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Episode 26: Caffeine, Carbs, a Downhill VK, and Selection Policy Chat.
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Welcome to Episode 26 of Peak Pursuits, your ultimate podcast for everything trail running in Australia. This week’s episode is hosted by Brodie Nankervis, Jess Jason and Vlad Ixel and starts a little differently with each of them talking through their nutrition and gear chat, before diving into training, listener questions, news and race results for the week.
Start - 27:45 :- Nutrition and Gear Chat
With the same championship race of APTRC South Korea coming up for all three hosts, they start this week with a discussion on their usual training nutrition, and how they will adapt that for the race in South Korea. Then hear about each of their shoe and gear choices to navigate the heat and the stairs of the course!
27:45 - 37:20 :- Training Talk
The team briefly take you through some of their key sessions of the week, which for Brodie included a 14:44 downhill VK!
37:20 - 53:10 :- Listener Questions
Listener questions this week tied into training so the team runs straight into talking about how they are training for stairs, including Jess revealing that her win at Hounslow came after NO specific stair training yet but how she has adapted that now for APTRC. The next listener question tackles all things caffeine in training and racing.
53:10 - 1:00:00 :- Trail Running News
One year out from the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Canfranc, Spain, the New Zealand federation have announced their selection policy, which prompts a discussion around the hypotheticals of what the Australian selection policy should look like and the timeline for selection.
1:00:00- 1:12:45 :- Race Results
We then cover a few Aussie races that went down over the weekend:
Macedon Trail Run: https://my.raceresult.com/311897/
Sydney Backyard Ultra: https://my.raceresult.com/309690/live
UTMB Nice: https://nice.utmb.world/results?year=2024&raceUri=32444.nicecoted-azurbyutmb-roubion-nice-100k.2024
Ianthon SkyRace Thailand: https://www.timingconnect.com/event/SKY2024/SKY30/participant
1:12:45 - End : What’s coming up
Lastly, we do a quick run through of the upcoming trail races around the country and what is coming up for us.
Thanks for tuning in to Peak Pursuits! Connect with us on Instagram @peakpursuits.pod to share your thoughts, questions, and your own trail stories. Until next time, keep hitting the trails and chasing those peak pursuits!
Jess: @jess.jason95
Brodie: @brodienank
Vlad: @vladixel
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):https://uppbeat.io/t/mood-maze/trendsetter
License code: K08PMQ3RATCE215R
Transcript
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 26 of the peaks pursuit podcast. My name is Brody and I am joined by two of our regular hosts, Vlad Ixl back home in Perth, gearing up ready to head over to South Korea. How are you going Vlad? Yeah, not too bad. only about 10 days left till I a fly out. Fantastic. getting and Getting ready to go. And Jess in Canberra also gearing up to head over to South Korea. um How are you Jess? Yeah, good. I think I'm heading out a couple days after blood. So yeah, getting excited. Fantastic. Yeah, it's very exciting. I think all three of us are going to be in Korea um and with a bunch of other cool and really talented Aussies. So it's going to be a fun time. I'm looking forward to it. I'm currently in
00:00:59
Speaker
Sicily in Italy. This is my last stop before I head to South Korea. So um I, yeah, I'm not far off heading to Korea either. So that's very exciting. But yes, this week we've got some, we're going to cover over a little bit of our training. We're going to talk a little bit about our prep heading into South Korea. um Then we're going to cover some trail running news and some results as we normally do.
00:01:28
Speaker
Um, so yeah, stick with us. We're going to have an interesting episode. Um, but to start with, I thought maybe we've had the road to South Korea episode three, um, come out a few days ago. So it's trail to South Korea. I'm going to keep saying it wrong. Um, Vlad, I think you've listened to it. Was that good? I've heard the first 20 minutes. It was very interesting. I was having a good laugh. Um, how did you find it?
00:01:55
Speaker
Yeah, obviously a great, great episode. If um if people out there haven't listened to it, check it out. It was released a few days ago. Yeah, but it was kind of cool. Hearing Sarah, Charlie and Mike talk about um nutrition and gear leading up to the race, because obviously we were in a similar um i guess road towards a similar race. So yeah, it was kind of cool listening to what they were doing. I was listening to it while I was doing my long run on Sunday yesterday. um But they did touch a little bit about nutrition, which
00:02:28
Speaker
um I guess as somebody with the nutrition company nutrition has been a big part but i was gonna ask you guys what is your nutrition plan in general in training um and then for the race what are you kind of planning how many cars for an hour how much water usually you get. um Yeah just what is what are your car for now what are your numbers.
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah, I listened to that episode too and yeah I was definitely like more on Sarah's wavelength um of just being kind of like amazed by how intricate Charlie and Mikey were with like all the numbers of um like water and carbs and salt and everything and like how they've done all the sweat tests and that all that stuff is like super professional and amazing and um Yeah, definitely learnt a thing or two. So I'm probably just gonna do like something similar to Han Slow but try and be a bit more smart about the heat because
00:03:31
Speaker
For Hounslow, I was pretty like caught off guard for the heat. I was expecting it to be cold. um And I probably didn't get in and enough kind of water at start and I got that nausea kind of feeling. So um yeah, I think I usually aim for like a litre of water every two hours.
00:03:54
Speaker
So I reckon I will carry my water on me for like until that sort of aid station at halfway and then I'll swap over like I'll get someone to hand me some bottles there.
00:04:09
Speaker
um you're going to so So there's an 8 station before as well. There's obviously the supported 8 station at 25k halfway through the race, 22k. And there's an 8 station at 11k. Are you just going to run with water straight from the start and not stop at that first 8 station?
00:04:30
Speaker
i actually like The guys got me thinking as well on the vest versus belt thing. I actually really want to try um putting the water in the belt because i I do find that the vest makes you pretty hot. Are you going to use a belt, Vlad?
00:04:47
Speaker
Yeah, I mean um of obviously we have the big belts that I've designed because I hate running with them with backpacks. Obviously the hit is one thing, the bounce. um i the Some races are literally they have a big mandatory gear kit that requires you to to carry a a pack and a worn end to those races because I just like keeping it as simple as possible. and um Yeah, just running with a belt. But I think with the way the eight stations are positioned, you can do it with a belt. So even if you start with 500 mil at the start. um Yeah.
00:05:24
Speaker
get to 11K, have some water at the aid station, fill up another bottle, then you're gonna make it to the next aid station at 20K, then you can make it to the third one at 30K. So the heat is, like you know from what I'm looking at at the weather, the heat is only gonna kind of kick in maybe around nine, 10 o'clock in the morning. So that would be like towards the end of our race. um yeah So hopefully it should be enough. So you're only gonna carry 500 mils at a time?
00:05:52
Speaker
Yeah, so what I'm going to take is start with a 500 mil soft flask with 50 grams of carbs inside and then have an empty soft flask with 50 grams of carbs inside just without the water. Once I get to the first aid station, all I do is just fill that second flask that only has the powder in it.
00:06:18
Speaker
um And then once I get to the last, to this to the supported aid station halfway through, I will pick up one full flask with 50 grams of carbs. um And then again, another empty one that I can refill at the third aid station. So pretty much the same kind of 500 ml. And I'll probably, because of the heat, I'll probably try and drink two to 300 ml of plain water at each aid station as well. um Just because of the humidity, I think it's going to be probably like high 80s, 90% humidity. So yeah, I'm kind of thinking about making sure I get 200 or 300 mil at the aid station plus taking the 500 mil for each leg. Yeah. Yeah. I reckon I'm going to try um holding water in the belt this weekend. um Would you usually like put like, would you put like one liter of water it in the belt or is that too much for the belt? Do you reckon?
