Transcript
Speaker: Hello and welcome to episode 131 of the Peak Pursuits podcast. My name is Simone Brick and I am joined today by Vlad Ixl over in Perth. how are we doing, Vlad? Yeah, not too bad. and Enjoying the cooler weather in Perth. um Actually surprisingly cold for this time of the year.
Speaker: Oh really? What's it been like? It's like eight or nine the degrees this morning. It was actually really nice. Yeah, damn. It is funny how like that temperature when it's been warm is really nice, but that temperature when it's that temperature all the time is really annoying.
Speaker: I'll take it knowing that it's going to be a warm summer. Like we've had a 30 degree day few weeks ago, like two weeks ago, and now we've got this cold front and it's been a nice change. So did my long runs and it was like 15 degrees and i was like, yeah, this is so good. Yeah, nice. yeah Start warming up soon.
Speaker: Oh, it will. will. We're all going to get those heat gains in very, very soon. um And joining us today on the pod is one of the, another one from the team for the Asia Pacific Trail Running Champs. This time in the juniors, we have Toby Lang. Welcome, Toby.
Speaker: Thank you. How are we doing on this fine Monday? Pretty good. My legs are bit sore from a race I did recently, but other than that, I'm feeling quite good.
Speaker: Yeah, we'll get into that. We'll get into that. You just did. I think we chatted about this on the podcast last year or a year you've done it too um for Outward Bound. um But, yeah, we're going to catch up on what Toby's been up to and then chat about your lead-in to Asia Pacific and what that's going to look like. um Also coming up, we've got a few questions about whether when to know whether you're ready for 100K, little bit of Melbemarra chat because there was actually a really – big number of trail runners I saw out there. um I definitely felt the love um but saw plenty other people getting out and hitting that road and it was big in this area. um
Speaker: And yeah, it'll be, also saw a few stats on the growth of the sport coming from another podcast, Free Trail, that's always interesting to chat through. But to get us started, Toby, we'll go back, I don't know when we last had you on.
Speaker: um If you can remember, you can alert me but ah What has your year looked like so far for 2026? Yeah, so I started, i was doing quite a big training block over summer.
Speaker: think the first race I did was the Warburton Trail Fest, the Donna Double Race. Yep. um That was in March. um Probably wasn't my best race, I think. I...
Speaker: Going up the hills, I feel like my Achilles just felt awful and I was just in a lot of pain going up. So that wasn't the best start of the that something you'd been dealing with in training before that? Like, did you expect that to happen or?
Speaker: Not really. Like, I've been having issues with my Achilles. Like, my left Achilles has been the worst um for about a year or two. It hasn't been anything major, but I feel like that race, they just, as soon as I started going uphill, they just felt absolutely awful. Like, the worst I've ever felt.
Speaker: yeah um So I've been doing quite a lot of exercise for them recently. um Yeah. Do you find that... That's good, that's good. Do you find that Achilles are more of an issue in orienteering than in trail running and running in general? Not really.
Speaker: I find quite the opposite, I think. Okay. Like if I do more orienteering, I feel like it's softer ground and like they feel a lot better for a few days after go orienteering. Whereas if I do a lot trail running or road running, that's where it's really worse.
Speaker: Yeah, okay. Fair enough. I just don't talk to enough Orientiers to know in between you and Brodie. It's a small sample size. But I was like, you're going out in sympathy with Brodie at that point.
Speaker: um But it's good to hear that it's not been too much of a trouble. So we started it started at Donna not long after was Kunanyi. It was only a couple of weeks after, wasn't Yes, that was, yeah, only a few weeks after that, that was in Tassie.
Speaker: i did the Foothills 14K, which was the Australian up-down mountain running champs. Yep. That was, yeah, that went a lot better. That was, i think I came second in that race, which I was quite pleased with.
Speaker: Yeah. How did you find that course actually since that's now going to be, I'm assuming, the same or if not ah at least very similar course for champs next year?
Speaker: How did you find it if you can remember back that far? Yeah, I really enjoyed it. um It was, yeah it was quite interesting. I did like all the single trails that it was on.
Speaker: It was like quite flowy mountain bike trails for a lot of it, which was very enjoyable. And then there's one really massive steep climb to the highest point we got to, which was quite interesting.
Speaker: quite brutal. um But then the downhill, that was really fun. It was just very fairly techy, more like twisty and turny downhill, which I really enjoyed. So it's more like you to grab onto trees and sort of swing yourself around switchbacks.
Speaker: Nice. But it's very fast. So i really enjoyed that. I think it was good course. Is that like a roadrunner's course or more like proper trailrunner's course? Like the uphill was very steep. So i feel like it was a trailrunner's course and the downhill was quite techy. Like it wasn't super smooth like you were having to like duck under fallen logs and like swing yourself around corners and like go downstairs so i think it would be quite tricky for someone who's never been on trails to do that but yeah like you could get around if you're just a road runner yeah because some of those mountain running courses um are pretty runnable like you know very little technical running and road runners can just come in and like go like well i'm fitter i got a bigger engine and
Speaker: smash those courses but it's good that it's a little bit technical I guess yeah I like it's the right balance of technical to easy running like fast running as well i feel like it's good balance yeah i feel like mountain running like the classic is meant to test your speed as well as your technical um prowess and the climb I think I know the climb that you go up is I think it's it might be breakneck or one of the ones near there and there there it's proper steep which I feel like is the way you want an up down is like a really steep climb and a flowy descent because yeah at least I hate it when it's the other way around and you go up a flowy thing and then down this stupid technical or steep thing where you can't really get much flow so sounds like a lot of fun um I haven't actually looked as to whether they're making any changes for next year have you looked at all haven't looked no yeah that's all right we can we're going to do a lot of course previews before that national champs next year anyway
Speaker: um But yeah, what did that then lead into? And was that an aim to get into Asia Pacific for doing that course or was it just you were going to do it anyway? No, no. I was just going to do that anyway. Asia Pacific was kind of like an afterthought, to be honest. I thought I was too old to do the race, um but they changed the rules this year. Yeah.
Speaker: I'm going to be 23 on the day of the race for the under 23 race at age specifics, which is interesting. um It's Brodie that sent me message to do, to like put my name down for age specific. Okay. So what's the rule level now? It's if you're turning 23 on the calendar year, you're still eligible.
Speaker: Okay. So even though I'm going to be over 23, I'm still eligible, which is different to what it was two years ago. Interesting. I hadn't realized I'd made that change. I suppose there's it's much of a muchness in some ways. if As long as it's the same rules for everyone in the race, then it's a bit like, well, it's the same rules for everyone. I didn't realize that.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. so He sent me a message and he was like, oh, you should nominate. And I did. And then here we are. Nice, nice. Good job, Brodie, for getting on that one um because we've actually got a really strong team going to Asia-Pacifics in the juniors. um But between the Kunani and then now um with Outward Bound that we're just we're going to get on to because you've just done it, um what were what was training and what was racing looking like? I think you said there was a bit of orienteering over in Europe, it but Yeah, um there wasn't, like my goal for this year, I think, was to do fewer races and sort of treat them, focus more on those races rather than like doing whatever, like as many races I possibly could.
Speaker: So I don't think I, from memory, I didn't do any other trail races since, like any other big trail races since... um kunai So over winter I did go over to Europe for orienteering. That was the World University Champs.
Speaker: Oh, cool. um That was in Portugal. um That was a lot of fun. um How seriously are they taken compared to like, like World Uni get, like Uni can sometimes be like, well, this is a little less serious and a little more fun, but I'm not sure what it's like in the orienteering world of like World Uni Champs compared to normal World Champs. Like what's the vibes? Yeah, it's definitely not taken as seriously as like the world champs or the junior world champs.
Speaker: Yeah. It's a lot more fun, would say. Nice. nice Everyone is just like uni student aged. So no, it's like it's not a major event. It's not even run by the like the main orienteering governing body.
Speaker: like a so how interesting. Separately, sort of. Yeah. um But yeah, it is definitely not taken nearly as seriously. Nice. Cool. That makes it for a bit of a fun break for you then in that going across for a race like that. That's good. That's good. And what date was that?
Speaker: That was start of August, I believe. Okay. I think, yeah, the first week of August. Yeah. And then since then, have you just been training? Like, what's the focus been on? Obviously, you've got Asia Pacific coming up.
Speaker: And then also talk us through the decision and the training for Outward Bound. How's that balance been? Because Outward Bound is a hundred case Yeah, it's between 40 to 100 Ks, depending on which division it is.
Speaker: Okay. um Yeah, so I came back from Europe, sort of took a few, maybe two weeks fairly easy, um just recovering from travel and all of that.
Speaker: and Then started a new training block. i sort of I was definitely focusing more on doing hills. So a lot of hill intervals. I do one hill interval session every week and also a fairly hilly long run every week as well.
Speaker: um Plus one more flat session as well. Yeah. I was trying to keep it... like my philosophy this year has been trying to do less, less is more.
Speaker: So trying to not overcook myself basically. Cause I feel like that has been a problem for me in the past. So just trying to not to do too much. Good plan. Um, and yeah, that's been going quite well. I managed to get a, uh, KOM up black mountain off Marty, which Martin Dent, who has held that since 2012, think 2013, maybe.
Speaker: um So I'm pretty happy with that. um And then, yeah I've been planning to Inward Bound this whole year. um My thinking was that if I just take a week completely off afterwards, I still have about seven weeks until Asia Pacific. So I feel like that is hopefully enough time to recover. And also i think having that week off is a good break in the like training block as well. So I feel like rather than just like, I sometimes fall into the trap of just doing the same thing week after week.
