Road to the Alps (thus far)

An update is probably appropriate and long overdue, but the 21km Endurance Life trail race I competed in, at the end March left me shaken.

The reality of the intensity blew me away. The challenge of this A-race (GoreTex Trans Alpine Run) I’ve decided to  this year surely hit home.

I started asking around, I wanted my questions answered: “how  does my road results relate to my trail results” and “how will I be able to get faster on the trails”.

To be fair I probably knew some of these answers already, but I needed those who are in the trail-running game to confirm what I knew all a long.

Enforcing the fact that I might have to change how I approach this mammoth task.

A very big similarity I found from everyones answers were SPECIFICITY.

So the penny dropped:
1. Strength training needs to be my new favourite thing (and if you know me, you
would know it is not. I hate sitting around between sets – “resting”)

2. I need to learn how to walk faster up hill, walking on the treadmill at an incline
of 10,13,14% at a pace of 6km/hr building it to 7.5km.

3. Stair climbing with weights, my new favourite cardio-session, between leg strengthening sessions.

4. Strengthening my ankles and core.

5. Running off-road, learning how to run downhill fast and effectively, efficiently running uphill and convert all this into consistency.

6. My absolute favourite – riding my bike more…..

Consistency to all this is key and I’m trying my best to ensure this happens.

Watch the weekend’s run.  (note: I’m an amateur and hope to improve in this video making before Sept.)