill threshold work is going like the steepest first and then going down and getting faster.
00:55:04
Speaker
Um, so I can find the sort of gradient adjusted pace equivalencies for each of them. And, um, you just change the pace to be fair when I will say, I don't actually go in with a planned pace when I go uphill treadmill, I go in with a planned effort.
00:55:21
Speaker
Um, so like on my uphill treadmill session, I was looking at my heart rate and just trying to sit at one 60. um And whatever pace that was, you just accept because you never actually know what pace a treadmill's going because they're all, you don't know how they're calibrated. Like the treadmill could be off. Your watch could be off.
00:55:37
Speaker
The only thing you can go off on a treadmill is your effort. um Yeah. And the pace doesn't matter if you're using it for uphill. Again, that's i think that's a really good point to finish on there is like it's the percent that matters. Like you you figure out what percent you want to work on for whatever session you're doing.
00:55:53
Speaker
And then the pace just depends on like what's the effort for that session. So if it's an easy run, you'd put it at it. You go to an easy effort and it doesn't really matter what the treadmill says in terms of pace. Yeah, 100%.
00:56:04
Speaker
Awesome. Hopefully that helps you out, Greg, if you are trying to do some of this stuff. I could two-hour podcast on uphill treadmill, ways to use an uphill treadmill probably. Yeah. You and me both. I've actually become a huge advocate for it after feeling it like change my uphills for the better.
00:56:18
Speaker
So I absolutely love it at this point. um But, yeah, we will go into that in later dates.
Western States Race Insights
00:56:27
Speaker
If anyone else has more questions on we can go –
00:56:31
Speaker
We can go into it later. But um I'm actually going to save one of these. um Hamish McEwen, if you're listening, listen in next week and we'll um get to your question because I want to give it a bit more time than what we've already been going for. So our other questions relate to the good old Western states that just happened.
00:56:49
Speaker
So how about we have a very quick discussion on did you watch it and what are your thoughts? um Jess, did you watch it? Yes. Little bits of it, like, not the whole thing.
00:57:00
Speaker
But, yeah, I've sort of heard about how the race panned out um from each of, like, the men's and women's sides. Yeah. Sounds like there was like a pack of men, um like six men, um going through like the first couple of hours and then a lot of them dropped off.
00:57:19
Speaker
There was a few DNFs and, um yeah, I'm not sure if I – yeah, I don't – like I haven't really looked into the the athletes that do this sort of thing, but I'm not sure if I heard – I haven't heard of the guy who won before, so – I think he did win Transville Kenya, is that right?
00:57:40
Speaker
So he's obviously having really good season, but yeah, a bit of a dark horse. um And then in the women's, it just sounded like Abby oh just like dominated the whole day.
00:57:51
Speaker
yeah Yeah, which is very cool to see because, yeah, if Jess, if you don't know Abby's story, like you should go look at some of the stuff on her. She's come back from like wild injuries to get to this point, which is very cool to see. What about you, Brady? Did you follow along um or did you watch any of the live stream? You're on a different time zone, so you might have got different bits of it.
00:58:12
Speaker
Yeah, it was actually like a bit harder for me to watch because it started like in the evening and then it went overnight and then sort of finished early in the morning. So I saw bits of it, but not not much. I think it was nearly better to watch in Australia because you sort of had, you could watch it the full day.
00:58:26
Speaker
Yeah. ah yeah Well, yeah, it started at like 10 p.m. our time. um So I got like the first hour, then slept, and then you do get the rest of it, which is nice.
00:58:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I mostly just sort of followed up on a lot of the... content afterwards and went down some holes like reading about different people but yeah it was it was it was really interesting to watch um yeah i love they see the results did you at all watch the first climb up the escarpment like have you seen the beginning at all that's the bit that I was watching that bit yeah that's pretty cool it was just it was really cool to see such it like although I'll get to my observations but there was like
00:59:08
Speaker
fifteen 15, almost 20 guys almost it looked like, at least 15 in that pack. It was just like a pack, like you see it almost in a road marathon heading up that climb.
