It had been raining last night and this morning, I awoke to skies filled with grey clouds and cool weather. I went to bed a little later than I would have liked last night and when my alarm went at 0500 hours, I struggled to get up. It was perfect weather to sleep in. I dozed off again and at about 0630 hours, decided that I should get up now to go for a run or forget about it and curled back up in bed and go back to sleep. It wasn’t a difficult decision, considering my legs were still feeling somewhat tired from the week’s effort. I knew that if I wanted to go for a run, I should be up and off soon or risk getting caught in the heat on my way back. The heat in this part of the country is not to be trifled with.

I arose from the bed and proceeded to get dressed and got my stuff ready for a run. At this point, I felt quite horrid and a voice in my head was trying to tell me that there was no way I was going to run 30k today. I looked out of the window and the weather was great; still grey skies and no rain……yet. I decided to just give it a go, taking it as sign that the grey skies were inviting me outdoors.

I plugged in my earbuds and put my running music on. A miracle happened! I immediately got into a smooth rhythm! It was soon evident that the music was powering me/my run, one song at a time. By the time Eminem’s “Not Afraid” came on, I was on fire. I put that song on a loop for round about five times while I ran like a possessed spirit and looped the lake twice. I held onto the rhythm and was actually feeling very good, considering how I had felt before leaving the house. After two loops of the lake, which was about 20k done at that point, it was time to head home.

I gave thanks for the perfect weather, feeling truly blessed and very appreciative. I was glad I had chosen to do this run. I made a stop to refill my water supplies on the way home. A total distance of 31k and a bit in the end and a very enjoyable morrning. My ipod had saved the day and saved my bum! My ipod was my savior! I am grateful for everything. Thank you, for everything.

After six and half hours on the trails on Thurday, followed by five and quarter hours on Friday, I woke up feeling rather tired today. In fact, I was not feeling “fresh” at all when I started on Friday morning as I could feel my legs starting to scream. I persisted and although didn’t do as good as the day before, I was happy to have pulled through. Thursday was a brilliant day for the trails as it was raining on and off as well as cloudy in between. I got soaked (from perspiration and rain) and then dried and then soaked again. It wasn’t even cold and I didn;t even use my rainjacket at all, just slightly humid and I thoroughly enjoyed my time out there on the trails. Took the new 2 liters water bladder out and am very happy with it. No leaks, all good.

Got lost several times and had to fire up my GPS on my phone to get back on track. In the end, except for the extra miles I had to clock from getting lost, there was no real damage. I had been able to backtrack and get back onto it. After a big day out on Thursday, I decided to do a shorter day on Friday. I wanted to go back to that part of the trails where I was lost the day before, and see if I could get it right this time around. I knew I never had a great sense of direction but man, it wasn’t much easier the second time around. At least this time I had the sense to fire up the GPS on my phone BEFORE I got lost. Albeit pace was slower than the day before and it was a warmer, I still had a reasonably good time. By the end of the day, my body was feeling completely thrashed but my mind was fortunately still somehwhat intact.

Dragged my bum out of bed this morning to get to swim squad. I was hoping some cross-training and the cold water at the pool would soothe my muscles. A good session (aka not too tough but yet just enough to be a challenge) and I did feel better afterwards. Unfortunately it started to rain in the afternoon and no chance for a recovery run. I suppose I could go out there in the rain but I don’t really want to. Shall just take it as a sign to stay indoors. Long run tomorrow morning coming up.

Took the new backpack, the Salomon Skin Pro XA 10+3 out for a test-run on the trails yesterday. I spent just under six hours out there with the pack yesterday, so can confidently say we have had time to get to know each other. For starters, I substituted the 1.5 liters bladder that it came with, with my 2.0 liters bladder instead. This created quite a significant bulge at the back of the pack when the bladder is being inserted, which caused it to sit unnaturally against my back and quite uncomfortably too, if I may say so.

As I had pointed out beforehand, the material of the pack appeared to be quite flimsy and after the run, I examined the pack and found that it had started to come apart in two different places. To be honest, I had expected it to be worse so in this regard, I have to admit that I am actually impressed that the pack was still in relatively good nick.

