Mid season

I’m in need of a half decent camera! I can’t recall the last photo that I posted on this blog and I don’t believe that these words fill the void left by the lack of imagery. It would just be nice to have taken some stills of the sun rises I’ve recently seen (this is no plug for a camera to be at my doorstep, although I did go on Ryan Sandes blog recently and saw he was thanking a camera company, and sunglass. He did, over the weekend dart his way to the top of the podium in the North Face 100, so give that man three cameras to be fair)! I’ll invest at some point.

On that note, Kiwi Ultra stars Vajin Armstrong and Grant Guise showed them how it’s done over there too; Vajin 2^nd and Grant 6^th. It was great tracking the results over the internet last weekend! How about this then, Vajin, Grant and Marty Lukes (NZ 100km champ 7 hours) all Canterbury based Ultra runners really doing us proud. Has to confirm that our region is one of the best for training and racing? This could be argued but I’ll mention this as my point of view.

Another Canterbury based institution, the Christchurch Marathon, is Sunday week. Now I’ve read that they are expecting 5000+ for this event. That would be amazing if we can muster up that amount of people. I’ve been over parts of the course a couple of times now and have to say it’ll be quick. Some of the stretches are quite weather dependent, due to the overall straightness of them, but if it’s going to be a rough one on the day nowhere in Christchurch is safe. All we can do is hope for the best.

For my own prep I couldn’t be happier with how it has all gone post Rotorua. The last few weeks before a marathon, or any testing distance race, doubts always creep into the back of your head and we deal with them in different ways. Something we need to keep in mind is what you’ve done over the past couple of months is far more important that the final 10-14 days. In this time you aren’t going to make the biggest gains or advancements in your form. I believe it’s important to trust what you have done and feel confident and positive about it. Rest, eat wholesome solid food and mentally prepare for the task that’s in front of you. We are all different though and what may work for me might not work for someone else. As with the Fruitarian, only eats fruit, nuts and seeds (http://www.thefruitarian.com/). If you check out race history some of the results are pretty nuts. For example  he did the 2010 Leadville in 22 hours and 3 days later racked up a 2.39 marathon. By the way Leadville is a 100 mile Ultra, one of the toughest around, in which the following year he came 4th.  Really intriguing how people are so different and can train their bodies to complete some amazing accomplishments. He also has some great YouTube clips on the Western States and various other stuff.

So Christchurch Marathon in ten days and then it’ll be a switch of focus to longer/slower mileage for the 50 mile race in the UK mid-August. Looking forward to it!

Out and about this week and weekend:

Wednesday:

Leeston Wednesday Night Road Runners, Leeston, Canterbury.
http://www.ellesmereroadrunners.co.nz/index.php?page=wednesday-handicap

Saturday:

The Frontrunner Series, Queenstown. 10km and 5km

http://www.activeqt.co.nz/events/the-frontrunner-series/race-information/

Enjoy the sunshine