Transcript
Speaker: Is it episode 128, Sim?
Speaker: episode one twenty eight sim I was going to say, I just tried just changed the sheet for you. Okay, was about to start it. Sorry, had to cut that first bit. It's all good. All right, here we go. Count myself down.
Speaker: Hello and welcome to episode 128 of the Peak Pursuits podcast. My name is Brodie, one of your regular hosts, and today i am joined by Simone Bricks. Sim's been a late ring in. Sim, how are you going?
Speaker: Yeah, poor James is ah very under the weather by the sounds. So ah late ringing. I'll take it. Always fun for a chat. Thanks for joining. I organized you as my backup and you ended up being James's backup. So it's good to have you board. Yeah, I did think it was funny how that worked out, but that's all good. We're here.
Speaker: Always good to be prepared. And it's going to be a very fun episode. We're joined by a regular ah guest on the Peak Pursuits podcast. um Here back to talk a bit about his racing over the past couple of months, Billy Curtis. Billy, are going?
Speaker: Yeah, good. On again. Very excited. I always relish the the opportunity to be on the Peak Pursuits podcast. Always say yes. Yeah, so good. We're happy to have you and keen to dive in. For those who or want to go back and listen, you can just search Billy's name, Billy Curtis, in the Spotify and you'd be able to find all the episodes on. But ah probably a good point, to a good place to start is a longer form interview with James, which was ah back in June, I believe. So yeah, go and have a listen to that one and you can hear
Speaker: everything up until June and we're going to hear a little bit about what Billy's been up to since then. um The one thing I have noticed, Billy, is you've grown a big um you've grown a new haircut. You've got a beautiful looking mullet there. Yes, not by choice. This is forced upon me slowly over time. um But yeah, no it's getting a bit of attention. So i don't know. It's probably a good thing. How is a mullet forced on anyone?
Speaker: Someone holds your head and cuts your hair forcefully. They have a sharp but a sharp item close to your face. Fantastic. Fantastic. Well, it looks good. And I think, yeah, look, you've got to make it. It's a good way to stand out on a start line. So, um yeah, i'm i i'm I'm impressed. It looks good. And I think ah the praise has been coming in from what I can tell. So good place to start there.
Speaker: Thanks, Brody. Brody, you try to grow on one day. Yeah, I wish. I wish. I don't know if I could pull it off. um All right. So, Billy, last we spoke to you, you were coming off the back of some, that I guess, that big time that you spent in Europe and then you did some some races before you came back to Australia. You ran um at Madeira and Transvolcania and then shortly after that you headed back to Australia.
Speaker: um What have you been up to since? I understand you did ah a bit of a base building block. got some work done, got back into the the nine to five grind. um How was that? Yeah, good. Yeah, it's more it's more like a six to four, six to five six to five grind.
Speaker: But i just a lot of a lot of a lot of work and a lot of training just stacked on top of each other. And um yeah, not thinking or doing much else, but it's kind of good to do that for a while and stay off like social media. There's not as many Strava recaps during that time. But yeah know It's good to just keep training and not force too much over ah that sort of period when you're working a lot more.
Speaker: um yeah and yeah And then after that, just yeah got into some racing straight away pretty much. Went straight from work to transcend and then flew to Vietnam and then raced over the weekend. So yeah, just sort of straight back into it.
Speaker: Very cool. We're going to get into the racing a little bit, but I'm keen to talk a little bit about the training and what you got up to with that block. Obviously you had the goal of you needed to sort of do some work. it was It was useful for you to sort of replenish your funds. But from a training point of view, was was there a was that like sort of the plan as well in terms of it was a good time to have ah an endurance block or what did you what was the goal of, i guess, that that block in terms of from the training side of things? Just really base building and staying fresh week to week. So like never doing a training day that then makes you feel more tired than the previous day throughout the whole period of time. Unless it's like I went to the pyramid and race there and it obviously beats you up. You're coming up and down a VK, but then taking like one or two full days off or a couple cross training days to make sure you're always at that fresh level all the time.
Speaker: So I think it was good it was a good period for that because when you're working a lot, if you do like go a bit too deep into recovery, then it makes it difficult to get back out of it. So always trying to stay fresh. So if I'm doing a workout, it's like long rest intervals and then making sure the next day, obviously, I feel good and fresh again.
Speaker: i think, yeah, stacking that together for a long period of time, it might not be a lot of fitness building week to week, but I think over a long period of time, it kind of helps a lot, yeah especially when you race a lot, having that period.
Speaker: Yeah. And were four, you said it was a six to four or six to five grind. Does that mean it was all evening running? Yeah, a lot. Yeah. A lot of triples as well, surprisingly. So like running the work run to work in the morning, run back in the afternoon, and then maybe an hour or two after having a bit of food, then going on the treadmill and running uphill.
Speaker: It's fun though. Like it was it was it's it's good, but yeah, not sustainable. So you had a full-time job on top of a full-time job. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, I was going to say. And those were those were days that you then didn't pull up more tired the next day from. Like that was your version of easier training. Yeah, you should see that the pace is so slow, like yeah relative to what, yeah. And it's all on, like I actually did a lot more non-technical training too. Usually I try to get on pretty hard terrain, but it was all treadmill and and fire road training. So it was all very chill, relaxed. How far is the run to work and back? It depends how far you want to make it but it's about 5K minimum. But in the mornings, it's like 9 to 12 kilometers, I'd say.
Speaker: Yeah, okay. Damn. Nice. That's a good base. Yeah, and and I think you sort of touched on it there. it looked like you were sort of keeping everything under wraps, especially on the work days. You were doing pretty much everything at sort of easy intensity. You weren't pushing the needle too much on those days. Is that is that right? Just like base building stuff?
Speaker: Yeah, super, super easy. So I'd say like a heart rate would be 105 to 115 on morning runs and then maybe the treadmill and let it go up a little bit higher into like a zone two, which would be like 135, 140 in the afternoons when you're sort of a bit more warmed up and yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Get a bit of- Were you doing any sessions? Yeah. um I would do a Saturday morning session in like a so I'd probably stack the two like hardest days would be Saturday and Sunday. So Sunday long run and a Saturday sort of medium long run of maybe 90 minutes to two hours with a bit of like threshold intensity, but really long rest between each repetition. it's not It's not perfect training, but it's more to make sure you're always fresh and at least getting some sort of quality work in week to week.
Speaker: Yeah. Nice. Nice. Very nice. um And you were mentioning there the treadmill. That was one thing I had a bit of a question about because I saw um earlier just before your race this week or last week, you had like on one of your comments in in Strava, you were saying how you felt like the all the treadmill work you've been doing, was you'd sort of been noticing it and it was it was paying off. um What sort of like how you said you were doing a lot at that sort of 8% to 15% gradient. How much is a lot? Like what sort of stuff were you doing?
Speaker: um So each week in that period was like 6,000 to 8,000 meters of climbing a week. And I'd say the most was probably 4,500 on the treadmill of going up. This is just tracked like on your Zwift or yeah manually. yeah However, I think I got Zwift halfway through which helped to automatically track it so I didn't have to keep plugging it in.
Speaker: But yeah, probably half half the vert on average would be on the treadmill. So 6,000 to 8,000 climbing, then yeah, 3,000 to 4,000 uphill. But that saves the legs so much and your training duration goes down a bit and then the actual quality aerobic volume kind of actually bumps up or it can bump up even if your total volume goes down because going uphill a lot rather than back down. It's not wasted time coming back.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, nice. So, yeah and and is that something you've done before or was this your sort of one of the, like I'm assuming you've done a little bit, but was this the most of that sort of training that you've done in the past?
Speaker: Yeah, the most. I definitely planned it because you you see a lot of like the Europeans in the winter do a lot of treadmill uphill and seem to come off the back of it really, really strong. But you've got to really be forced into it like they're forced into it through snowy weather.
Speaker: But I planned it before, but you've got amazing weather. So what are you going to jump on a treadmill for? So I was forced into it being on the farm and it's dark in the winter, short hours. So I didn't really like running with a headlight morning and evening. So just jump.
Speaker: like put Netflix on and run uphill instead. So I was kind of forced to do it, but I think it worked well and I'd like to do it again, but I doubt I would unless I'm forced to do it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. yeah yeah too it's too much fun running outside yeah Yeah. And I find that like once a week I can per eat actually fairly easily manage mentally.
Speaker: a grind, like a two-hour grind up a treadmill because I'll save up a movie or something that I want to watch. And I'm like, well, I may as well be on the treadmill watching the movie than sitting on the couch. like So that's my way when it's really good weather and I could be outside of like going, well, I want to watch the movie. So the treadmill is where I'm going. It's like the only spot I'll let myself watch it.
Speaker: I really struggle to enjoy TV or I don't mind running on a treadmill. I don't mind doing indoor exercise, but I find my enjoyment of the TV show I'm watching dramatically decreases. And I just, I don't know if I can't focus on it enough or maybe I need to watch something different. But if it's a TV show, like I'm, I want to watch that. Like I, I'm, I'm watching at home. Like if I do it at the gym, I just don't enjoy it. I don't know what it is. Something strange.
Speaker: Fair, yeah fair. And so Sim, you mentioned that you in a previous podcast you did the a lot of uphill treadmill in like a group class setting, was it? So that was treadmill heat. Oh, treadmill heat. That would help. i I would put it uphill. um But yeah, so there's like a treadmill, like it's like a spin class. And that made a huge difference because... everyone else is there on a treadmill and it's like flashing lights and pumping music and stuff. um That made the treadmill so easy, but that was also in like a 30 degree room, 30 to 33 degree room. And they'd have humidifiers going in the room as well. So it was really humid and hot. And so I'd be running uphill like...
Speaker: a lot slower than normal um at a pretty much a threshold heart rate, which I actually really like in training where you're like my cardio system feels like it's getting a workout, but my legs feel like they're getting a rest almost. But I don't know. That would brutal. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. It was, it's but the most I did of that was like, um, if 60 minutes at one time, like I wouldn't do that for more than 60 minutes. Whereas other times, like I do heaps of uphill treadmill and I actually really enjoy it, but I'll do that mostly like not in the heat because if I'm going mostly I'll do it for two hours or something and that I wouldn't do in the heat.
Speaker: Don't do it. Not cool. But good recommendations is is sprint, Tour de France, and um any sporting series is pretty yeah I have heard that watching sporting things is better. I was watching like when I've been to the gym recently, watching like athletics or something like that, and it's been a bit better. Yeah, yeah I've watched like um sometimes it'll be I'll purposely time it around watching like Chicago Marathon or New York Marathon or something like that. And so you're chucking just runners on the screen in front of you. And especially if the race is interesting, then it makes the run really hyped.
