Sunday 27 March 2011 I am exhausted - Totally. Mentally, emotionally and physically. On Friday I faced issues that resulted in me not doing any exercise sessions in the afternoon. So on Saturday morning I was faced with 40k running and 42km cycling to complete another 200/200 week. After a relatively sleepless night I did managed to cover these distances, so finished the week successfully completing my target totals, but not in the shorter sessions that have allowed my body to cope.
Over the past 5 weeks I have run 990km (inclusive of NZ 100k), cycled 915km, done Ab strength workouts 3 4 times each week and stretched for over an hour each day all whilst dieting. This has required a huge commitment in regards to the number of hours of training, impacting not only on me personally, but also my family and ability to be an effective wife and mother. Yes hard work, and I could not do this without my supportive family. But the effectiveness of this decisive and demanding routine has resulted in a significant body-fat loss which now puts me in an ideal position to incorporate strength training into my routine and reduce overall mileage. From the weekly pinch tests we have been conducting Justin and I believe my fat % is just under 12% - essentially the lean end for female athletes. I wanted to get the dieting over quickly so I could then fully and effectively prepare for the Commonwealth Championships in September and hopefully the World 24hr Champs later in the year if they get up.
Physically my muscles and cardio systems seem to have coped brilliantly over the last 4 weeks, no doubt to keeping sessions short. No injuries and HR/pace has improved. I will still diet for another week or two, but only moderately and only to consolidate the gains I have made. I envisage that a couple more weeks of high mileage, somewhat restricted calories (not more than 500 per day instead of 1000) and introducing strength work I will cement this transition. I am also keen to start hill reps, tempo sessions and weights routines. I am definitely looking forward to 'feeling' a little stronger and less lethargic and tired in the coming weeks.
Sunday 20 March 2011 - Another huge week of training and life in general. 202km running, 200km cycling, AB Strength, paid work, helping at the Running Wild Alpine Challenge event, mentoring & family life is just go go go. Hence the lateness of this blog entry.
After a few sleepless or restless nights through the week, I am feeling quite exhausted. A few days of good sleep this week are a must.
My weight and pinch test is dropping nicely and I feel that the next couple of weeks I just need to consolidate what I have achieved. My fat % has reduced by about 2.6 2.8% throughout the last 5 weeks. This week I will increase calories a bit but keep up good volume.
Sunday 13 March 2011 - Another huge week reasonable fat % loss again this week according to the now regular Saturday morning pinch test. Managed 200km of both cycling and running in lots of relatively short sessions and also did an AB Blast workout 4 times and copious quantities of stretching - somewhere well over an hour each day. My body is surprisingly good, with only very minimal muscle discomfort and lower back tightness though I am extremely tired generally due to continued dieting. (Short sessions and a high protein diet and added magnesium supplements have helped muscle recovery I think).
Today's run (Saturday) was hard because I ran 12km to breakfast (Jasmine and Justin cycled with me on the mountain bikes Nice family time) and home again, which did not allow enough time between my sessions really. I was nauseous and light headed by the time I got half way home, so when I dragged myself into the house I spent the next couple of hours wallowing/reading/snoozing before a late lunch. My final 30k cycle to bring up the 200km for the week was just that covering the km's and rolling my legs over gently to help my muscles repair. I hope to do an ab session tonight if I can pluck up the energy from somewhere . Safe to say that running and cycling is over for the week.
It starts all over again tomorrow.
Justin is going great guns. He is very lean and has been pumping the strength work throughout the week. He identified at the 6hr Coburg run that he must concentrate on strengthening and lengthening the muscles from the chest to knees. Every day he is doing both 50min strength sessions and AB Blast (some runs/walks & cycle of course) and stretching for over an hour each day. Results - a mighty fine 6 pack of abs with lean whippet like muscle definition.
Well done to Jazzi to this week (old 8yr daughter) for getting 2 PB's for 400m run & shotput at Little Athletics this week - Jasmine is also enjoying her cycling, so Justin and I are considering a road bike for her in the near future, this way we can ride the mountain bikes with her on the roadie and all get great fitness benefits and family time.
Sunday 6 March 2011 - Awesome, hard, satisfying week with 201km running and 160km cycling.
Good 'base building' training and I feel that I have taken a step in my fitness, because midway through the week my pace v's HR had improved and my muscular system has settled into this routine. (Lower HR for faster pace). Downside to the increased fitness is that I am now 'not' burning as many calories per km running.
