I really hoped that after Dark Mofo things would slow down, that I’d catch up on sleep and get into a healthy routine of training and working. But life had other plans. On Thursday evening, my grandfather passed away. In the days leading up, I went to Penguin to be with him and the family. The week became an intense blur of grief and sadness.

Despite the emotional rollercoaster I have somehow been able to stick to my training plan quite well. Running became a kind of solace, a way to process things and have time to myself to reflect. A little run always seems to help calming a tumultuous headspace.

In this post I will talk about my past two weeks of training and life since the last update. Two weeks has felt like a lifetime. So many extreme highs and lows condensed into such a short period.

🗓️Training Plan

Straight after the Coastal Ascent 25k I optimistically scheduled a VO2max training block. This was my last one before transitioning into a Tempo block.

I targeted 9-9.5 hours volume and 2-3 interval sessions per week. Coastal Ascent probably should have counted as a big interval session, it was very high intensity. I hoped to get 2x sessions in the week after the race and another 3x sessions the week after. These sessions were to be a combination of flat speed at Pete’s Tuesday group training and uphill intervals, typically 5x3m w 3m recovery.

My planning was overly optimistic and should have accounted for expected additional life stressors. As you read on you will see that I adapted the plan as the weeks transpired because of all the extra fatigue from non-running aspects of life. Soldiering on with the plan would have been like flogging a dead horse.

Wk 24 – Dark Mofo Week

Monday after the Coastal Ascent was a day of travel, getting myself home from Newcastle. My only exercise was a walk to the oval to run around with my nephew on my shoulders and a short run from Mascot station to the airport in the rain. I had speedwork pencilled in the following day but decided early on that my legs and body were too flogged out for those antics.

I admitted defeat and swapped out the hard stuff for easy runs early in the week. Hard workouts require hard recovery and I was anticipating a massive sleep debt to come later in the week from various Dark Mofo events. Below was my plan for the week, it went through a few more adaptions before the week was out.

Uphill Intervals and The Horrors

On Thursday afternoon I finally found the energy and time slot to get some uphill intervals done. It was bitterly cold and getting dark shortly after my warm up. I like to do all of my hill intervals on the same hill from the same starting point. This allows me to benchmark based on how far up the hill I get on each rep.

I like the Old Hobartians track because it’s steep and technical. The technicality of the climb helps distract me from the pain of going all out up. A great hill in usual circumstances but on this day it was wet and misty and dark. My glasses were fogging up and my breath putting a cloud of mist in front of my headtorch beam. The visibility and track condition was so bad that I didn’t feel confident running at the required pace. I struggled to get to the desired intensity and considered bailing all together. But I saw it through and was still happy to get it done despite the issues and pledged to find an easier hill for future mid winter darkness sessions.

After the interval session I headed into town to see The Horrors. It was good to see some proper live music from a big name band. I am not a huge fan but I like a few of their songs and had a great time at the show. The main downside was an incredibly late night. It was after midnight before I got to bed and only managed 5 hours sleep… Not ideal given what I had planned for the following night.

Friday Long Run

The training plan had me running uphill intervals again. After 5 hours sleep and intervals the day before it was an easy decision to bail on the hard session. A 90 minute long run on trails seemed like a good compromise. So I embarked on a loop with plenty of vertical from Cascades.

I had an amazing run once I warmed up and scoffed a gel. Running all the hills became my goal. I love the challenge of trying to run without walking no matter how steep the track gets. What was meant to be easier than uphill intervals turned into a fairly hard uphill threshold session. It was mostly quite cruisy with little reprieves between climbs till I hit the Sawmill Track. This track is a long consistent climb and I don’t think I had ever ran the whole thing. It was a struggle by the end but I was committed and made it to the top.

I didn’t feel fast, just consistent. But I was fast enough across one section to nab the Strava crown.

Night Mass

My next Dark Mofo appointment was a Friday session at Night Mass, the late night party that is always full of surprises. They don’t release a program so there is no way of knowing what to expect aside from reports from others who went the previous weekend. But they change the acts so a lot still remains a mystery.

The big night of hedonism began with a lavish meal at Bar Wa Izakaya with a group of good friends. We ate and drank good Japanese food and Sake before sauntering down to the old Spotlight building to enter the unknown.

We entered through a back alley and were greeted by an enormous neon sign saying “God Complex”. In the door we passed through large curtains before being presenting with options. Go upstairs or left or right. Each option took us through a disorienting maze. We did our best to get our bearings straight. We identified the “rave cave”, the double decker stage, the puppet bar, the courtyard with eyes projected on the wall and Liverpool street that was blocked off and covered in fire pits.