Speaker: It's great. Yeah. Yeah, nice one. Cool. um Yeah, nice. So that training block looks like, it looks like, well, based on your result on the weekend and and obviously there's lots of training blocks before that that come into it, but it does look like it has put you in a good position to pivot off that into the the back half of the year. Do you feel like that block was a success at the moment? I guess you don't know if it's going to have longer term effects, but were you happy with that block overall?
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. Yeah, yeah. I think I thought it a help a bit more in in Transcend. Like when I raced Transcend, i would not I probably felt the least durable I had in, um yeah, probably...
Speaker: a year, yeah, probably a year prior to that probably felt the least durable. So, know, when you're doing a long run or doing a long race, like over four hours, you start to break down a bit mechanically. I probably felt like quite low durability past four hours, which probably makes sense because I wasn't really doing like really long, long runs or any long runs with a bit of intensity in it and pushing like my musculoskeletal system a little bit more, I guess. I was keeping everything very fresh.
Speaker: So I suppose it could go both ways. you could You could actually feel really durable after that period or it goes the other way, which I sort of felt like it did a bit. But fitness-wise... Maybe if you were running six hours at like an easier intensity, you would have been fine. But it was like you said, it was that race-specific intensity or or speed that you maybe lacking a little bit. But it looks like that Transcend then as a training stimulus itself then has led really nicely into your race at Vietnam.
Speaker: yeah somehow four weeks is not a lot a lot of time but yeah one down week and you feel really fresh and then two weeks on a course like doing the exact sort of altitude heat everything except for the mud on the race on the weekend but everything else was perfect so It kind of, yeah, it does work as a stimulus. And I've done that in the past as well with a longer, longer race. And then a few weeks later, have a shorter race and it actually works really well.
Speaker: But i mean, you'd never get recommended it from like a coach or a chat GPT. I'd never recommend you do this, but I've spoken about it before and I think it really works. And there's a lot of really high level athletes that do similar things.
Speaker: similar sort of setups with their races and training and have good success. But it's harder to sort of measure whether you're going to have good success with that or not.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, I guess in the trail space, it appears to be a bit more flexible with that sort of stuff. like I feel like all that, like if you put into AI, like you said, it would say don't do that because it's probably basing it off mostly road running stuff where you're probably not going to run a 50K road before you do a before you do a marathon. You're probably more likely to do a half marathon than a marathon.
Speaker: um But I think in trail sense, it's like it probably makes a little bit more sense and yeah seems to have paid off for you this time, um that race intensity that you got from um Transcend. it It was a similar, like the time of the race, I guess, was not the duration was not too dissimilar in the end because the Vietnam race was maybe a bit slower than Transcend. Yeah, like 40 minutes. Very, very different races too. Like Transcends was running like relative to the time quite fast on very runnable terrain and not big climbs, just like runnable fire road climbs. And then, yeah, VMM was just like...
Speaker: it was a technical hard course already with like the combination of altitude and heat and just the type of terrain is something you never see anywhere except for maybe some mountains across southeast asia which not many people are going into the mountains of southeast asia anyway except for places like sap or or maybe some some races that's quite unique um And then we had like just like Northern Vietnam was like flooding for a week the past, the week before the race.
Speaker: And it was just, just the whole course just turned into complete mud. And it was so technical altitude, heat and mud all in one. Yeah. That's like the worst combo you can possibly have.
Speaker: Yeah. But it does, it does slow things down. So if you've got super fast runners, like we had a fair few, like, uh, true. It evens the field. Yeah. It does. Yeah. And, and usually that would work against me, but I think that, um, the runners that came that would probably would, uh, probably get one over me and other races, um, did not come to come early and prepare on course.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that makes a huge difference for some racers. Some racers I feel like you can get away with it and it doesn't make a huge like difference on the day. um But certain events like actually Vietnam Mountain Marathon definitely looked like one and then another one on the weekend, the um Japan Golden Trail race. Yeah. looked like it might be another one.
Speaker: yeah I guess it's you have guys one is weather. The Vietnam weather is very specific, although some of those athletes would have been coming from places that had similar weather. Similar, yeah. But yeah, the ter the terrain looked pretty gnarly. Quite mountainous, I guess, like up and down, maybe not mountain, mountain, but like quite hilly and tough terrain with gradients, steep gradients.
Speaker: Yeah, like the first main climb of the course is a vertical kilometre and then a vertical kilometre back down. she might be like 900 metre climb. Yeah. And this is like, it's just drenched and just muddy and like overgrown the climb. Like not overgrown, but you know, you look straight at the course and you're not seeing the trail. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean.
Speaker: Yeah. Um, and then you come down a vertical kilometer, which actually is quite open and it's been like, um, carved out from buffalos going up. So rather than a trail, it's kind of like those steps and then the steps are like covered in clay and mud. So you're like, you sort of jumping down this vertical kilometer and slipping on the, like the clay and mud from the buffalos that have sort of trudged up to the top. It's very unique race. Like everything about it is just like so unique. Yeah.
Speaker: I love Asian trail races for that reason. Asian trail races are just different. Sim, I would definitely recommend this one for you because it's also like it's not a sky race, but it probably has a lot of parallels with that race you did in Malaysia. the um Yeah. I can't remember the name Which i loved, yeah.
Speaker: Penang. Penang was it? Yeah. So just a little bit less um steep invert per kilometre and probably just a little bit more open. It looked like that race was very like um jungle.
Speaker: And this one's a bit more open and mountainous, but similar kind of parallels, I think. Yeah. When you were said we' saying like there was a trail, you just couldn't quite actually see it when you were standing there looking at it. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. yeah Not a trail like we know.
Speaker: um was there You were saying how like your you felt like your on-course prep was was quite useful, um but the conditions were quite different on the day with the the mud. Had you at least had some exposure to that? It sounds like maybe still done some of those downhills with the Buffalo cutouts or or the step stuff. Had you experienced some mud before the race or was it that you encountered the terrain and was it totally different?
Speaker: Yeah, there's another part of Sapa that's like the tourist track called Dragon Mountain. So you hike up from town or run up from town. Beautiful like views. That's where I posted like a lot of the photos were on Dragon Mountain. um And yeah, it's a kind of muddy all the time because the buffaloes are like wallowing there and then walking around. So yeah, I'd run through different sections that were like muddy probably the year round. And that's why i chose the shoes that I ended up wearing because I ran through sometimes with shoes and it's just zero traction whatsoever.
Speaker: um and yeah so a little bit but not enough that like your muscles are used to it so i knew that i had to sort of plan the race out and look at the sections i knew the whole course and i knew where would get muddy and where would be clay slippery and like heavy dents like you'd be literally falling in like this deep or more yeah of mudded sections so yeah i sort of knew when to push and when to pull back throughout the whole race so it ended up being like a Like my heart rate throughout the whole race is the lowest it's ever been for any racing because you're constantly pulling back and going, oh, I'm going to chill a bit because if I push, yeah yeah, your heart rate's not going to go up high. It's not going to feel hard, but your muscles an hour later are going destroyed because your stabilizing muscles are going to, yeah yeah, working so, so hard for that period. So yeah, just like yeah knowing the sections when you can run and when you can pull back and when you can yeah push and pull basically the whole race.
Speaker: Yeah, and which um shoes did you actually go with for that sort of terrain in the month? You'd be so happy. like The Fuga? Yeah, the Fuga, the pros.
Speaker: They're great. Very specific shoe to that, I think, though. Yeah, and the other two guys on the podium were Kylas as well, yeah? Yeah, Aru King is um from China. he's um yeah He's really, really good.
Speaker: um he but He got out on course as well throughout the week. Okay. And then the third place, Sung, is actually a s Sapa runner. So he trains with Hao. Hao is obviously ah amazing, like world-class, one of the best in the world really. Yeah.
Speaker: And there's a training group that trains with her and there's a few young guys that are now just being like basically taught and trained by her and they train on the course every day all year round and they're unbelievable. They're just, yeah, so talented, so good. Yeah, nice. nice Because it's a future race, isn't it?
Speaker: yes and Yeah, same, yeah. Yeah. Is that shoe like got like a deeper tread or like what's the what's the sort of things that made it useful for the race? Yeah. Yeah, Sam, you'll have to explain well, but I think the like the a bit back from the midfoot, there's that some deep lugs and it kind of gets a bit ah kind of gets a bit narrower, but the deep lugs in like that middle section for some reason when you're running downhill, think this is why that but that's the golden trail runner can run downhill so fast too, but those deep lugs, yeah, for some reason, like are just incredible for running down steep, slippery technical terrain. um Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. All around a pretty decent shoe, but specifically for that, which was a lot of the race, cause we had like 3,200 descending over the course. yeah um Yeah. Just so good. Yeah, so previously having run in Asia, um like one of the biggest problems is your feet getting shredded from how steep the terrain is and then your foot moving inside the shoe. Like I had massive troubles when I ran Thailand 100K with my feet just because of the steepness of the terrain. um And yeah, the Fuga Pro, like it is the one, it's got a carbon plate, an X-shaped carbon plate, so it's got like a Y-shaped, it's forked.
Speaker: um So it's still fast on the flat, which is good, and it's got a decent amount of cushion. But, yeah, does have the – like the positionings of the lugs are awesome ah for steep terrain and also because it does get narrower in the mid-foot – And just the lugs aren't super close together. So I find on clay and mud, like you also don't pick up the mud as much and you don't carry it with you as much because it is quite narrow on the base plate and the lugs are far enough apart and deep enough that you just kind of, some shoes just feel like they suck the whole ground back up with them. um And yeah, the the pros definitely don't feel like that as much. You're never going to get perfect shoes in that terrain because it's just freaking mud and clay, like Nothing feels perfect.
Speaker: But, yeah, the they are a specific shoe. And I actually race a lot of races in them even if it's not technical because they've got the carbon plate so they can go fast. um But then also specifically if you've got a whole heap of downhill and it's steep,
Speaker: um even steep uphill, like they feel fine on the uphill, they've got the plate, they're going to help. But the exact terrain that Billy's talking about there, for whatever reason, I find my foot doesn't move in the shoe and the where the lugs are, you just feel stable on steep terrain, which is yeah and And this was reflected in the podium. Yes, it was a Kailas Fuga race, but the women's was Runmaya Wurra, Yuri, and um Rebecca Bunting ended up having the Kailas on as well. So, yeah, yeah and then my race is the three on the podium. And there was a lot of complaints from sort of in the top 10 men's shoe choices throughout the day. Yeah.
Speaker: There you go. yeah ah It pays to pick the right shoe then, not always not always just the ah fastest, most bouncy shoe. Yeah, definitely. No, no, yeah. And like they're made in a long o So, yeah yeah, it's like Asian terrain specific. long had you run in that shoe for, Billy? Is it something you picked up in Vietnam and and tried or you tried it in Australia before you left?
