My new running handbag

Not long before my first ultramarathon I took you on a tour of my running handbag.

A few days out from my The North Face 100, I've realised that an update is wildly overdue. I've upgraded my pack and bolstered its contents, mainly because of the mandatory equipment requirements of TNF100.

Let's take a look.

Coral Sea Commemorations: Newstead Park

Yesterday on my run I came across a bunch of Navy officers in Newstead Park.

I couldn't help myself, I had to ask what the gathering was for.

A journey song for TNF100

For someone who never trains with an iPod, music can be pretty important to me when I race.

I wrote a previous blog post about songs that remind me of Ironman. In fact I used to pick a theme song almost habitually when I started building my training up for an event. For my very first Ironman it was Opportunity by Pete Murray. I got through my long day at Ironman Western Australia with the defiance of The Pretender by The Foo Fighters.

These days, I pick a theme song only when it feels right. I've reinstated the tradition for The North Face 100.

Loop after loop after loop

Last weekend was the biggest running weekend I've ever compeleted - 82ks in two runs.

On Saturday I met up with a friend who dragged me halfway around the river loop before I headed for home a little slower.

On Sunday I started in the dark, and took in this view on a loop around Enoggera Reservoir at the Gap.

My doctor is awesome

The fact that I had to visit my doctor this week is not awesome and neither is the abundance of vitamins I've been taking for the last week.

My self prescribed cocktail of vitamin C, echinacea, garlic, horseradish, zinc.

I went to the doctor yesterday as a precaution. I've had a cold in the last week and with The North Face 100 only four weeks away, I wanted to be sure that it is just a cold, and there's no hidden infection, or worse, lurking about.

My doctor though, is awesome. I went in feeling like I was being high maintenance for presenting with barely a sore throat. I walked out feeling like an elite athlete.

Wild Horse Criterium - a good hard training session

In my last blog post I hinted at what the next few weeks of training looked like for me. Right there, at the very end, after all my feeling sorry for myself, it's there.

I wrote that I still need a few good hard training sessions before The North Face 100.

I can now say that I've got one of these under my belt. Over the weekend I completed the 55k event at the Wild Horse Criterium.

Six months to six weeks. I still need help.

Late last year I enlisted the services of a personal trainer.

This was a confronting thing for me to do. I have the core strength of a dead fish and the coordination of a fence post. This was not going to be easy.

But this is why I hired a trainer. When was the last time you heard about a dead fish, or a fence post, or with someone of the attributes of these things, finishing mountainous 100 mile ultramarathons? The comparison is perhaps ridiculous, but the point is, I needed help.