00:59:20
Speaker
And I'm like, this is kind of cool. um But then it was so apparent early on the different approaches in the men's field versus the women's field with the men in this big pack and then the women strung out from the get-go.
00:59:33
Speaker
um with like none of them, like maybe one or two or three near each other, but definitely no like pack forming or anything like that. So um yeah, very cool to observe. It was like, I think the start everyone was looking for.
00:59:47
Speaker
And then for me, it was like really cool to see All of the main characters were all right up in that pack. They were all together. Exactly what you want to see in a race like this. um David Roach did get over the escarpment in the front, which I was like, like still in the pack, but it did look like I think he was the first one actually over the top.
01:00:06
Speaker
And for me, I was like, I had this like... I wanted it, I think I said last week, I wanted it to be like David over the top first and then goes and wins the damn thing. Obviously, that didn't happen for any fellow fans of David Roach. He did DNF, which was very, very sad to see.
01:00:20
Speaker
um Made it to Forest Hill and left Forest Hill, then walked back. Poor thing. i So feel for him, still love him. It's fine. um But for all the other people in the race, um I think the biggest observation for me, for anyone that like, I was sick all day. So I actually watched the entire thing from the time I woke up, like it was hours of watching it. So have the full rundown.
01:00:48
Speaker
um But I think for me, the coolest thing to see was just the fact that you had this big big pack of men and five of those men, I'm going to say five, maybe six pulled it off.
01:01:00
Speaker
Um, five really. Cause Seth ruling still did drop right back. Um, and he came sixth. Um, and then it was just a close battle at the front between Caleb Olson, um Chris Myers and Killian, which I will say for most of that race, I,
01:01:16
Speaker
They actually held him off, so it was fine. But I was thinking the whole time, I'm like, geez, I would hate to just be Chris with Killian chasing me down at the back end because he was catching them. He did put a good amount of time into them.
01:01:29
Speaker
But I'm just like, in my head, I'm like, oh, my gosh, can you imagine being 120Ks deep knowing i've got 40Ks left and Killian's chasing me? Like. That's the stuff of nightmares, but he held on.
01:01:39
Speaker
So it was so fine. um And to be fair, Killian had his own battle back and forth going on with, oh my gosh, am I going to forget a name? ah Jeff Mogavaro. um And then Dan Jones was always like a bit back from them. Like he came through in the end and wasn't too far behind Jeff, but Dan Jones was always a bit back.
01:02:01
Speaker
And then it felt like there was a few of the guys that started a bit further back and maybe went right up making big moves that still held on. But it felt like the rest of them just blew.
01:02:14
Speaker
Like so many of the top names just dropped right back. And out of that pack at the front, yeah, like what is it? Five held on. um But then what was really cool to me to watch was just the women's field, which had such a different approach of every single woman running her own race, slowly just making their way through the men's field to come closer and closer and closer. So I just personally love the stat of the fact that we had 10 men finish, but then eight out of the next 10 finishes were women.
01:02:45
Speaker
So out of the top 20, we lot Eight of them were women. So or you almost, like it was very close to having 10 men finish, then 10 women finish. It really wasn't far off that. There was just a couple of guys that mixed it up.
01:02:57
Speaker
um Yeah, and it's pretty crazy that 50% of the, nearly 50% of the top 20 are women. That's pretty, that's a pretty crazy stat. Like, how cool is it? I was watching it go down and I'm like, this is amazing.
01:03:11
Speaker
I am loving life right now. And I was like, I really wanted Abby Hall to make it into the top 10. She didn't quite get there, but she was close. And because the commentators are all talking about, oh, there's that M11 spot that everyone talks about of like, they're so close.
01:03:24
Speaker
And I'm like, well, M11 was F1. Like, how cool is that? Because it's still a semi-coveted spot. Like, it's still... there was like 20 to 25 guys previewed in this thing.
01:03:38
Speaker
And you've got it within all top 10 women were within that top 25 overall. um So very cool to see. Abby Hall, she did just kind of take off at the front. There was um Riley Brady up there at the start, up the escarpment, a Nike runner from the US. But mostly it was Abby Hall taking off at the front. I wouldn't have been surprised if Fu Jia Zhang,
01:04:04
Speaker
got her in the end. Fu Xiajiang is like the, she was an absolute masterclass in how to run a hundred miles. She was much further back and then comes through and just catches people. I loved the fact that they said that her nickname is the assassin.
