18km in the Five Finger Trek Sports

After last weekend's race I've got a good feel for where I'm at and exactly what I need to do to improve. Last year I entered every race I was vaguely interested in, which meant I never really focused on anything. I completed 3 ultras in the second half of the year but achieved nothing of note. This year I have one goal race only. I'm going to try not to get carried away with entering anything and everything, especially if it detracts from my training.

So today I continued with my current phase of low heart rate training. I did an 18km loop up to Blue Lake and back in my Trek Sports. These have an aggressive tread and very little ground feel, so I wanted to see what they'd be like on the trails.

Fine gravel is easy going but on the very rough rocky stuff I could still feel the rocks and had to watch my footing. On the single trail they generally felt good and my feet felt a sense of freedom as they could run correctly and faster. Unfortunately on sandy soil they were quite slippery so I probably wouldn't be able to wear them on any ultras (oops, I forgot already that I only have 1 goal race this year so why am I even thinking this?).

I had a good run today and went up a single trail I hadn't been along in a while. It seemed quite overgrown and it didn't look very familiar.

When this trail joined up to another trail I realised I had been there before and if I continued down there I'd end up having to bush bash my way up a steep cliff/hill/mountain thing. I really wasn't into that so I decided to bush bash my way to the main trail and make my way down to the river crossing.

Plenty River has flooded a few times this year with all the recent rain we've been having so I expected it to be deep. Usually this crossing is only ankle deep. Today it was knee deep. The water was a perfect temperature and if the water was clean I would have loved to go for a swim.

If it was knee deep here, it would be chest height later on so instead of re-crossing the river later on I got off the trails and took the streets the rest of the way home.

My feet felt great and I was pleasantly surprised that my achilles didn't cause me any grief. I did a 5 minute mobility warm up before I head out and I really wish I was bothered to do this more often. It helps every single time.

The run was so nice and easy. But soon I am going to have to get out of my comfort zone. I love shuffling along at my slow pace and I could keep going forever like that. But that's not good enough. Soon my low HR phase will be over and I will have to pick it up a bit and get uncomfortable.