Speaker: No, I went went into the shop at um in Saigon because there's not really – don't think you could really try it on it anywhere in Queensland. And I've always wanted to like try on the pros. I think Wild Earth stocked some of the the other models, but it wasn't sold on them. So, yeah, tried on the pros.
Speaker: And, yeah, the the guy who was working there ended up being good mates with, and he came to Saapa for a week too. So I sort of bought them out of like – both liking them but they're also liking the fellow that that that sold them to me as well knowing he'd be there and yeah yeah nice very cool well there you go yeah nice um i was just thinking that that yeah we're going to touch on a little bit in the asia pacific champs in china but i wonder if it's a that sort of shoe might be something that's worth thinking about for the athletes who are who are running that race or at least thinking about their their grip. I don't know how um how muddy it is over there where the the weather race is exactly, but this the gradients are usually always steep.
Speaker: Yeah. You can pretty much guarantee that in most Asian races, that's for sure. Yeah, and and that area actually, it does look like it gets a lot of rainfall, at least in like a rain forest-y looking area, a lot of water.
Speaker: Like um ah kind of like a delta looking area, I'm pretty sure. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. i'm sure it's I'm sure it's wet at times. um Billy, we probably skipped over it a little bit in terms of Transcend and we don't need to go into a full race recap, but was there, unless you want to, more than happy to hear it. um But was there things I'm mostly interested in? Was there some some key things? We talked a little bit how you you didn't feel super durable on that day. Was there anything that you took away from that in terms of what you wanted to put in place for your next race or then if it informed your training for the next few months um that you'd take forward from Transcend? Yeah, I think just um doing all the little things.
Speaker: I think during that block, I didn't have time to do the proper warm-ups, the proper little like... the little parts your training like isometrics i spoke to james a little bit about this too like isometrics your strength work and taking time with it rather than being rushed and like doing all the little things to make sure you don't have like mechanic i felt like it was like more of a mechanical problem like a bike has a mechanical problem it was like what's going on this is so annoying and it it is because you're not spending time looking after your body because now i'm training it quite quite a lot more and in a higher level you start to have little things fall apart that
Speaker: If you don't pay attention to them, then they fall apart at the wrong time. So that's probably the main takeaway from it. But other than that, I was pretty happy with like being able to run on a runnable course and I know that I still had and a pretty good like time and pretty proud of the time that I ran on course, but knowing that like the fitness to do more on that type of course is there.
Speaker: um in the future so if i choose to do a more runnable race like i got confidence now that i can run well but need to sort out some little things i think yeah yeah and i think there was there was a race you did in queensland wasn't it that was it the andina one when was that was that in that was in that training block but you look like you're moving pretty quick there so i think you have proven that you can you can run fast on runnable stuff yeah and i had some really nice super shoes that day that i was meant to wear and transcend like the opposite of the kyle super shoes like these ones are full max stack massive rocker like a really light like vibram light base there yeah i wish i were on for transcend as well probably wouldn't change anything but yeah yeah oh you never know um it looked like you enjoyed transcend as a race experience itself is there anything like is that is a race you'd recommend to other people to go and try out Yeah, I'm really glad I did because it actually lines up well with um like the type of races I've chose, like quite iconic, um like the World Trail Major races. They're quite iconic and they're independent events. And that's what it felt like. it felt like ah It felt like an event that should have a way higher participation. Like you're there and it just feels like there should be a lot more people there. Like it feels like it could have a lot more people there. It should. It's got everything going for it. So, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I think i think i definitely reckon it's just iconic. Like it's really cool. like Very unique. Nice. Yeah, they're definitely building it into being an iconic race on the Australian calendar, which is which is cool to see. It's definitely an emerging emerging race.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. yeah um ah going coming Fast forwarding through back to Vietnam again, we've talked a little bit about your race experience, your shoes and whatnot. we didn't I don't know if we officially mentioned, but you did come second in that race. You made your way up through the field.
Speaker: Is there anything else about the race that that particularly is worth touching on? Like how was the the race experience apart from pacing it well? Did you feel like you could push yourself in that in that last part? And and and were you was it what happened, what you expected in terms of moving through the field? Yeah, i think I think it actually did work out in the end. It didn't feel like it in the moment because obviously running through mud, it's just you just feel so tired all the time. Like your just legs feel really tired. because of i think But I think just remembering that everyone feels really tired in that moment was an important part because ah once again, if you slack off in those times, you can pick up the speed, then you do start to lose a lot of time. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I think I actually finished and thought I'd come third. I thought Rui was still ahead, but he stopped at an station for a bit longer than i just missed him, I think, around 20-something kilometers.
Speaker: But I think also a lot of the guys' side, a lot of the boys blew up early because Rui actually took ah quite a conservative climb. So he was in the eyeshot of a lot of the guys who were sort of running together. that was probably like five or six of us.
Speaker: And as we sort of got up to the top of the VK, you could see really like 500 meters ahead across. um We're still moving pretty quickly, but I think all the boys sort of got excited and sort of took off to catch him and going down a vertical kilometre i'm trying to catch Rui. Probably not the best idea. Well, it seems Rui even blew himself up.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that maybe he was coming in a little bit tired and like he raced a week before in Japan, so it wasn't a wast like a convincing... um like like Like I got to beat Rui, which is fantastic, but it's obviously not a fresh, ready to go. Like he should win on that course, it's that specific course too, with how good he is in Asia.
Speaker: yeah um But yeah, it probably worked in my favor because I didn't get too excited. I actually told the boys, be patient. I know that's Rui, but like be patient. And they just all bolted to catch him, I think. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: It must have been hard to sort of stick back and sort of back yourself to just sort of like do your plan and well, like a bunch of guys run away from you. um did was it Did you ever feel like you wanted to go with them or were pretty happy to be just like, no, I know I need to do my thing? No, I definitely was happy to to chill. actually, um i figured I trained a bit with Sung, the young Sapa guy.
Speaker: And he just like so, so, so strong on the technical terrain, like the muddy technical stuff that we'd trained on together. And um I was a little bit worried, but I also knew that there was like a 15K section towards like 35K onwards that was like more runnable and less technical, like broken by very technical bits.
Speaker: but like there was a runnable concrete sections. And i also knew that running up like runnable climbs, I was much stronger than him. So I was a little bit worried when he took off super quick and I didn't see him for a while, but yeah, now once I saw him again, I was like, okay, I'm confident and happy. And I thought I was in third then. So I just sort of,
Speaker: tried to keep pushing and and catch seconds, which I thought was Rui. But, you know, in the end, I never saw him. And I thought he'd just put his foot down and disappeared and maybe was even going to go for the win. But, you know, he ended up coming across second, which was cool.
Speaker: But Rui King was, I watched the start of his race. They filmed him. He had his poles out at the bottom of that first climb and was just sprinted the whole thing by looks of it. It was pushing stuff hard. yeah. I looked at it think he already had like eight minutes in me by like two hours into the race and just continued going away. So yeah, it's people that are just way stronger on, he's way stronger all around, but especially on that type of race where it's,
Speaker: yeah it's just specific terrain yeah yeah yeah for sure were you like obviously you thought you finished in third but you're pretty happy to run across the finish line and have sort of got the podium like was it a good feeling or obviously it's a good feeling but were you feeling what were what were you feeling when you ran across the finish line I thought I was in third and i actually thought I was a long way. I thought at least 45 minutes between me and Rui King. I thought he would, or whoever came first. genuinely thought it was so hard that I just genuinely thought I was running through custard the whole day and I was going to be a long, long way back. But, you know i didn't find out until probably 10 minutes later, I sat down and ate some food and and um a fellow I'm good friends with and Abby was like, oh,
Speaker: Were you like happy? I'm like, ah, you know, third is not so good. And they're like, you came second. And i was like, what? Actually, cool. Ah, fantastic. And then they told me that, yeah, he was 20 minutes ahead, which is a long way in five hours. But I was like stoked with that because I just thought it's not that that sort of mud and everything is not my cup of tea. It's not something I... super strong at so i was really happy to to yeah run well in the end it's cool yeah to be fair 20 minutes behind rukin like given it's that that terrain is much more his terrain than your terrain and he's a very good athlete like he's he's world class he was i think i looked at it he was like 24th at occ won hong kong earlier in the year like he's a he's a really good athlete um so i think that's a pretty no i think it's pretty impressive so
Speaker: Yeah, so i did to I did a little research on Ru King and he'd won in Hong Kong. He beat Anton, who was sixth at OCC. And then he won Mount Fuji. Well, he drew with that Liam Miro, but he got, not he was like a second or two ahead, but he got DQ'd because his phone problem.
Speaker: um and then i looked and he's behind antonio martinez by some they're they're tied on the world trail majors but he's got lower extra points so i figured he'd just come to vmm because it's not big prize money on the line just come to vmm to blitz it completely win and get high extra points i assume yes to then jump that jump the world trail majors because they both got two first place which is all you get for world trail managers eat best two Yes. yeah Okay. Okay. So I assume that's his he got that's his best shape coming in because I assume he'd be wanting his best result.
Speaker: yeah Yeah. Yeah. Is the ITRA results out yet or not yet? No, I don't think so, no. It'll be interesting because Runemaya and Yuri are very high-ranked women and they were 90 minutes behind first, yeah which is a a lot a lot further.
Speaker: The women's field getting over five hours, are very very close are getting very, very close these days. But because of this course and how unique it is with all the mud and the slow terrain, it was yeah a long a lot lot further than usual, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, okay. Interesting to see what happens there. Well, I i was very impressed. I think there was a lot of people cheering you on from Australia back home. um what's the What's the next steps from here for the rest of the year? What have you got planned for the back end?
Speaker: I would pick quick rest week and then try to get a good quality training block trying to be a full-time athlete between now and GPT and COSY. So similar things, good training block and then um have two races quite close together and see how we go. Awesome. Are you headed back to Australia or are you overseas training? What's the what's the plan? No, back to Australia and then moved down to Tassie in like 10 days time, I think.
Speaker: Very cool. Trained down there. So it's kind of like training overseas. Very good place to train. i think Yeah, exactly. You're going to be in Hobart, is that right? Or up in whereabouts you in Tassie? i'll Probably Launceston for a month and then, or I don't know how long we'll stay there for and then try to move to Hobart to yeah train in the mountains there.
Speaker: Golly, watch out my crowns. Billy's going to take them all. Probably. Ian Best will be sending me lot of things. I'll like, I'll send you some roots. no, I won't. I'm not going to send you any roots. No roots. I'm not telling you where to run.