01:04:17
Speaker
Cause I was just like, the assassin is coming. Like she was the, definitely the one hunting, um, hunting people down. And then, uh, she, I do feel for her though, coming second two years in a row.
01:04:30
Speaker
Um, It's kind of, to two different people, it's kind of got to hurt a little bit. But Marianne Hogan, um she was only three minutes behind Fu Zhao in the end. So it was only also only like, what is it, 12 minutes between first and third.
01:04:45
Speaker
And not like, I think I did also look up that the difference between first and 10th female is less than the difference between first and 10th male. um So the field was on the whole closer, ah which I'm going to say they just, oh a lot of them raced it smarter, which does come into a listener question we've got.
01:05:03
Speaker
But Marianne Hogan in third, Ida Nielsen, who is a master's runner, she beat, she, um, missed her master's record by like three minutes, um, which she was ahead of it all day and she was putting on an absolute show, but, um, just missed it by three minutes.
01:05:19
Speaker
Fiona Pascal, who I love seeing, she was, she's Beth Pascal's sister. um So that was cool to see because Beth hasn't been to run for quite a while. um And then Hao Ha from Vietnam, Hannah Allgood, Caitlin Fielder, which loved seeing her make her way from like 15th up into, ah what did she come in the end? Eighth in the end. So she moved her way through the field.
01:05:44
Speaker
And then Keely Henninger and Emily Hallgood. Now it was similar in that there was some carnage in the women's field. Like there was a few people, as you're always going to get, in 100 miler.
01:05:55
Speaker
um But this is where there we've been asked by Ben Burgess actually on Instagram what our thoughts are on the win or bust mentality that is creeping into Western States and UTMB.
01:06:10
Speaker
um And I'm going to say my first observation is that was very very much more apparent in the men's field than the women's field for the most part. um There was quite a bit less win or bust mentality, at least from my observation.
01:06:24
Speaker
um But Brodie, thoughts on the carnage, the win or bust? the Because i was saying to Jess before we started the podcast, like they they talk about Western states and how they used to be this thing that the lead men would get to the top of the escarpment and turn around and enjoy the view together.
01:06:40
Speaker
And I'm like, well, they're not doing that anymore. They're racing. um There's a big pack of them. Like it's like a marathon pack sort of going on it now. um And a lot less of the the race starts at Forest Hill. Everyone was like, no, the race starts at Olympic Valley now.
01:06:55
Speaker
So yeah, Brodie, thoughts on that change? Yeah, I think in general in trail running that's probably changed over the last five years. lot more focus on the sport, more money in the sport, more on the line.
01:07:08
Speaker
So people are taking risks in general a bit more probably. And when they were doing that at Western States, it was more of a recreational activity, not a not a job probably back then.
01:07:25
Speaker
um So, yeah, that's that's definitely part of it. And I think particularly in the men, like maybe the men versus the women this year. um yeah I don't know. Women are just smarter.
01:07:36
Speaker
um The men, i think the the men's race was hyped up a lot um this year. I don't know if I saw the women's race hyped up as much. It was definitely hyped, but like, I don't know, with Killian...
01:07:50
Speaker
coming across doing it, David Roach being such a sort of out, ah like a big person personality in the trail running world, Jim Wormsley supposed to be running, like that the race was just really, really hyped. So I don't know if like some of those other guys that maybe weren't the big name the big, big, big names, they were like, oh, well, here's my chance to sort of prove myself. And and some of them definitely did do that.
01:08:12
Speaker
um So, yeah, I don't know if there was a bit of people going for breakout races and that sort of stuff and this was their shot. type of thing. Some of them were already like big names though. Rod Favard, second last year, he blew up. Adam Peterman, absolute, like Adam Peterman's a name almost everyone knows. He wasn't there. David Roach obviously blew up.