00:07:16
Speaker
It will hold, but then you get out the other mandatory gear kit, so it might get a bit heavy. Usually I just put the 500 mil soft loss at the back, and then at the front I'll have the jacket, the phone, um so a small phone, like one of those really small ones. um Blanket that we need as mandatory gear kit. We'll all go to the front.
00:07:35
Speaker
um Jails will go to the front as well. um yeah I've done obviously the last two world champs I've done just using using the belt. Literally, I don't even remember the last time I raced with a pack. So um I think if you actually spend some time this week and kind of have a look at your mandatory gear kit, it will definitely fit.
00:07:53
Speaker
in the belt for the short course. And I would assume most kind of front runners will run with a belt, um, yeah for that race. But yeah, I mean, I don't think you have to wait till the long run. Like, you know, like try yeah your belt on like easy runs before that. So you feel comfortable with it. Um, but yeah, what about like carbs for an hour? Is there like a certain number that you've done in training?
00:08:20
Speaker
Yeah, I think I usually get like 70 to 80 grams or so. um So yeah, I'm just going to keep doing what I do in training. I think it's enough. um Yeah, I think, yeah, I just sort of like try to get it mostly in gels, but I have like carbs in the bottles as well. um Yeah, not super measured with it. Just kind of like try to get as much as I can down.
00:08:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think as the sport evolved, Vin, we're saying that you kind of almost have to be pretty um measured with your nutrition. Yeah. I think that for the past, yeah, I'd say two years, I've been pretty measured with my nutrition because of where the sport is right now. um When I started running, I was pretty much like, yeah, it doesn't really matter if I have jail every half an hour or every 50 minutes or an hour, when now it's a bit more dialed in. um I kind of feel comfortable at around 90 grams of carbs for an hour, but obviously trained that quite a lot. I think like gut training is probably something that most people kind of like try and have that amount of carbs because they listen to that on a podcast or see it on YouTube.
00:09:30
Speaker
um but then try themselves and then they go, wow, that's really a lot. I'm not feeling too well. Um, but it does take time. So I think, uh, like, you know, trying to increase, let's say even even from like 70 to 90 is like a big jump because you're already at a higher limit. Um, so I think that yeah, gut training is something that takes a long time. Now some people would be easier for them. Um, some people would be a bit little harder. Um, but yeah, I've went through,
00:10:01
Speaker
Yeah, just making sure that I can try and fit it in into every long run. And then as I get closer to races, I'll do a few times a week as well on my 90 minute runs as well. What about you Brody? What is your carbs per hour number? Yeah, it's very interesting that we like talking about this as ah as a number these days. Like you said, in the last two years, it's like it's evolved a lot and everyone's putting a lot of focus on it. And the nutrition companies have all Um, sort of latched onto that as well. Um, given that it is giving a performance benefit as something that we can't really ignore. So yeah, I find it so interesting how it's evolved to this stage. Um, so fast, um, it's pretty cool. Um, but yeah, I at, uh, Kima, I did, I, the aim was to be around 90. Cause again, that's something that I've trained towards and, and feel comfortable at. Um,
00:11:00
Speaker
I think most of the race I held onto that. So yeah, I think I will aim for that. But my one issue is I ran out of nutrition um while I've been traveling and I tried to get a drop in Spain, but it didn't quite work out. So I'm not getting that nutrition until I get to Korea.
00:11:20
Speaker
um So I've been training with lollies and a few assorted gels, so it hasn't been ideal. So I'm going to have to take it, see how I go, see if I can sort of get to that normal number.
00:11:37
Speaker
but um Yeah, I think ah yeah we'll have to play wait and see. I'm going to probably start out aiming for sort of 80 to 90 and then then say see how that goes over the course of the race um because I might need to slow it down um and given I haven't done heaps of gut training for the last sort of like six, eight weeks. um Yeah, I mean, I think for me, if I feel like um like I have to slow it down as well sometimes I just it's in hot conditions and in humid conditions where it's a lot harder um which that's why I'm kind of thinking like I need to have some plain water as well um yeah I don't know if I'm gonna carry you know and another flask of plain water but I think that for people that do get into
00:12:21
Speaker
starting to have a bit more carbs per an hour if you start into from like 50 and you want to go to 70, a good way to do it is is definitely have some more plain water um to dilute it a bit more. um So yeah, I think it's it's yeah it's about finding that extra water way we can wherever you can, plain water.
00:12:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think what you said Vlad with like having some at the aid stations is a really good and that's something like people can use um in their races as well. Having some plain water at the aid stations is a good way to get a little bit of top up because yeah, I found in training like I can have both flasks with some sort of electrolyte fuel mix but then If I try and do that in a race and i always I keep doing it and not taking any water with me, um i then I get sick of the mix really early and then I want to i just um um really want water. um so i'm actually For Korea, i think I'm not exactly sure the temperature, but I think it's maybe going to be around 20 degrees and maybe I'm assuming a bit of humidity.
00:13:28
Speaker
Um, I'm probably going to take one flask water and one flask, sort of my fuel mix is the plan. And, and I don't know how logistically that's going to work at this stage. it Depends which race I do. Um, but, uh, yeah, that'll be my goal to have some water on me because I, yeah, I found it kemar. I was wanting to have like nearly two cups of water at every aid station. Um, just because I was, yeah, I needed the water rather than just the electrolyte, uh,
00:13:57
Speaker
electrolyte mix. Yeah and I mean I think what Korea could happen as well that like salt tablets could go in like so I'm gonna see once I get there I'm gonna obviously bring some salt tablets with me but like I'm gonna see when I get there and if it is like 90% humidity then I'll probably like when I drink the plain water I might also have one or two salt tablets just to make sure that the amount of electrolytes is is there, but um yeah humidity justlies humidity and heat to just plays such a big role in how much you can how easily you can consume the nutrition, especially if it's like you know a longer race. Obviously for an hour or two, it's a bit easier, but if it's like four, five, six hours,
00:14:38
Speaker
um Yeah, hidden humidity can really play a big role, especially I mean, personally, like I struggle a bit more in the heat with my stomach. So yeah, playing water for me always kind of balances things out a bit more. um But yeah, there were are the guys were also talking a little bit about shoes, um which has been kind of I guess you guys have brand partners, so it's probably like no much of a problem for you. I remember like six years with North Face, I never really had to think about shoes, but now that um I'm free to run in whatever shoes I want. that Yeah, what are you going to wear? So I was kind of thinking about the salamander pulses, you know, the really light ones, but I feel like
00:15:23
Speaker
they might just not be supportive enough for a four, four and a half hour race. So I'm going to go with the Tektones X, the first ones. So the carbon-plated, fairly light, pretty flexible, really good shoe. I don't think that the second or third Tektones from Hoka were as good personally, um but the first ones are quite good. So I'm probably going to run into them. Again, I'm going to bring some other shoes just when I see the course, I'll make that decision. Brought to you with Salomon.
00:15:53
Speaker
I know we talked a little bit about shoes. um What shoes are you thinking you're going to run with? Yeah, I've got a few with me. um ah Yeah, at least I sort of alluded to it before. I don't actually know which race I'm running yet. um I am ah do have an entry in the short trail and I ah sort of hung on to that for for a while.
00:16:13
Speaker
um because ah that was the the goal that I wanted to run that race. But um yeah, just with how training is going and I really want to focus on getting my volume back and and not be rushing to a race.
00:16:25
Speaker
um I tried to get an entry to the shorter sky race, which is on at the same time. So it's, it's part of the world sky running series. So it's, it still felt like a sort of big competition that I'll still sort of get that from and and be able to do something meaningful in Korea. Um, but I entries were closed. So and I'm trying to get an entry and I think there's someone trying to help me get one. Um, but I don't know if that's going to work out or not. So I might end up back in the.