Speaker: So I feel like having something and then a week of rest is quite good to break up that sort of continuous training for me, at least. Yeah, no, makes sense. So how long were you getting up to for training for Outward Bound then? Like what was, was this a bigger sort of base block almost or yeah, what was your focus for that given you're trying to not do too much, but then you're also doing 100K? Where's that balance? Yeah.
Speaker: I was definitely focusing more on Asia Pacific, so I wasn't doing any sort of specific training for Inward Bound. Okay. um It was definitely doing the hills and everything for Asia Pacific, and there'd be like an occasional long run of up to 30k for Inward Bound.
Speaker: yep um Yeah, I wasn't going above 100k's. Like, i was barely going above 100k's for like a week. Nice. Sounds sensible. Very, very sensible. um How does your confidence go then going into, sorry, is it, I've been calling it outward bound, I just realized, but it's inward bound.
Speaker: Yeah, it's inward bound. Got that wrong. They're separate things. Got this. um Nice. um Talk us through what inward bound is again, just quickly. And then like what your thoughts are going in, because obviously it's not, you're not treating it like a normal 100k race, given if your long runs are 30k, slight difference there um sort of thing. But yeah, talk us through it. Yeah, so Inward Bound is a very special race, I think. It's run by ANU, Australian National University.
Speaker: so it's all university students that are running it, both running the actual race and organising it. Yeah. So the general idea is you're in a team of four people. and you get blindfolded, you get taken on this bus with blacked out windows, you get driven around and then drop somewhere in like the middle of nowhere, some random national park on some random fire trail in the middle of nowhere. And then you get taken off the bus, you get given a massive map and you have a set amount of time where you're allowed split up and go scouting like just to draw a little map to try and like figure out where you are. So like you're looking for power lines, track bends, junctions, that sort of thing.
Speaker: And basically, you've got to find out where you are on the map. um From there, you have a endpoint, which you plot based on you're given coordinates of the endpoint. and that's where you're trying to get to.
Speaker: And then you just have to run from where you are, where you think you are, to that end point. And there are seven divisions. So Division 1 is usually about 100 kilometres.
Speaker: And that goes down to Division 7, which is about 40 kilometres, roughly. ye um And yeah, it's just it's a competition between the residential halls at ANU. So there's about 12 different residential halls.
Speaker: So each hall can submit one team per division. And is yes it's just a big competition between all of those halls. It's probably one of the biggest events that ANU puts on every year. So it's like everyone does get around it. There are a lot of spectators at the end, and it's really quite special, I think.
Speaker: Nice. Very, very. It sounds like kind of, I feel like it would be very daunting at the beginning. Obviously, I'm not an orienteer, so I'm not also not used to map reading. But is there all the people with you're doing this with, are they orienteers as well? No, absolutely.
Speaker: Okay. Yeah. My team, it was, um because we just did it with a group of friends, so we did it together. um But a lot of the people who do it, they have no background in running, no background in map reading from the start of the year.
Speaker: And okay they sort of start coming to events that are organized by their hall, and they learn how to read a map, and they start training. So for a lot of people, this is like their introduction to running in general. Okay.
Speaker: In total. like So they're starting from zero, and by the end of the year, they're running however many kilometers, up to 100 kilometers, which is really crazy, really quite special, I think.
Speaker: Yeah, it's insane. And I feel like this is such a good life um skills thing to be going through as well, where like you're not only learning to read a map and get yourself, like if you find yourself in the middle of absolutely nowhere, but you've got a map, all of a sudden you would have a framework of like, well, I have at least the gist of how I get out of this situation. in a way. um ah feel like that's an awesome life skill thing for getting lost in the bush. Not sure how that would ever pan out exactly like it does in this race. Yeah, absolutely. But there's something. It was based on, like I think, World War II Air Force training where like if you were
Speaker: in a downed plane, you had to figure out where you are and get to like somewhere safe. Oh, that makes so much sense. It's loosely based off that, but it's, yeah, it's still quite different. Yeah. Well, it's a bunch of uni mates doing it together for one thing and you're yourself. So I can imagine that makes a difference. And for this sort of thing, like, well, hey, how long did it take you to cover, say, the 100Ks?
Speaker: um We were dropped at about 8pm and we finished at 10am the next day. So that's 14 hours. That's not slow at all.
Speaker: How much elevation gain and stuff did you have in there? It was pretty flat. It was like 3,000 meters, maybe a bit less. But there were some like there were some shortcuts we took through the bush, which was slowed us down a bit. It's like you can take shortcuts and like not follow the trails you choose to. Yeah. And do you have watches or anything on you or is that not allowed?
Speaker: You're allowed – well, it's mandatory to have like a very basic watch, like one that you can get from camera, but not allowed anything like GPS or anything. Anything with GPS or anything like navigational help.
Speaker: So you like something that tells the sign but nothing else. Okay. do you So do you have any idea how far you actually ran? It's on Strava. Yeah. So you're also given a tracker which is the path. Oh, gotcha.
Speaker: So you can use that to put on Strava after the end of the race as well. It is the most important part, of course. i was going to say, if it's not on Strava, it didn't happen, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's really impressive. I mean, I'm on that file right now and it is a long way. It's over a hundred k hundred and almost hundred and four k with it's quick.
Speaker: two thousand two thousand seven hundred and fifty two meters so yeah crazy i mean yeah moving time twelve hours fifty three that is which is moving yeah yeah it's quick When you're navigating at the same time, like, that's did you win? Yeah, we won that. Nice. What's the longest team taking? um Cut-off is 5 p.m. So yeah that would be about, what, 20? 22 hours? 21 hours.
Speaker: How long was the bus drive? Oh, we left at about 1 p.m. and we got dropped at 7.40. So that's about six hours because they don't drive straight there. They take all these sort of like weird turns to try and throw you off because there are people that can track where you're going on the bus just based off like the turns and the bumps and things like that.
Speaker: Fair, but are you blindfolded the whole bus? Yep. So you're blindfolded for like seven hours before you even start this. Like how are you how are you trying to like eat food and fuel up for the fact that you're about to do 100k? Like talk me through that bus ride. and How I'm intrigued.
Speaker: Yeah, the bus driver, it's kind of fun. Like you, you get on the bus and they tell you to put your blindfolds on and then you get driven off. So it's a big, quite, it's quite a big ceremony when you're leaving. okay Okay. Okay. You get taken into what they call ISO is where you like, you can't have your phone. You can't have anything like no communication with the outside world.
Speaker: Yep. They go through all your gear. They're very strict with mandatory gear. so it's screwed. What does that look like? Yeah. Oh, it's about a two page long document. They're very strict with like materials and the equipment and like minimum weights and things like that. Okay. So are you carrying a trail running pack or more of a hiking pack?
Speaker: Yeah, so we were carrying, my team was carrying all just like running packs, running vests. But some people who are like more beginners, they will take like quite large backpacks yeah just to fit all the mandatory gear. We were taking very lightweight gear because we have that, but other people don't have that sort of equipment, so they're carrying quite big packs.
Speaker: Yeah. yeah Then you're taken into this ISO where you can't talk with the outside world. and At a given time, um you get sent off. so You walk down this chute with all the supporters, all the spectators, they're all standing, lining the chute, cheering you on.
Speaker: You get on the bus, um you put your blindfolds on, and then yeah you just get driven off. um you have to try like You can try and work out where you're going roughly based on the turns, because there's only really like five or six main roads that go out of Canberra.
Speaker: So if you know which one you're on, that is quite a big benefit. Okay. They do sort of try and shake you by taking weird turns and like going around roundabouts like 10 times or something like that.
Speaker: so you just don't know which way you're facing. um What do you do for toilet breaks? Like what do they do? Because obviously if you stop for a toilet break that you kind of know which way you're going.
Speaker: um Yes, they do have a toilet break on the bus, but that's still blindfolded. ah so they just stop somewhere at a rest area. They get everyone off the bus. They line you up. They say, three, two, one, go.
Speaker: go. And then you get back on the bus. It's it's just crazy. Oh, my gosh. Okay. Okay. um First question.
Speaker: and like What does it feel like to be blindfolded for that long? Like, I feel like that would be a weird sensory experience. Yeah, it is. Like, you've got to eat while you're on the bus. So you've got to bring something that you can eat while blindfolded.
Speaker: yeah most people bring sandwiches or something. um I had a pasta, which is kind of a bit tricky. Yeah. I don't think I spilled anything. um You wouldn't even know, though.
Speaker: Yeah, like, that's something I don't know. It's also scary. Like, I don't know if something fell out of my bag or anything. Like, I don't know what's i don't know what's going on. um You can try and talk to people next to you, but, like, it's kind of hard to have a conversation if you can't see the person. But, yeah it's just such a weird experience.
Speaker: But it is a lot of fun. i can And then sometimes even when you get off the bus... Having the blindfold on, it kind of makes your vision a little bit blurry for a few minutes. I would have thought so. always just having pressure on your eyes.
Speaker: Yeah. So that's also something else you have to deal with. Interesting. And did you, this time around, did you have any idea where you were? Like, were you able to keep track of anything to give yourself an idea or did you? Yeah.
Speaker: not Are you aware? Yes, I was sort of tracking where we're going because we left on a pretty major highway. It the Monero Highway, you people know Canberra. So sort of, from leaving Canberra, I knew that we went through Breadbow, where it slows down to like 60km per hour zone.
Speaker: And then we sort of like skirted around Coomber. and then down the Brown Mountain descent out to the coast for people who know where that is. That's some intense skills, being able to figure that out while blindfold. I feel like I would be overwhelmed by the blindfold and the whole experience too much to keep track of any of that. But even knowing 60 zones is kind of wild.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. See, we're not smart enough to do orienteering though. Don't forget that. We're not that smart. we're not. That's why we do normal trail running where we need course marker every 100 meters.
Speaker: You mean my mark is in my blue line on my watch? Yeah. That's all I have to follow. Oh, crazy. And then so everyone's taken to the same spot, start spot for like each division then?