01:08:32
Speaker
um Like there was big names that were going backwards. Yeah, I'm also and like maybe the pace of the race made them blow up but like the pace of the race was was established by the these other sort of mostly American runners that were there to prove themselves.
01:08:48
Speaker
Because ah you're right, most of the big, like a lot of the big names or lot of the people that blew up or pulled out were people who actually established names like Adam Peterman, David Roach, Vincent Bouillard, like those guys...
01:09:04
Speaker
are well known um maybe they just couldn't cut the type of racing that was happening like i feel like the american trail scene has changed a lot particularly in the last um in the five ten years is there's like a lot of runners popping across into trail running like it's it's very much merged with running rather than being a distinctly separate sport.
01:09:25
Speaker
um So I think particularly over there, they all approach it like it's running um and therefore it's speed and and racing hard and and a lot of that stuff comes across from the running world maybe. I don't know for sure.
01:09:38
Speaker
I haven't thought about it that much. I'm sort of just talking. No, no, I love it I did, I ah must say I will, I probably should give them a shout out because I feel like they still did race it very smart. I did love seeing Peter Frano.
01:09:49
Speaker
and Crazy Caro come through for top 10 finishes. Yeah. um Because I feel like they were a bit back and held on a lot better than a few at the front. So um at least that's what it seemed like all day.
01:10:01
Speaker
And it was cool to see them come through. So it's definitely not all. But, yeah, Jess, thoughts on boom or bust? And would you ever do a race, approach a race like that?
01:10:13
Speaker
Um, like I can't imagine approaching a race like a hundred mile like that in the 34 degrees heat. Like that's... Yeah, it was a hot year too, we should mention it. Pretty crazy. But yeah, I was just thinking like with these races, like there's so many factors that can go wrong.
01:10:30
Speaker
Like maybe that's why we sort of expected like some of those more... um sort of runners that have done well in the past, like we expected them to do well again. But um because like everything's levelling up as well, like there's people that are like as good as them now. So it's like if they have something minor go wrong, like um like someone else is going to beat them. So, yeah, maybe it is like maybe it just looks like that because we expected um people to perform –
01:11:02
Speaker
as well as they did in the past, but like I just think it's not a track race, like it's not like a pure like time trial, whoever's the best is going to win. Like I think there's just so many factors that go into it that – yeah um Yeah.
01:11:15
Speaker
Also, I've just realised because I just started going through the DNF list and it would be very remiss of me not to mention the fact that there are some women, obviously, and there's there's a good portion of these women are definitely, they're all out there to win.
01:11:28
Speaker
um But there was a very big boom or bust approach from Martina, ah or at least it appeared that way from Martina Milnarchik. um who I think was second at CCC last year, but she, the heat, she's Polish, the heat definitely got to her, but she was out the front leading and went from leading to unfortunately in the medical tent with heat stress um pretty, like halfway.
01:11:51
Speaker
So that was not fun to see. But um there was still a little bit of that in terms of she wasn't leading the super early case, but the overnight part that I didn't get to see, i essentially woke up and she was having struggles um into Michigan bluff. So, yeah.
01:12:09
Speaker
there's always There's always still a little bit of that. on I'm with you, Jess. Personally, I couldn't. like i I could, but I feel like it's just like so much can go wrong and not recognizing from the start that like so much can go wrong and you're more likely to go wrong on the red line.
01:12:24
Speaker
But then there's also that side of your head that goes, but if it goes right, it goes so right. um And I think that's partially that's ah that's where it comes from partially because now – there is more going for you if you have a breakout race at one of these things.
01:12:39
Speaker
Like in some ways it feels like UTMB, Western States and a few of the bigger races, like you go absolutely go for it and you can really change or make and in some ways make a career out of it.
01:12:51
Speaker
um I don't know, like it's probably in some ways ah lot of people have always approached it like that but now there's just a higher density of top end elites that are willing to do so. and I think like if you have experience at the distance, like you've done it before, you know what you're in for, then then maybe. i just think if it was like your first one, like no Yeah. Yeah.
01:13:14
Speaker
yeah yeah Yeah, I don't know if any of the people at the front were debut 100-milers. um Hans Troyer was young, and he helped but he held on pretty well. And, yeah, I'm not sure about the rest of if they were first-hours or not. Obviously, I know Caitlin, but she absolutely nailed it by being conservative early.