00:16:55
Speaker
40k again, so we'll we'll have to see I think the sky race is ah so the 40 k's of 40 with 27 is it is that right 27 vert and the sky races 25k with to seven. So it's like, it's the same amount of climb. um So it's just, it's up. Like, and if you think about how you fit 2,700 meters of climb into 25K, it's legitimately just up and down at about an average of 25% or something. Like it's really, no, it must be just under, it's somewhere between 10 and 20% is the average for the course, I think. Hmm. Maybe it's higher than that. Anyway, it's really,
00:17:42
Speaker
steep up and down. It starts with ah and start at the same place where the short trail starts, but it heads up a different ridgeline and it's a VK, so it's like 1,000 meters of climb in 3.5K.
00:17:57
Speaker
say The races, those two races are going to be pretty different. Um, and they will, that'll probably influence my shoe choice a little bit. Um, so that'll be the first thing. And then I will be in Korea for, or be in the area for so five or six days beforehand. Um, and I'm going to use that opportunity to sort of have a look at the trials as well. But my guess is I'll probably use either I've got the pulsar three, uh,
00:18:24
Speaker
Again, a bit more lightweight, bit lower profile. If I'm doing the 40, I might not use them. um I've also got the Solomon Genesis with me, which will probably, I have a feeling they're most likely, but they might struggle a bit more in the more technical sky race. So yeah, I'm going to have to wait and see a little bit, but um I've got all my shoes with me. So I've got a nice little arsenal to choose from.
00:18:47
Speaker
I mean, on a side note, sorry, Jess, and I know you're going to talk about your shoes, but on on on on a side note, like they they they did release the elite entries for the race. And it's probably like not as competitive as what it will be in the following years. And I think the Australian male team's got a good chance for the team um for a team result. um So yeah, if you are considering um doing the short trail, there is a good chance there will. um do well with yeah some really strong runners in on the team. yeah and yeah no it's always a yeah I mean, it's always good having some extra people, right? Because it's a long race. Do we know for sure that i'll be I'll be able to score? Because obviously, I'm not part of the Australian team. um I'm sort of there as a more independent type athlete. Can I still score for Australia? is that Yeah, absolutely. Because you're part of the top 30, I trust, so you're kind of still ah running for Australia. So you would still be part of the Australian score.
00:19:47
Speaker
Okay. Um, I mean, the only thing is that you're not getting is those five nights accommodation, realistically, everything else. Well, I wasn't going to, I wasn't going to get them anyway. Cause I'm not in the team. So it doesn't like it to me. It doesn't, um' I've been mostly trying to decide on, on, on, on my Achilles and getting that, like not putting it backwards too much. But yeah, it's a, it is a good point. Maybe you convinced me live on air. Maybe I'll have to see how the next week goes. Yeah. I mean, five runners is better than four runners. Um, especially cause This is a long race. And technically speaking, like we do have a solid team and and a good chance for a top three finish. And like to be honest, like I don't know how many opportunities we're going to have, um because I feel like always the first year is always like the least competitive. And it's only going to get more and more competitive. I was actually surprised that there weren't some better runners out of Japan than China that are doing the race. um Maybe some will be.
00:20:43
Speaker
that don't have ITRA scores, maybe some really fast road runners. But um saying that, I do feel like the Australian men's short course teams got a good chance of ah a top three or a top five finish. so Yeah, it might be an opportunity to to help the team out a bit, but obviously you have to do what's what's best for you. so Yeah. Well, that was one of the reasons I considered not running. It was because I knew that we had such a strong team and I'm probably, I think all four runners will beat me. I will probably be the fifth over the line. But like you said, you never know in a, you never know in a 40 K race what could happen. So yeah, I have a thinking about it. Yeah. I mean, it's 40 K so it's probably four or four and a half, five hours. So.
00:21:26
Speaker
anything can happen. um I know I've been to so many teams that that you know you think you're going to come last in the team, but you you do a lot better because as long as you can just stay solid out there and people will have problems, especially especially in the heat and the humidity, there's more chances of people are dropping out and stuff like that. So yeah, there's always a chance, especially in those long races. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Jess, are you going to run in some Essex?
00:21:52
Speaker
yeah um Yeah, pretty similar to what Charlie and Mikey said on the trail to South Korea. So we kind of have like two racing shoes that we can choose from which is the Meta speed trail and the um Fuji light. So the Fuji light is what I wore at Hanseo and that's the more like lower profile one that is better for technical terrain because you can kind of feel the rocks and the terrain under your feet better. And the Metafugee Trail is like um one the carbon plate and like quite a high stack so it's really fast on like fire trails and I've been using it for some tempos um which is pretty fun. but
00:22:34
Speaker
it just loses that kind of contact with the ground so it makes you feel like pretty unstable on technical terrain. um So I will bring both of them and just see what the terrain's like when I'm there and make a decision when I'm there. Because there's also the the Fuji Speed 3, right? So that's the carbon plated Yeah, that one is not in Australia, unfortunately. Yeah, so I ran into those ones. I actually thought about racing in them because I think that's actually a really good shoe. But like you said, they probably just lose a little bit of ground kind of trail control. and And I feel like, I don't know, from seeing seeing the course on on Instagram and Strava, I feel like it's going to be half stairs, half rocky technical trails. So yeah.
00:23:25
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I'll probably just end up going with the Fuji lights. They went pretty well at Hanzo. Yeah, makes sense. Any other gear you guys are going to be taking, thinking about adding on? ah If you do the sport course, are you going to do it with a belt or a pack? brony i I've got both. i'm I'm pretty comfortable running in a pack, and I have a lot. um So I probably will go pack. I like to have access to things I need.
00:23:53
Speaker
um and not have to rely on like aid stations and making that too complicated. But that's mostly just cause I've always done it that way. So yeah, I think I'll probably, I won't make any changes to that at this late stage. Maybe something like listening to you guys talk about the, um, you're using a belt has made me think maybe for some certain races it could be good. Um, but yeah, it's probably not something I'll change at this late stage. So yeah, I'll probably use a pack.
00:24:23
Speaker
um I've got poles with me. I don't know what's the, is it is it ah the terrain? Does it look like it's easy to use poles there? Yeah I mean I think like obviously on stairs poles might not be the best option. of of using um so I've used them a few times in Hong Kong when I was used to living in Hong Kong and Hong Kong is full of stairs and I don't know it's just a bit different. um So I don't know if you're going to get that much out of it because stairs kind of dictate the length of your stride anyway. yeah yeah
00:25:00
Speaker
you know you were forced to make that step. And yeah, you can put this the poles obviously on the stair, but then it can be a bit slippery, a bit unstable. It's not like kind of sluck sticking them in the ground or on a trail. um i don I mean, it's hard to say. like I've i've been ah been trying them in in various runs over here. And essentially, that much of what you were saying, like they that they're difficult to use on stair terrain. They're difficult to use when the terrain is really technical. um The best time to use them is sort of like steep or steepish uphills that are like relatively nice trail or like grass or like wider um because you can get into a good rhythm.
00:25:45
Speaker
um But yeah, a lot of the time um I haven't actually ended up using them. Like KEMA was way too technical. The Sky Race VK I did was also probably, I found too technical and I felt they were just getting in the way. I do like using them sometimes, but it has to be the right ah right sort of terrain. um Like yesterday actually I went for a run.
00:26:06
Speaker
um, uh, Mount Etna. And it was so slippery that they were actually like a godsend there. I would have really struggled without them, I think. So like, I think some terrains are good, but yeah, you have to know. And it sounds like maybe it's not, not super pole terrain in Korea. I mean, I think also one thing with poles is that like, if you know how to use them well, they can really help. If you're not using them quite often.
