Ultrarunner fighting Atrial Fibrilation (AF)

This blog has pretty much always been about running ultras, mostly Hardrock. It still is but now it is also about running after AFib. I was forced to miss Hardrock in 2011 due to the onset of AF but my long term goal was to get back to running milers. And hopefully help any other runners with AF who stumble upon this site. I never made it into Hardrock in 2012, or 2013, or 2014. I didn't have a qualifier for 2015. I ran Fatdog in Canada instead. That was tough. I finished my 4th Hardrock in 2016 and now I'm back to try for the magical number 5.

If you want the history of my AF the heart problems all started back on May 25 2011: http://howmanysleeps.blogspot.com/2011/05/out-of-hardrock.html

Sunday, August 06, 2006

On target for 12' and the Mellum Mothership is launched.

Had an easy 20km run today. Was a little stiff to start out after a
solid weight session last night but loosened up after an hour or so.
Stuck to trails as much as possible, crossing at the falls twice
despite the river being up. The crossing was slippery and under water
but only ankle deep and not so strong that I feared being washed over
the falls. The constant drizzle made the rocks greasy on the long
downhill back to the golf course. I figured if I didn't actually touch
the ground then I couldn't slip so tried to float across them. It
seemed to work.

I have meetings all week after work so will be pressed for time so will
probably just do a couple of sharpening sessions to freshen up for
Saturday.

The new kombi is settling in well. It's going to make a great crew
vehicle. If I was going solo to 12' I would have driven it up. The
personalised plates finish it off nicely.

Friday, August 04, 2006

WS100 ENTRY; Finding zen on the trail......

So I'm in. Confirmed acceptance as an automatic foreign entrant.
Suddenly I can relax and just enjoy my runnning until the build up next
year.

Planned on doing 20km today but events conspired against me so I headed
out for 15 km on the local trail. I figured squeezing in a hard 15
might balance missing an easy 20. Felt great. Flew down the cementies
hill. I swear at one point it felt like I had wings. Turned into a
solid tempo style run. Ground out a couple of sub 4 min ks along the
river. Even ran strong back up the cementies hill. Passed a
mountain-biker on the way up. He had run out of gears. I still had a
couple left. I reckon the fatigue of that horror day at the GC100 has
finally been washed out of my legs. Had a solid 40 km on the tough
trails last weekend just a couple of weeks after the 45km Fat Ass.
Bugger cruising 12'. I might have a hit-out and see what happens. Like
the coach said: respect the miles, but also respect the miles in the
legs. With the toe in remission I'm banking more solid consistent miles
than the lead up to GH last year. Bring it on.

WS Entries are open! and Ironbark 45

I typed this on July 22nd but didn't get around to posting it to the
blog..........

I've been having trouble accessing coolrunning this week which is
frustrating. As if to compensate, there has been a million emails from
the Mellum crew to keep me entertained and of course the Tour which is
coming to a close. I've been checking the WS web site nightly waiting
for the application for entry to go up. And then Kelvin posted on cr
today that they are up. I have results of the GC100 photocopied. I just
need the money order for the entry fee and I'm entering. Here's hoping.

Ran the 45km Ironbark Fat Ass last Sunday. After some interest when I
first announced the idea a couple of months ago, there was only 4
starters, with only 2 of us planning to go the full distance. It had
rained steadily all day Saturday so I was half expecting no-one to
show. I arrived early but dismissed plans of marking a couple of
corners seeing as how there was likely to be no-one coming. About 8:45
CathyP and Gary arrived from Melbourne. They were planning to just go
out for an hour and turn around. No sign of Damien who lives locally
and had emailed me just Friday. So we took a self-portrait photo and
were about to head down to the beach at a couple of minutes to 9 when
Damien rolled into the carpark. So we were 4. We had a great run. Cathy
and Gary turned back at the top of the Jarosite mine track for a
roughly 20km round trip. Damien and I picked up the pace a little and
ran well to the scout camp. The rain set in and the trail got slippery
but we made it to the turnaround in Anglesea in about 2:40ish. Damien
was met by his wife, daughter and friend. We refueled and headed back
into the misty rain.We ran hard to keep warm on the way back. We pretty
much had the trail to ourselves. A n old guy hooked up with us on the
ridge track and ran with us back to the Jarosite Mine track. I left
them behind on the down-hill. It was like a skating rink so I figured
the best defence was offence so I attacked the down-hill. We lost the
old guy but he took the road and caught us at the Bells carpark and ran
back to Jan Juc with us. The visibility was now terrible and I was glad
to reach the warmth of the car in a tick over 5 hours. WE jumped in and
I drove Damien home. You know you're running well when you start to
warm up after 4 hours of running. Felt good at the finish. I'll
organise this again but promote it a little more to get some more of
the Melbourne crew down.