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. So everyone's on the same bus for each division and it's a different spot for each division. Okay. Is there any like um at the beginning ah when you say like you're scouting and trying to figure out where you are, like what's the vibe like because i' you'd probably be trying to not help out other teams?
Speaker: Yeah. I imagine. Yeah. So how does that all work? Like obviously you can then see each other and where each other goes. So what stops people just following each other? They absolutely do that. Um, oh okay when we got dropped, we sort of tried to move like our team, we sort of tried to move our stuff a little bit away so other teams couldn't hear what we were saying. yeah Um, but then yeah, you got to go scout. We had, you given a time to scout each team, each division.
Speaker: So our one was six minutes, but they were allowed to be apart from our team. Yep. um So we had six minutes to get as much information as we could and then try and figure out where we were. We did manage to pick where we were. we were just trying to pack up and leave as quickly as possible and just sort of push a bit harder for the first couple of kilometers, just like shake anyone that was on our tail.
Speaker: But I don't think anyone left that much. soon after us, we didn't see anyone, like we didn't see any lights behind us, but it is definitely a thing where people do follow other teams and that can be quite a good strategy to do if you don't know are. like it could be a good strategy or a horrible strategy because you could just be taken the wrong direction. um i mean, but the main thing at the start is just trying to leave the drop site in the correct direction. And once you do that, even if you don't know where you are, you're going to hit something and you're going to figure out where you are. And as long as you're running in the right direction for that time, it's good.
Speaker: yeah But if you're leaving in the wrong direction, then you just got to turn around and go back through where you started, which is quite miserable, I think. So that's just the hardest part, yeah. Has it ever happened that a team's just got spent the entire time going in the wrong direction?
Speaker: um Like you do, at some point you will hit an intersection with like a road name or something like that, yeah which will yeah tell you where you are. It's like you're never going to be lost for too long.
Speaker: um But there has been times where teams have run in the wrong direction for like half an hour or something, figured out where they are and just had to turn around and go straight back through where they started, which is, it must be so miserable, but luckily that hasn't happened to me.
Speaker: Nice, nice. What were like the times of the other teams? Like obviously you guys won in 12, 13 hours. What were some of the teams behind you? What kind of times were they running?
Speaker: um I think this next team behind us, they finished, I think, three or four hours behind us. Yeah, okay. And the team after that was, i think, another two, maybe one or two hours behind them.
Speaker: And how many teams are there? There were, i think, six, maybe eight teams in our division, but a lot of them did DNF. Like, DNFing is quite – a lot of teams do DNF. in it I can imagine.
Speaker: Yeah, because everyone's just – like, no one's really – experienced trail runners or anything. So a lot of people do DNF. They get lost. Something happens. They get injured. There's so many things that could happen. The crazy thing is also that you did a 16 minute race the week after the week before and then the week after you do a 15 hour race. What was the 16 minute one? 5k? Yeah.
Speaker: and They did like a 3k or interior and race the week before. Oh, yeah. So the week before that was the Oceania Orienteering Champs. Just casually. I wasn't really true.
Speaker: Yeah, I wasn't treating that super seriously for me. Like it wasn't a major goal of mine. Fair. But I think that did also contribute to me being a bit more exhausted than I'd like on Inward Bound. Yeah. And so then on Inward Bound, like, did you guys have any mistakes or troubles? And like, how does it go trying to get all four of you at the same pace and efforts? Like, is it, are you all just at a similar level anyway?
Speaker: or i think we all sort of were at a similar level. Okay. But yeah, you do, you can shuffle around gear. You can have someone carrying a heav heavier pack, someone carrying a lighter pack. Okay. Things like that. Like we were doing a lot of shuffling around and communicating a lot with your team was quite important as well. I really like this. This is teaching you so many life things.
Speaker: So many more than even just such as running. I love it. Yeah. So many more. ni Jeez, you'd come away like with some good confidence of getting yourself out of a rough spot in a team. um Yeah, definitely. I love it. And then how's the body recovered since? Because did you did that end yesterday?
Speaker: um That ended Saturday morning, which was two days ago. um So yeah, Saturday i just... I was struggling to stay awake, honestly. run all night. I was sitting a chair, just like, yeah, I was just falling asleep, like in and out of consciousness.
Speaker: um Managed to come home, went to bed at about 7 p.m. and then woke up at about 8 a.m. the next morning. Yeah, nice. um And, yeah, legs have been pretty sore, but not too bad. Like, I feel like I could go for a run if I wanted to, but...
Speaker: I'm not going to do that. Good call. Yeah, wise now. Yeah. So hopefully i just keep feeling better this whole week. Probably won't do anything big, like nothing more than i might do a 30-minute jog or two this week, but nothing more than that. Good call.
Speaker: Recover hard because then what for you is the lead-in to Asia Pacific sort of look like from here? Have you mapped it out and do you have any lead-in races or, yeah, like what's the plan?
Speaker: Yeah, so I've got a rough idea. So my main goal for at the moment is just to recover. Then I'll have enough time to do maybe a small training block, I think, before age-specific.
Speaker: Again, trying not to do too much. So I'll probably limit myself to no more than like 80 or 90 Ks a week until age-specific. um i am gonna four peaks which is in about nice three weeks from now yeah i think i'm not gonna do all four races because i think that's just way too much well which one i can choose maybe two of them okay do you know which one i'm thinking feathertop and feathertop maybe mystic because i really love feathertop and mystic could honestly be a really good race for simulating asia pacific
Speaker: Because it's about 15K, about 400 or 500 meters of that, which I think is probably the closest thing i can get. And that's also just a really fun race. And because Asia Pacific, I've just been trying to look up the stats and I'm not sure I can find the exact stats, but have they have you got the course for Asia Pacific? No.
Speaker: We have not been given the course yet, which is a shame. I think I saw somewhere that is about 15k and 500 meters of vert. Okay. Which isn't that much, but they haven't given us a course yet. Cool. That's an interesting... So I have been trying to like...
Speaker: Yeah, they've given us a like a rough area of the start and I've tried to be like looking at Strava and trying to like plot my own route that sort of fits the stats. But it's there's so much they could do so it's kind of hard to it's hard to guess what they'll do. Just trying to make up your own course as you guys you go to try train. Yeah. It is kind of hard to train. see like what they could actually do Yeah. It is kind of hard to train for a race where you don't actually know the course.
Speaker: like Yeah, definitely. Relatively important information. um But do you have has there been much communication about when you'll get that?
Speaker: Not really. Nothing from the officials or anything. Okay. um Yeah. Fun times. I mean, we're still six six weeks out, so yeah because there is a bit of time. yeah yeah. I'm actually looking at a document now that I'm not sure, like it's a PDF document that looks very, very official with lots of fun little, um like it's the whole race pack of something, but it says it's 12.2 with 489.
Speaker: with four hundred and eighty nine according to document. I think that's what they used to have. And I think they updated the website recently and it said somewhere. Okay, cool. that's when going off, but I can't seem to find that again. it's going to somewhere between 12 and 15K and like roughly 400 or 500 meters of that, I think. Yeah, okay, cool. you did well you come to judge You did well um two years ago in South Korea. What ah what what are some of the things that you've learned from that race, from that build that you might use for this one?
Speaker: um ah Two years ago in South Korea, i did that race, i think less than a week after doing the Golden Trail finals in Switzerland. So I think that preparation probably was not ideal because that include like in that six days, I think that included recovery from 25k race plus an intercontinental flight and all the stress that comes with traveling. So I think that was definitely not the optimal prep. um So you're know going to go no you wrong yeah you're not going to go to Europe before this race?
Speaker: no definitely not i'm gonna go straight to china and straight to the event center and just hang out there and just relax for maybe about a week before the race um yeah and i think what about training wise training wise definitely trying to sticking sticking with the less is more approach for me um so not do too much training and then probably like three weeks before the actual race i'll start to ease off Because I find that I do well if I ease off earlier and then have like a bit of a lot bigger a week the week before the actual race to sort of like wake my legs back up. I like that.
Speaker: So I probably try to do something like that. It's like i'm not super fatigued, but I've got like a bit of like a little bit of a fatigue in the legs, but just nothing like I'm not feeling like the legs are dragging. Yeah, it's like this. Free wakes out.
Speaker: So like three weeks out, drop the volume and intensity a bit for a week and then pick it up. And then few days before the race, take it easy again. Yeah, exactly. That's my plan. I like that. Yeah, it's like spreading out the taper with a bit of volume in between.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah. I feel like that extra bit of extra volume, that definitely helps sort of like reactivate my legs because I always feel so awful after a taper. Yeah, and especially if you do a long taper, like sort of destroying yourself in a way, not destroying yourself, but training hard all the way up to the sort of two weeks out, especially for a shorter event or even one week out. Yeah.
Speaker: I feel like all you get to do in that week or two weeks is just freshen up a bit, but that can make you feel a bit stale. So I actually like the tactic of like, well, let's do some freshening up and then get some pop and strength back and then another shorter freshen up again so that you never actually just start to feel almost stale in as you can in the taper. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, that's what I'm going to try and do smart move I know some runners have been um you know how some people do like a full day off two or three days before the race some runners do that now like 10 days out so i have like a full day off um so that way that you get know obviously you recover a bit more and then taper kind of normally with running all the way up to the race if that makes sense so they kind of instead of having that day off like three days before the race they have it like 10 days before the race yeah so they start kind of like feeling a little bit better and and sharper yeah i always feel like after a rest day my legs just feel
Speaker: sort of weird. yeah i don't really want to feel like that on race feel like i have so many rest days at this point that my body's very used to it. It's just part of the plan. um So I feel like that's that definitely was the case when I took a lot less rest days though. Whereas if a rest day is just part of your rhythm, your body gets very used to that and going, well, no, i I just feel better after a rest day now as opposed to anything different. So it's got to be like, but that just speaks to Even in the taper or like no matter what you're doing before a race, like staying in your body's own rhythm is actually usually the best way to get to the run feeling normal and good as opposed to your body being a bit out of whack.
