Time Trialling and Race Simming
Build to the National Mountain Champs
With the National Mountain Running Champs on Saturday 26th of April and Mauao King and Queen of The Mountain on Sunday 27th of April in the rear-view mirror. I thought I’d take the time to write a quick piece about the training and build-up to the event.
The Build Up
In the 10-week build-up to the NZ Mountain and Trail Championships I only had one major mountain race to test myself against at Te Mata Peak, with another race I’d planned falling through. This created a bit of a dilemma, what training and preparation to do? The answer was a lot of time trialing, although trying to find terrain which matches race conditions in the Southern Alps is not always easy in the North Island and often requires significant travel. I ended up settling on running up Mt Te Aroha for my long runs (utilising both the road and trail) and Mauao for shorter sharper sharpening, throwing in a few track sessions in between. Since nationals was on a ski road I knew that training for a steady climb was essential whereas for the world cup finding rugged up and down terrain with jagged elevation profiles is going to become of greater importance. The weather from the end of March through April was pretty crap which also seemed to be working against me for longer runs on the trails, and meant that I felt like I was always squeezing runs in between bad patches of weather.
Time Trials and Flexibility
The value of time trialing in preparing for races is important, chasing Fastest Known Times (FKTs) are a fun alternate to racing and keeping you fresh for competition. I also took on the Merrell ‘Get FKT’ challenge which was fun and allowed me to explore a few different hills and mountains around the place. Running fast times up the Mount became a bit like doing driving tests on the Gran Turismo game and trying to beat a certain time by shaving a few seconds of a corner here or gaining a bit of additional speed going up a rise there, lots of fun but also helping me get ready for the rigor of raceday. Mixing it up and training different skills is very important for Mountain Running as no two courses are ever the same or rarely even that similar. Unlike a track race or a road marathon you need to match your training to the challenge of the climb and the terrain. Which means training for a variety of different styles of races and training for technical terrain which normally means finding more remote isolated tracks up on DOC land. Unfortunately for me, doing vertical training means spending at least an hour in the car or flying out as there are no mountains in the north above 1,000m north of Tauranga or East of Te Awamutu. More runnable rolling terrain is easier to find and undoubtedly shapes my abilities and strengths and weaknesses as a mountain runner.
Race Week
Race week was great; I got a few days of good training up in the mountains in and around Queenstown albeit a little tapered down from what I would have otherwise liked to have done on a regular training week. Squeezing in a few runs just shy of the 1,000m vertical mark up the Skyline Road, Fernhill Reserve and Queenstown Hill. Getting nutrition right was a challenge as there was no kitchen in our accommodation and a lot of the restaurant food consisted of little more than a piece of meat with a side of chips. So that was a big balancing act, but ultimately, I felt good on race day which was the main thing having taken a couple of days to ease training down a little.
The Cardrona Podium - Jono Jackson (3rd), Toby Gualter (1st) and Myself (2nd)
The Cardrona Engine Test
The two races had contrasting conditions with Saturday at Cardrona bathed in brilliant sunshine with a slight crosswind, Sunday at the Mount was the polar opposite heavy rain, strong winds and dark clouds swirling. On the Cardrona course’s steady 8-10% grade across the 11.5km gravel climb I knew breaks would be hard to reel in and took off hard running along with National half marathon champ Toby Gualter. I managed to hold on for about the first 3kms before he began to break away, it then became more and more of a grind, as the switchbacks got tighter and the climbs progressively steeper (albeit manageably so) peaking at around 15% grade, trying to hold off the fast-finishing Jono Jackson in the last couple k’s. I hung in there and in the end, there wasn’t enough room left for Jono he simply ran out of road. I took second in 54 minutes 42 seconds by a 19 second margin but was still a frustrating 1 minute 22 seconds from Toby.
Things tighten up before Josh takes a tumble on the Mauao stairs
An Eventful Day at Mauao
On day two in the Mauao King of The Mountain race I felt my rhythm was a little off going up the Mount as the fatigue from the day before and the soft sand pushed my hamstrings to the limit, but I still put up a decent time on the 1.7km climb. It was on the descent that things got interesting. I was running hard on the gravels and holding a bit back on the stairs, on the other hand second placed Joshua Madsen who was about 30 seconds back at the top came flying down for the return journey. Unfortunately for Josh just as I’d just cleared the final steps and he had one set to go, he slipped on the wooden edging and fell breaking his Fibula in the process, (but was still able to finish). It wouldn’t have changed the overall result as I felt strong through to the finish taking the win, but it was something you never want to see or hear in a race.
What’s Next
The next big race for me is the Chongli Mountain Race in China north of Beijing on July the 6 and 7 that is my big goal for the next 3 months, with a series of smaller local races helping me in the build-up including the Auckland Trail Series at Tauwharanui and either the Tauranga Open or the Vosseler Shield at the end of May.