This is it..

The week of Northburn 50km has arrived! I’ve watched good friends tick off some epic races over the past couple of months. This week it’s my turn to hopefully do myself really proud 🙂

I feel like I’ve made the taper work pretty well during the lead up. The only small down side I would see with this taper would be the fact of it arriving earlier than planned because I wanted to look after my back. I feel like I made the right call here & there is no real point in worrying about what might have been in late February training. My body & mind would rather be at the end of the scale of an early taper, than an overdone training run, with bad niggles. I’ve found it interesting over time, how those fears have diluted themselves naturally. More than likely a combination of experiencing crazy, unnecessary nerves within myself over time for races. I’ve come to realize that the only real barrier between enjoyment of a tough race & feeling like a basket case pre & during, was remembering why I love trail running & training for such events like Northburn.

The past ten or so days have been balanced & my running although naturally reduced, feels strong. Last Saturday I discovered a new mountain – Mt Thomas – with good friend & training buddy Saskia. We hiked that day & it was refreshing do have a steep climb & breath in some mountain air. It felt like it had been forever since I had been to a mountain! That Sunday I spent a couple of hours running in the Port Hills in overcast, mild conditions & ended the weekend well.
The mid week was the usual balance of work & training.
Last night I tested out a new waterproof, lightweight Salomon jacket that had arrived in the mail on Friday. It fared well & I feel far more confident pre race with that jacket rather than the older Marmot. This piece of kit also rolls up super small so you are getting the most of your space in your pack. Most trail runners know the persistent problem of packing the compulsory gear in. This jacket solves some of those problems!

As the sleeps inevitability count down toward Saturday – I feel like a contented runner who is keen to mark this race off & be a part of what is always such a positive weekend in the phenomenal scenery of Central Otago. It’s time to continue to stack the zzzz’s (historically the night before a race is not the best sleep of my life 😉 ) in the next few nights & look forward to every aspect of what is the mighty Northburn.

End goal = completion, enjoyment, no injury & to want to continue running ultras! 😀