Speaker: um That's why that's the whole like you keep the frequency, you just decrease the time and the intensity as much um in the taper as opposed to changing too much. Yeah, and that's also why I like having the extra week where i like bring it back up and have like sort of a normal training week. Yeah.
Speaker: Just before the race. yeah Yeah, that good keeping your body in its normal rhythm. I like it. I like it a lot. And then you said, so you'll go a week before to China, which obviously we've got the good yeah of there's no real time difference, or not a big one at least. So it's more acclimatising to sort of the temperature, culture, and all those sorts of things as opposed to the time.
Speaker: um Have you learnt much from previous travel, especially when you've been travelling a lot more? Like what works for you in that last week to help you acclimatise to the sort of area and how much you get out on race course versus don't get out on race course? Like what does that look like for you at this point?
Speaker: um Well, I feel like not moving around accommodation too much before the actual race is. Very important, like having as low stress travel as you possibly can.
Speaker: so I think I'm staying a few nights in Xiamen, which is the the city I'm flying into. and then I'm going to move up to where the race is and stay another few nights there before the official accommodation starts.
Speaker: So that way it's only like two changes of accommodation. yeah um So hopefully that's pretty low stress. um And then i think since my course is fairly short, I might try and just do it all in one day in the leader. Yep.
Speaker: Like maybe the first day that I get to the actual town where the race is, I'll just go and do the race. Yep. Like go and do the loop and then see what it's like. Yep. And that would probably be enough for me. Like don't think I'll need to do that again at any point. um Yeah, and then just keep running. yeah Keep preparing for the race and relax and that should be fine. You don't tend to do – like I've travelled with a lot of athletes that like they'll do their last mini session, say it's be some one minutes or two minutes like – on the course do you like doing that or are you someone that likes staying away from the course because I feel like I've met both sides where some are like not get me off it and some are like I would need more experience on it sort of thing so for that last session like yeah do you take yourself on the course or off the course I think off the course I think if I just do the course once that'll be plenty for me yeah
Speaker: and i don't think I'll need to see it again. Like maybe I'll just do like the start and finish a second time, but I think in the final lead up to the race, I'll just stay off the course and find someone nice to run. yeah Just relax and end enjoy it. Definitely. yeah Good stuff. It looks like a very cool place. so I'm sure there'll be plenty of nice places to run. Oh yeah.
Speaker: Oh, yeah. Like China has some absolutely incredible scenery and trails and all sorts. So I'm hoping that there's also a big crowd that gets around it because the scene is pretty big in China for trail running. So in a 15K course, it's pretty easy to usually spectate on. So I'm hoping you guys get some good um some good spectator. spectator um attendance. um And then do you guys, ah is there any sorts of lists out for other countries yet to see who you're sort of up against having some experience going from South Korea to now of maybe knowing some of the names or are they not released beforehand or not yet?
Speaker: Yeah, they've released a list with all the ITRA rankings okay um of people that doing the race. So I have had a look through that. um The Aussies are quite high up in the field. Nice.
Speaker: But then at the top of the field, there is the Chinese team. Yep. And they are like about 100 points higher than anyone else. I wouldn't read too much into that. quite insane.
Speaker: Like maybe it's just the ranking system is a bit weird, but that does look a bit daunting. Yeah. They do look very strong. Yeah. No, the ITRA scores that come out of China are different to most of the rest of the world um when you actually delve into the stats and the numbers. So it's ah it seems a different like having raced in China a few times and then ending up sort of ahead of people where I'm like, that doesn't math um if you just looked at the numbers. So i wouldn't I wouldn't take too much heat on that. But knowing that you're in a ah team that is highly ranked, how does that what does that do to your sort of motivation for the race or even during the race? Do you find that that's like for me that means it's so much fun where you're just like every every second counts, every position counts. Like what does that do for you when you're in these team environments?
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. i think it will be, but i think the Australian team is going to be very competitive. yeah So I think we should be going for like a team ranking. yeah um Yeah, I think it'll be very exciting. I think, yeah, it will, like the race counts for more than just my own personal result, which is a very good thing, I think. Does that mean you work together at all?
Speaker: Like, would they be would there be any aspect of trying to help each other out at any point? I would think so. Like I'm not really sure in what way we could that. Yeah, I know. It's different to the road. Sort of sticking as a pack and like trying to motivate each other. yeah mean, I hope so. It'd be fun if like if you – Yeah, definitely. Like, yeah, but and that that was more my thing of like just motivating each other around the loop in a way and trying to – like because when it is a set fact, the fact that like the team result and the last person across the line in the team, like that makes a difference sort of thing. It's almost like, well – because there's four of you.
Speaker: Yeah, that's It's almost like if you're if you're in that position to sort of if you slow down even a teeny bit but it helps someone else get a bit faster so you stay in one after each other position and not break the elastic. like and But it just doesn't work like as easily as on the road obviously.
Speaker: um But, yeah yeah, I don't know. If I was ever in that position where you're just like, can I drag this person along with me, even though I could go a little bit harder? Like it feels like that would be a hard decision to make in the moment because it's very different to how we normally race, but also kind of cool.
Speaker: if you if you ae it Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Like I think it could be like people do spread out a lot. yeah I remember in Korea, like everyone spread out pretty quickly on the big climb and you just couldn't really see anyone around you.
Speaker: um So maybe something like that will happen, but yeah. I think, yeah, it would be very cool to have a strong team yeah and have some sort of like team spirit on the course. Vlad, in the longer distances that you've done, like how much have you ended up running with teammates in were like World Champs, et cetera, or Asia Pacific?
Speaker: A little bit, me and Blake in the last one. I thought so. um But not on purpose. Okay. I don't think it was on purpose. I just think like we're at a similar level and – But did it change your mentality at the time or like did it help at the time in any way for either of you, you think?
Speaker: um i mean it was definitely nice to suffer with somebody that you know yeah rather than some random person um that's for sure but i wouldn't say like they help too much yeah okay um yeah it's a bit hard obviously with being like an individual sport so but you obviously want to do as well as possible as a team as well at the same time but i don't know if you're going to change your tactics too much um I mean, what ah like the thing that you can do is just go as best as you can and try and yeah like score as many points as you can. Yeah. That will help the team the most. So yeah, um yeah it would definitely be hard against the Chinese. Like i feel like, you know,
Speaker: They're all probably running on the course right now. Yeah, yeah. That part, definitely. Like they have yeah, they have a pretty deep team that they'll put up some good runners. um But still, like like i know I said it in Korea that this would be the best chance for us to score um fairly high. And, know, it's just going to get harder and harder. Even like teams like Philippines are,
Speaker: ah just becoming more professional. I know that team is doing some training camps and stuff like that. So I think they're looking at it a bit more as a team kind of a sport where, you know, we just show up, um, you know, three days before the race and race as a team where like some other countries would do like a lot of training camps together and, you know, try and help each other in training. yeah So when race day comes, hopefully they can perform better.
Speaker: Um, Obviously, we're not at that point yet. you know We still have to buy our own uniform, so um it will be a while till we get there. so yeah we also have doesn't it does feel like a team It does feel like a team, but not like a real team, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, makes sense. I feel like we're forever stuck with also that just the geographical disadvantage of a very spread out team compared to smaller countries.
Speaker: But at the same time, it's... would be possible hopefully in the future and hopefully it does happen in the future that we because team camps how fun would that be yeah like that'd be awesome yeah um if we if anyone get that pretty expensive like you know if you do a team camp in the philippines you can probably do a fairly cheaply where like do a team camp in australia like you know it's not gonna be cheap there would be a loan will be like you know a few thousand dollars yeah exactly so not cheap at all not cheap but we'll see where the sport leads as we uh go through this but yeah i'm excited this Especially for your team there, Toby, of the under 23s, just like it shows the growth of the junior ranks in Australia and in the sport as a whole. But yeah, to be putting forward a full team of incredibly competitive juniors as you go, like that's just so exciting for where the sport's heading. And this year in particular, like I'll be following that race so closely because it it is such that cutthroat distance of it's short, it's so fast and and tiny things make a huge difference in how things pan out and just going into it going, well, hey, I think Oz has a chance of winning this thing, which is then even more exciting to watch as a spectator and like be doing the math as everyone's finishing and that sort of thing. So it'll be damn cool. And I'm hoping that there's, China's usually really good at live streams. um So I'm hoping there's a really cool way that we can all spectate from Oz because, yeah, hopefully everyone can then get behind it.
Speaker: um But, yeah, congrats on making the team. It's going to be exciting. And, yeah, we'll follow along as your training goes. You're you're public on Strava. everyone can awesome you can go follow we'll pull chuck the link in the show notes if anyone wants to go follow toby's training as he gets ready for it um and recovers from inward bound first um a quick break in the show to thank bix bix has just come out with their 30 gram gel in two brand new flavors this is a new gel new flavors you've got the choice of the salted strawberry or the berry the salted strawberry is also packing 300 milligrams of sodium as an increase whereas the berry has 200 milligrams. Both make them perfect for the conditions we have in Australia, whereas most gels on the market do not have sodium within them. What Bix has done here is take the recipe for the gels that work so well, that 1.8 ratio that is very, very friendly on the stomach and added a soft, subtle, but very tasty twist that you can dial in your race day and your training nutrition to that extra fine detail.