Upstairs we watched a band from the mezzanine floor before walking through a mirror maze which directed us to a room where there was a large shark sculpture with a transparent bubble for a stomach. Inside the stomach was a naked woman. This left us with many questions, does she stay in there all night? is she even a woman? is she even human or a robot? we found answers to none of these questions.

My friends Oli and Tab had found the upstairs apartment and took us on a journey to get there. This involved many twists and turns, a stairwell akin to Hogwarts and a little wait till there was room then we were in. The entry was through a cloak room, as in a room with heaps of cloaks hanging in the way that we had to walk through to get into the lounge room with an ornamental woodfire and a DJ setup with a wall of lamps behind it. Up here in the kitchen we could buy drinks and fairy bread. We spent much of the night up here either laying in the bedroom or watching the music.

Eventually we left our safe haven and headed back to the rave cave. There was still all sorts of crazy stuff going on. The furries on stage were an unexpected surprise. I guess most things are unexpected at Night Mass. After many more hours mucking around I finally got to bed at 6am Saturday morning.

Recovery Days

I managed less than 5 hours of sleep then got up and faced what was left of the day. Lauren and I cooked up breakfast at 2pm, pushing the limits of what’s considered breakfast. Then I went out for a ‘Recovery Run’. I was dreading the run but once I got out the door I felt the best I had all day. The cool air and blood flow revitalised me somewhat.

Later in the evening we had a household sauna session. We didn’t even need ice for the cold plunge, it was already sitting at 7C. I was worried because the sauna sometimes cooks me when I am vulnerable. But Lauren and I were both euphorically dancing after our respective cold plunges. A good cold plunge brings on an intense wave of euphoria. Sometimes people stumble back into the sauna after a particularly long plunge and start laughing hysterically for no apparent reason.

Lauren and I went to bed and slept for over 10 hours hoping for recovery and repayment of our large sleep debts. But sadly we both woke up on Sunday feeling far worse. It seems we got through Saturday on the afterglow of a good night and the comedown was now starting to feel real.

Despite my downtrodden state I still managed to get myself out for a long run. I had mapped out an overly ambitious 30km + mountain route with 1700m vert. I started out thinking that I would soldier on and get it done, but after an hour or so I made the call the shorten the run out of self preservation. Plus we has Justin and Smick coming over in the evening for a coaching syndicate meeting so I wanted to get home.

Coaching Syndicate Meeting

Ziggy put in the hard yards and cranked out a delicious Rogan Josh while I vacuumed the house and made papadams for our guests. Smick arrived on time but when we messaged Justin to see where he was he was still out running on the mountain.

We had a good meeting discussing our respective training and plans ahead. We devised a secret project for us to work on and planned out who is doing the deep dive presentations for the subsequent meetings.

It was nice to sit around, eat curry and icecream and talk about running. Also of note; I drank the last beers I had in the fridge and have now sworn off the stuff for the foreseeable future. I might try to hold out all the way to the 100 miler, afterwards that is, not during.

Wk 25 – Resurrection and a Death in the Family

I was finally looking forward to a routine week of work and training after many weeks of travel and partying. This was not to be as I will discuss further on. The focus for the week was again VO2max, it was my last week with this focus and I planned to go out with a bang with 3x sessions in the week.

During my Monday arvo recovery run I called my parents to chat. They were bearing sad news. My 92 year old grandfather was not doing well. After a period of rough health issues they were focusing on making him comfortable, essentially palliative care. I wasn’t sure whether to jump in the car and head straight up to Penguin where he lives. I decided to wait on it and think about heading up later in the week. My tired brain struggled to make decisions about such things.

Tuesday Speed Session

I woke up Tuesday finally feeling my energy levels return after a massive night sleep. Sleep deprivation really messes me around. These days I value sleep so highly, it’s so important for my mood and recovery from all the training.

In the afternoon I headed to Pete’s group speed session. He had a long one for us totaling 35 minutes, he titled it a double down. Because we do 2x descending sets and the idea is the do the second set faster than the first. The structure was 2×4,3,2,1 with half the length recoveries and a 2 minute float between sets before and after.

I took a little bit of beta-alanine beforehand and my body was tingling at the start. I kind of like the feeling, makes me feel like I am humming and excited to run. The session started off feeling easier than usual for the pace I was running. Always a good sign. I stayed sensible wanting to keep the pace for the first set realistic so I had room to improve on the second.

