Tarawera Build Up

My build up continues for the Tarawera 100k in NZ in March. I'm basically still in the base building stage, and the weeks' volumes are now starting to build up nicely. I'm again upping the anti on myself for this one - I have to. Some of the world's best ultra runners are there including Tim Olson, Anton Krupicka, Sage Canaday, Francois D'haene and Vajin Armstrong. The female field is as strong, if not stronger and not being 'chicked' in this race will be a tough ask! The full elite field is here.

February will be a month of tough discipline. Although I maintained good volume over Christmas, it was mostly all pretty relaxed running and definitely not much speed work. The beer and trimmings that I indulged in heavily over the 'off season' will be gone, and I'll be consistently hitting the track and altitude chamber 2-3 times a week to sharpen up and lean up for the race. Hopefully I will be time the peak perfectly.

In other news, Shona Stephenson and I had our first Ultra Training Australia camp on the weekend. All the clients were so positive in their feedback of the day. There were lots of things Shona and I will learn for the next camp as well. I really enjoyed being able to instruct my group 'on the trails', giving tips and tricks on how to tackle certain sections and legs of the course. I was very impressed how engaged the entire group were in the seminar too. I hope they all took something valuable out of the day. 

A 'teachable moment' with the UTA gang  cruising into Dunphys