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Speaker: Vlad, moving on just to quickly, give us an update on where you're at and what you've been up to. um Yeah, just training, just getting some vert under my treadmill and trying to bank in some hours, a few good weeks now after. i mean, I just realized yesterday that I've only been back for like a month, even though from Europe I've been back for a month, even though it feels like I've been back for like a lot longer than that. Yeah. um So yeah, just trying to bank in some good training. um I did sign up for four peaks as well, which I'm kind of excited about after missing out on my trip to Bright earlier in the year for Buffalo. yeah
Speaker: I'm going to try and do all four of them, but kind of planning to do the first two and see how my body kind of holds up. Yeah. um But yeah, pretty excited about that. And then, yeah, a few hopefully a few good weeks after that. And then i go to China. I don't go any earlier. I just go um like for like five days before the race. um It is the same. It's one hour time difference with Perth. So not too bad. yeah Pretty easy flight to Hong Kong. And then to China so yeah not a bad trip so yeah just banking in some Ks. Nice and having spent so much time in running in Asia yourself like I feel like you're well positioned for sort of knowing somewhat what the terrain's like but is there any word from anyone or anything on the course you've seen that like tells you what the terrain's going to be like and how similar it might be Hong Kong? I think like
Speaker: I mean, if it is very touristy, which like, you know, like it looks like it, there will be a lot more paved paths and stairs yeah because, you know, when you have thousands of people on a mountain, usually in Hong Kong and China, they just put stairs in and concrete. um So there could be a fair amount of like concrete through the trails.
Speaker: um But then I just I'm not 100% sure if it's going to be like wet and slippery because I also have this feeling because there's like a lot of water around there. They grow rice around there, so it could be like fairly wet there. Yeah. um So that will kind of change things up a bit like just from the pictures. um So Hong Kong, it is. So Hong Kong has got a dry winter. so i And it's fairly far away from Hong Kong. It's it's it's yeah it's far enough. So it would be a different climate there. um So I hope it is kind of
Speaker: on the drier side and not slippery and wet. But, yeah, a bit hard to kind of tell from the pictures. Well, actually, from the pictures, you can tell that it is slippery and wet. I was going to say it looks pretty slippery um yeah without even – without even knowing too much about the area. but And it's because it's because it's further north than Hong Kong.
Speaker: Well, that's not too. Yeah, it is. far Because, like, still there's plenty of areas of China, um like the Yunnan region where I've been training before with Meow, like they have a dry winter. um And I assume it's more just the further north you go, possibly the less. But it's not too dissimilar, like, longitude. Yeah.
Speaker: from areas that do have dry winters so you might be in some luck yeah i mean personally living in perth i hope it's going to be fairly dry there but yeah um yeah i think that it could be a little bit moist yeah but you know that time of the year it should be good good weather like you know probably like 10 or 12 degrees at the start and it might warm up to like 18, 20 later on in the day. so Any word on like hi how the ah how how altitude you get to?
Speaker: I don't think we hit altitude. It all looks pretty low. Pretty low, nice. But I'm not 100% sure, yeah. Yeah, cool. Well, yeah, we'll be able give more info on that once the courses are actually out. It's course, yeah. Yeah, fun, fun, fun. Yeah, I mean I think the the short course is 36K with 2,500 or 2.2,000. So pretty like ah a bit of hurt but not like crazy amounts. yeah So I'm guessing the male winners might run 315. Yeah.
Speaker: was trying to kind of work that out. um So, yeah, still fairly quick overall. Like, you know, if you compare it to like a UTA 50 or something, um still fairly quick. Yeah. But enough ah to make it challenging.
Speaker: Fun to watch. Well, yeah, we'll give more info and we'll get more people on from the sort of the short trail, long trail team and try and get info out on the courses as we know it. um We'll see when they actually give you guys some GPXs and stuff to work with. um Because that'll be cool. I imagine, Toby, you're the sort of person that once you get the GPX, you're looking all over the map for seeing what the gradients are like and stuff. Or do you not do that?
Speaker: Yeah, exactly. yeah yeah but i I'll be looking at the segments if there are any. I'll get whatever information I can. Yeah. Yeah, good call. Good call. We love Strava for the segments. i Yeah, ah I find Strava often is the easiest one because you can pan the whole way along the GPX and get the lack gradient at any point, um which is super useful. But yeah, we'll we'll be keeping track. It's probably one of the major thing we've got left for the rest of the year um on the trail running side. So it'll be exciting to keep track of as we go.
Speaker: Easy. Well, the news we've got for this week um is based around the 2027 Australian Mountain Trail Running Championships, which is happening at Kunanyi. We just wanted to make sure everyone knew that the applications for athlete support, they closed online. on the 18th of October. So by the time this is out public in a couple of days. um So make sure that you get your applications in if you are interested in that athlete support. All the information we'll put in the show notes, a link to the website with the information. But it's, yeah, it's about complimentary entries and some limited accommodation and potential travel help that you can apply for. And it's all um discretionary based on the applications that they get.
Speaker: um But yeah, get those in by the 18th of October if you are interested in that one. um I'm excited to see how many people we can get down to this race. It should be really good courses and a really good champs for us being the first joint or big joint one.
Speaker: um And then the only other thing that James has put in here, which Vlad sounds like you've listened to it, is the free trial podcast that when talked about like really interesting podcast talking about the trends sort of shaping trial running participation and the marketplace. And it just says that like the 18 to 25 demographic is growing the fastest and we've been growing sort of 8% year on year. But Vlad, you listened to the combo, I think. So talk us through any of the chats that you heard and your thoughts.
Speaker: yeah um Yeah, so that was from the panel from that week between Broken Arrow and um and Western States for that TrailCon conference they have in June in the US.
Speaker: And this particular one was um with this signup, Ultra Signup, which is like the main signup platform in the US. And then um another stat company that does like surveys about participationition participation rates and so on. But yeah, overall, they were saying that the sport is at a good place. It's growing. um a lot of young people are getting into the sport. um And yeah, the future is bright for trail running. That's literally what they were saying. um but There is a bit of a drop off from like older people dropping off and not participating as much in trail running. And that could be um that they are moving more into treadmills and gyms and roads.
Speaker: um But the younger people are getting into the trails, which is a good thing. And obviously in the US, you see that with you know colleges and high school students um having a new path of becoming a pro. It's not just like doing you know college running and then becoming a road runner or track runner. Trailers open up like a new pathway. you know They have role models now and stuff like that. so Yeah, I think that the US will will do well in trail running if if some of those college runners start moving into trail running. And then they have high school programs in the US as well where they are like um doing a little bit of trail focus stuff as well. so And then Toby, as someone in Oz...
Speaker: in the junior ranks or in the, you've been in the junior ranks for a while and sort of at the top end of it now, I guess. um But how does it feel like it's progressing in Oz? Like already, can you notice a shift from when you started or does it feel fairly similar?
Speaker: um i think I can notice a shift. Like there's definitely a lot more, I think definitely more in the ultra distances. There's been a lot of increase in number of young people who are doing it.
Speaker: Like maybe my perception is a bit skewed because of Inward Bound. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just always surrounded by n new students who are basically all trail runners who do ultras and things like that.
Speaker: But even... Apart from that, I do think there is a big increase, particularly in the ultra running distances. Makes sense. And they're well on ah on a bigger, like more macro scale, like I got into trail running when I was your age. And even like our trail running teams, our mountain running teams, like they were tiny and they were like, we wouldn't have had a junior team.
Speaker: No way. Like the we world champs I went to in 2018, I was the only female and I was 23. Like it wouldn't be a thing to have even as many as we do. um But obviously we don't have what Vlad's talking about with the sort of pathways in the high school, um like it being as big in the high school and college sort of.
Speaker: areas and i do I do hope that that sort of thing we've got going of lots of seeing lots of juniors just see the ultra side of things and just go straight there.
Speaker: um I'm not sure we have the pathway figured out just yet for juniors um because like you, Toby, you've done well and you're competing in that shorter distance and the faster distance but do you feel like that has come more from your orienteering background or more from like what's what's sort of been your driver there and what do you think being around people is me making juniors go more and straight into the ultra sort of realm in Aus?
Speaker: um Yeah, so I think I definitely i started our in i started trail running through Orienteering because I started running training for Orienteering and then just started entering trail races and just kept doing those. And I've sort of been shifting more towards trail running recently. So that's my...
Speaker: introduction trail running. um But yeah, I definitely think more young people going straight for the ultra distances. Yeah. Just because i feel like it is, like, it's more achievable or, like, more impressive in a way. There's more... Like, if you can say that you've done an ultra, yeah, like, rather than just doing, like, a 10, 20k run yeah on trails.
Speaker: I feel like that's... And it's, like, it's more... I feel like it easier train because you just have to that long do volume rather than speed work and specific training and stuff like that.
Speaker: So I feel like that's sort of the reason for more people doing ultra distances. Yeah, a lot more visibility, I feel like. A lot more shared online and all those sorts of things where like you see that side of things. We don't see as much of the shorter distance or like there's no, there's currently no pathway from even cross country and those sorts of things into trail. um Even as much as they might be from orienteering possibly. feel like we see more orienteers than we see people that have come from sort of road, cross-country kind of background as juniors. But yeah, it's interesting. I'll be interested to see if that shifts at all.
Speaker: I have a question more about like you signing up or putting your name down for Asia Pacific. Do you like kind of go like, oh, let me have a quick look how much it's going to cost me to do this trip before I'll put my name down? Or were you like, oh, I'll put my name down and see what happens? Because, you know, being a junior, it's not easy now like financing this whole trip to China. um What kind of what were the thoughts behind that? Yeah, um I definitely just put my name down before I thought about it and then it's just like if I get selected I'll start having a look at flights, how much that costs, accommodation and then like calculating how much it costs and figuring out if it's worth doing it. So yeah that's sort of similar what I did last year with the World Champs.