When I put the pack on, I could feel the buckles on both the straps of the pack pressing against my shoulders especially if I pull to tighten them up. Perhaps I have bony shoulders? For some reason, I had felt it more on my left shoulder than my right. Due to the bulge from the 2 liters bladder protruding from the back of the pack, it did not rest comfortably on my back. In addition, the buckles from these shoulder straps would “slip” while running and you need to consistently pull on them tighten them on the go. Rather annoying.

So fast forward to today, I took the pack again with the 1.5liters water bladder instead. It would seem that the pack actually sat VERY comfortably on my back! There was minimum bounce when running with it and it was comfortable to wear, so much so that it was effortless to remember that it was there. So it would appear that the pack handled the 1.5liters bladder way better than if used with a 2.0litres bladder. Was it originally designed to be as such? If that was so, I must confess that I am disappointed with it.

In conclusion, would I buy this pack again? The answer is no, I would not. I still maintain that the material is too flimsy to withstand the rigors of a multi-stage race. My confidence in this pack was dented after having just used it once, it had already started to come apart. Perhaps I was just unlucky. Secondly, it would be quite useless for an ultramarathon if it was unable to handle the weight of a 2.0liters water bladder. That was disappointing. Suffice to say, I will be returning the broken pack back for an exchange. All in all, I am now more interested to take a look at the Advanced Skin 12 Set instead.

With a sprained ankle on one leg and a dodgy knee on the other leg, I managed to crank out 30km yesterday morning. It was great weather to run with the skies filled full of black clouds. It isn’t my usual practice to take my mobile with me on my runs, but I did so as I was unsure what was going to happen given the condition of my legs. The pain might become unbearble after a certain distance and I could need a ride home. Fortunately, I didn’t need any of that although the sprained ankle started to feel sore after about 15km or so. In the end, it held on alright and the knee although felt sore at times, also held on. All good.

My new hydration backpack arrived today.

At first touch, it looks really great. Then I loaded all the mandatory gear into it to make sure it fits….which it does. The next thing is trying to get in the two litres of water to make sure it carries everything well. The material felt quite flimsy, as if it wouldn’t take much for the pack to fall apart. As such, I am quite interested to see if it is going to last till the race in May. Can’t wait to take it out for a test run on the trails on Thursday, fully loaded with all gear and water onboard. Hope it doesn’t rain then.

Went to swim squad this morning since I have a sprained ankle. Totally exhausted after the session. I had a shower and for what seemed like a long time, I just sat there without the energy to move. Completely devoid of energy. In the end, I took a deep breath and stood up to walk to my vehicle. Then I again sat in the vehicle for a while, too tired to start the vehicle and drive off.

Don't get me wrong, it was a reasonably tough session and perhaps it had felt so because I haven't been quite as regular at the pool in recent days. But whatever it was, I really enjoyed the session this morning and I enjoyed pushing myself. Its just that somehow, it had taken a big chunk out of me this morning and totally wiped me out. Anyway, like they always say, "what doesn't kill you, will make you stronger." Here's hoping that it does.

So our annual work conference is finally done and dusted. We spent a couple of days at the Barossa Valley in South Australia last week. While there, I tried my hands at archery and firefox, which were both fun apart from the sizzling hot sun that day. Now that the conference is over, it is just a sign that we had better start working our bums off for the rest of the year. Again.

Training-wise, I have been incorporating two sessions of trails each week for the last few weeks. This was something which I hadn't done last year. Most days it gets quite hot out there and I sometimes wonder how I survive, but I do. While doing these sessions, I always take my pack along with all the mandatory gear in it. This year, I have taken a somewhat different and less conservative approach to training for the NF100 (or just training in general) as compared to last year.

Last year, I mapped out a pretty rigid schedule to follow, running specific mileage and such each day and each week. In addition, most training runs were done on the road. However, this year, I find that I am more "relaxed" and am training according to "feel" each week. Both my trail sessions are about four hours each at the moment, and I just do road running on weekends and the other weekdays. I seemed to be able to keep my motivation going this way and am feeling good, apart from having rolled my ankle at the trails yesterday.

Well, the ankle is all swollen and bruised today, so I decided to take a rest day. The pain has subsided considerably so I might be able to get a run in tomorrow. In any case, I should be back up and running in a week maximum. Felt a slight twinge on the right ITB too yesterday, so spent some time on the foam roller this morning to try and smooth it out. Pain as!!!