00:26:31
Speaker
You know, they might actually like slow you down more than anything because obviously you got to put them in out, like, you know, take them out. yeah And obviously in Australia, not many runners use them, but like in Europe, um a lot of runners use them and they use them quite well. So I think I'll say if you're not like super confident in using them and you don't use them all the time, it's not worth testing it out um for like, you know, in a race.
00:26:57
Speaker
Yeah, most of the runners that I've spoken to that are going to South Korea said they're not going to use them. So um and I've never touched them before. So I definitely won't be. Yeah. But I mean, like in Australia, kind of like, I guess it.
00:27:12
Speaker
Yeah, you might not really need them. um We don't have like those crazy climbs that go on for hours where like a UTMB race is obviously like half hiking, half running. um So it kind of really makes sense to have poles for a UTMB race, but a lot of other races here that, you know, the climbs are a bit shorter. It's almost like, yeah, pointless, but yeah. Anyway, moving on to training for the week. We're not going to go too deep into training, but Yes. Any specific South Korea workouts that you did last week? Yeah. Um, I had a good tempo kind of run on the Friday. Um, so similar sort of like design of session that I was doing beforehand. Sorry, but, um, I found like a new loop. That's a bit more trail-y and specific, um, to sort of what I'll be doing in South Korea. So like.
00:28:09
Speaker
there's a bass loop around Ainsley and then there's like a kind of staircase. um pass that you can take to the top so I had four by eleven minute efforts at tempo so I sort of started on the undulating fire road um got rolling a bit got some fatigue into like the legs and the lungs and then practice sort of going like at a hard effort to the top of Mount Ainslie upstairs um which was yeah pretty brutal but pretty good session yeah I got some confidence out of that one
00:28:41
Speaker
um And then, yeah, Sunday just headed out to Mount Tannen again with a good crew, so Patricia McGibbon was there, Tom Driscoll and Etienne Blumstone, who is another Australian mountain representative from a few years ago. um Yeah, and Trish is heading over to South Korea as well for the short trail, so Good to get a run in with her um and Mount Tennant's great training for South Korea. It's got like some good stairs in like the 7k climb at the start. So we sort of went up that and then went down the other side and then back up.
00:29:19
Speaker
and then back down and back up and down. So it was pretty much like an up and down run with no flat sections, which cooked me a bit. But I actually pulled up pretty well today, um a lot better than the last couple of weeks. So I think my legs are finally getting those longer ups and downs, which is a good sign. And what is the plan for now? So we are 17 days from race day.
00:29:44
Speaker
eighteen yeah um Yeah, I'll still do another couple of sessions this week um and finish with a pretty decent long run. um I think I'm going to try and get my long run done on this Saturday with Trish, which would be good just to give me like a bit of an extra recovery um because then it'll be like two weeks until race day and then I'll start to take her off. I'll only do one session the week after that and a shorter long run. so How long is the long run on Saturday going to be? I think three hours again. That's the plan. Yeah. What, do you think that's too much? No, no. I mean, I don't know. Obviously, um, you have your own plan. I mean, still two weeks. So it's, it's a long, especially on the trails. If this was a road race and yeah, I would say like three hours would be a bit long. But then again, like this different athletes like recovered differently. Um, personally, I was thinking about two and a half hours.
00:30:41
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I might, I might cut it back a bit. Just depends how I feel by the end of the week. yeah i mean what's your do you You kind of follow your feelings, um, where I kind of just train to, to a number. And I'm not really worried about how I feel. Um, but yeah, I think that but you're probably doing a bit more smart training. Um, what about you? brobe Yeah. So I.
00:31:09
Speaker
I came off the back of um doing some races, some orienteering races in Finland last weekend. um That was part of the orienteering World Cup, which is essentially like the world series for orienteering. Had like four rounds this year. um And yeah, it was really fun. It was really hard. It's where World Champs is next year. So I was using it as a bit of a test to see al how sort of,
00:31:37
Speaker
much I want to sort of focus on those events and sort of putting the balance between orienteering and trail running and yeah, it was good to get a feeling of how well I can do in that terrain. It's pretty specific and and a lot of the Scandinavians do really well in that that terrain just because they've grown up in it. So it's quite hard to sort of get good results. So yeah, I'll be able to put that into the plan for next year. um But I came, yeah, I think I was like 70 79th in the long distance and 84th in the middle distance. So probably a little bit lower than what I would usually like to be around in those races, but it was really fun. Um, get back into the forest and and be in Finland. Um, but yeah, off the back of that, I came back down to, I left Laura in Greece. So I came back to Greece, um, and just, yeah, had a couple of days off.
00:32:28
Speaker
and My Achilles was a little bit grumpy after four days of, or three days of racing. um And then I've just been building back into it this week, just sort of slowly building the volume back in. um But yesterday I did a little bit of an adventure. ah um I'm in Sicily now, so I went up Mount Etna, which is a volcano, active volcano.
00:32:48
Speaker
um But sort of went like it's still so it's safe to visit um because they monitored it really closely. um But it was actually erupting in August or like there was some lava in August.
00:33:01
Speaker
um But yeah, I did to just to bru up one of the bridge lines and then and and then a big descent. But it was so hard, like the the climbing was really hard, just like this soft, um soft to like gravel. um So the climbing was really hard, but it meant the descending was like incredibly fast. So there's actually this video on YouTube that Solomon made a few years ago of like a downhill VK attempt, like to see how fast they could run downhill VK.
00:33:32
Speaker
and they did it on where I ran down or close to where I ran down. um So it was really fun. i did a um I calculated that I did a vertical downhill VK PB. ah dated in I went down 1000 meters in 1444 or something. So it's pretty it pretty fun. And I'm not even that beaten up today because it's like you're running on this soft stuff so you can sort of just launch and your your legs hit the ground, but they they're not absorbing as much of that ground reaction force, so my legs don't even feel that sore today. So that was pretty fun. um I finished my week with that. Yeah, now I've got a, what is it? You said it was 17, 17 days, 18 days, depending on which race I do. um So yeah, I'm just, I'm not, the reason, the one of the reasons why I didn't want to do the 40s, because I didn't, ah well, I'm thinking of not doing the 40s because I didn't want to go into it, sort of
00:34:28
Speaker
not focused on it, like ah you guys are super dialed in and and and um the three on the trail to South Korea really dialed into the race. um Whereas I'm sort of just in the period of trying to get my body back, tolerating normal training again. um So yeah, the focus for the next couple of weeks is nothing's too specific for Korea. It's just to continue slowly building that tolerance back into the body. and um And then Korea will be what Korea is, but I'll try and get in a three hour run this week or two and a half to three hours because I haven't done, um, I haven't done anything that long since, um, I did camera. So I just want to sort of.
00:35:11
Speaker
test the body over a bit of a longer duration, but I'll probably try and do it before the weekend so it's not sort of too close to the ah close to the race. But yeah, that's where I'm at. Yeah, I mean, I think if people do have you on Strava, they can see some of the pictures from that um run yesterday, which looks absolutely incredible. And a downhill VK in 14.44 is absolutely insane. um So I thank you.
00:35:37
Speaker
You're probably fitter than what you think you are. and Well, the thing is I actually want to go back and as soon as I did it, I was like, damn it, I should have done the actual. I was a bit scared because I was there by myself, but I should. There's a segment that um Greg Valais, who's the Solomon dude that runs Golden Trail. Oh, they don't have his Solomon anymore. Anyway, anyway he he has the course record on that and it's a thousand meters of descent, it's seven minutes, 39 or something. is running It's 2.6Ks and he's running 259. I don't think I could do that but I was like, damn it, I should have chose the fastest possible route because the way I went down wasn't probably the fastest possible route but it was fun. And when when are you actually flying out to South Korea? so you fly Because you're in Italy now, you're flying from there straight to South Korea?