Speaker: Like I put my name down, managed to get selected but I looked at the cost and it was just way too much for me at the time. um But yeah, I definitely have to look at the price, see if it's worth it. And that is, yeah, a big factor. Because I think like those Asia Pacific world champs are like, you know, the events are going to push people into trail running from road running. You know, road runners are doing well.
Speaker: You see like, oh, this is a path where I can represent my country, maybe get a sponsorship. um We should be making it easier for younger people to be on those teams and for our elites to be on those teams as well so we can bring new people into the sport and it's definitely harder when you know you gotta pay for your own uniform and obviously flights and there's a bit of support for ah for for a bit of accommodation and food for those five days there but it's still pretty expensive and um yeah i wonder like how do we make that you know how do we get our best runners competing in the world champs yeah it's never-ending questions yeah but that that will help this that will help like you know bring in more people especially the talented road runners that
Speaker: you know, I'm not going to make it as pro trail as pro road runners. They can do well in in trail running. Look at Nathan Pierce, right? Yeah. Really good road runner.
Speaker: um you know, went into trails and is doing well in trails right now. Like how do we get more people like him into the sport? I did notice Nathan tried to, I'm not sure if it's stirring the boat or he actually got Elliot to say something, but if you if you saw Nathan Pierce's stories of a picture of him with Elliot saying confirming Elliot's coming to the trails, um and I'm like,
Speaker: I'll believe it when I see it. um But um Nathan's definitely flying the flag, pretty strong um to anyone and everyone that will listen to him, which I love. Good work, Nate. But, yeah, I think it's it's that whole like that's above my pay ah pay grade of brain trying to figure out exactly how to get the finances and like obviously fundraising, awesome, love all that sort of stuff. But, yeah, how to how to make it a systemic thing that we can – slowly build on I'm hoping that there's people with big brains out there that can that can figure that out slowly. And I think we do have them. Yeah, but it's not it's yeah it's not just that. It's also elevating the events that we do have people going into them. So like...
Speaker: Like, yeah, Toby's paying whatever $2,000 or $3,000 to this race in China. How can we elevate his performance, his run, so then you know the next young 16-, 17-year-old is going to sign up for the next for a trail race? Yeah, yeah. and And this is a pathway. I think that that's also something that could be improved and doesn't cost as much money, just requires a bit of common sense and a bit of planning. Yeah, that's right. like um yeah Fingers crossed we see a bit of that this year. That's definitely um something that I hope that the Ultra AA connection and whatever they managed to do this year, I do hope it's that of creating more visibility and more so like
Speaker: yeah, so support on socials and all those sorts of things for what the team does achieve because I really think we're going to do cool things and it'll be fun to follow along. um And even sharing how people can follow and those sorts of things to build that, again, the visibility, people are going to see it and then think that's that's half the pathway to people getting into it and going, oh, that'd be a cool experience sort of thing. So,
Speaker: yeah, watch this space. We'll see what we can do on that front and we'll definitely be sharing how to follow along and all of these sorts of things because, yeah, I'll be pretty pumped um watching along. um now I might – I think on a positive note, ah I think just before we end that, I think on a positive note, it is good that um that we actually have – name just escaped – that we have Brody on that on like part of the team and also like connected to the athletes yeah because then we are creating like you know a better connection between what we should be showcasing, what we should be doing. um So i think it's a big step forward that Brody is on the team and we can already see that by him going like, hey, Toby, you should sign up.
Speaker: I just read the rules. you You're eligible. like Do it. Sign up. like I think little things like that will also help. connect you know athletes to Ultra and hopefully AA, but that seems like a bit far away, but at least to Ultra for now. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Definitely making a difference. Yep. Awesome. That combo is always going to be an ongoing one that we'll continue to touch on as we see progress. um We've got a couple of listener questions come through that one of them is about hundred case um And the question is, how do you know when you're actually ready to start a 100 kilometre build? Is there a volume or consistency benchmark you'd want someone to hit first and for how long? Or is that overthinking it? So i'm going to throw it to you first, Vlad, um and let's hear your thoughts on that one.
Speaker: I think like you would want to run at least a marathon, like maybe one or two marathons, maybe a 50K and just making sure that that build went well.
Speaker: okay and you kind of got through the race without too many problems so if you did your first 50 you got injured you know and you're out for a few weeks maybe do another build for a 50 do that race recover from it and then think about a longer race um you know obviously 100k is a long way um personally i did yeah i did like two marathons before um you know kind of recovered from them first did the Atacama crossing which was in like six days um before I did my first 100k race so yeah I would do a couple of five hour kind of races and make sure that you can recover from them before you start building into a 100k race but then again if your goals are just to finish it you can probably do it
Speaker: a bit earlier, just go slower and set your expectations a bit lower. I think that last point is an important one where like it does depend very heavily on your goals for that 100K. Like if your heart is just set on I want to go do 100K and just finish the damn thing and get through it,
Speaker: You technically, and Toby, you've seen this yes with Inward Bound of like people just signing up at the start of the year and they get it done. um But yeah, for you, Toby, what are your thoughts on like, depending on the goal, say someone wants to actually like feel good and do 100km well, um what are your thoughts on what you would want to be doing beforehand?
Speaker: Yeah, I feel like I'm a little bit unqualified to talk about races. You've done it. You've done the distance. um Yeah. um Well, for Inward Bound, like the general recommendation is that you can do, say, about 100k week, maybe a little bit more yeah as like sort of peak week.
Speaker: like in ah a month or two before the actual race. So I feel like if you can do that sort of distance in a week pretty comfortably, then that should all right.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. It's less there. But yeah, honestly, feel like I'm not qualified to talk about 100K races in any way. Fair enough. But no, I like that. like that of like, well, can you cover that distance in an entire week of training is actually a pretty good standing for going well. That I feel like speaks to the consistency in a way of like, can you do 100 kilometer a week of training and recover from that? And that feels good sort of thing. Even if you can do two or three of them in a row, like, you're in at least a decent spot on the consistency piece of this question.
Speaker: But yeah, I guess like I took ages to get into the 100K, but that's, again, I'm based on goals. Like I didn't want to go there and when I got there, not perform. Like for me, I've always had that performance mindset of going, well, I want to go there and do well at this. And so that's why for me, like I think, geez, I don't even know what year it would have been, 2019 did it.
Speaker: 60K at five peaks. I don't remember what year that was actually. um But yeah, I sort of worked my way up from once I'd done a marathon, 50K, and then I worked up to a 60K. I then did Old Ghost.
Speaker: And that's the thing I love, I think, about trail running is like There's so many distances in between now. Like in America, they're going to call them 50 milers, but we do have that sort of 70, Like there are ways to sort of test yourself slowly along the way. Like it's not marathon all the way up 100K, even 50K all the way up to 100K. Like you can go find... that one of those middle distance ones and like the 85k at old ghost taught me so much that I could then push forward into the 100k but for me mentally it was knowing I had the years of consistency behind me going into it was just like well of course I know I can do this I guess I wasn't going in going, I'm not sure. How's this going to feel? Like, how am I going to work? It was like standing on the start line going, well, no, this is fine. Like I i kind of obviously haven't covered the distance before, but I've done so much in training, including um now that we've got quite a few of these in Oz as well, like multi-day events. Four Peaks is a shorter example, but now they've got like the GPT stage race. You can go do, i think even Surf Coast Century has stage races and
Speaker: Like doing those sorts of things can also build your confidence going into the 100K. And for me, I didn't do 100K until I went, well, I know I'm ready. Like there's no question in my mind about whether I can or can't do this. Like I'm 100% sure I can. Is it always going to go right on the day? No.
Speaker: um But, yeah, that's one approach of going, well, take that question out of your mind. Do enough in training such that you're not actually questioning whether you're ready for the one hundred k or 100K build even Like for me with runners that I coach, um I sort of put it in the way of like, well, you've got to do the work to do the work in a way. um Like you've got to do the work to prove you can survive this sort of thing or like so not survive it, actually do it well. And by well, that doesn't necessarily mean how you perform. It means how you recover, how you feel in training. Is it going to take so much away from life that it's not actually worth it anymore to get the training done?
Speaker: and those sorts of things. Because if you're going every weekend in a hundred build for a long run that then has you completely destroyed every Monday and every Tuesday, you're probably not going to like it very much. um So it is, I much prefer when people are happy to do that slow, I'm going to earn the distance kind of build of going, well, hey, I've done a 40K. Can I find a 50 to 60K to go do? Can I then find ah either a multi-day or an 80k to go do sort of thing um but I guess for me when someone's ready is when they are able to do a block and sometimes you can sign up and go for 100k block and I've had runners do this they get halfway through and they're like well no this is actually too much for my body I can't do the last six weeks I'm going to drop back down to the 50 again
Speaker: And I have all the respect in the world for people that are happy to do that because I'm like, well, that that's great. That's great information that we've got that you're not recovering from the training that would require, that the 100K would require.
Speaker: And that's our answer. You weren't quite ready this time. And having that answer answered in training is actually quite hard. safe and good to do um in a way. So there's many different footholds that you can start a 100k block from. um But I'd say if, especially if you're going into the 100k block going, I'm going to try, and there's actually no harm in this not paying off this time, because you're going to learn something from it anyway, like that's a great spot to be, because you might be ready.
Speaker: And there you answer the question through the training more so than what you've done beforehand. But It's a long way. i will say that. The 100Ks is a long way. Don't think that it's like the be all and end all. Like I love my 20 to 50K races for the joy and the fact that you can keep going afterwards and you're not completely destroyed for ages. Like, yeah, I guess don't put the 100K distance or beyond on this big pedestal where it has to be done. um And I've thankfully, I've met many people where they go up to the 100K and they're like, oh, yeah, no, let's go back down. i'm like, great. Yeah. Good call because they're brutal and they're they're hard for a reason no matter what level you're trying to do it at.
