Week Four and Five…

Well, it has been a rather hectic couple of weeks but I am finally adding a new entry!  Better late than never! 

The last two weeks on the training front has been going RIPPER!  I have stuck to my minimum of 100miles a week and have tallied just over 320km!  WO!  I never thought I would be able to run that far and still live normal life!  Ok, lets face it, I am far from normal but you get the drift!  It hasn’t always been easy logging these big k’s but a challenge that I have really taken a hold of!

The change in diet has had a lot to do with my success in training.  Things overall have been going really well but I have had a few days where I have gone off on a tangent, eating crap!  It has been a bit of a challenge keeping enough calories up on the predominantly vegan diet, but one that I have really enjoyed and has kept me feeling really on top of my game!  The last two weeks have seen me drop from the mid 82kgs to 81.5kg and this morning I weighed in at 80.5kg!  This is the lightest I can EVER remembering weighing and I am feeling super!  The eating plan is working really well and so is the shirtless running!  HA!  The only problem is that now NONE of my pants fit!  After Flinders Tour, when I drop under 80kg, I am getting rid of all my old clothes and going shopping!  No turning back!  Anyone that wants some new/second hand gear might get lucky!

I have been really excited the last fortnight in the aftermath of Western States, reading interviews, watching YouTube clips and hearing about the successes of all the different runners.  The annual Hard Rock 100mile Endurance Run has also taken place and an event that I REALLY want to take part in one day.  It is one tough mother of a race!  To put it in perspective, the professional runner that won WS did 14hrs 45min give or take…the winner of Hard Rock took over 25hrs and there have been only two people EVER to go under 24hours on that course!  WOW!  A challenge I want a piece of!  Badwater has also come and gone.  Although it is a road run, I was still very interested in how it panned out, especially considering a copper from Vic Police took place and got 17^th overall I believe!  An incredible effort!  Well done to all competitors!

This last week, running has been a real outlet for me too.  For those who don’t know, to cut a long story short, we found out that Tegan had a cyst the size of a grapefruit on her ovary.  After emergency surgery she is slowly recovering and lucky to be fit and well!  It was a big shock and my running really helped me clear my head and keep things in order mentally!  I thank God and all our beautiful friends and family for getting through the last week!  Everyone has been amazing from friends bringing meals, flowers, cards, baking and love, to my mum and dad watching Pria (AMAZING).

I am getting pretty stoked to looking forward to another race on Sunday, Flinders Tour.  This is a 53k trail run at the Glasshouse Mountains and holds a bit of significance as it was my first ever ultra!  I am also REALLY looking forward to the weekend as we are staying with our good friend Katie and catching up on Saturday with Lori, Chris and family and Daniel and his beautiful family.  These are guys that I have met at Ultra events and developed a great friendship with!  Such a blessing and I just cant wait to hang out, laugh eat and have a super doper stella time!  My sides hurt already thinking about how much I know I am going to laugh!

Something that has REALLY blown my mind this week too is the amount of people that have been inspired and motivated by ME!  I don’t want to sound big of myself, quite the opposite actually!!!  I can’t believe that people are motivated by my life and adventures!  I have had quite a few messages this week asking about when my next blog will be, asking running advise and even, people unmentioned (cough cough Benny Boy) wanting vegetarian/diet advise!!!!  WOW!  This has further brought me to think about furthering my studies and skills in potentially making this all a bit of a side business……Hummmmm….lots of thinking to do!  Thank you all though for your constant kind words and encouraging me by asking for my advise!  I am MORE than happy to help anyone I can….I don’t know much but love learning so I will find out for you!  Life is good!

Well I think that about wraps thing up for this week/weeks.  It has been a heck of a good time and as always a great adventure!  Cant wait to update you all on my half way point this weekend of my 12week challenge and also bring a race report from Flinders!  I love you all, keep smiling, loving life and running free!  Chat soon ombres!  TattooRunner

YES!!!

Well, what a week it has been! Since finishing the Goldy Marathon, barefoot and all, I had the afternoon off and then was straight back into things Monday morning.  It was a big ask, but that day marked 10weeks until the grand event for me for 2012, the Glasshouse 100miler.  Last year I did well in this event and was satisfied as it was my first miler.  This year however I want to be in the best shape of my life physically, mentally and emotionally.  This is the reason I have been working so hard on my diet and decided to try and conquer a minimum of 100miles in training a week for 10weeks.

I was pleasantly surprised to not have sore legs AT ALL after the Goldy.  My feet were still a little tender for a day or two, but no drama!  So far this week I have run eight times and I still have a long run ahead of me tomorrow.  RIPPER!  I will achieve my 100miles (for those who can’t work it out it is 161km) this week and am feeling GOLD, even with some limited sleep!

I have also had another weight loss drop this week.  I am now down to 82.7kg. I have now officially lost over 20kg since moving to Bundy and am almost as light as when I got married and started lifting stupid heavy stuff!  Ha!  So stoked with my progress so far!

Today on my long run I tried out a new product.  I bought a Nathan running vest from Zombie Runner as I am over using packs with bladders.  This is a personal choice but I just have grow sick of the extra weight on my back, the sloshing and not being able to clean the straw and mouthpiece.  I have been using Ultimate Direction hand helds for a while now and just needed something light weight to carry my gear/food in.  Let me just say, it started out crap!  The pockets were bouncing big time against my ribs and I was worried they were going to bruise me.  I then remembered that the chest strap slides up and down.  I moved it down into a better lower position and GOLD!!!  SO good!  So light, and so comfortable!  I even did the last four k with it on and no shirt!  No rub which was awesome so tomorrow I will try 10k shirtless with the pack and see how things go!  YES!  Love it when things work out!