00:36:26
Speaker
Yes, yeah. So the whole plan with going to Korea when I sort of cooked this up earlier in the year was so I sort of booked my flights to Korea before before the sort of nominations and we actually knew what was going on because I knew there would be a race for me to do regardless. um So yeah, the plan is essentially we're doing it on the way home. So going to Korea and spending 10 days there doing the race and then actually going to Cambodia and then home. So um this is the last week or 10 days in in Europe um and I'm here till the, I think we've fired on the 16th. So I get to, I get to, see I think I get to Sol a similar time to Jess. They're going to catch up and have a dinner. And I think maybe see, child I'm going to try and see if I can catch Charlie and Mikey for a run where they're going. They're going to be in Sol for a few days as well. So it'll be fun to sort of catch up with all the Aussies there. Yeah, absolutely. And we've got some, also some listener questions that we can try and kind of tie in.
00:37:26
Speaker
Um, with our training weeks. So we do have a question about stairs. and And I think that that that's kind of like, obviously we don't know the course, but from the pictures on Instagram, it looks like there is a fair amount of stairs, like, you know, like a lot of parts of Asia.
00:37:42
Speaker
um They do have stairs only because there's so many people, so many tourists, so many hikers, and the local governments build stairs on those trails. um i know And obviously, I lived five years in Hong Kong, and half of Hong Kong is just stairs. So the listener question was about stair training. I think it was a bit more specific to Jess, how much has she's been doing stair training?
00:38:09
Speaker
I, yeah, I definitely surprised myself at Hanso because I, yeah, leading up to Hanso, I didn't really do any specific training on stairs. Like all of my trail runs were just on like kind of either rocky technical ups around Perth or just like fire roads. um So I think, like personally, I think that the strength on the stairs comes a lot from the gym.
00:38:37
Speaker
And I've sort of noticed that recently as well, um where like on Sunday I felt like the stair component of the climbs was a lot hard because I was sort of coming into that run with a bit of fatigue from the gym on Friday. um And I found like the hiking up like the stairs felt a lot harder than just like running up the fire roads.
00:39:01
Speaker
I think like the muscles that you're using on the stairs are the ones that you're using in the gym when you're doing deadlift squats, um step ups, Bulgarian split squats. I think think all of those exercises are great for getting strong on the stairs. so yeah that's That's what I would recommend doing, just to get your legs like used to using those muscles and like able to um Yeah, like take the load of the stairs and keep running like once you've sort of gotten to top of the stairs, like able to run off the stairs using different muscles.
00:39:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think stairs is is is, you know, kind of like more about running down the stairs that makes a big difference. um But like you said, I think strength in the gym does play a big role only because if you think about it, when you are running on stairs, you're landing pretty much on a flat surface. um When you are running obviously on the trail, when you are landing, there's an there's an incline that you're kind of landing on. So different muscles, different impact.
00:40:04
Speaker
Obviously, the best way to improve on stairs is to do stair repeats. Hong Kong running on stairs is is such a big thing and I know that there's a lot of great runners in Hong Kong that are very good on the stairs, but then when they come to Europe, they probably don't do as well because they're so used to a different impact.
00:40:26
Speaker
um especially on the downhills. The uphills I think should be fine for most people um even if you don't do too much stair training but the downhill is probably a bit more important um but you have not done one single like stair specific session in the lead up. Not to hound so, not at all. um Yeah so personally I think strength is what got me through it.
00:40:52
Speaker
But um nc like how many like would you say Hans Lo Hat? Oh, like heaps. Like that was in the first hat and back. It was basically all stairs, like kind of really groomed paths with stairs. And then in the second half where you had like the bigger climbs, like the first the first was like a big descent down um literally like a staircase that went for two K's. That was like super steep. And then like The first big climb was less manicured. It was more like technical, but still kind of like hiking up rocks and like rock scrambling. And then like the last big climb was back up the big staircase that went for 2K. So literally just like, like literally walking up big stairs. um And what I found really interesting was that like the whole time in that, that last big climb, like obviously I was, I was finding it tough, but
00:41:47
Speaker
there was no point where I was like, I'm not going to be able to run at the top of this. Cause I was like, um I know I'm using different muscles, if that makes sense. And like when I got to the top, I was like, there was like a 4k stretch of undulation on the road. And I was like, I felt fine. Like I got moving fine. And I think, yeah, it's just having the strength in the legs, um, and using different muscles.
00:42:13
Speaker
Yeah, and I think that's something that we talked about last week's episode where um living in Australia do get that strength because you you get smaller climbs. So there's a lot more like change of impact between running up and downhill. You're not climbing for an hour and then running down for 45 minutes. It's more like you're climbing for 10 or 15 minutes and you go down for seven, eight minutes and you go up again or you go flat, um which kind of makes it probably you know, it' it's probably a benefit in in many ways if you're racing on on something that you're not familiar with because you do have that ability to change muscle groups um a lot quicker. Brody, what about you as stairs? You do much? ah like When I'm at home, I don't have access to like lots of stair climbs. I guess while I'm across here, I think a lot of the climbs end up being
00:43:05
Speaker
Uh, maybe not starey that I do, but like, I dunno, they're all a bit similar, but I agree with Jessa like for uphills anyway, like strength training is, is probably the, one of the main ways to get, get ready for, um, being able to do stair climbs. Um, I have done a little bit of training on like the Stairmaster before.
00:43:26
Speaker
um And I know there is some trail runners in um in Europe, um particularly that I follow that do do some a fair bit of the Stairmaster. There's a um Chris Jones, a UK runner. He does quite a bit on the Stair trainer or he has for different races.
00:43:45
Speaker
Um, so that's another way. Some gyms have, have those, uh, stair machines, um, that can be like, I guess a really specific way to train, but I think you raised a good point on the downhill. Um, that's one thing that is quite hard to actually train for because, um, I guess you can do step downs or something like that, but it's, it's a bit faster than that. Um, so yeah, being, um, just probably covering a lot of,
00:44:12
Speaker
uh, different downhills and covering a lot of technical terrain can probably get you ready for that, that sort of thing. But yeah, for this, this specific race, I haven't done any specific stair training, but, um, I do a lot of, I try and get on like pretty much all of my runs. I try and make sure I'm getting some sort of elevation change in them so that I'm always constantly changing gradients and and changing terrains and, um,
00:44:38
Speaker
When you're traveling around you, you end up in some funny places and training on some weird terrain. So I've at least had a lot of variability in the last few months. And our second listener question was about caffeine. I guess we'll keep it a bit more general and kind of go on about how you guys use caffeine. Obviously caffeine has been proven to to help with performance and most runners that I know use caffeine. um Some of the numbers that are coming out now are pretty insane of how much caffeine. Actually, some athletes use triathletes, cyclists, road cyclists, and some of it is is flowing into trail running. I think with caffeine, I spent a bit of time learning about it when we were developing the Biggs gels, because Morton's got 100 milligrams of of caffeine in their gels and
00:45:29
Speaker
um our gels are gonna come out in in in two weeks time. They have 75 and I was thinking should should we try and go at 100, even maybe go more than 100? What are your kind of thoughts about caffeine training, racing, everyday caffeine? Start with you Jess.
00:45:46
Speaker
um Yeah, I do like my caffeine. So I seem to tolerate it pretty well because I'm pretty used to it now. um But yeah, I was sort of wondering whether the caffeine caused a bit of nausea at Hanzo. Just like with the combined with the heat, like sometimes it can cause a bit of like stress on the gut and I did have a caffeine gel like right before the gun went off. um So I might not do that this time I might just have it like 40 minutes before and let it like settle before I actually start the race and then I will probably mix up my gels
00:46:32
Speaker
throughout, I usually have like a bigger dose. So like I'll have the gel that has like a hundred grams of caffeine in it and just have that like maybe like once every two hours or so. Yeah, so I probably usually have maybe like 300 grams all up, including like before the race and during, which I seem to tolerate pretty well.