Speaker: Don't hit a man when he's down. Fantastic. Awesome. Well, i'm i think I'm very excited to see you run. um Like, that's two very exciting races for you. GPT, I think you'll be very good on that terrain and COSI, another opportunity to run on a quick course. So, yeah, two very ah very different races, but um it'll be fun to sort of test yourself on both those courses.
Speaker: Yeah, a bit more nervous about COSI. I think there's a lot of fast runners coming this year. Yeah, a bit of firepower. Yeah. So, if I'm all beaten up, I'm quite worried actually about that.
Speaker: Yeah, you I reckon ah that it could be it could be a similar approach to that one, like take it easy and maybe take souls in the back half of Cosi. Yeah, maybe, maybe, yeah.
Speaker: Fantastic. Great. Well, but yeah, thank you for sharing all that. It was very good to hear from you and um good luck for the rest of rest of the year. I'm sure we'll sort of see those things pop up.
Speaker: Sim, you've been back to Australia for a couple of weeks now. Two weeks. I think you last when you were on last week, you've been back, yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think ah ah don't even know. You know when you come back, it's so much worse with the jet lag and I'm still just like, have I been back a week, two weeks? But no, it must be two weeks tomorrow.
Speaker: All right, I don't even know what day of the week it is, so it's all Yeah, you and me both. You and me both. But honestly, it's also that whirlwind of having been travelling and just let the ball drop on everything else, especially the way I was travelling. So I have come home to like... a lot of work to catch up on a lot of life admin and then also a ridiculous amount of study because i'm six weeks behind and all my majors are due in a week and half now um so i am pretty much living what you described almost at the beginning billy of like um
Speaker: the chaos of trying to balance everything. It's just I'm trying to balance like four things, all of us. And without like, without someone else forcing me into a schedule either, I have to force myself like straight back into this schedule of trying to get everything done. And me and my brain don't like that schedule stuff. So anyways, it's been interesting. um But running is actually going surprisingly well, which I'll take. um However, I have come to the annoying realization that one of the reasons running has been feeling as horrible as it's been feeling is actually due to the ADHD meds I started taking last September.
Speaker: And initially they helped with the POTS. And then I've kind of just come off them since getting home because I was already jet lagged and I was like, I just want to let my body recover. And all of a sudden my heart rate has somewhat normalized on runs and I feel better. and I'm like, well, that was probably a year of stuff. ah Like i it's just annoying um in a way because a I feel like I need that medication on days when I don't run. But if it's not something...
Speaker: that feels good to take super haphazardly. And then B, feels like I've now just, I hate, like on my entire trip, almost every run I just hated.
Speaker: It felt horrible. And my heart rate for so long I've just been like, oh, is this just my new normal? Is this what it's going to be? And blaming the pots. And then now all of a sudden I'm going out for my jogs and I'm like, oh, it wasn't that. um So good.
Speaker: Now I'm stuck in this middle ground of I have a whole bunch of stuff to get done and um because I'm now coming off that medication as well and just giving it a test out, I'm like even more frazzled than normal. So dropping the ball left, right and centre on life stuff that I'm trying to catch back up on. But running's better.
Speaker: So, yeah, I'm in a fun spot. It's very much push and I'm fine with it. Like I'm not in a rush with anything, which is good. I'm also on the whole with life incredibly content with where I'm at. Like life's actually really good. So I'm not stressed about it. It's more just like, oh, I wish I'd known that sooner. And I also am now like, well, how do I now deal with this? Because not sure. But that's life, right? It's just figuring stuff out as you go. um And I'd like my little experiments of one, N of one, see what works. um And I'm like, well, found something now that worked for a bit, now doesn't work, sort of onto the next thing.
Speaker: um But also relishing the fact that like today I did a track session and I did a full track session with my group and all of a sudden like we did two by eight, four by four, two by eight.
Speaker: And I'm like, I'm at this point, the queen of like sandbagging the start of sessions and just easing my way in. Like I will just start at the back and be like, I'll see how this feels. And this was probably the first session I'm going to say in a long time where I did the four by four and they were reasonably quick. We're like 79, 78, 77, 77. And i'm like, cool. They felt actually reasonable And I turned to Tim and I went, this has already been a good session. I'm going to lock into cruise mode on these 800s and just roll them around.
Speaker: And it's the first time in a long time that like 327 to 330 pace felt like a cruise. And my heart rate didn't skyrocket. And I was like...
Speaker: I was not expecting that, especially this other than my second session in, what, eight weeks now? Because I didn't do a single session overseas. I hardly trained. And I'm just like, was this there all along? And just this medication was stopping me getting back to it. Like, oh, that's annoying. But also I'll take it for now because I'm happy.
Speaker: If I can actually train again and push hard and not feel like, oh, I don't know how to describe how I was feeling, but it wasn't fun. I was not enjoying running. I was not enjoying threshold. was not enjoying like anything to do with it. And I'm like, if as long as I can enjoy my running again, i don't mind. I'm happy I figured it out now.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah I'm sure a lot of people can relate to that experience, but it's tricky when you look back and you're like, if I change that, then what did that... made a difference or would have it not made a difference it's yeah it's hard to know but it's good that at least you're on the right track now yeah well yeah you're on ah you're on a new track anyway i'm on a new track well no and the the thing is that like in in a lot of ways no regrets for a lot of it just because to begin with it it helped like that medication did a lot for me so it's no problem It's more just I wish it was on my radar that it could have become a problem. I don't know, which it probably should have been, me and my scientific brain. It probably really should have been.
Speaker: um But it's fine and, um yeah, it puts me in a good spot and I'm on to lots of big adventures coming up. so Yeah, it's exciting.
Speaker: Get on top of that life admin it sounds like. Oh, dude, it's going to be chaos until at least next Sunday when but I'd like 3000 word ethics application plus seven online tests plus a bunch of other stuff is not fun to do. I'm realizing now that I really shouldn't do this to myself trying to um put six weeks of uni into two weeks isn't fun. But anyways, we're here. Doesn't sound very achievable to me.
Speaker: See, this is where this is where my hype my ability to hyper-focus is great. I can literally sit down and do this thing for six hours straight and I'll forget to eat and I'll forget to drink and I'll forget to do everything good for myself, but I'll get it done. So it's fine.
Speaker: Nice one. Sounds like that might need what you need to do, lock in for a bit. Yeah, I will. I will. But how have you been and how's your dad life? Yeah, it's good. it's um I've been pretty good. I think I was on a couple of weeks ago. um Not much has changed with me. like It's pretty slow at the moment for me. i do feel like I turned the corner with my rehab. I sort of feel like I had about six weeks there where I didn't progress. I'm sure I did slowly and I needed to do those weeks. But...
Speaker: in the In the thick of it, it felt like I wasn't changing, like I didn't feel like I was pushing any more force in my exercises. I didn't feel like I was doing anything yeah different whilst I was being very disciplined. I'm i'm usually ah being very disciplined with my rehab. Yeah. So it was a bit frustrating, but I feel like maybe I just need to get through that part and it feels like I'm turning the corner now um and I'm seeing small gains like I can do. like For example, I couldn't like walk up the stairs on my toes. like If you sort of imagine like you're walking upstairs and your your heel's hanging yeah um yeah instead of having your whole foot flat on the stair. um I couldn't really do that, whereas now I can and I now feel like I'm now pushing more force through the stair when I do that. um
Speaker: So that was because my mycelius couldn't take my weight, essentially, like I couldn't take my weight, so I couldn't do that. Whereas now it can at least take my weight, um which is good. It needs to be able take what, three, four times my weight for running. So still a little while ago, running downhill, maybe more. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: But it does feel like I'm having progress now, um which is which is good. um And i feel like I feel like my strength is really good. um I've been very disciplined with gym work and I don't know. i've I've been running for a long time. So I feel like whenever I come back from these injuries, I don't feel like I have as much work to do to get back to where I was. I still think that's a little while from my best. Yeah.
Speaker: where I was wasn't at the greatest level anyway and I think if I maintain my strength then my cardiovascular I can turn that around pretty quickly obviously then I'd want a few years of training to then get to my best potentially um so I'm a long way off that but um I feel like I could get back into i don't feel unfit at the moment which is funny but I also haven't tried running or doing anything that requires fitness so that might just be um optimism I find that sometimes when you're injured and or you're doing other things, you can actually feel like a very fit, capable human until that very first run that humbles the heck out of Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: I'm sure we I've never really experienced that much. I know a lot of runners that have experienced that. um But, yeah, I don't know if it's something about my physiology. Like I could be eating my words in a few months when I start running.
Speaker: um But... Like, yes, you obviously get that normal feeling of it feels hard for a few weeks, but I sort of feel like I get back to a pretty good level pretty fast um from a cardiovascular point of view. And I'm, like, fairly active at work. I commute to and from. So, like, I do get a very low-level aerobic stimulus a bit in a day. So I feel like maybe that plays a part of it. And, like, I have many years of aerobic training of some kind behind me that I feel like When I come back to things, it's not too bad. i do I do feel like it's like three, four years until I could reach my top potential because I've trained poorly for like three years. um
Speaker: But yeah I need to get back to training first. That's the that's a goal. So, yeah, I think not rushing anything, just living with it. Being a dad is pretty awesome. i'm not like I feel like I'm not that worried about it, which has been very nice. Like it's a very – positive part of well the whole thing's been very positive being a dad but there's a very nice added benefit that like I don't care that much um and I've been getting deeper into my coaching as well like I feel like I'm more invested in my like I've always been invested in my athletes but like it's like now I'm really invested in my athletes so that's very cool as well
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. Nice, nice. I love these good shifts, all good life shifts. But also, think that's also going to help you get back. yeah Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But yeah, nothing wasn' too crazy to report for me. I'm probably going to have pretty slow updates for the next few months, but that's all right.
Speaker: That's right. It's realistic. It's a good, good, good. Awesome. Get on to some more interesting stuff. Yeah, I'll um jump into some news. So probably the one of the big pieces of news this week is the Australian team has been announced for the Asia-Pacific Trail Running Champs, which is going to be held in China at the end of November. um So that's very exciting. we would have I'm sure some listeners remember when the nominations process was and whatnot a few months ago. So it's cool to see that team announced and and that's really just around the corner, which is very cool. So I'll read out the whole team just to give everyone their airtime that they've earned. So in the long trail in the women, we have Nicole Patton, Alice McGushin, Kelly Angel and Anna Pillinger. piinger sorry um And in the men, we have Ben Burgess and Ben Leeson, the two Bens.
Speaker: So it's a very strong long trail team. um In the short trail we have ah for the women Zoe Manning and Jess Jason. And then we have a large men's team. I think that's ah the only, oh, no, I think the juniors also full teams. But we have six men in that team. So Toby Sparks, very own, sorry, Jess is also our very own, but Vlad Ixel is in that team, Nathan Pierce, Michael, I didn't forget about Jess, yeah I promise.