The most exciting news for this week however is something that has been in the pipeline for about a week but has just come to fruition.  I am now officially sponsored!!!  The young fella who owns The Mower Doctor (where I get my mower fixed/serviced) has offered to help me out with my races and travel!  I AM BLOWN AWAY!!!  I didn’t even approach him, he offered out of the generosity of his heart to help and I couldn’t be happier!  I am looking forward to a partnership with the business and promoting the shop as they help me out!  Incredible! 

I pray and hope that this may be a catalyst for other businesses to look at sponsoring me, as I have so many dreams and aspirations to do SO many races both locally and internationally.  I never thought this would happen to me, so who knows now…the sky is the limit! 

So, if you live anywhere near Bundy (he is now covering down to Gympie, Sunny Coast and as far north as Mackay) and need a new mower, whippersnapper or yours needs a service, get down to The Mower Doctor, 1 Walker Street or call on 07) 4154 4413 and Chris will help you out!

Well, I am chuffed!  Family/work is GOLD, Running is going TOPS, diet and health are AWESOME and a sponsor for Barefoot GRILLS is now on board…what next!!?? Amazing!

Thanks to every one of you who read my blog too.  It is so encouraging to get your feedback and encouragement in what I do.  I love you all and cherish your support.  I hope this finds you fit, smiling and enjoying life.  Live each day to the fullest friends, it is the only way to go!!!  Until next time…Run on…BFG.  

New milestones...

Well, it is night time now after the Gold Coast Marathon, and what a day!  It has been a big journey to get to this point!  It all started about 9months ago when I decided to transition to barefoot running and sandal running.  I have slowly but surly built up my distances barefoot and everything came to a spear head today.

I was a little cautious coming up to race day, as I hadn't run quite as long as I would have liked to barefoot in training.  I have been training long in my sandals and bare so, really, training for two different events at the same time.  My longest training run barefoot had been 30km so after that it was the unknown.

We arrived at the start line after seeing Tegan and Brett off in the half marathon.  I was to be pacing Matty Roberts in his first marathon and looked forward to the challenge ahead.  The gun went off and we were into it!  We started pretty quick and rolled along nicely.  The crowds and people running were very interested in the 'barefoot man' and I had many cheers and conversations along the way.  Matty got a few to running in his 'thongs'!  People are funny!  Ha!  For the first half marathon we averaged under 5min 30sec per km!  Quick to start and especially for Mattys first marathon.  The first half rolled over in 1hr 55min.  I was quietly worried about how quick we had begun but knew that Matt had trained hard and was up for the challenge.

Matty started to drop back at about the 23, 24km mark.  I could see that he was doing it a bit tough and having a rough spot.  We spoke about it and decided to slow back a bit so Matt could get back to feeling a bit better.  We ran along still under 6min pace and things were going pretty good.

Getting near the 30k mark, my feet started to get pretty tender.  The white line became my good friend and where possible I stuck to it.  This is generally the smoothest part of the road and felt NICE!  We saw our support crew at about the 32k mark and said a quick Gday and gave a few kisses out.

We took off again much slower and decided to do our best to run to each aid station and then have a little walk for a short distance while taking on fluid and fuel.  This wasn't a bad plan for me as I was feeling the pinch as my feet were SORE!  We managed to keep this up for the rest of the run and Matty did really well.  We were pretty steady and my feet were bloody sore but we kept on keeping on and finished the race in 4hours and 6minutes.  We had some ripper celebrations in the finishing chute and really enjoyed the moment.  What an effort for a first marathon MATT!  I am so proud of you Matt, you did an amazing job and just kept on chugging!  Once going through the finishing chute, I was then grabbed by the Gold Coast Bulletin press and got some pics for the paper!  YES!

All in all it was a ripper day and everyone did so well.  I am so very proud of everyone who ran especially our crew with Tegan and Brett both doing around 2hrs 10min for the half.  Top job!

So, my thoughts on my first barefoot marathon.  Let me just say that it was BLOODY HARD!!!  My body and legs aren't and wern't even that sore, but the tenderness in my feet just drained me of every ounce of energy I had.  It was just like everything I had was being sucked through my naked feet!  It was an amazing, awesome and such a worth while experience but one that I probably won't do again for a while.  I will continue to run bare on grass 3-4times a week and now concentrate on the sandals.  Good times!  Such a rewarding experience and I can now officially be called BAREFOOT GRILLS!!!  TOPS!  A great weekend!

On the updates...the 12week challenge has started very well!  I had my weigh in this week before coming away and at the start of the challenge (only two weeks ago) I weighed in at 88.3kg.  When I weighed in this week I was 82.9kg!  YES!  So stoked with that much off in such a short time!  I am aiming to now be under 80kg by Flinders Tour (four weeks away) and will do my best to smash that up!

As this is also mid year (6months) some of you would remember that I had a goal this year of trying to average 100km per week for the year.  So at this point, here are some stats...

This year to date...2560.6km!  On track for the goal!

I have, since September last year done the following...

1062km Barefoot
1033km in my Leadville Luna Sandals
1787km in my home made Luna Sandals

Some good k's with a lot more to do.

Tomorrow also marks 10weeks until the Glasshouse 100mile race.  I have set myself some pretty serious training and diet goals, stepping things right up!  I am aiming to do a minimum of 100miles a week in training for the full ten weeks and eat REALLY clean for the ENTIRE 10 weeks with no compromise!  As I said I have started my 12week challenge well but it is time to STEP UP CRAZY style!  Ill keep ya all posted on my progress of course!

Well all that is about it for this weeks ramblings!  I hope and pray that you are all doing super and loving life!  I thank you all for your support and love in my journeys and crazy ideas!  I am sure that there will be plenty more so watch out!  Sweet!  Love each other, run free and Ill catch ya soon!  TattooRunner