00:46:55
Speaker
That was for a five-hour race. How long did it hans let take you? ah Yeah, like just over for five hours. So you had one caffeinated gel before, 20 minutes before, and then two during the race? Yeah. So I don't think like that's ah that's probably not a high amount of caffeine. I think if you think about an amount of coffee cups, it's probably quite a lot. But I think today, a lot of athletes are are taking a bit more and I think that you're right, like it could affect your stomach a little bit, especially when it's hot again. um Yeah, I mean, i I think a lot of runners that I know would take caffeine in the second half of races. So maybe before the, if it's a longer race, if it's a five hour race, they would have a caffeinated gel, probably like, you know, in the last, caffeinated gels in the last two or three hours of the race and then start the race with normal gels.
00:47:43
Speaker
um What about you Brody? What are you doing with caffeine in races? Yeah, so I think it's probably an area I could probably work a little bit more on in my nutrition plan and probably the same with electrolytes like both of them I have like fairly rough. I just go by feel not by I'm not too clinical on numbers compared to carbohydrates, but yeah caffeine I um I would normally have like a coffee in the morning before the race and then maybe also, um yeah depending on when the race starts, I might also have like a caffeine tablet before the race as well. um If it's like, I don't like having coffee too close to when I'm racing. so like if i'm
00:48:27
Speaker
Um, if it's like 60 minutes before I have like, uh, let's just say I have like two and a half or three hours in the morning before I race, I'll usually have a coffee first and then have a caffeine tablet, um, like 90, 16 and 90 minutes before rather than having a second coffee. Um, and then during the race, I usually have, depending on the length, like most of my races have been around. Probably like two, three hours. I would usually only have one caffeine gel.
00:48:56
Speaker
in that time. um But yeah, I think it's an area I could probably put a bit more focus on. One time I came really undone was doing an evening race. I raced at Labarito in Cortina and it it had the benefit of being end of day where you can accumulate a lot of caffeine and being 30 degrees. And I had a really bad experience with my guts. So I try and be careful not to overdo it. um But I probably could be a bit more scientific that day. I think I had like I added it up afterwards and I just didn't really realize how much caffeine I'd had, but I ah got up to like 400, 500 milligrams um just because I'd had like two or two coffees and then I'd had like several gels and um yeah, i got the I got the numbers up pretty high and then it was 30 degrees. So yeah, it's definitely something you want to practice in training um and I would definitely
00:49:55
Speaker
ah recommend if anyone's doing an evening race to consider that because the half-life is quite long that does sort of stick around for a lot of the day. What you do earlier in the day can affect you. um There's not a heap of trail races that are in the evening, but yeah, it is something to consider. Yeah, I mean, I think that especially if you do like a track race, or um like, you know, the the night track races, I know my first 5K was at like 8.30 at night, and I'm like, should I have caffeine or not? Because usually in my everyday life,
00:50:23
Speaker
I would have one or two coffees in the morning, maybe three, um but then I'll stop the caffeine after like 11 o'clock in the morning, so I don't want it to affect my sleep. um But yeah, I remember kind of 8.30 start and I'm like, I know caffeine will help me, probably do better in this race, but that'll mean that probably won't sleep, won't fall asleep. And yeah, I had a caffeinated gel before the race and then yeah, could not fall asleep for probably so about three, three or four at night. So it wasn't that fun. Cause obviously the adrenaline from the race finished at like whatever close to nine o'clock. And, um, yeah, I think that caffeine is, is useful, but like you said, you need to train, know when to take it, know how much you take it. I think like a cup of coffee in the morning before a race, it's only 40 milligrams. So like on their mounts at sports, nutrition, the amounts of caffeine that they have 40 mils is not that much.
00:51:19
Speaker
um Obviously, 100 is a lot. If you think about it, 100 milligrams of caffeine is quite a lot. And if you have a caffeinated gel every hour, it definitely adds up. I know that my first 100K race, I had 2012.
00:51:33
Speaker
20 gels, something like that, all caffeinated. So yeah, that was definitely, it was a good ones. So they weren't like the, you know, they probably won, maybe had like 40 milligrams of caffeine in each one, but still like that was an experience. I finished the race at like midnight and I'm lying there at like 3 AM trying i figuring out like how come I can't fall asleep. I just ran for 12 hours.
00:51:58
Speaker
um but yeah it's definitely you can definitely get some benefits out of caffeine but it's about knowing how to use it and you should definitely try for it like gut training um you know knowing how much caffeine will help you i mean for me the only thing that i do try and do is is have caffeine in the second half of the race one thing that i used to do a while ago when I just got into trail running is that like two or three weeks before an important race, I won't have any caffeine. And then the caffeine that you do have in the second half of our of an ultra marathon, you really get that kick from it because obviously you lost that tolerance. And now you really get a kick, but um it's definitely a lot harder now with work and family to kind of cut caffeine for three weeks before an important race. But if you do have that,
00:52:46
Speaker
That's the thing with that. You have to do that for three weeks to actually get the benefit from it. So it's it's a like ah there's some been some research into that um and there's yeah there's an interesting Australian podcast that's on nutrition and they covered this topic. And yeah, you have to go three weeks, which is a long time and I don't want to go three weeks without coffee. No way. it's and There's no point doing it for a day or two. No, that'll probably make it even worse. But yeah, I'm from caffeine.
00:53:14
Speaker
into pretty much oh this time next year the world trail running champs are going to be in Spain. um They've kind of been announced but our neighbors in New Zealand three days ago did announce the selection policy for the team um which is kind of cool to see that they are doing it a year before the race. um So that means that people have a bit more time to plan um the selection process and the races that they need to do to try and get into the team.
00:53:46
Speaker
um I kind of read through a little bit through their selection policy for the team. um They do have to be in a race, which is on the 20th of October, which, you know, kind of gives them, I guess, three weeks um since the time that they kind of posted um the selection policy. Just wondering what you guys are thinking about, yeah, what should, let's talk about Australia, what should the Australian selection timeline should look like. Yeah, I um was actually chatting to Trish about this on Sunday. um I think like it's pretty unfair just like given the size of our country to have one
00:54:32
Speaker
qualifying race and I think like I'd like sort of come from that point of view after living over in Perth like it's it's pretty hard for people in WA to get across to this side of the country and like time it well with I don't know I think like if you get injured and stuff like it's it's pretty unfair if there's only one race and you get injured for it and then you can't do it so I think I think discretion is like the fairest way for us to sort of do it um Even if it was like there was a race and then there was like top three from that made the team and then the next three were like discretionary, that I think that would be probably the best approach in my mind. um And then timeline wise, I think, so if world chances in September, maybe like June would be good. um But yeah, it's also tricky because like you've got to peak for that and then you've got to peak for world. so
00:55:27
Speaker
And I think we should mention that um obviously ah a lot of those teams, Australian running teams in Australia, I don't know, New Zealand, but are self supported as well. So like you want to have enough time to actually um Obviously, train for it, but also know that you're going to be able to book your tickets a few months before. and ah you know A flight to Europe can be $1,500 at times. It could be $3,500 at times. so I think um yeah definitely when it's self-supported, I think a bit more time is probably necessary. If it was like athletics, it could
00:56:01
Speaker
you know, when it is funded for the athletes, they can probably do it a bit closer to some of the races. But yeah, I kind of thought it was pretty cool that they're doing it a year before. So runners actually have a bit more time to plan things. And like you said, obviously, Australia is a big country. So um yeah, the selection system has to kind of take that into account.