When the second set rolled around I upped the ante. Pushing a lot harder on the earlier longer reps knowing full well that things were going to get tough by the end. I was hurting a lot by the final couple of reps but it was a good feeling locking in and pushing the pace hard. I started thinking that I must be getting close to 10km. Once the workout finished I saw I only had about 600m to hit 10km so I kept running to finish the 10km in 36:29, a new PB!!

This was one of those great sessions where I felt the fruits of my labour. Feeling fit and strong and it’s one of the reasons I love running.

My elation post speed session was short lived. Mum called telling me they were putting Grandpa on a syringe driver. She called it ‘end of life’ drugs. Essentially a fancy palliative care device to keep him comfortable by drip feeding medication consistently.

I have been through many phone calls where it sounds like things are going badly and he usually comes through ok. He and his brothers had a tendency to be able to come back from the brink time and time again. This time it was different, there was only one likely outcome! I decided that I would drive straight up the Penguin the following morning to be with him and the rest of the family.

Travelling to Penguin

On Wednesday morning I drove to Penguin and spent the day sitting with Grandpa in his room with various family members. Mum, Dad, Grandma and I played games of crib and ate grandpa’s chocolates because that’s what he would have wanted us to do while he slept peacefully next to us. I snuck out for a recovery run in the afternoon and it was a good head clearing / crying session.

Thursday was much the same. I did a little work from my laptop. Then we sat with Grandpa again, played crib and ate more chocolates. In the afternoon I decided to head out and do my intervals session up Mt Montgomery.

This became one of the most profound and emotional runs of my life. My brain was incredibly muddled with strong emotions after a few days of sitting with Grandpa knowing the inevitable, but waiting for it to happen. I started out with a warm up then began my uphill intervals on the steep climb up Mt Montgomery. The first couple of reps went as planned albeit extremely hard.

The sun was glistening through the trees and I was captivated by the beauty. On my third interval, as I approached the end, I burst into tears. The physical exertion brought my emotions close to the surface and they boiled over. By the time I got to the bottom I was mostly ok again. It happened on my next rep too. I felt the strong urge to get to the top of Mt Montgomery at sunset. After my final rep the crying was full on and I kept soldiering on to the top. Running up a steep hill and crying makes breathing challenging.

I had endorphins pumping plus the good feelings a solid cry brings on. It was a confusing state to be in, that of euphoric sadness. I felt so alive being outside on a mountain at sunset, but also survivors guilt knowing my grandfather was just below living his final moments. We didn’t know how much longer he had, but I had a strong sense that this was going to be his final sunset and I was determined to see it from the summit.

When I got to the top I watched the sun set out to the west over the farm where he grew up and lived the majority of his 92 years. The sun was setting on the wonderful life of a great person. I felt immense gratitude and sadness. With many tears, I said goodbye to grandpa from the summit.

He passed away peacefully later that evening with Mum and Dad keeping him company.

Returning to Hobart

Friday was a blur of grief and condolences. The three days in Penguin were so intense that it felt like a week had passed. I was able to get out for a cruisy run along the coastline in the evening. Yet again it felt therapeutic to get out running.

On Saturday I finally returned to Hobart. Another uphill interval session was on the cards but I decided that I lacked the willpower and my legs were still feeling fatigued. So I modified the training plan to bring my long run forwards with a plan to go on a cruisy run with Lauren on the Sunday. It was a glorious day for the winter solstice and I did a solo mountain loop. The weather was so great it was hard to believe it was the shortest day of the year. I mostly ran in silence and listened to my thoughts which were running wild with nostalgia and reflection.

I rounded out the week running into town to meet Lauren for a run on Sunday afternoon. Sadly she was down with a croaky sickness and had almost lost her voice entirely. So I ran home instead to wrap up a decent week of running despite the craziness of life.

Wrapping Up

This fortnight has been a whirlwind. Dark Mofo’s sleepless chaos, a 10K PB, and the profound sadness of losing my grandfather. Through it all, running became my main coping mechanism. I am glad I was able to find the time to run and reflect and process.

As I end one training block and move into another I am feeling satisfied with the build thus far. I have laid down some solid foundations to build from. The Tempo run block intimidates me a lot, but I am excited to move to a new training stimulus and it will be fun to run fast on trails.

Fingers crossed my life can settle down for a few weeks, then these posts won’t have to be so long!

Thanks for reading!