Speaker: ah Michael Tosin, Joshua Goding, and Leo Pedersen or Peterson. What is he? It's Pedersen, isn't it? Isn't it Peterson? You keep saying Pedersen and I don't know, to be honest. I call him Peterson because there's no double T. Yeah, true. That's probably right. We'll well get we'll we'll get that answer for the next time we call it out maybe. So, yes, those six men in that team. um And then the under-23 team is in the women Iris, Chanel, I think Annika, Lenny, jade hazeldean and in the men clay smith benjamin butler patrick clark and toby lang so a pretty strong under 23 team there as well like it ah across the board super strong team it's very cool to see yeah
Speaker: And big teams too, which I think is really important. Yeah, like it's cool to see them fill out a short trail team for the men, ah four women in the long trail. The under 23s I think is a max of four. So there were only we're seven out of eight spots. um So, yeah, definitely a large team as well.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. It's, yeah, so good and it's going to be now awesome to follow along as all these athletes and then watch them on the day because you especially when we do have the full teams to actually score, um it is obviously always like it's that sadness of not having full teams to score on the men's long trail or the women's short trail just because you are, you do need three to have that team score, um which I think does change the Both the vibes of um competing as an athlete and then also following along when just a little bit, like not a huge amount, but it's more just that whole, if you are in that third place or even in the first or second, it's like, well, every spot matters um when you know that there's going to be a team score at the end of it. Yeah. Hopefully for the next ones, like the fact that we've got this size of a team for this one, hopefully that means it's even bigger again for the next um because the what the sport's progressing in that direction. So it would make sense ah to for that to be the case. But yeah, it's going to be fun to follow. That's for sure. Definitely definitely gaining momentum. um
Speaker: While I've got you two here um who are two people who potentially could have been in the team who aren't, what do you think, not like maybe personally might help with the conversation a little bit if you're happy if you have any specific reasons, but what do you think are some reasons why we might not be filling out like a full team? in like What are some reasons that make it hard to go to this championship? Is it clashing races? Is it...
Speaker: not knowing about it is it what what do you think well you go Billy yeah um yeah like my reason was just too many flights and a bit too expensive at that time of year when I've already had a big year of travel and um Yeah, I don't know. I really want to go though. what point is I think, i think that issue actually, the the period of time, like you had to have everything in, but I just wanted to make a decision a month before, which is what I do with some races, but it's not a race you can do that. And it's not respectful to do that at all.
Speaker: um And yeah, just happens to be at a time when I can't personally moving down to Tasmania and then flying up like four separate flights and then four separate flights back. It's It's just a lot. Yeah.
Speaker: um But there's a lot. And obviously you have two big races in there's those two big races. The two big races you're doing are two big races for a lot of people on the elite side, but also not on the elite side in Australia being GPT and COSY at that time of year. So it's, it is somewhat of a scheduled clash.
Speaker: yeah but i don't know you can't compare like cosy's on the same day i think you can't compare cosy and representing your country i think i think it's just oh that's good to hear that's very reassuring that's the answer like to hear yeah cosy is cosy it's a it's a race yeah it's utmb like if you get top three and you get your stones and that but i mean come on it's nice there's nothing compared to going to china and going and racing on the world's age pacific stage like that's yeah once in a lifetime sort of stuff Yeah, definitely. So we haven't lost Billy to Australian teams. He's going back.
Speaker: It's the cash. Once he gets all the cash, he'll be back. Yes. um And I'm going to say, to be perfectly honest, a huge portion of my reason, and this possibly would be a reason for a number of people that were eligible, is also financial of that. Like ah it's not cheap.
Speaker: to do this sort of thing um and the the costs just slowly add up in a big way um and like obviously and I again had like my own travel um other plans sorted beforehand but I suppose for me even more so i would happily like I've sent myself broke for running that many times. I'd happily do it again. That actually doesn't bother me overall. The only time I find it interesting of like, that'll come into my brain when there's actually other reasons why I shouldn't do a race. Cause if I want to be there and know I should be there, the finances for me, I'm like, and I'll take care of itself. Irresponsible as it may be, that is my outlook. Um, but, um,
Speaker: I think for me, it was just at the time, like I actually got, I nominated, I got selected and then turned it down in the end. um And a large portion of that was just, I was hating running at the time. And I'm like, i I can't train. I can't threshold. I can't like... Nothing feels good and I don't want to have to force myself to train for an Aus kit. when Like when I put an Aus kit on, I want to be at my best and I want to be able to perform. And I think for me in particular, just i I think at an Asia-Pacific Championships on Asian terrain, I think I can do really well when I actually rock up, um but I can't do that this year. And so there was that sort of...
Speaker: um there was that sort of in-between of going, well, I want the team to have a score and I want to be there for that team experience, but also I know this isn't the right thing for me to train for right now and I know it's not something that's going to actually be good long-term. And I do actually want to be on that Aus team next year for the World Champs.
Speaker: And it didn't make the most sense in sort of my progression back to making it to that team to actually destroy myself trying to make this one work. um So, yeah, I think what that sort of highlights in some ways for like why isn't there full teams when there could be more people is just that you everyone has an individual sort of path in running. and a lot of individual factors adding up.
Speaker: Yeah. Well, yeah, but then but then it's also the fact that there's only 30 people eligible. so Oh, yeah, that's the that's the biggest issue. That's the actual biggest issue is because you've only got 30 people eligible. so And that's for both of them. So in order to fill the team, you need 12 out of 30 people eligible to actually be able to go for it to work in with their wherever they currently are in their running. And that's just not really, I think, that's that like I'm amazed with how many we've got realistically. And the distance to work for them as well because that 30 people can have, some of those people can be doing 100 miles and some of them can be doing 20K races, which neither of those two are on option at this championship.
Speaker: Exactly, exactly. So some of those people in there, it's just not something they would ever look at. And then like there is obviously the clashes in things. So like I do have another event that I was tossing up between, like i i was a could have pulled out of. It's a long event just four weeks beforehand um and I could have pulled out of but I'm like, well,
Speaker: Then I'm tossing up between which event do I do because like my even my selection was provisional on like, well, it depends if you actually want to do this event or not. And so i i took up until the very last day that they asked me to decide um on like which one I wanted to do. And to in the end, my body made the decision for me because I can go long and slow and grind. I can't go fast at the moment. And so I was like, it doesn't – the other one excites me. This one – petrifies me to be honest to try to try and train again for a shorter distance like I suffered through those three races in Europe and I don't want to do that. at the highest level as well you want to build yourself back to compete at the highest level.
Speaker: Yeah exactly. Yeah I mostly asked because I was wondering is there anything is anything we could do to get more people but I feel like like you said the main limitation like obviously there's the money consideration it's hard to take that away um and then the other main one is that sort of 30 top 30 which i believe autra is sending some some feedback to the organizers about to itra and saying like can we can we think of a better process for this because it's a bit of a mess yeah so yeah exactly just yeah
Speaker: So there's no discretionary selection. It has to be in the top 30 of it. or it's one per There's a wild card, but it's one per distance. So as soon as someone's used it up for that distance and they have to accept it, yeah um there's you can't have more than one discretionary pick.
Speaker: So you have to have at least five of the six. So individual entries haven't been released, like if there's any Australians that decided to enter themselves. think they get merged into the team entry essentially.
Speaker: um So that would be the announced team. Yes, yeah. Anyone who entered individually would then have then got, like, Autra have to be say, yep, we'll pull them into our team essentially. Yeah.
Speaker: I'd have to say, looking at the team, there's like a, for development athletes into the future, there's a lot of good athletes for the future. How good is that under 23 team? That under 23 team is fire. Yeah.
Speaker: I think I'll be huge. I'm very excited. A huge um yeah positive is the amount of people that meet that are doing it that into the future will continue to probably do it. And there's probably a few people that and yeah had clashing races or other reasons why they can't go or wouldn't go. You'd probably name a fair few.
Speaker: Well, even out of 30 people, probably two or three at least are injured at any one point in time or sick. Yeah, if you went through that It's just when the 30. I'm in the top 30 and I'm not anywhere near being able to go. Yeah, exactly. So I'm like when the pool is only 30 people, how are you supposed to feel team? Yeah, makes it tricky. Like it's so hard. Yeah. Yeah, and it's not top 30 short trail and then top 30 long trail. It's like top 30 overall. That's it.
Speaker: Yeah, of all distances, everything. I've been saying the whole time that makes no sense. Hopefully that maybe changes the future. Although there's more movement at the ITRA versus World Athletics space. So who knows? This might be the last Asia-Pacific champs that we see in this format and it might become something slightly different.
Speaker: Well, I think there will still be a regional championship, but I think it might, like there's potential that that will change and more go in line with what the European one is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. gotcha. I gotcha. Maybe. I don't know. That's a guess. That's a complete guess. Brody chucking out not facts right now. Surely it's going to move that way though. Like it's only going to become more underworld athletics. Yeah.
Speaker: cohesive, all the things. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. for now, we can get excited about this one, I reckon, because this is going to be a lot of fun to follow. And we'll get as many. I think we'll have a regional champs going forward. I don't think they can scrap that now. Now that they've given to us, they can't take it away.
Speaker: Well, no, I mean this one in particular, the team that's just been announced is trying to race. It's going to be good. It's going to be awesome. So we'll um we'll keep everyone updated as we go and try and get as many of the athletes on the team on the podcast beforehand and follow them along the way. So watch this space and we'll um keep you updated on where that's going. But yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, the only other news we actually have for this week, we do have a question coming up. Thanks from Liam. But um the news from this week, which is honestly probably the saddest news we've had on the podcast at any point throughout the podcast. And it's just been a rough month in the trail running world globally.
Speaker: um And I don't know if it's because it hits close to home for me or because I knew both of these beautiful people, but We did have Callie McChrystal who went missing on the 1st of September and it was mayhem for a little while there when someone just disappears without a trace she was on the Matterhorn on Lions Ridge which is in which is the climb the on the Italian side up from Servino um and she was just she was wrecking it she'd been on it many times before for a uh FKT attempt um which had been taken just a month earlier by Carina Anderson um at five hours 14 And Callie wanted to go sub five hours and knowing Callie she could do that.
Speaker: um Callie was and is an incredible was an incredible sky runner. And, yeah, she went absolutely missing without a trace, which is this scary um what during her descent. So there was there was a long search um but that has two weeks after the fact been called off and there has been now um all of the announcements from her family of essentially that Nothing has been found, no trace of Callians believed that she fell on the descent on Matterhorn, which is by no means unheard of, unfortunately. Matterhorn does claim, I think, six to 12 people a year, um that mountain. it is one of the most dangerous mountains there is. i think when I was looking it up, that so somewhere between 500 and 600 people have died.
