Before we talk ultramarathon training progress, let’s talk 2020. With a new dawn comes a new year with new opportunities and fresh beginnings. 2019 was a hard year. On one hand it was the hardest year of my life and on another, it was the best year of my life. Some parts I want to forget and others I will hold onto and cherish forever.
I will constantly reflect on my failures, I’ve had a few this year and I will try to grow from them. After all, failure is just a steppingstone - a rite of passage towards success. You just have to know how to interpret it and action it into forward motion. I can honestly look back and say that I did the best I could. In short, I realised something wasn’t going to work into the future so I made a major change and am hoping it will pay off eventually.
I have had successes too. I don’t really do new year’s resolutions per se, but I do set goals. Ohhhh, I love a good goal. In 2019 I wanted to organise our own events with our own identity and spin on them and to get a coaching accreditation to set a great foundation for Runnovation in 2020. I achieved all of those goals.
Runnovation’s goal is to motivate and promote a healthy lifestyle and mindset through achievement in sport - that is our main goal for the new year and with the help of my beautiful partner Nicola, we’re going to hammer this positivity like a cheesecake menu through a lactose intolerance convention.
We’re working on some pretty exciting things for the new year including our newest virtual run with a choose your own adventure style to it which is going to be unique to say the least. We’re also excited to bring virtual coaching to life, offering people a personalised service to realise their goals and dreams, whether it’s to run their first 5km or an ultramarathon.
Speaking of which, how is my training going? Well…it hasn’t been. I was chatting to another coach, one whom I respect more than any other runner and we were discussing this very conundrum. His opinion was that everybody can always find half an hour a day for training. He made an exception in my case after I gave him a run down of my daily schedule. He made me reflect on this goal and to consider that I simply don’t have time for it.
"We’re going to hammer this positivity like a cheesecake menu through a lactose intolerance convention."
Unfortunately, or fortunately perhaps, I am a stubborn beast and want this to happen. Sometimes when you can’t figure out how to make something work you just do it anyway and find a way as you go. We did agree, however, that if I start a new training plan at the beginning of the year and work really hard, I should be ready for the Margaret River Ultramarathon 80km come May. But there is no room for error.
So over the last week or so I have been getting in runs every day. Just 5km here and 10km there. Building up a nice base to cope with an aggressive ultramarathon plan. So, that is where I am at. At basically the beginning of all my goals. But I have laid down some pretty good groundwork. I have worked hard to do so. And I have a plan, I know where I need to go and how to get there.
Now the hard work begins. Come on 2020, you are going to be so proud of me come December.