00:56:25
Speaker
And I don't know if ITRA points is the best way to do it, because obviously there some races are not part of the ITRA thing. Some races are not getting scored. So um yeah, what do you think, Brody? Yeah, I think i think if you're go to if you're going to have a race that's auto selection, lie ah like as in like some of the positions are auto selection,
00:56:51
Speaker
um then you need to you need to release it this early, like ah especially in trail running. um Even we call short trail a 45K race. You still need six months to train for a 45K race. So when you've got short trail, I know we're all sort of training at various times and years, but when you want to go hard for a specific race, the distance of these races and the commitment it takes to sort of sort of get yourself into your best possible shape by the time they're on. I think you need to you need to have a lot of notice to know which race you're going to. um So yeah, if they if we are considering any type of sort of auto selection,
00:57:33
Speaker
then I think that needs to be that needs to be known really early. like I think at this stage we can, if there was an auto selection, I think we could maybe, well I don't want to assume, but maybe the Australian Short Trail champs, which we announced, which we said we told everyone about a few months ago in Adelaide in April, um like that's an established Australian champs race that sort of makes sense.
00:57:58
Speaker
um But yeah, it's it would be really good to know what what's going on. And if there is those selection specific selection races, then I think they need to the sooner rather than the sooner the better um to get those goes out and about. And I sort of agree with you, Jess, in terms of like June would be good. But again, like the travel stuff is really hard if people are wanting to do a European season um as a bunch of people do want to do and then have World Champs as part of that season and they're going to train over there, then it's hard to know whether they booked their flight. I guess they can book a one way, but they might have already left by June. So like it is tricky. The timing for an Australians is always quite tricky, I think. And maybe that's why in the past it's been a bit more discretionary. But yeah, it'll be quite interesting to see. It's good to see in New Zealand.
00:58:56
Speaker
um announcing that and hopefully they have a really strong team at World Champs that had some really and some really talented runners at Sky Running Champs that I think a lot of them were saying that they wanted to go to Trail Running Champs as well. So um yeah, it'd be cool to see what team they were able to put together, see if we can beat them.
00:59:17
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think, I mean, if we know nothing about selection process yet, and, you know, we're kind of like a year before the race, it's definitely going to get pretty tight, especially as we got ultra and athletics Australia.
00:59:34
Speaker
um So yeah, hopefully, hopefully the Australian selection policy can come out soon so we can, you know, so runners can plan it, you know, kind of properly and then, you know, kind of send the best team over that we can and not like rush and try and get like, you know, anybody over. So yeah, hopefully we can have some information about that soon. um But yeah, a few races as well this week.
01:00:01
Speaker
I think Jess is going to take us to some results. Yeah, so we had the Macedon Trail run um over in Victoria, so that's around Mount Macedon, which is a pretty awesome place to run. It's beautiful over there, just kind of similar vibe to the Dandenongs, but a bit more rugged and some pretty the savage climbs.
01:00:24
Speaker
um So we had a 50k race um and in the men in first place we had Ben Burgess in for hours four Second was Benjamin Zara in four hours 47.
01:00:43
Speaker
and third was Rob Steerwell in 4 hours 54. So in the women in the 50k we had Eliza Brewer um in first place in 6 hours 07.
01:00:55
Speaker
Second place was Lisa Wilkinson in 6 hours 40. And third was Katherine Proctor in 6 hours 58. In the men for the 42K, we had Jared Come To in first place in 4 hours 17. Second was Gibson Paxman in 4 hours 19. And third was Manolo Segado in 4 hours 31. And then the women, we had Megan to meet Robin in first place in five hours 32 Second place was Lisa Palmer in five hours 37 and third was Sabrina secure men in five hours 41 awesome
01:01:38
Speaker
oh um I'm going to take this to Sydney. so In Sydney, we had ah the Sydney Backout Ultra. Sima said this is the one where the win is $10,000 for both the women and $10,000 for the men. That's pretty hefty prize money, um which is pretty cool to see.
01:02:00
Speaker
um In the women, the winner was Melissa Robertson, um and I believe she did 38 laps, and then in the men, the winner was Ross McLean, um and I believe that he did 56 laps, but I'm not entirely sure on that. Do you think you could beat 56 laps alone? You got $10,000, go chasing the 10 grand? Yeah, I'm not sure. Obviously, it's a different kind of a sport, but I don't know.
01:02:31
Speaker
it's It's definitely a good prize money and I think there's also that backyard ultra with some elevation as well with a 10K prize money somewhere in Victoria like in two weeks time. um Yeah, I saw that one.
01:02:45
Speaker
And so I've had like five or six friends message me and be like, oh, you could go win the money. And I'm like, I have never done a backout ultra and I'm not sure how good I would be at it. But that one's obviously got some publicity because I had some people who have no idea about like, who are not trail runners that have messaged me and be like, you should do this race. Yeah. So I think like the people that organize that are probably like ah kind of like those hybrid athletes, um, they do a bit of like jimming and, um, and running as well.
01:03:13
Speaker
um Yeah, yeah i that's pretty cool. but They put it on and it's not on a flat road, which is which is yeah, pretty cool. Be cool. Be interesting to see the results. And then I'm sure next year, there'll be a little bit more competitive. um Once kind of, you know, people realize what it actually is.
01:03:31
Speaker
Yeah, it'd be interesting to see how the the vertical comes into the picture of um the back out ultra because I think most of them would have a flattish course. um So ah was it, I think it's like 200 or 300 meters of up and down in each lap. So I think that would that would really change the race quite a bit. It'll be interesting to see what happens.
01:03:52
Speaker
Yeah, and I think they only have 100 people um registered or like, you know, the the the max was 100 people. um So maybe it's not going to be like super long as well. um Yeah, be interesting to follow it. We should we should definitely find out a bit more about that race. Yeah, definitely. um Also in the last week, I think Sim mentioned it briefly, we had the Australian Orienteering Championships.
01:04:17
Speaker
um So I was following along. It was quite cool. It was up in Armadale and there was a lot of competition. So I won't go through all the results. But yeah, if anyone's interested in seeing a bit of what was going on, you can head to the Carnival's website if you just Google Australian volunteering championships.
01:04:40
Speaker
They actually had a live stream um and they had some GPS tracking, so um if you haven't seen what orienteering is about, you can get a little bit of an idea of it there. um and ah yeah it was it was It was a really good championship, so good work to the organizers who put on um what yeah what was some really good live coverage. I really enjoyed that. um But yep, that's the one to check out if you're interested. um And we had a few international races in the last week. There was a big, one of the UTMB races in Nice. I think, Jess, you're gonna take us to some of the results there.
01:05:20
Speaker
Yeah, so um in the, so it was sort of like this typical structure of 100 miler, 100k, 50k, 20k. In the 100 miler, we had Courtney DeWelter who absolutely crushed it. She came second overall in 21 hours, 35. I don't know too much about this course. Do you guys know like how much of it there is? Like what sort the course is like at all?
01:05:50
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think from what I can see online, it's a kind of like a rocky, um, probably fairly technical course, maybe not crazy amount of elevation because it's on the coast. Um, looks beautiful and it's kind of like becoming a pretty big event. Um, if you have a look at the title, did this race, it was super, super competitive in, in especially like the 50 K, um, distance, but yeah, definitely could be a nice destination race. Um, not too far from the.
01:06:18
Speaker
Ironman World Champs, not too far away from Monaco there. So yeah, it could be a fun trip. Yeah, let's be honest. It's still, it's a, like I've been, I was in Nice last year and it's like around there. And I imagine where the race is, it's still, there's still some big hills, like they're not per se mountains, but like, I think it still climbs up to maybe 800, a thousand meters off the coast. So like, I think they're, they're probably is still a ah bit of vert. It's just not big, big mountain stuff. Um, but yeah, I think it'd be pretty, pretty nice place to do it.