Speaker: You're out there for a long time so you've got to want it pretty bad. um But yeah, Vlad, anything to add on that one? No, I really think it's, yeah, if you set your wrong goals, so then you know how much effort you got to put into it. But if the goals are just finish it, then, yeah, you can just walk, hike most of it, you know, take your time in eight stations and you should be okay. If you are want to get the most out of it, yeah, they're definitely not easy when you're pushing the whole day. Yeah.
Speaker: Yep. Yep. Yep. You got to think about the aftermath a little bit too. um Is it worth, is it worth the semi-destruction it puts you in for a while? But hopefully, thank you. ah gosh, that load. Thank you, Christina, for that question. um And we are going to answer another one of your questions in a bit of a Patreon bonus at the end of this show. um But just quickly, and this, I can give a little bit of a recap um on the event as a whole, but We have had Liam ah write in asking on side topic, um hearing a lot about the lack of water stations at Melbourne Mara on the weekend, keeping up with the demand and having an effect on DNFs in the warmer weather.
Speaker: Thoughts? um And Vlad, as you were talking at the beginning about the weather in Perth, I was like, oh, we probably could have used a little bit of that. Yeah. yesterday for Melbourne Mara but I will say they actually got we got a gorgeous day overall um it was just especially for the half marathoners or anyone running like three and a half hours plus in the marathon like it it got warm but that's not the race's fault that's luck of the draw um as you go and yeah I guess um like my experience only speaks from I ran easy effort for me at this point and also was in that sort of three hour 17 bracket
Speaker: Yeah, so I'm coming at this as someone that got the best of the weather um because it was cloudy right up until about 9.30. I'm definitely privileged on that front when I got the luck of the draw. But yeah, there's a few things now. have This is my first road race in a really long time and there's definitely a few observations where I'm like, man,
Speaker: This is interesting. um A, obviously running with 20,000 other people. that there was I think they had 18,500 starters in the marathon. So I've never run with so many people in my life.
Speaker: And there's a huge part of me that goes, well, how do you even keep up with that? Like that's a huge logistical nightmare to keep up with. Yeah. But yeah, there's there's a lot of commentary I've seen online. Some people saying there wasn't enough aid stations or enough toilets and all sorts of these things. And part of me goes, well there's 12 aid stations over a marathon. Like, I'm not sure how many you want at that point, but obviously coming from...
Speaker: trail running. And then i think part of it is is as me going, well, I was out there with my belt, with my own hydration as well, because yeah everyone goes into a marathon knowing that the aid stations, no matter whether they've got enough of everything or not,
Speaker: they're a bit of a nightmare to try and actually grab your water and get through. So I did notice quite a few people actually had their packs, um like running packs or belts or something. And that was, that was cool to see because you can have anyone you like on the sidelines giving you bottles, like that's allowed everywhere. So I was just picking up bottles from friends on the sidelines, as well as taking water at the aid stations. And Yeah, I felt for it like there was a few things they certainly would need to improve ah because just because of how many people, because I think this is the most people they've ever had in the marathon. And like even at the pace I was running, I would have been at the time at about a 3.15. I pretty much sat there all day with about 3.15 people. And because we were right behind the three-hour pace group, like the three-hour group would come through and wipe out the water station. So even though they had water there, They just were scrambling to restock cups and put them back on the table um because they'd just been annihilated.
Speaker: And I'm like, well, that I feel for the volunteers. Like you take so many people to get water out to that many people and then restock in time for the next pack that comes through and the next pack. And so... I guess for me observing it, I'm like, I reckon these guys are doing an incredible job because I only had that happen at one aid station and the rest of them were all fine. um Obviously, i I think I was about 2,000th out of all the people. So I'm coming through not after as many.
Speaker: Um, but yeah, like for me coming from the trails, I was a bit like, well, the aid stations are super, super often. Um, and you also have access to carry your own, but then there's just that difference in mentality, I suppose, of, I actually did get annoyed at one person. Um, and it probably could have got annoyed at many. We're just watching someone way in between aid stations, slam a gel, and then just throw it in the pavement.
Speaker: And I'm like, mate, you carried the gel. Like, can you not carry the wrapper? Like, I don't, I don't understand that mentality where I'm just like, people will go, well, there's other people here to pick it up. And I'm like, are they your slave? Like, can you not, any because there are bins along the course. There's lots of bins along the course, but most people weren't even trying to get things into the bins. So.
Speaker: It's kind of another side that I'm just like, I guess my brain can't help but compare between the two. But yeah, I guess I'm looking at it and going, well, they either have less people and then people complain about how few entrants there are, or there's always going to be trouble at aid stations when you've got 18,000 people trying to access water. um So For me, I'm like they were doing the absolute best they could, those volunteers at the aid stations. I'm not sure what more you could ask of them other than the ones that later in the day fully ran out of water because I'm like, well, you do need that. Like you need them to at least have access to the water. um And there was a lot of people where I'm just like if you need water, you you're going to have to slow down to grab it. But a lot of people, it's almost like that unwillingness to slow down and make it possible and then missing the aid station and then
Speaker: having to wait for the next one. I'm like, well, you're as much a part of that problem as the aid station is. Because part of the thing is if you're actually relying on the aid stations for your fluid, you need to change what you're doing in order to make it accessible and possible. So yeah, I guess I feel for the, ah so many things I'm seeing them get slammed for, even that, so there's no water at the finish line, exactly on the finish line, because they don't want people milling around on the MCG.
Speaker: So you have to walk under the MCG to grab some water. And i'm like, well, that's so that you keep moving off the finish line because you also can't have thousands of people blocking the finish line. um So I think there's so many things that people maybe don't understand about how an event like this has to be put on. And it's such a bigger scale than obviously all trail races, but it's also like just as much of a logistical nightmare even though it is on the road because of the masses of people.
Speaker: um And I'm not sure, like, Vlad, have you done any, like, road marrow majors or anything? Like, is there, is it ever perfect? No, I don't think so. I've done Paris and a few big ones. But, um yeah, I don't, I think that, like, I think you just have to, like,
Speaker: plan and not rely on the course. So all the marathons that I've done, I've done it with a belt, with a small soft last guy at all my gels, even marathons where I had my bottles out.
Speaker: I still kind of had my plan A was on me. And it's actually funny because, our Perth marathon was on this weekend as well. Um, And it was good weather, um but still um I got a message from Matt Smith.
Speaker: don't know, think he wouldn't mind, doesn't listen to this. He came third in the marathon, but we worked a bit on him, on his um calorie consumption in marathons, because that's like a new thing for him. And I was like, if I was you, I'd just carry all the gels on me and put some powder in the bottles just for a bit of extra.
Speaker: And he's like, now we have special bottles. There's only a few elites. And then I get a message from him this morning that there were no elite bottles out. So he gave them out, but they didn't put any of them on the course. Mind you, there was only like a few elites. So maybe they just forgot about it. They took the bottles, but didn't put them out.
Speaker: um But I think that's that's pretty common, not very common, but that those things can happen. And I think like just grab a running belt, put a small soft lussie and put few gels just as an emergency there. um yeah i think even if you're like, you know, a four-hour marathon runner, you get to an aid station, this one's got too many people. You know, you have 200 or 300 mil on you. You should be okay till the next one.
Speaker: um One thing... Toon mentioned that did Gold Coast last year and it was a warmer day. So they did add an eight station every two and a half K. And I thought that that was like a good quick reaction to the weather, which marathons probably should have that plan kind of going, all right, well, we're looking at a 20 degree plus day instead of one eight station every five K let's put one every two and a half K. And, um, they have the money to do it. You know, those races,
Speaker: You know, the entry fees are not 20 or $30, so they could put eight stations every 2K, literally, um when it's a warm day. They averaged one every three and a half.
Speaker: yeah like I mean, you can, i can it was yeah, but like, you know, obviously there wasn't enough on a warm day. So you could do one every 2K. You can have them on both sides of the road. You know, you can, it's it's a pretty simple, I would see it as a pretty simple way of making sure everybody gets enough water. But at the same time, I think that, you know, runners that spend a lot of money traveling to a race, booking accommodation, like you don't want to leave everything to the organizers and have your kind of plan B of,
Speaker: okay, have a little bit of water with me. I have an extra two or three gels with me that whatever happens, I can't grab a gel on the in the aid station. i know that I'm going to have enough calories. so Yeah, yeah. I guess for me, I'm a bit like, well, we can be a little bit more self-sufficient, guys.
Speaker: um Like just yeah for the fact that there's so many people out there already anyway. And like we've seen – because people then complain about how many cups are on the race course but then if right we've seen races try and do the ones where you have to run up with your own cup and fill it up and then people complain about having to stop and I'm like I i genuinely feel like at this point you're never going to hear all good vibes about a marathon because you can't win um I've never had so much fun on a road marathon personally and but I also as you've said there, like I was running along going, well, I'm fine if I miss every single one. Like I'm not, it's, it's no trouble to me. Um, and having that knowledge is then like, well, you know, that everything there is for a bonus, um, to help you along sort of thing. And I still use quite a few of the aid stations, but, but yeah, I think if, if missing an aid station or two is what causes a DNF, that's where I would try and almost take that lesson for myself and going, well, how can I be more self-sufficient next time?
Speaker: And like, I get you are paying a lot of money for these aid stations and hopefully races then also learn of like where they can do. Cause most of the aid stations were both sides of the road. Um, there wasn't many of them that you had to get across to one side.