01:13:35
Speaker
so Yeah. yeah that And I think, like, she's someone that what now that she's getting more experience at that distance, like, she could be right up there. um I think it's just something that, like,
01:13:47
Speaker
It takes time to understand and, like, figure out what works for you because I i feel like it would be a very individual like individual approach to these sort of things. Yeah. Yeah. But it's still – it's cool to see. I love watching the technology change every year, like the shirt the Nike athletes were in. Yeah, they were sick. It looked funky, but I can see how they would work.
01:14:08
Speaker
um like Like the long sleeves for like to keep the moisture on you for cooling? Yeah, and then also they still had like enough coverage to protect from the sun, but then the cutouts to reduce chafe in chafing areas.
01:14:22
Speaker
I loved the engineering going into that. that was It was like they look weird, and i could I've seen all the memes pop up on your boy Scott Jurek now about them, but at the same time. I'm like, no, I see how these work. That's great.
01:14:35
Speaker
um But, yeah, and because it was historic, like it was wildly fast for a really hot year. So I feel ah feel like every time I watch one of these things now I learn something new about how to approach these races um that we're getting new technology and, yeah, the sport's coming a long way, um
Race Qualifications and Strategies
01:14:53
Speaker
which is cool. And then we do have one other quick question um come in from Kaz on Instagram.
01:15:00
Speaker
And that is now, it says Buffalo Stampede is now a qualifier for Western states. Will this change plans in future? i don't think it'll change any of our plans necessarily, but like it will change people's plans, I would say.
01:15:14
Speaker
i think, well, I saw Mikey Dumanitas has already announced that he's doing it. So I don't know if that's. A reason why? um Yeah, I think, well, it's not a it's not a golden ticket race or anything.
01:15:26
Speaker
It's just a qualifier as far as I can tell. So it means you go into the lottery? Into the lottery, yeah. But we have a lot of qualifiers. ah Well, not a lot. um But I think also Blackall 100 is a qualifier.
01:15:39
Speaker
UTA is a qualifier. UTK is a qualifier. um So it might be our fourth one now or so. um But, yeah, definitely that always gets more people into these sorts of the races that are Western States qualifiers to get their lottery tickets. Like it's – an insane system to try and get in. Sometimes you get real lucky. Like who was it? One of the Nike athletes um from the US, you got in on two tickets and other people are getting in on like 400, which is crazy.
01:16:06
Speaker
but um But yeah, I'm going to say it'll change some people's plans and it'll put more people in the event. um But yeah, getting into Western States is kind of, for most people, a six to seven year endeavor.
01:16:18
Speaker
of trying to make happen. So yeah absolutely wild times. But that probably covers off Western States for now um for this episode. And there was some Aussie action also going on at Lavarado.
01:16:33
Speaker
Brodie, did you track Korean at all? Were you? Yeah, was watching a little bit, but again, bit disconnected this last week. You're in Europe. You're in the time zone for this one.
01:16:45
Speaker
just busy. But i did see I did see afterwards that um unfortunately i knew that Matt was doing this one just for less of a race, more of a sort of experience. um But unfortunately it looks like came down with something mid-race and had to be bit of an emergency evac from the course type of situation or at least sort of had to pull out. He was in a bit of strife. So, um yeah, unfortunately, he didn't finish.
01:17:13
Speaker
But Matt Dunn did finish. And Matt Dunn, I know, in the past has not finished Leverito before. at least once the year I was there he he didn't um but he finished this year but I think he was helping out Matt Crain for a little bit so he he didn't um he didn't finish an incredible time but he's pretty I think he's pretty happy to to get it done he ran uh 16 57 finish in 71st 71st male in his category um
01:17:44
Speaker
it's seventy first seventy first male twenty third in his category um Yeah, that makes sense as to – because ah he was like up in the 20s for quite a while yeah when I was tracking him.
01:17:54
Speaker
um So that makes sense as to why dropped back if he was helping Matt. I will give a shout-out to Trent Irwin. He was actually three spots ahead of him as an Aussie. He came 68th. But the best position by an Aussie.
