Background: I have had a Coffs Backyard Ultra entry since last year, but since I had a niggle early this year, I didn’t intend on using it. I tried to give it away to no avail, then I forgot about it and went on holiday in May. When we got home, two weeks before the event, I noticed I almost made 6.7km within an hour walking, and I had a thought…
Questions to explore: If a runner can run/walk 6.7km in an hour, hasn’t run more than ten kilometers on any given day or 30km a week, but has no injuries, walks a lot, has an endurance background and knowledge of the science of running ~ how many laps of a Backyard Ultra can they do? And what will be the pressure point that stops them from continuing?
Hypothesis: If well organised, well fueled and positive, it is hypothesised that I could run/walk four laps of the 6.7km course on the hour.
Experiment: Firstly, once I decided to do the event I wanted to to it properly, I’m all about respecting the event/distance. I made a list of all the things I needed to make myself as ready as I could be, and I got to work. I also listed all the “pressure points” I could think of for me when I run far ie. things I thought could go wrong for me, including chafing / blisters, heat/heart rate, feet issues, boredom, disorganisation, and a little one in the back of my head that was “what if I can go further than I think and there’s no reason to stop?”. I then wrote down how I could be prepared for or deal with these things if/when they came up.
In the two weeks leading up to the event I trialed various run/walk methods, that got me 6.7km in about 50 minutes (based on 6min/km running and 10min/km walking) so I could have some hopefully 10 minutes to refuel and deal with any issues. I plugged my top ten run/walks that I liked into my watch and knew that when I got to 90 seconds running with 90sec walking I was only just going to make it.
I wanted my fueling to be like a picnic, but also precise and scientific - and it was perfect, thanks Jacqui!
Fueling for endurance is up there with the most important aspects of preparation. I have previous experience in the things that work for me in distance running. Still I wasn’t going to leave it to chance, even though I though I would run 4 laps, I was going to prepare like I was going to run 10 laps… this is Science! I consulted with Jacqui from Food Culture ~ Nutrition and Sports Dietetics . We discussed the options and what works for me. She provided me with a detailed plan for what to eat and drink between laps and while running, and also a carb loading plan. Perfect!
Mindset. My mindset was to Keep it Light, but also to F%#K Around and Find Out. Be open, positive and flexible. And to believe in my ability to run/walk for a long time.
Results: How the experiment went!!
Lap 1: The fun begins, I really was happy and stress free. I had my watch set to 3 minutes run /1 minute walk but I didn’t listen to it until about 2km in because the vibe was so high. Then I had my first surprise. The track was narrow and congested so it was super difficult to overtake anyone when I was running, and people were really running slowly. I got a bit frustrated and I had to re-evaluate my plan. The course congestion meant I should just run when I could and walk until there was a gap in front of me so I could run naturally. I had to just get over it!
Pre-race with some of my athletes who were very supportive and encouraging of my experiment ~ especially towards the final laps
Lap 2: Continued on and learnt how to deal with the run/walk overtaking people issue… My toe started Really hurting after this lap though. I can’t even say why, so very random, but random things happen and you have to deal with them in these kinds of events. I changed my socks, and into bigger shoes and poked it with a needle as it was already blistering underneath the toenail, not going to lie deep down it was kinda stressing me out. Then… I saw a friend who said “just forget about it”, so I did, it went numb, and it wasn’t an issue anymore. In the spirit of keeping it light, I decided to do just that, and it worked!
Lap 3-4: I continued having the watch set up as 2min running and 90sec walking but I didn’t really always listen to it. I had “average pace” on one of my screens and knew that it had to be less than 7:30 minutes/km or less to get 10 minutes break. For all these laps I ended up running 44 minutes so 6:30 pace roughly. Was good because I had time to walk to my car and lots of chill time.
I just kept on like this, walking any tiny incline as well. In my head I was like “I am made for this event, woohoo!!” Not a negative thought in sight. Wowzers, maybe it was the flat cold coke, that’s a distance running treat, sooooo good.
Lap 5: Ok, so here, I had that feeling I knew would come ~ “What if nothing goes wrong and there’s no reason to stop!!” ~ I saw another friend and this anxiety came out as me yelling “Nothing is breaking, I can’t believe it!!” Hahaha. I said that. I really was stress free for five whole laps, that’s 33.5km, what!?
I saved each lap so it didn’t get to me actually how far I had gone, and I actively didn’t do any maths, just kept doing one lap at a tieme. If I knew, it may have held me back. So, sorry about the strava clog up. It was strategy.
Lap 6: Getting a bit over it in the break, I don’t know why, I whinged about the sun, but there was hardly any, it was mostly shade. I put the 90/90 run walk in this time, but I ran more than that - I still came in at 50mins. I said I was done. But then I sat down for a bit continuing to say I was done… at the same time I also realised if I walk away now I’m going to be slightly dissatisfied. I realised the goal should probably be to keep going until you can’t make the hour. So… I tried to pop my under the toenail blister again, pretty unsuccessfully… and off I went.
Ringing the DNF Backyard Ultra bell at 7 laps ~ 46.9km!!!
Lap 7 (!): Within this lap I felt like I was shuffling. I didn’t feel like there was a point to it anymore. And I knew that I would be satisfied with this day out, having a picnic, seeing what happened ~ and I’d already exceeded what I thought I could do. The shuffling annoyed me. I still made it in with 10 minutes to spare but in my head I had had enough. Satisfied.
Conclusion: Answers to posed questions ~ I made seven laps of the course, three more than hypothesised. And that was 46.9km ~ a lot more than my long runs this year that have maxed out at 10k!! In the end, the pressure points turned out to be both my feet just aching too much, and really just not wanting to shuffle run/walk for short distances anymore, I didn’t like the feeling of it. This will be something I have to learn to manage/handle, as I saw all the runners later really shuffling along. Also though, maybe also I just didn’t want to do it anymore, I’d done more than I expected and felt like that was enough!
And I guess the answer to that is to set a higher expectation… next time ;)