Speaker: I don't remember at least. Um, and then, yeah, I think it it was, it's just, I don't know what it was like possibly further back. Um, but I was actually always in a big pack in a big pack. And people were great at looking out for each other. um But, yeah, I think there's there's a bit of that to and fro of that hopefully the race takes learnings, especially because Melbourne took a swing and tried something new with timings between the marathon and the half marathon and I'm not sure it paid off um and it didn't work great. But, like, they were getting complaints last time about the previous setup. They tried something new and it didn't work. So i'm I guess when I look at it, I'm like, well,
Speaker: Can we maybe be a little bit gracious um for the fact that they're trying to put on a massive event for a massive amount of people and we can actually help ourselves have a really good day out there too um and enjoy it. But have you done a road maratoby?
Speaker: No, I haven't. What about any like major halves? Yeah. I've done City to Surf when i was about 14 or 15, but that's the only roadwaying. How do they manage it? Because they've obviously got like 80,000 in one race.
Speaker: Yeah. um I don't know if I remember it too well, but I think it is just there's just water on the side from memory. Yeah, yeah. Like out of the aid stations. but Because I can imagine that one have being the most mayhem.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's a little shorter as well, so it's not as important. Yeah, very true. Very, very true. So... Yeah, I'll be interested to see. Like obviously Melbourne's going to take learnings but yeah, if you're one of the people that got affected, ah like we can ask for improvements while also going, well, what can you do to help yourself as well to enjoy these sorts of things? Because if we're asking for marathons to let more and more people in so more people have access, then there's kind of always going to be problems with that too. but Yeah, certainly made me. I've never, I haven't run that long at one pace on the road in a very long time and my legs were incredibly sore already by like 20k and I was like, give me some hills please. um I was actually like jumping off the side to run on the grass and run on some gravel, like even though I'm in my road shoes, I'm like, I need some soft surface.
Speaker: um It itgave me reminded me the pain of running that long on the road. um and i was Even though like I feel fine today, I recovered great, but like straight at the end I was like, ha this is a different level of leg pain um compared to what you experience on the trail. So congrats to everyone that did get out there. um it was It was an awesome day with so many spectators. Mostly I think a lot of them were there for Kipchoge, but It was a pretty special event to be part of um and I haven't run through that many people in a very, very long time. so
Speaker: Happy days. Awesome. um Well, finishing up for today, we just have the results to get through and then we will have a very quick, if you've got time, Toby, just a quick ah Patreon bonus to go at the end. But the international results we have come through have come one from Fiem Sky Marathon in Italy where Millie Young was the second woman over the the fifty five k which was with 3,100 of climbing in
Speaker: which I'm not sure where that is in Italy, but for a sky marathon of that distance with that climb is pretty quick. So it's good to see Millie bouncing back from her troubles at PTL um on UTMB week and bouncing back for that second place. And then in the Trans-Jeju 100 mile in South Korea, we had Aditya Kesakodi-Watson.
Speaker: I'm hoping I've got that name wrong. Sorry if I haven't, Aditya. But was 12th overall in the 148K with 5,000 metres climbing in 2059.38. And then in the Transjeju 100km in South Korea, we had Sam Parkinson, 23rd overall in the 104km with 4,000 metres of climbing in 14 hours 52. So some cool results from Aussies in the international scene.
Speaker: um And then bringing it back home, We had the on Mount Bold Trail Run, which also doubled as the South Australian Trail Championships. um Is South Australia the only state to have championships?
Speaker: Or do you have them? Definitely Queensland's got it I think Tazi's got it as well. Oh, yeah, true, actually. No, I forgot that. Yeah. um Cool to see. You don't have them in Canberra, do you, Toby?
Speaker: No, we used to have the Mount Running Champs in ACT, but that hasn't been around for a few years now. Yeah, it was 2022 I think we were there yeah from memory up Mount Tennant. That was good fun. A good one. um Well, yeah, this one is the South Australian Championships. So they had the 36K extra long, I think they've called it um because it's EX long, um and that was won on the men's side by Matthew Larson in 2 hours 53 followed by Andrew Heitman in 3 hours flat in 27 seconds and then Toby...
Speaker: I think I've got that in 3.04 on the women's side for the 36K. It was won by Zoe Hall in 3 hours 22. Second was Vanessa Tomatis in 3 hours 25. And third was Ina Shapiro in 3 hours 35. So some relatively close racing across that distance, which is cool to see.
Speaker: ah For the 25K long, um we had Jane Chisaro win the women's in 2 hours 41. Hannah DeWood was second in 2 hours 43. And Claire Donaldson was third in 2 hours 50. On the men's, Mark Bloomfield in 2 hours flat. Then second, looks like he had a run of the day actually, because then second, Brad Phillips in 2 hours 14. And third, Jake Bunworth in 2 hours 17. So a big win by Mark Bloomfield there.
Speaker: The 19K medium run was won on the men's by David Gomez in an hour 29 59, just broke the hour 30 there. Second, Alexander Boruck in an hour 32. Third, Ethan Smith in hour 34.
Speaker: And on the women's side, it was won by Makala Sexton in an hour 46. Second place, Makala won by quite a bit too, was Madeline Aird in two hours and eight minutes. And then third was Beck Matthews in two hours 14.
Speaker: And lastly, we had the 10K short, which was won by Clay Smith in 50 minutes. Second in the men's was Seamus Gracie in 55. Third, Reece Evans in 59. On the women's, Isabel Hobbs won that in 103.
Speaker: Second was Lisa Davis in 108. And third, Megan Semzak. Maybe? um In 109. I'm hoping you've got most of your names right there, but congrats to everyone and all of those that got there for the South Australian Trail Champs. um Just quickly, some of the other races we had. The Human Hovel Ultra, the 100km was won in the women's by Ali Coripio.
Speaker: no yeah I think I got that in 11 hours 14 minutes um which was yeah a big win because second place Lauren Marshall in 13 hours 17 third nice and close there Holly Ross in 13 hours 21 on the men's it was won by jape Jacob Garlick in 10 hours 51 looks like listed here in second is it team since there's four names listed. So I'm going to say possibly second was Andrew Stevens in 12 hours 31 and third Charles Brooks in 12 hours 48.
Speaker: um And then just quickly the 50K was won by Ginny Stevens in the women ah in 6 hours 20 and Dom McKenzie in the men's in 4 hours 58. The 22K Lisa Bell Chambers and in the men's Ewan Best in an hour 46. Okay.
Speaker: ah Going down now to Sydney, the St Ives run in Sydney, the 24 kilometre was won by Liberty Blundell for the women in 2 hours 50. Qian Wang in second in 2 hours 53, 23 and then right on her heels was Claire Shiland in 2 hours 53, 37.
Speaker: For the men's, William Van Loon in 201, Harry Hickey in 202, then Nathan Cook in 205. And we also had, oh, we talked about this one last week actually. This is a new event in Vic, the Buj Bim Lava Blast.
Speaker: um So we have the results for that one, which I'm so intrigued to hear how this event went because it looks like it's in a really cool spot. But Liam Chiera won in 1 hour 34, followed by Finley Monk in 1 hour 37 and Sam Edney in 1 hour 40. In the women's, it was won by Molly...
Speaker: ta or the, um but 1 hour 48 for Molly. Second was Katie Riddle in 201.30 and then 33 and Izzy Musson in third in 202.06. So nice and close there. On the women's side, um that was for the 21K. The 10K was one on the men's by Hamish Wortley and on the women's by... Leah poll. And last but not least, ah lots of events on this weekend. We had the Southeast Queensland trail running series at Inaugura Reservoir, was won on the women's in the long course by Zara Beveridge in 105, followed by Kelly Bobbier in 107 and Amber Rowlandson in 108, on the men's Miles Burfield in one hour flat.
Speaker: Matt Price, second in 102, and Nathan Ashby, third in 104. And last but not least, the short trail or short course was won by Paul in minutes, Fred Boyne and David Marsh in and the women's Mish in minutes.
Speaker: ah Claire Durant in 43 and Olivia Doherty in 46. So heaps of results from around the country over the weekend. There was a few more races that we haven't been able to get the ah results up for, but we'll see if we can get them for next week. ah But yeah, for coming up, we've got Blackall 100, which is always a big one.
Speaker: Also roller coaster trail run down in Vic. um from Singletrack, so that's always going to be a huge one here. Fernley 15 in New South Wales and Manning Park Trail Run in WA. Do you know anything about that one, Vlad?
Speaker: Um, not really. It is like, you know, a group that does a bit of trail running and hiking, uh, like next to the coast. It's not big trails or like impressive trails, just a bit of trail ground, not far away from the beach, but yeah, it's nice. They do a a race. Um, but they do have a lot of members that do come to their weekly runs. Um, nice.
Speaker: Yeah, so actually nice kind of community vibe to it. Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. All the best racers have that community vibe. So love it. and Awesome. since Yeah, Ben Liston is one of the leaders there. um Oh, cool. So yeah, kind of, yeah.
Speaker: Very nice. Good community there. Very, very nice. Well, yeah, we'll have some big results for you all next week, especially from Blackall and Rollercoaster. I think there's also a Rollercoaster preview coming out for James and Brodie, so you keep your ears open for that. But Toby, you've just got a recovery week coming up. Nothing else exciting planned?
Speaker: Yep, nothing else this week. Nothing big. Nice. And Vlad, anything exciting for you planned this week or...? Just normal training, trying to get fit. Nice work. Nice work. Yeah. I'm trying to do the whole get as much vert as I can on tired legs from a road marathon, which is not the most fun, but yay for treadmills. And I'm going to be doing actually this afternoon an uphill weight vest treadmill. And I just plan on putting on a movie and trying to distract myself from the fact that my legs are actually quite sore. um So the joys of fatigue training, but...
Speaker: Awesome. Well, that wraps up the main show for episode 131. For anyone that's interested, the show notes, you can click through a link and join us on Patreon where you'll get some of our bonus content and everything released early ad-free. And otherwise, thank you so much everyone for listening and thanks Toby for being here.
Speaker: We'll speak to you all next week. you guys.