01:18:10
Speaker
by a long way, was Hannah McCray. ah She came 10th female. um So shout out to Hannah McCray. And Jess Schluter was also there coming 24th female.
01:18:21
Speaker
um And while I'm at it, there was only three other Aussies. I'll give them a shout out. There was Vanessa Aldis in 45th on the female. And Fiona Castle in 61st. And then we also had someone named Tyler James coming in 689th, getting it done in 24 hours. So that is a effort.
01:18:40
Speaker
Absolutely love it. um So, yeah, that was Lavarato where Courtney DeWalter did what Courtney does um on the women's side. And I'm just trying to get Ben Dimon, who I've not heard of before, but a US athlete, won it on the men's side.
01:18:57
Speaker
Um, then couple of other quick mentions, which actually this is more of an observation. We also had Marathon de Mont Blanc, typically like historically a golden trail event, but then there was a golden trail race in Mexico.
01:19:13
Speaker
There was also a sky running race in Ecuador.
Global Trail Running Dynamics
01:19:17
Speaker
I'm going to say, I'm pretty sure it was. But it seemed like there was just everyone had something on this weekend. um But I suppose for me it was just interesting to note that ah eat Marathon de Mont Blanc was a much deeper field than the Golden Trail race ended up being in Mexico um from the results. Because Marathon de Mont Blanc, when you look at the finishing list, it reads like a Golden Trail race again. So it didn't, I think we mentioned this, that the prize money, it didn't lose any of its prestige. It didn't.
01:19:48
Speaker
It still had the fields you would expect. um It was the return of Davide Magnini for the win, which I love to see. He's had many injuries over the last few years and he was absolutely – um owning Golden Trail Series a few years ago now, ah but he came back. And then on the women's side, it was stacked, like absolutely stacked. But Joylene Cepangino, she got the win and then it was super close back to Judith Vitae.
01:20:18
Speaker
in second and Naomi Lang in third. um On the men's side, it was Raul Rouse in second and Thomas Cardin in third. Also interesting to note that this has been picked up by New Balance now, which is the first big race I i think I've seen sponsored by New Balance, unless you guys know of any on the trail side.
01:20:38
Speaker
No. Not particularly. yeah is there Is there anything this race is a part of now or is it just it was just a standalone race? Standalone race with really good prize money.
01:20:48
Speaker
No. Yeah, it's just got good prize money because the fields there are amazing. um but Why do you think the fields have sort of gone away from Golden Trail? Is it the ah travel is too much?
01:21:02
Speaker
Yeah, the travel. Like it was actually really interesting to watch because they have they still had the typical Golden Trail elite women start ahead of the elite men in the rest of the field and there was only 10 women on the start line.
01:21:15
Speaker
Like there was just one line of women starting in the elite field. So you started the race and you were guaranteed a top 10. um which is kind of wild in a golden trail as someone who was forever just trying to get top 20 sort of deal in all these races. So yeah it's just the first time I've seen it be like that. Like you could have come and gone, yeah, I've come top 10 at a golden trail race, which in previous years got you a full ride of support to the rest, to any other race that season.
01:21:44
Speaker
um Whereas now that doesn't get you that because there's no travel support. sorry Even the, I wasn't, I haven't sort of listened to what you guys discussed last week, but even the American Broken Arrow race, like I was expecting it to be like absolute chockers full of like really good runners. And yeah, the top end was quite good, but it it it sort of dropped off a bit of depth, even compared to maybe this race looks more competitive than Broken Arrow was.
01:22:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. It was it in like, and this is not like, this is just an interesting observation of the changes they've made and the effects it's had. um Because yeah, me and Nath, I was with Nath at BTU and you look at the top 30 list from Headland Sky Race last year, Golden Trail. Yeah, yeah.
01:22:27
Speaker
And it's like, the top Of the top 20, there might be four, five, ah like maybe a couple more US athletes in there. um Whereas, and like it's very, very international.