Diet is working with both the scales and my pinch test showing a good improvement though makes dieting tolerable. Through this diet phase I have been trying to run as many km's as possible in short sessions (sometimes 3 runs per day of 5 15km) ensuring too that my caloric consumption is between 1000 1200 in deficit when considering both my basal requirements and exercise expenditure. All my running has been at low intensity to increase 'fat usage' and minimise protein/muscle breakdown, the likelihood of injury and overwhelming fatigue due to high carb/fat burn ratio of higher intensity exercise. Time consuming yes. My time management skills continue to improve with less wasted time each day. Although hectic, I find the routine doable for me due to my supportive family and the flexibility of working from home between sessions. I am exercising about 4 6 hrs per day presently when you include cycling, stretching, abdominal workouts and walking.
Justin ran at Coburg 6hr yesterday beautifully, imitating what he hopes to do for the coming Coburg 24 event in 6 weeks. He ran at a lower intensity or HR and managed a tidy 64km's, which was a really good result. He ate rice pudding and marsh mallows (my favourites) along with sports drink and caramel gel.
I ran the 28km's I needed to bring up 200km running throughout the day too while Jasmine spent the day with Granny back in Wangaratta.
Sunday 27 February 2011 - Nice to get back to training After the pressures of racing, awards, media and hype on the past 2 months it was just wonderful to get back in to 'real training'.
Sunday and Monday was spent travelling back from NZ, so my first run was on Tuesday. Monday (travelling home) we decided to get active regarding my foot arch issue. We have been thinking about doing some trials using existing insoles but had not 'got around to it'. Busy I suppose, (but that is not a decent excuse when it come to foot care) and so by Monday night Justin had resized his expensive high-arch sole inserts for my largest pair of shoes.
Tuesdays run was painfully slow and just plain painful due to lingering DOM's, but my ankle and foot arch was surprisingly comfortable despite the weird feel to the shoes. Interestingly the foot arch complaint diminished significantly throughout the week but the right side quad/ITB, the outer points of the hip, gluteus medius and calf muscle started to tighten by Thursday. Just have to get the balance right at the moment between support / neutral shoed runs.
My diet started Tuesday as well. Despite a low carb, high protein, low fat (nearly nil except for avocado) intake I seem to be coping rather well. Overall calorie deficit is large; I should be able to reduce my body fat percentage and weight a couple of notches fairly quickly. I have set myself a 21day target this diet strategy is really bad for me I know, but a few hard diet weeks now will allow me to do more effective training in preparation for the Commonwealth Champs later this year. Dieting is hard and I expect to feel hungry a majority of the time, but it is also good training for my body to learn to utilise fat more effectively. I am having heaps of extra vitamins during the diet phase too.
In the end this week had 217km cycling thanks to a big Wednesday ride and 108km running of slow, low HR training. Lower the intensity, the more fat percentage burned to service the exercise I do. I really can't run fast in my current state anyway, so it works. Dieting is really a mindset. I am strong minded and will remain in control of my eating habits for a specific time, then go back to a normal high volume food intake condusive to the level of exercise I will do.
Sunday 20 February 2011 - Just got home from a very rushed trip to New Zealand. I won't be doing that ag ain, especially as Lake Taupo where the NZ 100km Championships was held is so beautiful. Next time we're going for a week so we can enjoy the myriad of restaurants and eating places overlooking the clear lake and spectacular distant mountains. This event was perfectly timed for me as it was long enough after Launceston to allow recovery (although the left foot still gave me trouble in the second half) and it started at 3:15am which was good to avoid the summer heat for most of the race.
I was very happy to win the 100k event. Another one under my belt and I'll be all the better for the experience. I'm not so satisfied with my time of 9:21 and know there is a much better 100k in me. After Launceston and now here though I'm not sure how to get it out! I still need a couple more 100k events in the first half of 2011 if I'm to prepare properly for the second half of the year which includes both the 24 Hour Commonwealth Championships and hopefully 24 Hour World Championships.
New Zealander Valerie Muskett was second in the race about 5 minutes behind. I opened up a gap on her of about 1 minute by 30km or so, and pushed this out to about 4:30 by halfway. At 62.75km Val had closed the gap back to 3 minutes and it looked like being a close race as I struggled toward the end. So too did Val unfortunately and by the finish I had a pretty comfortable margin. Meredith Quinlan, my Aussie Team Mate in the 24 hour events was third and so afterwards we had a good catch-up session which was great. Nice also to catch up with Graham Doke who was assisting Meredith. Another Aussie girl Jessica Robson was in the race too - so bring on the Aussie invasion!