Speaker: on that mountain um it's not for the faint of heart by any means and but it is also where Callie was comfortable and was home so it's just scary to think that someone with that much ability and skill on that terrain like it it just can be such a small moment and seconds and things can happen so Yeah, Callie, just a week earlier, she was at, um I was with Callie at Trofeo Kima. She came fourth at Kima um just, yeah, about a week, eight days earlier. So that one amazing.
Speaker: just heartbreaking um to be honest that Callie's from Canada lives lived in Vancouver um I think I believe um Squamish I don't know but she was Canadian um and yeah our thoughts are with Callie's friends family and everyone in the Sky Running community because that was a big hit for the Sky Running community she's at a lot of their races and then on the weekend it just the mountains struck again in a way um we lost Ida Amelie Robsham who met some a lot of people in the trail world will know her name uh I was going to look this up with T6 at OCC or was she higher up this year Maybe seventh.
Speaker: She was definitely top 10. Definitely top 10. Runs for ASICS. So on the same team with Jess was in the lead up to OCC in there in the house together. And um yes ida was actually just going for a normal run she's she's norwegian and she was on a ridge that i think anyone following the norwegian runners including killian and emily and all of the in st and incredible uh norwegian runners will have probably seen this reach many times before romsterlegen
Speaker: I probably got that pronunciation wrong. um But yeah, just off for a run with her partner, Miguel Benitez, another incredible trail runner from Asics and had one of those falls that didn't end well. and And so we lost Ida as well, just in a training accident, just in a fall.
Speaker: on a mountain two days ago i believe it was or over the weekend so another big hit incredibly soon after the previous big hit and it's just me wa waking up this morning to this news on my phone I was just like oh there's that mix of that gut-wrenching feeling like that could have been you at any point on so many of your runs and the gratitude that you're still here and then just the unfairness of going ah why does this have to happen?
Speaker: But the mountains are both majestic and dangerous um at the best of times. So, yeah, our thoughts also with Ida and the entire ASICS team because it's a huge hit for the ASICS team, but just she was – here, there and everywhere in the trail running world, um known by many. So, yeah, it's, I don't know, it it the shock to me when you when you hear the news is just like,
Speaker: you you kind of think sometimes you can be out in these mountains and feel a little bit invisible as you invincible as you sort of run along ridges and stuff and rock hop and everything's beautiful and amazing and yeah just the when someone just goes for their normal training run doesn't come back it's that reminder that no we're actually in terrain and in environments where like there's consequences to your actions so And it it doesn't even have to be, you're not taking a bad action. It's just, you can fall on the pavement and this is a scenario where if you can, if you fall, it doesn't end as well. So yeah.
Speaker: Bloody scary Yeah, it hits pretty close to home, I feel, for people who spend their time out training on the trails. I think particularly like like you, Sim, and probably Billy, like we've done a lot of training on technical terrain and we feel sort of in our flow state in that and situation and we feel under control. But there is always risk associated with it, which I think sort of, yeah, this these sort of situations really...
Speaker: hit home for me to to remember to be less risky and or consider the risks better in these situations. and I think that's a it's a way we can respect those that that have they've lost their lives. Like it's, yeah, so sad. So sad, yeah. yeah yeah and brodie the way you described it what we look at like going into the mountains sometimes is training rather than going into mountains that actually have some danger associated with them whether it is like like mountains crumbling apart underneath your feet or making a a decision that's not correct with the weather or even like things in australia like fires like there's so many dangers associated i'm thinking about it as training all the time like i do that all the time look at a massive mountain and go I'm going to train on that rather than you're actually going into an area that's not so safe, especially throughout different stages of the year. So yeah, maybe it's important to yeah take a few moments before you train to think a little bit about where you're going and what you're taking with you and um yeah what route you're choosing on the on particular day.
Speaker: 100% and it is. Little self risk management plan. Yeah and not in those scenarios that that that probably doesn't account for those but when you're thinking about these things happening um to people that are so experienced and have there's like they made no wrong decisions it just yeah it just makes you think that you do have to stop and just yeah yourself. Yeah. It makes you realize yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, and it makes you realise the value of a lot of the things that, like, I hope it makes people question the need to travel light when they're running, that's for sure, because that PLB, like I've got the Garmin in reach, that even the snake bite bandages for us here in Australia, but like, The simple little things that you can carry that just might make a horrible situation a little bit better or give you a chance if the worst was to happen, like carry the PLB, carry the Recco Reflector, all of the safety things that even the bivy or the space blanket or like things that are mandatory kit in a race are actually really good to take out on training runs too like they're there for a reason and if anything you need them more during a training run than during a race when you because during a race you've got people looking out for you but
Speaker: It's a lot of like you need to look out for yourself when you're out in the mountains. So carry and it it's just good weight training if you don't need it. It's great. So it's it's a blessing to not need these things, but it's also it's a choice to carry them. um And I think the Things like this remind me why i'm very much someone that now after years of being not so smart um and the person that will rock up to a run heavily loaded with everything I might need if shit goes if shit hits the fan.
Speaker: um yeah It's worth it. So, yeah. Yeah, and it's probably good to finish on this topic to say that, look, these people were very experienced. They were prepared. They did the right things to what we know. Like it's not, we're not saying this in that they made They did nothing wrong.
Speaker: Just highlighted to me personally that those places are dangerous and like I probably have been personally less prepared than I should be in a few situations. So it's more so highlighted that to me, not that they did anything wrong. So it's probably just worth finishing on that point.
Speaker: No, no, no. Very good call. Very good call. Because, yeah, no, that's there's there's nothing that either of them could have done that would have changed that circumstance. It's more just there's a lot of close calls that way and they're the ones that you can change. um So why not carry the things to change all circumstances? Yeah, our go out to their family, their friends. It's, ah yeah, horrible news.
Speaker: Yeah. Not so good. Not so good. Well, how do you even move on from this one, guys? This is sometimes some of the hardest podcasting. It's a bit of a a flip of the script, but I guess we're going to head to to a Patreon question. So, um yeah, is is it was nice to spend some time on on that. um It's not like obviously super close to it.
Speaker: australia but i think it does all it still does touch us um but yeah let's move on um liam has a question for us uh which is ah hey guys what supplements have you used and generally recommend for trail such ultra running keen to hear what's actually worked for you billy given your i guess if you've got any oh sorry simone let's go to you first because you're gonna run and then me billy gonna take it home Yeah, yeah. i'm on ah I'm on a time schedule, so ah I've got to run after this. But um but supplements for me are life at this point um just because, and as I've said, like my body hates trail running at this point, so um and it has for years. But some of the things that I swear by, I love magnesium before I go to sleep.
Speaker: um I think it actually does help a lot with recovery. Like I swear by that one. um I do currently, um the jury's out for how much it's helping, but I do currently take Ubiquinol or CoQ10.
Speaker: um It's got got some good scientific research and some good um papers on it. So it's, and it seemed to help me in my recovery from the mayhem that my body has been through um i year what is it sorry i'm sorry i miss what you said what's it's like ubiquitous coq10 um coq10 or something i always think it's cool i'm like and what what what what does it do what is it what is it i've never heard of it so it uh yeah um
Speaker: It does. is it like Is it for everyone or is it specifically for for you like recovering or is it like something that anyone could find useful? Anyone could find useful. um So like it's it's to do with like cell protecting against cell damage, cellular energy, your mitochondrial energy production. um It's got antioxidants.
Speaker: properties and that sort of thing. But it, it, I would have to have recently looked at the science to actually say this with any confidence. um But yeah, a lot of it is to do with supporting cellular energy and like mitochondrial function. um And yeah,
Speaker: heart health. it It does have a lot to do with heart health is in that way too, um in the heart muscle, but, and protecting against cellular damage. So just one of those little things that we naturally have that more of seems to help buffer against cellular damage and energy production. So, Yeah, it's people feel free to look it up. By no means is that advice. It's just something that I take. We should caveat. It's probably worth to note that this segment is entirely our opinions and not medical advice.
Speaker: Yes, 100%. Please speak to your doctor about all of this. All of it, doctor or dietician. um But yeah, otherwise i um a year round supplement. For me, I need quite high doses of vitamin D um and that I also have with that K2 to help with the absorption. I supplement calcium for obvious reasons, bone health. um And I take melatonin every night for sleep.
Speaker: Is it obvious how many things I use at this point? uh vitamin c and zinc i take every day the immunity more so than anything else um yeah i take that every day um all of this i take every day i'm just my body needs as as much support you got the counter lined up all the bottles i think i did i think i counted recently and i take about 24 tablets a day between my medications and my supplements so yeah we're gonna get your webster packs in No, I do. I have like a week-long thing where i put i like I put a week's worth of tablets out in my little granny pack already.
Speaker: And I even took it to Europe with me and I was like sorting all my tablets for each week in Europe while I was over there. I'm like, this is normal behavior, I swear. um But yes, the only other thing that I'll mention, I think, is just iron tablets.
Speaker: And i I still being celiac, I still don't absorb iron well. So supplementation doesn't do a huge amount and I still need infusions, but I'll supplement away and the hope that I need less infusions over time. um And otherwise, like, I think that's mostly it. All of the fancy stuff I've tried, I'm going to say, like I've tried beetroot. And yes, it works. It's just expensive and hard to come by and the easy forms to take. I've tried tart cherry juice and again, the iced tea, no harm. i've I've yet to test it enough to feel the true recovery benefits. um I haven't tried things like Gnomeo or those sorts of fancy things, I'll
Speaker: But yeah, I keep it pretty simple to like, is there really good research on this is there, um actually the ale Australian Institute of Sport supplement framework is really useful because they grade things based on how much scientific evidence there is for whether it helps or not. It's kind of like an A, B, C, D and they go, well, this is D level is like, this is a gimmick, don't take it. And A level is no, there's actually really good science, take this.
Speaker: um And that's reminded me the only other one I take is creatine, which is in that A level. of like will help muscular power production and your muscles do muscular things. Um, so yeah, I base a lot of what I take off the AIS supplement framework and then The only other thing I'll mention as we talk about supplements is that everything I take, which does make it a lot more expensive and hard to come by, but everything I take is batch tested.
Speaker: Especially with those 20 tablets. Yeah, I know. The easiest place to get that is like there's a website called batchtested.com or you can just check Hasta, Inform Sport, all of those places, but everything I take is from one of them which yeah isn't fun and I look forward to not having to do that we're no longer a professional athlete um I must say because it'll be a lot cheaper but it's worth it um to make sure in you you know what you're getting is clean then and it's third-party tested
Speaker: Yeah, there was a lot. We can rename that Sim Supplement Corner. Yeah, and I'm actually planning on testing in the next little bit. I'm planning on testing some Gnomeo, testing some ketones, testing a few other, CaraNZ. I love testing these things. The science brain in me loves it. So I'm happy to keep people updated on Sim Supplement Corner. So we'll do a new segment.