01:06:49
Speaker
and and definitely would want to do it in October, not in August when I was there. yeah cool and then so other results say in the hundred marla um first place in the men system the clementine laurara from spain a second was nicholas caraiza from france and third was vincent aberer from france as well and in the women as we said before we had caught into walter in first enrika demais from italy was second and aga label and france was the
01:07:27
Speaker
and we'll just cover the winners for the other ones. So in the 100k in the women we had Ingrid Duganderson from Norway in first place.
01:07:40
Speaker
And then in The Man we had Valentin Lacroix from France in first place, 50k in The Man, we had Jonathan Albin from the UK in first place and in The Woman we had Sylvia Nordska from Norway. So she was one of the women that we interviewed on the podcast. Call her friend of the podcast. Friend of the show. 20k. First place in the woman was Marie Nivett from France. And first place in the man was Vincent
01:08:21
Speaker
Vincent Boulevard from France as well. So a lot of French representatives, which makes sense. And another big race that happened not too far from us, um a Sky Race in Thailand. um Pretty much um first year, I think that Thailand had a Sky Race, part of the World Series together with Malaysia as well.
01:08:44
Speaker
Um, so pretty cool to see sky running kind of branching out a bit closer to us. Hopefully maybe have like a proper ah one in Australia as well. Um, one day, but, um, yeah, kind of like, I mean, kind of looking at the results, it looks a bit, a bit weird. Um, first of all, there were two Ethiopian runners. So I've never actually seen any Ethiopian runners. Obviously we've seen a few Kenyans, a few, um,
01:09:12
Speaker
A few runners from, what is that other African country called? um Ethiopia. No, the other one where that yellow, yellow, red flag. Uganda. Uganda. So we've seen some of them in the world. um But never from Ethiopia. So it's kind of cool to see two Ethiopian runners, a bit of prize money.
01:09:36
Speaker
um in that race. But in the men's, Chinese runner Ranchu Gu came first, Yuri Shatov from Russia second, and Raul Kyraldalo in third. And then the fourth was Khabid Arabera from Ethiopia, which is cool to see a new country kind of added into into some trail races. Peter Freino who came second in the long course world champs in in Austria last year and third in CCC this year finished fifth in the men's but technically fourth overall was Anastasia Rubistova from Russia she finished in three hours and 40 minutes um so pretty much fourth overall which is
01:10:25
Speaker
Absolutely incredible, incredible, incredible results. Marcella Vinicianva finished second in the women's, 27 minutes behind the winner. So a big, big gap there. um And then Marbash Malta from Ethiopia finished third.
01:10:45
Speaker
um Yeah, pretty crazy results. um I mean, obviously in the heat and humidity, anything can happen, but yeah, Anastasia,
01:10:55
Speaker
running three hours 40 um to finish fourth overall in front of like some world-class runners um yeah crazy result i know that russians are not allowed to race in utmb races or something like that um so yeah even next to their results in the sky running races they do have like a blank flag um But yeah, yeah, pretty crazy results. I know that she's done a couple of sky running races this year and did quite well, but yeah, this is an incredible- Yeah, I think I saw on sky running that she's done, she's now done four, which is how many you need that score to get you to the final, I think. And I think she's got a clean sheet, so I think she's won every race she's done. So she's obviously had a very good season.
01:11:43
Speaker
Yeah, and I mean, coming forth overall, um and 27 minutes in front of second place. That's, um yeah, absolutely incredible. Yeah, it's a really impressive. um It's cool to see the, um like you said, the Ethiopian runners there, I listened to, I think, a podcast about um someone who did a study or they did a, wrote a book, they went and trained with the Ethiopian road runners. Um, but and from what they were saying is like, they did all their easy runs through, um, through the forest essentially, like over routes and stuff. So maybe they're going to be really good at trail running as well. Like a so a big powerhouse. They just haven't, we haven't, they haven't sort of got into it yet. So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see if we, we get more Ethiopian runners doing more trails in the future.
01:12:32
Speaker
Yeah, because the last two world um champs that I did in Thailand and Austria, um so obviously the Ugandans were there and the Kenyans were there. They obviously did really well. But yeah, maybe even next year um a Kenyan team is going to be there, which would be, yeah, we we're pretty cool to see them there. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's really exciting. Cool. ah Well, that wraps us up for results of this week. um We've got a few races coming up across the country next weekend. um So we've got Pemby Trail Fest in WA. Do you guys know about that one at all? Yes, I actually did that race a few years ago. Beautiful, beautiful part of Western Australia, about two hours south of Perth, um kind of on mountain bike trails, but yes, surrounded by some of the highest trees.
01:13:22
Speaker
that I've ever seen. Yeah, beautiful, beautiful trails, not much elevations, fairly quick, kind of like short climbs on like pretty much, yeah, 100% mountain bike trails. But yeah, fun event if you are looking for like, you know, a holiday mixed with with a race, I think that it's a free day event. So you can do the night run, um the longer course the day before, and then a shorter course on on the Sunday. um Yeah, definitely a fun event. Yeah, cool. Sounds fun. um We also have captain's crossing ah the gong I think in Queensland on. um Yeah, it looks like that's some sort of trail running series over in Queensland. Cool. Cool. Is it the southeast Queensland one or is it a pinnacle? I don't know. that is different Cool. yeah um Then over in South Australia, we have the hasten 105, which is I think quite a um
01:14:20
Speaker
quite a famous one, or one of their big ones over there. So that goes on the hasten trail. um So ah quite a long race. um And then we have the human hovel ultra marathon in New South Wales. So yeah, a few races coming up across the country. What's coming up for you guys?
01:14:43
Speaker
One more week of training each or are you headed off this week? but but No, I'm flying next week. So yeah, one last big week of training. Yeah, we're also doing an exploit there. So so obviously the South Korea event has got like, you know, sky running and and golden trail and and everything is happening that weekend. So we also have a big expo booth there. So I'm just trying to organize it all a bit of a last minute thing, but.
01:15:07
Speaker
Yeah, a bit more add i added onto my plate with that weekend. So I'll be flying next week, trying to organize some of this expo stuff and also get ready for the race. Yeah. We were wondering what all those boxes were behind you. Are they for the expo? Yeah, yeah this is pretty much my office slash storage. Um, yeah, with a lot of bigs behind me and there's a lot more bigs coming to that gel delivery that's supposed to come in two weeks time. Oh, nice. Cool. Very cool.
01:15:37
Speaker
What about you Jess? What have you got on for the next week? Yeah, just one more sort of big week of training um and then yeah, just working and getting excited to travel. I've still got like a few things to book cause I'm going to go on a little holiday after just solo, um just to Jeju, one of the islands that's like South of Korea. um So I've still got a bit of booking to do for that, but yeah, just getting excited to travel.
01:16:06
Speaker
Yeah, nice. And the booking for Korea is quite fun. it's a bit It's a bit different, the country that I've been doing some booking so far. of Our hotel in where the race is has a karaoke machine in the machine. Every room has every room has karaoke and like these two like gaming computers. it's ah it's a yeah a and I think Korea is going to be so much fun. It's going to be very different experience. So it's cool that you're going to see somewhere else as well. Yeah. I'm so excited. I really want to go see a K-pop concert as well. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Cool. Nice one. Well, I've got one more week or ah just over a week in Sicily. I'll be hitting a bit the beach a little bit. I think it's still, I don't know, it's October, but it's still like 30 degrees here. So um get a little bit more heat training in um and then yeah head to Korea next week. So.
01:16:59
Speaker
and we'll all be meeting up there. So that'll be very exciting. Can't