While in Taupo Justin and I stayed at 300 Lake Terrace Apartments. Kay was great, the apartment spacious, modern, tastefully appointed and comfortable. Best of all it was meticulously clean and with the current exchange rate very well priced. I recommend it.
Photo above is Meredith, Val and myself, and the short video is of us at the presentations in front of about 3000 people.
Sunday 13 February 2011 - What a week - The weird and wonderful rollercoaster of life!
Thanks so much to everyone who voted for me, forwarded my information or encouraged their friends and family to vote for me as the 2010 IAU Female Athlete of the Year. On Thursday afternoon I received notification from the IAU that I had won the award. WOW . Thank you all so much .. Each of you have helped me in my mission to help inspire others to lead a fitter and healthier lifestyle.
On the running front preparation for NZ has not gone to entirely to plan and niggles remain which have me a little worried about the event. Rick Harnwell from Australian Mind and Body has been working on this and other areas and I know I'm improving at least. I will be treating this race as a 'hard training run' where I will maintain an intensity that my body is comfortable with rather than targeting a time or pace.
For the week I ran 88km and cycled 200km. I feel reasonably depleted of energy, but I think it's more from the hype of the award than the actual training. It's much easier to stick to routines, but clearly that's been impossible this week.
Sunday 6 February 2011 - It's been an exhausting week. Long runs, hard cycling and pumping weights I can take care of, but media interviews are tough. I'm grateful for the support and especially grateful to everyone that has voted for me, but I'm also glad the voting is now closed.
This week I have continued to struggle a bit with lingering soreness in the left side, but once warmed up it doesn't seem to affect my running. I said this ahead of Launceston though. It's only a mild ache and has responded to some massage & physio too so for general training purposes I can just about put it out of my mind.
In total this week I ran 93km and cycled 155km. Pretty much all of it at a gentle pace and no runs longer than 24km. I'll maintain this now for the next 2 weeks and then I'm running 100k at Taupo in NZ. The approach to this race will be very different to Launceston though and rather than having a time in mind the plan will be to run only by feel and being much more conservative.
Sunday 30 January 2011 - We received an email from the IAU on Wednesday. I'm a finalist in the World Ultra Runner of the Year award. And I need your vote. All you need to do is send "SHARON SCHOLZ" to BOTH of these email addresses: nadeem.khan@iau-ultramarathon.org dirk.strumane@iau-ultramarathon.org
And so to the week. My left foot, ankle, calf and up to the hip are still irritating me and whilst I managed 50km this week it was all at a gentle pace around the athletics oval. Thursday, Friday, Saturday I ran 47km combined and each time I think I've pulled up better than the sessions before. Another week and I'll be right hopefully.
Also rode 402km on the bike including two long sessions - 114km and 152km. Helps keep the fitness up and iron out some of the soreness and muscle tightness.
And Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter Jasmine. 8 today :-)
Sunday 23 January 2011 - This week started with the Launceston 12 hour race . I had every intention of breaking 2 more Open Australian Records at this race but fell a long way short. I wasn't even able to replicate my 6 hour performance at Coburg in 2010 when I ran fairly easily and finished just a few metres short of 72km.
I am very satisfied with the outcome from the Launceston race however because Justin and I have leart a lot from the experience. Gaining the knowledge necessary to be a good ultra-running is very much like the training required - it takes years. Our focus since C2K was very much on improving speed. We achieved this and my "comfortable" speed for long runs at solid intensity now sits in the 4:40's. I feel like I can run at 4:50pace all day.
What we have neglected recently though due to increased work pressures, organising the fun run and generally being busy is core strength, leg strength and stretching. I went into Launceston with some minor niggles, and it was these that got me. From as early at 1 hour in my left foot was sore and then this gradually spread to the achilles, calf and hip. Then probably due to an altered the gait the right side started to go. I think there is little doubt that a lack of attention to strength affected me, even beyond the fact that I was coming off an injury in that area.
I also wore light-weight trainers in the race. These probably the reason for the injury I had to begin with. My body just isn't strong enough to cope yet without having good cushioning under my feet for as long as possible.
On the positive side, my 100km time of 9:14:46 is good enough for a "c" qualifier at the International level, and it, my 50miles split and 12 hour final tally of 114.802km are all new W30 Australian Track records. Yay.