01:22:40
Speaker
Whereas like Broken Arrow was about half or a third as international. And as you went down, like outside the top 10, there was not many internationals at all. um And then same again in Mexico where there's the top three names, like there's Philemon, there's Elhuzin and there's Patrick.
01:22:59
Speaker
And they're way off the front. um But then as you go back, um there was still Roberto de Lorenzi in fourth, like a very well-known golden trail name. But yeah, Yeah, as you go back, it's just not the, yeah, I've got years of trying to break into sort of top 20 results and get get get up there because of the sort of, you come top 20.
01:23:21
Speaker
um It used to be, yeah, you come top 20 and you get an invite to other races. You come top 10 and you get an invite and travel support to other races. but then also the top 30 from the previous year are receiving travel support. And there was just, there was a lot more um ways of getting athletes to these races.
01:23:38
Speaker
And it was always going to be this interesting case of, okay, they've gotten rid of that support. How's that going to affect the series? We didn't see it affect it much in the u in the early season European races because they're in Europe.
01:23:51
Speaker
um But it's just interesting that, yeah, now there's nowhere near as many Europeans or internationals traveling to America and Mexico. because the next lot is also Siesanal and race in Austria, so pi Pits Alpine.
01:24:05
Speaker
So those are going to be stacked, I have no doubt. But, yeah. It would be interesting to compare Siesanal to Pits Alpine because Siesanal always has an incredible field. Like these ah these races are well-known without being part of Golden Trail. so it would be interesting to see what happens at the Austria one, whether it is a travel thing or whether it's – Golden Trail losing its sort of stranglehold on that mid-distance a little bit and and actually people going, I actually i want to go to this awesome race.
01:24:33
Speaker
Like Zagama, which so happened to be Golden Trail, or they're going Marathon Mont Blanc, or they're going, I want to go this race. Well, yeah, like Marathon Mont Blanc just read like a Golden Trail finish line. Yeah. like Like you the names that you would expect to see there, right?
01:24:48
Speaker
So it was just interesting to read that finish and go, hang on, there was a Golden Trail race the same weekend. um because previous years that wouldn't have been the case so yeah whether it changes what they do in future or anything along those lines I don't know but um yeah I think the sport's not quite as global yet enough to maybe keep up the um the top end fields all around the world outside Europe maybe so far but Yeah, interesting. And then, yeah, the Sky Running race in Ecuador, I think Sky Running has a similar thing where it's just there's so many more races um and it's so there's so many more. They're almost every weekend in some ways. So I think this one looks like it only had eight female finishes in the entire race.
01:25:37
Speaker
So you could have, again, been guaranteed a top ten in the series, which gets you a lot of points. So Yeah, interesting seeing how they're all going. But I do love the gloat. Like I love that they are branching out into Mexico into like new areas of the world and trying to build up the sport in those areas because yeah like the only way that we're going to change the depth of fields in different areas of the world is to actually go there.
01:26:04
Speaker
So this is in no way saying they're doing the wrong thing doing this. um It's more just the observation of, yeah, here's the effect. It's interesting to observe as someone that's been so invested in the series for so long um and then hoping it can pick up in future years and see Well, now are some of these Mexican athletes that really did mix it with the others.
01:26:23
Speaker
um In the women's race, there was some really ones that were bright up there. Yeah, exactly. Like they mixed it. And so it's like, okay, they've now had their shot to be right up there on one of these podiums, the top five, top 10.
01:26:35
Speaker
um Does that now give them a chance to go race other races in Europe and those sorts of things? Like I just hope that there's that translation across too. um Because it used to be that, yeah, if they went to Mexico and one of them came fourth, they would then get support to go to Europe. And I just hope that – someone can support them I don't know yeah now there's not that free ride anyways interesting observations there were so many races on over the weekend um but hopefully that uh yeah um I've just completely gone mind break my brain's
01:27:10
Speaker
Gone. Gone. ah What are your guys' thoughts overall and what are you guys up to this week? um Yeah, like I think it's it's really exciting um like watching all of these races overseas. Like it definitely makes me excited to hopefully one day go over there.