Speaker: Yeah. See how we go. What's added to Sims morning stack. And you'll have to give them like a rating from like the A to D as well and make your own. Oh, yeah, yeah. I enjoy that when they put it in the different ratings. Well, because some of them some of the time I'm like, it's got to be easy to take too and it's got to taste nice and it's got to just not make your day worse. Like I've greens and individualized as well. I'm like.
Speaker: Yeah, it is. It is. So do not just willy nilly think that you need iron, you need vitamin D, you need calcium. Like it is not, that is not how you do it. You need blood tests and you need doctors helping you with this sort of stuff because too much of any of these things is also a bad thing. um So yeah, people be careful, but that's, that answers the question was all my supplements. But um unfortunately on that note, I'm out. secrets. I've got to run. No secrets. That's great.
Speaker: Thanks for joining us. It's been good to hear from you. See you soon. I guess, yeah, from my perspective, yeah, like I was saying then, I think it's very individualized. Obviously, the AIS is a great source and their recommendations are based on a bit more, say, population broad, like sports.
Speaker: It might be a bit more like everyone might benefit from those and then there's some that are maybe more specific to people depending on their health and other considerations. For me, i take I have protein relatively regularly. I guess we call that a supplement protein powder, particularly after, say, a gym session or something that I know is fairly muscularly demanding.
Speaker: um But I also find it's a good way to get in my protein intake because I'm trying to make sure that I get enough protein. and what what areing a What form are you having, a whey protein or a plant protein?
Speaker: I just take a whey protein. Yep. I've got like the, you can get like the Musashi big tubs. They're like, when I buy them, it's ridiculous.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like four kilos or something like, and it's a Hasta certified one. So it's, um, Yeah, it's good. i like For my protein powders particularly, I i really make sure that they're – I think they're a high risk for contamination. So they're a good one to get batch tested. um As Sim said, you should do all of them. But if you're going to do one, I think protein powder particularly, um given its ah crossover with ah bodybuilding and that sort of stuff, I think it's ah it's a good one to make sure you get a – like an informed sport or whatever it is, batch tested. um Then I take collagen, which is great for my hair.
Speaker: um Billy's maybe on the collagen as well. He's got great hair. um But yeah, that's technically for my tendons. I'm not sure it does much, but I take it religiously just in case it does. ah And then apart from that,
Speaker: I take iron when I need it, but just i use blood tests to monitor that every three to six months. um I don't routinely take, say, vitamin D or calcium, but I have taken when I've had ah bone injuries um just in the sort of recovery phase. But again, I've done bloods and checked those numbers. um And what else do I take? Like I've dabbled with various bits and pieces, but they're probably the things that stick with me. I do vitamin C and zinc, but only when I feel the first touches of illness or I feel run down.
Speaker: ah don't take it all the time. um And obviously, there's some sports supplements like I use caffeine. In my exercise, I've dabbled with bicarb. I'm not convinced it's definitely useful for races over an hour, but um we'll find out, I guess, with a bit more. um And I have done, I did try the old broccoli sprouts once, but they're way too expensive and I didn't notice anything. So I don't know. That's something maybe I try again. That is Nomeo, isn't it?
Speaker: Nomeo, yes, sorry. Yeah. Yes. yes That's like the ITCs thing, but yeah. And like I think the other one that Sim mentioned that i i'm I'm interested, that I have taken before is like some sort of like like a Curren Z product, like that sort of antioxidant recovery type thing. Modex is one that I've used in the past, but it's very expensive. That's the pine pine extract, is it? That's the pine extract. It's a similar type of pathway, I believe, whereas Curren Z is like the black currents and it's probably cheaper to do regularly. um
Speaker: And sort of that's more from like a recovery, dampening down inflamm inflammation a little bit um in sort of heavy training. But I haven't really been doing heavy training. So I think it's something I will probably try and use in the future but haven't needed to. But yeah, so I don't do anything too crazy. But I think...
Speaker: For me, it's like the key ones that are useful is like the protein, the caffeine, I take the collagen. They're probably the three big ones for me. do Do you think a lot about just getting the getting it through your diet instead, just eating a whole food diet and staying healthy I do try like I most I don't have protein powder every day, but like, I don't know.
Speaker: I'm just busy like and I it's a lot of effort to force upon my family to say we need to make sure I have protein and that. So it's like it's a good way to be like, oh yeah, Laura, we can have pasta for dinner that doesn't have much protein.
Speaker: I'll have a protein shake and I'll know that I hit my protein because I know that my meal of pasta, it did have protein in it, but it may have not have been a huge serve of protein. um So in those cases where I don't want to interrupt, like we always have to have like tofu or we always need to have like, I don't need a lot of meat. So like it's sometimes harder to get.
Speaker: plant-based ah protein sources. And and for me, i don't I don't, especially when I'm not training, I don't eat heaps, but I am hitting the gym quite a bit at the moment. And I do regularly as well when I'm running. I do do a lot of that. And I think the timing of the protein can be really useful as well as like making sure I get that on board and I'm not just like doing gym and then breaking down from it.
Speaker: um So yeah, i've I've used protein for a long time and i I feel like for me, it's a good way to supplement the diet. But yeah, I think that the The dietitian advice would be or the nutrition advice would be try and whole foods if you can.
Speaker: um So, yeah, if you can, great. But, yeah, I found it useful when i haven't been able to. And it sounds like using supplements as a supplement rather than as a exchange for real food. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. like Yeah. Especially like things like calcium and vitamin d on a regular, like I'm just trying to make sure I get those things in, in my diet or not vitamin D, but calcium and iron. Like I do,
Speaker: I have had problems with iron in the past. I think maybe it was related to energy availability rather than like, obviously, there is endurance runners are at high risk of low iron. And I think there's probably a bit of that. So it has trended better over time. But it is still an issue area for me.
Speaker: So I'll like purposefully try and have like a good, like I'm not vegan. I'm not vegetarian. So I'll try and have like a really good red meat source, like once a month, because the evidence on iron is you can sort of like if your body's hungry for it, it will like really absorb heaps of it. So you can sort of hit it with a big dose and you will get a bit of benefit from that. So even like very infrequent, especially if you're then getting iron from other sources, um it can be useful. So, yeah, I do think diet first is the best approach um for supplements that you're using for your every day.
Speaker: with sports performance, obviously some of those supplements are purely sport related, performance related. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. and When it comes to iron, actually, I have a a semi-decent um suggestion. I think Matty O'Donnell actually sent it to me to start with, but they can get like a desiccated um beef spleen or beef liver tablets. So it's not whole food, but it's like dried, you know, like jerky or dry and then desiccate it. Yeah. And it's, um yeah, probably the easiest way to get in um iron in my opinion anyway especially when you're traveling and you're in places where you can't have access to higher iron foods if you require it um yeah like two or three of these beef spleen tablets really good really high in iron and some other nutrients but yeah
Speaker: Yeah, cool. yes sir I might have to look at it. Pretty cheap too. thats That's the thing with supplements is often the cheaper supplements are actually the ones that work and the ones that are really expensive don't work. They just got a ton of marketing behind them. which Yeah, and there's a lot of noise in this space, lot of noise.
Speaker: So especially with the the social media continues to snowball into what it's becoming is there's a lot of noise around, especially and there's supplements companies and nutrition companies make the most of that. and they prey upon that sort of grass is greener or I'm missing out approach that people feel like I need to get it all. um But yeah, I would say do your research, find which ones have evidence, then find if they're actually use worthy for you, then see if you can do it with your diet. And then that's the sort of you want to go through rigor. You don't want to just start taking something for the hell of it.
Speaker: Yeah, you've got to have everything dialed into before you can even notice any benefits or any um yeah yeah any changes with with taking it. Because if you're just getting fitter and you're going through a stage of getting fitter and you're starting to eat healthier and you take a supplement during that stage and you're like, wow, this really works. It's not just because you're getting fitter. and other stuff yeah yeah yeah It's like no correlation at all.
Speaker: Yeah, for sure for sure. Is there anything that you take like either regularly or for performance? um probably magnesium glycinate's the best one that sim said for something that you just can't get and it's just a huge benefit that and probably creatine but not always creatine um probably not the best thing to say but like i i'm a bit of a um like heavier runner having a lifting background so when i do have creatine it attaches to but Like it increases the water holding capacity of your muscles or something. So I do put on a lot of weight.
Speaker: um Probably wouldn't affect a lot of other runners as much depending already. But I do notice probably like three to four kilos after taking creatine for two weeks. um It's not muscle. It's just water weight. Unfortunately, it's not really interesting. yeah because it's yeah interesting. I've definitely heard that. And then when I took it, I didn't notice any. So like it must be, obviously it's individual specific as well.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely individually specific. Yeah. But it's great when you do start taking creatine after a few weeks, like... no changes at all in gym program you're just so much stronger like your your grip strength i really notice improves a lot maybe i need to do it for my grip strength but like a grip strength is something actually it's really good for knowing when you're over training or when you're getting weaker generally like as as an athlete as you age grip strength's a good um indicator and yeah i just noticed it for when you take creatine just so much stronger yeah interesting there you go cool
Speaker: But other supplements, anything you use in races or like training performance from a performance standpoint. Yeah, I've used the back in the actual training. Yeah, I'm bicarb in that previous block because everything was very similar week to week and yeah, it was great. No negative side effects and felt positive effects from it.
Speaker: um And it was probably a pretty controlled period of time. So yeah, definitely I'd say bicarb. I've done the, did you use it for racing? Like do you use it for transcend in Vietnam? not Vietnam. I didn't bring it with me, but transcend. Yes. yeah And also okay that, um, Oh, the pyramid. probably Yeah. And I mean, the it's, it's hard for like a race, like the pyramid, but yes, like during the VK just felt unreal, like unbelievably good during, during the climb. Um,
Speaker: But yeah, it's also hard because you can't measure it correctly if you're just a solo athlete without a team around you. So it's all anecdotal. um But the other one I've tried, if you need nitrates for cheap, switch, nutrition, tested and everything, you can get that from some third-party websites for...
Speaker: quite quite cheap, like you get some good discount codes and it works out to be very cheap per serving, maybe like $1.50. And I think the science is that, I don't know the science, shouldn't be saying this.