Since Launceston I have concentrated on recovery and spent quite a bit of time at easy speed on the bike. I have run a total of 10km as well, but the left side is still clearly injured and so I'll continue to use the bike for the next week and just incorporate some short runs as I feel capable. We have also put together my training plan for the next few weeks and no surprise but its got substantially more strength and stretching in there. All to be undertaken carefully at this stage as I get back to this habit of course.
Also, here's a movie of my Launceston race. Viewing discretion advised as it shows pain and suffering!!!!!
Sunday 16 January 2011 - A very busy week. We had the fun run last Sunday and it went off really well. 172 competitors across the 10k, 5k and kids run. Feedback has been really positive and so whilst we know we can still improve in a few areas we're keen to go again for 2012. Our band of volunteers, mainly friends, family and Little Ath's families were great. Very giving and even though most of us hadn't done this type of thing before we came out of it well. Sponsors too were great and we are very grateful of their support.
The week from a training angle was very light ahead of Launceston 12 hour. Just 21km running and about 120km cycling. I'm confident going into the race but everything still has to go right if I'm to break the 100k track record which is my target. I'm still a bit sore in the left arch of my foot, but the pain goes away after I warm up. And regardless of the conditions I'll be setting off at record pace and will push hard tomorrow.
Sunday 9 January 2011 - Ran well this week. Body is feeling pretty good, mind is reasonably focused though I've been very busy with the Wangaratta Fun Run happening today and generally I'm starting to feel like I have energy to burn.
The "long" run this week was just 12km which is enough 8 days out from an event like Launceston, but I also did 3 x hard sessions and 2 x hard bike sessions. One of the bike sessions we call "velo sprints" and it seems to work well. If you don't have access to some sort of cycling velodrome then you can do it on a flat road. But we do a 3km warm-up and then 16 x sets of 1km at 95% effort followed by 500m of easy float (16 x 1.5km = 24km). The first 5 to 8 of these are usually OK, but heading into the 10th and 12th or so the lactic really starts to build. By the end it's hard. We usually do the first 1km sprint at a speed that we then try to hold for all of them. 3k gentle turn-over to finish for a 30km session. Give it a try.
50km of running and 160km of cycling in the end this week. Volume down by about half next week leading into Launceston.
Sunday 2 January 2011 - Happy New Year to all. Hopefully you have some goals for 2011 that will see you achieve your best. I haven’t finalised my goals from a running angle as yet, but I do know that I am getting a taste for breaking records. I’d like to have a go at the Open 100km, 12 hour and 24 hour Australian Track records at some stage in 2011 if the opportunities arise. Not sure if I can break those records, but definitely want to try.
Also on New Years Eve I received a very humbling email from the AURA President Ian Cornelius. AURA have awarded me with the title of Female Ultra Athlete of Year for 2010. I am honoured to accept this award and will strive to represent the ultra community - and indeed the general running community - in a positive and encouraging way in 2011. More details regarding AURA and some comments about all of the awards for 2010 are available from the AURA website.
This last week saw a great reduction in my running, but it was also tiring due to hard run sessions every 2nd day and 2 training sessions every day (run first, 1 – 2 hours off to rehydrate and eat, and then a cycle). Ended up with 69km of running and 221km of cycling. For the year I ran 5300km and cycled 5400km but with too much variation for my liking due to the odd bout of injury and sickness, plus of course the need to taper and recover with races.
This coming week looks very skinny on paper, but I know it’s the right approach if I want to have a serious crack at some big numbers in Launceston. I’ve got three hard but short run sessions in a total of 50km, and 160km of generally easy cycling. I’m starting to feel confident about my starting intensity for Launceston and now just hope that the weather is cool and that these last 2 weeks of taper go according to plan. I’m over my cold or flu too which is good and so the bigger focus for the next 14 days is mental preparedness and to allow my body to be calm and stress free.
Finally, Justin has finished putting together a movie of my run at C2K. It’s a compilation of how I’m going against Justin’s and Ken’s pre-race strategizing and gives a bit of the strategy behind the run. Hopefully it encourage some people to consider running further than they have before, striving to achieve greater goals, and ultimately inspire runners to consider building towards entry into such an event. When you break it down into chunks, sure 240km is a long way, but it is achievable with the right levels of training, support and determination. C2K movie and photo’s are HERE.