01:27:28
Speaker
And I hope, like I really hope the Golden Trail Series um has more traction next year in Australia because I think it's really cool. And I think – Yeah, don't know. We need, like, more brands get involved or something, um like, better social media um because I just think the sub-marathon distance in trail running is, like, really exciting, and it's a space where, like, we can get a lot of competition because we can get, like, run like track and road runners getting involved. And, um yeah, I think it's something that I'm super interested in as well. Like, rather than going longer, I'd love to do a bit more of that sort of distance, so.
01:28:08
Speaker
That would be amazing. Come join the party. um Yeah. Yeah, it's more like um chatting to a few of the people, ah like people like even like Ben Duffus, who was in the series last year and not in the series this year, obviously, who was at the final.
01:28:24
Speaker
And he was just like, yeah, it's just that case still maybe at the moment where the investment is so much to win it in order to do it. Um, just the cost wise of the travel and those sorts of things. So like we don't have as much of the, not, it's not even the culture. It's just like, it's hard, right?
01:28:42
Speaker
Yeah. Like yeah you've got work and you've got like we don't have the professional side of the sport built up enough in some ways. Like it's not and not even professional, just like even, yeah, semi like supported enough to get to the sort of races. So, yeah, interesting observations to make and interesting things of where it's like, yeah, it was just like for me it's like, well, if you're going to spend that money anyway, then awesome. Here's a series to put the money into and like to go do something which is like really cool to follow along.
01:29:10
Speaker
and be part of. um But if you're someone that doesn't have the money to put it in the first place, obviously it's a block. So, yeah, interesting observations. Hopefully next year we'll see what happens.
01:29:21
Speaker
We'll definitely see what happens. But Brodie, your takeaways from the weekend? Yeah, I thought there' was a that's a really good point. Just just brings up that the the Golden Trail series old or like if it if it doesn't ah continue, then – then there's space there for something else to pop into it, some sort of domestic series, because that is a part of how we are going to all be able to improve ah the elite side of the sport is by racing each other and competing against each other and having roadrunners come in and race and and that sort of stuff. So, yeah, hopefully maybe in future we'll see some more of that, some sort of like circuit like they have maybe on a local level Canada
01:30:06
Speaker
Adelaide and WA and Tasmania, like some sort of national circle would be quite cool. And maybe that's a space for ORTRA to look at um potentially, even as like the governing body, like they could they can potentially look at something like that. So, yeah, and be interesting.
01:30:22
Speaker
I think there's space for something. But, yeah, like you said, Sim, needs to have some sort of investment to get it up off the ground. And that's the tricky part maybe. Yeah, definitely, definitely. But watch this space. We will see what happens and we'll do our part to try and see what hype we can build for this side of the sport. Maybe we'll start a series.
01:30:43
Speaker
I was about to say, I'm like, whoa, Peak Pursuit's trail series has a ring to it, guys. If I won the lottery, I would, I promise. I'd be our investor. Yeah.
01:30:55
Speaker
Yup. Yup. Yup. Uh, we could even just do call outs. Hey, everyone want to come to this race, please?
Closing Remarks and Audience Engagement
01:31:01
Speaker
many people is possible Uh, we'll see what happens, but awesome. Well, it was good to chat to you guys. I'm glad my voice semi held out. I'm ah sorry if this is annoying to listen to people.
01:31:12
Speaker
Um, It's more annoying to actually just try and speak, but I get to rest it now again. um But, yeah, that sums up our episode 64 for this week. Thank you so much for listening.
01:31:24
Speaker
ah If you can, please leave ratings, reviews, comments. Love seeing the comments pop up on Spotify. It's a great space um place for you to leave questions as well if you or you can DM us on Instagram at peakpursuitspod.com.
01:31:39
Speaker
And yeah, all the feedback possible is lovely because yeah, it's it's just, it's I always just get those little little little sparks of joy when someone reaches out or when a few people reach out um that listen and say they listen because sometimes it's like,
01:31:54
Speaker
Who am I talking to right now? I'm not sure. oh So thank you if you are one of those listeners. And, yeah, we will all speak to you next week, hopefully a little more healthy and just another week fit up for Jess who's killing it right now.
01:32:11
Speaker
Thank you. you soon. See you, Jess.