Speaker: Seven days prior to the event, you start loading with it and then on the day of the event. Is it a beetroot product or it's just like a similar, because beetroots is nitrate. So is it beetroot or is it something else providing you nitrates? yeah it's it's beat true it's all the the fiber has been taken out of it and it's a bitch and it's been tested for the amount of nitrates per serving yeah so that the seven days into the event and then not taking it on event morning because i have before and that's like nitrates in your stomach that causes some serious serious problems like not even during the start of the race like within half an hour so interesting it's quite quite intense and it's quite scary looking at the and mess afterwards. It's horrible. Yeah. But the but btro the b true p yeah I think that that the only reason I went on board with that is because I got it really cheap and I thought that you could have periods where you test it. And I think it was like 40 bucks for maybe 30 something servings in the end.
Speaker: yeah yeah Yeah, cool. Awesome. Well, hopefully, Liam, that gives you some... some i i oh You know what we do. We're not giving you ideas. That is purely what we do not medical advice or sports advice. well One more would be the beta-alanine. I think that's a very cheap one that you can trial. But once again, yeah the negative effects probably... you get very like My face gets so itchy after taking it. Interesting. Within like five minutes. Yeah, that one that one's definitely on that AIS framework. I don't know which level it is, but it's it's definitely one with some evidence behind I'm going to be C tier, around C. Yeah, that sounds about right.
Speaker: Probably more for someone that's doing... I feel like it's A's caffeine, B's, I don't know what, and then C's pretty much everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. More if you're like 800 meter runner or CrossFit, something like that, where it's very high output for under a minute.
Speaker: Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, Liam, hope you enjoyed that and everyone else, hope you enjoyed that conversation. We'll move on to a couple of results. We'll spin through these ah because we've killed Billy for a long enough. um Overseas, we had the Golden Trail World Series race. I don't know which number this is. Maybe six, I'm guessing, ah in Japan. There's a few Asia races to finish that season. They've got had this one in Japan. There's one in China, I believe, and then the final in Korea. um nathan pierce was racing at this one he came in 35th um it looked like he had a tough day from what he's rode on his strava maybe not the his uh what what he was hoping for but um i'm sure he's learned a few things that look like a brutal course really tough yeah like a massive you climb and then the downhills look really hard
Speaker: Yeah, and I think climbing after that first climb and descent would have been hard. And maybe, I don't know what shoes Nathan chooses with with on, I don't know their selection, but that would be um a course where some really deep lugs and specific yeah pair of shoes would make a big difference. I think I saw that end Norwegian guy, Anders, take the downhill segment.
Speaker: And he's got a pair of those VJs on, which is just the perfect fit for that sort of stuff. Yeah, it's like an orienteering shoe. Yeah, yeah. I think he actually passed Nathan on that descent and there's a video of him going past.
Speaker: And I was just thinking to myself, oh, geez, it sucks when like a race can be dictated a bit by, not the Nathans, but like by shoes. Like if you choose the wrong shoe, it's like, ah.
Speaker: yeah can be terrible yeah it's so frustrating and it's hard like when you've got sponsored athletes obviously and nathan's sponsored by on so he has to wear an on shoe and maybe on don't have any shoe that's perfect for that race they have shoe that's good for most races but maybe given the the actual conditions on the day but he had no other choice but and i'm sure it's great it's he'll probably listen to this and go nothing to do with the shoe guys Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Well, Nathan, if you're listening, send your complaints to Billy, not me. but What a cool race. I love seeing the Japanese races and Japan just like loves their running and their their their depth is really, like I think maybe they had more ah Tiger Yamaguchi was eleventh He's a really, really good Japanese star runner.
Speaker: um And then a fair few like filling in the gaps throughout that top 30, which is cool to see because I think now a lot of the Japanese runners are starting to get get professional contracts and see them slowly come into the world. Yeah, they have so many incredible runners in like road running in like how many guys run whatever is it under 220 in the marathon must be so many. So they must have so many that could pivot into trail.
Speaker: yeah the echadon road scene so this is like the like the four four leg races that go across like um towns mountain ranges on the road there's a lot of athletes that are like really good mountain mountain specialists that's in road mountains not trail mountains oh yeah running up can cross over really really well And there's so much steep terrain in Japan that if they like then just do a bit on the trails, they've probably already done a bit growing up that they're probably pretty impressed. that the The Japanese runners I've run against are so good on the steep ups and downs.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. And they love their sky running. There's a proper sky running like format it's cool in Japan. Yeah, it's cool. Nice one. So, yes, that was the the Japanese race. I don't think Nath is running the race in China, but he is going to the final in Korea. So we'll see him again there. And then, yeah, back to China, I guess, for Asia Pacific later in the year. So, yeah, it'll be cool to see the end of Nathan's year as well. We had in Victoria some local races now. We had Run Upper Murray, ah which is, yes, in Correong.
Speaker: um So, yeah, up sort of, what's that, east of Aubrey-Wodonga area. ah There is a 33K there. The winner in the women was Nicola McCreish, and in the men it was Rory Parnell.
Speaker: They also had a 16K. ah The winner was Kitty Kopietz in 1 hour 56.19. Sorry, I didn't give the times for the first ones. And in the males, it was Cody Poulton in 1 hour 32.05.
Speaker: And there was a 9K as well. In the women, the Lauren Roberts in 1 hour 903. And in the men, Macaulay Sexton in 1 hour and 28.00. So that was run up a Murray.
Speaker: In New South Wales, we had the Pillega Ultra ah in the... Do we have a... We have a 50K, which the winner in the men's... We'll go through the top three here. We had Ryan McKernan in 549.35, Callum Hockey in and Jack And then in the women, we had Olivia Holbert in 6.33.18, Beck Cook in 6.43.19, and Eleanor Finch in 7.01.14.
Speaker: they also had a non-binary category, and Riley Brooke was the winner there in 8.17.36.
Speaker: We'll do the twenty k We'll just do the winners in this one. Callum Hockey got the win in the, I think, looks like most people do the sort of Grand Slam, which might be all three distances. Callum Hockey took the win in this one, won our 57.28, and Olivia Holbert won again in the women in 2 hours 17.23.
Speaker: And Riley Brooke took out the non-binary category again in 3 hours 19.17.
Speaker: I think the 10Ks is this also ah every the same runners. Ryan McKernan won this one in 50-54. Olivia took out the third win of the weekend in 58-38.
Speaker: And this time, Ezra Keely won the non non-binary category in 105-28. Riley Brook was second. say Wow, that's a big weekend running.
Speaker: Yeah, Olivia got all three. Riley got two two first and a second. It's pretty cool. um What have we got next? We've got the Duval Dam Buster in Armidale.
Speaker: uh in the 50k the winner in the women was sarah bailey in five hours 15 13 and in the men it was blair mcpherson in five four hours 49 09 and and we also had a few others we'll do the 28k or actually the The 16K the one that's named after, so we'll do that one. That's the Duval Dan Buster.
Speaker: and The winner in the women's was Brooke Stanton in 1 hour 29.18. And in the men, of... and in the men lot of lot of women in this race. Awesome. 64 women. Sam Guppy was the win and winner in the men in 1 out 14.57. So both of those times pretty pretty speedy.
Speaker: We also had in New South Wales the Great North Walk Trail Run. so that's the So I think it's quite an iconic hiking trail.
Speaker: There was a 50K in the men. We'll do the top three here. Luke Townsend, 504.20. Matt Thompson, 5 hours, 27.53. And third was Oscar Evans in 5 hours, 40.14. And the women, Claire Robertson was 5 hours, 55.57. Anna Pillinger was 6.13.09. And Christy Jansen was third in 7 hours, 29.31.
Speaker: and in the women claire robertson was five as fifty five fifty seven anna pielinger was six thirteen ah nine and kurt christie jansen was third in seven hours twenty nine thirty one In the 30K, we'll do the winners here. the men, the winner was John Deneen Griffin in 2 hours 28, 14. And in the women, Nicola Gilks in 3 hours and 8 minutes 14. and there's also a 10k we'll give a shout out to the winners there ben mcourney in 44 22 in the 40 to 49 category beat out all the youngsters good work ben and in the women hannah veen in 52 12. so that was the great north walk trail run
Speaker: And the i'm i think Sim actually did a good job of the name of this one. And I'm being in Tasmanian, I should be able to get this, but I don't know how to say it. La Billardiere Trail Run. It's on Bruny Island. You'll be able to go down there and check it out, Billy, when you head down. Awesome, yeah.
Speaker: We'll do the winners in the men, Ryder Jampson took first in 1 hour 16.40 and in the women, Kath Prescott in 1 hours 39.31. I think this, I don't know how long it was.
Speaker: Maybe about, I feel like it around 15K. But it's cool, nice like little trail running route down there. All right. that's ah There was a few other races. There's the main ones from around the country this weekend just gone. Next weekend, we have Run the Main in Victoria, Lamington Classic in Queensland, Lonely mound lonely Mountain Ultra in New South Wales.
Speaker: Denmark half marathon in WA, Kenyany Trail Series, Rigi Dij and Yorubilla in South Australia. So one of the sort of iconic trail running routes in the Adelaide Hills. So that will be cool to see that one go off.
Speaker: Billy, what have you got coming up? When do you fly home? ah Thursday. Come back Friday and head on down to Tassie pretty much. I'll stop by GPT course to have a look.
Speaker: um I wanted to get there for the, they do a bit of a trail clearing day on the 2nd and 3rd of October, so I might try to get there for that, but I don't know if I will be able to. But yeah, I've heard there's a good trail running community there at the Gary World, the Gary World Trail. Gary Word Trail Runners, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, so I might um reach out to them and, yeah, learn a bit about history of the area and people of the area. might be cool to do. Yeah, I know some of the guys who run that, ah who are at least involved in that trail running group because they raced. We raced them a few years ago and when I did the stage race with a few friends. We raced a group of three of them that lived in the area. And, yeah, they were great value. We had a good good bit of fun going back and forth all weekend. um So, yeah, good guys and nice running community there. And they love it.
Speaker: They love their sort of local trails as as they should because it's very beautiful. Yeah, and it's awesome. Like when you can go to a place and there's a running community there and they're like attached to the broader community and and you can learn like stuff about the history of a town or a place or the tourism and you have someone to do it with. And yeah yeah I'm starting to realize that's a really nice part of traveling to a race is getting there early and getting to know some people in the area.
Speaker: Yeah, cool. Well, I'm sure they'll be happy to take you out on the trails where you said you're headed Launceston area when you, when you get there. Yeah. To start with. Yeah. With, um, that'd be family.
Speaker: Perfect. Stay away from my segments. um Try not to. Please. um Yeah, i've that nothing crazy coming up, just life. So, um yeah, but looking forward to all of the racing we have coming up, lots of ah big domestic races, some overseas racing, very exciting. So, It's going to be good to watch. And yeah, hope everyone enjoyed this episode. Billy, thank you for joining. It was cool to hear what you've been up to and great to have you on as always.
Speaker: Yeah, thanks for having me on and getting to catch up with you and Sim. was cool. Awesome. Thanks. See you guys.
