Post-Marathon Planning

One week to go to the Marathon and I'm planning what to do after, as a way of taking a little pressure off the big one and making sure there is no post-Marathon anti-climax...

The next challenge will be the Jabulani Challenge, a 26km trail run around the bush in Northern Sydney, a charity event for South African Schools, also offering a marathon size run...

Im almost as excited about this as the marathon, given my ultimate dream is to run the Six-Foot Track 45km race in the Blue Mountains..this is a perfect stepping stone...

Also in May I will walk the Six-Foot track and camp with the boys..a friend has done this many times and will be interesting to see the gradient on the second half...this time we'll take Scotch though to keep us warm in our tents...

One of the problems will be training in the bush for the Jabulani, will need a head lamp given its dark morning and night thru winter

Something else to strive for should be just the remedy for the post-Marathon wind-down...a cople of weeks slow and then back to training for this and also later the September Sydney Marathon...

Trail Running High

After a month or so of running trails I think Im finally getting the hang of it, especially on the more technical runs. It seems that the key is to step lightly and dance your way around the rocks, holding your body loosely...Im a pretty bad dancer but it almost feels the same, especially when you going downhill...I have read here how good it is for your body, including core, quads and feet....some other things i am learning;

1. Its Ok to walk uphills (there are some bastards near my house)
2. Some runners just dont like trails(recently took a group out and lots of worry about leeches and snakes)
3. Look ahead rather than at your feet
4. The right shoes make all the difference
5. Its Ok to stop and have a look at the view
6. It's a great thing to do when recovering from injury, no jarring
7. Times can be alot slower than on the road
8. Bird calls are better than music
9. It makes for much better blog-photos than the road
10. Running is back to feeling like an adventure not a chore!

There are lots of great videos on trail running technique..