Surf Coast Century Countdown: 2 Weeks to Go

23/11/2020

Trails of Lerderderg State Park.

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Surf Coast Century 2020 is less than two weeks away. We asked Bogong supported runner Matt Crehan to share with us his training for the 100K distance leading up to race weekend. Matt placed 4th at the Surf Coast Century in 2019 – you can read more about his background here, and read his first blog post in this series (with 4 weeks to go) here.

Total of 105km for the week, with around 3700m of elevation. A bit less mileage than the previous couple of weeks, and I’ll look to reduce that some more in the next week as we edge closer to the event. Here's how my week looked:

16–22 November

Monday – Morning run in Lerderderg Gorge, 19km.

First time back in Lerderderg State Park in a little while, and it was so good to be on those trails again. I reckon they are about as gnarly as you can get within cooee of Melbourne. The Blackwood Ranges Track runs down the spine of the park, which is a bit of an undulating fire road, but then there are a series of steep and rocky technical trails that drop into the gorge to the Lerderderg River. Some sections require both hands and a bit of scrabbling, which makes for a fun adventure.

I did a 19km loop known as the Wild Wombat Loop, one I’ve done a couple of times before. The river was higher than usual for this time of the year, so that meant getting wet feet on a couple of the river crossings, but never more than ankle deep. The Jackals performed nicely on this terrain. I managed to land at a funny angle on one of the last rocky descents, which gave me a bit of pain on the side of my shin after the run, but hoped that it would be right by the morning.

Tuesday – Arvo swim 2km, quick catch up with Euge and Toby

It wasn’t right by the morning. Nothing too bad, but walking around all day at work I could still feel a bit of soreness in my lower right leg, and working on a slope for a fair chunk of the day didn’t help.

I swam on the way home from work and told the boys I might give our planned run a miss. But then made a last minute decision while walking my dog to just go anyway. Kept it really easy, just a quick loop along the Yarra. Wore the La Spotiva Helios to ensure I was light on my feet and got a good feel of the trail underneath. I didn’t want to be inadvertently hitting the ground hard with a more cushioned shoe.

Wednesday – Afternoon run, 12km, Yarra Bend Park

Quite a hot afternoon, around 30°C I believe. I’m not really a fan of the heat, and usually try and avoid it. But every now and then I feel like embracing it so I decided to bang out a fast 10k. Not all out, but somewhere between 10k and half-marathon race effort. I also wanted to test out how the Helios would go on a run like that. They are super light and great for fast trail stuff, but they are still a trail shoe so perhaps not really necessary for running fast on gravel paths.

After the run I caught up with Sam from Rapid Ascent and Aaron from La Sportiva to have a bit of a chat about Surf Coast Century. You can watch the recording of it on their Facebook page here.

Thursday – Arvo swim 2km, afternoon run 18km, Yarra Bend Park.

Another hot afternoon. Little bit of a struggle in the heat, but good to get in some more acclimatisation in case we get a hot one on race day. A quick walk with the dog after the swim then headed straight down to Yarra Bend Park to meet Matt. Did the usual trails along and around the river, got in a bit of climbing, but nothing too outrageous. Carried a handheld water bottle and definitely glad I did. The bats looked like they were struggling with the heat too, a bit more activity from them for that hour of the day. Wore La Sportiva Mutants, which I quite like on the rocky stuff a Yarra Bend.

Friday – Afternoon run, 10km, Yarra Bend Park.

Not a lot to report with this run – just a standard-issue loop through the park and along the river. I’ve done that loop approximately one million times, but I still enjoy it. Today I had some music on and just enjoyed a little wind-down after work. Wore my old pair of Jackals – still got a bit of life left in them!

Mt Macedon.

Saturday – Morning long run, 28km, Mt Macedon.

Really fun morning out in the hills today. Met Matt again and got to show him around as he had never run at Mt Macedon before. Started with a similar loop to last week, then added in a few extra trails to the south. Some really cool single track through that part. Also added in a bit of rock scrambling around Camels Hump. Ended up accumulating nearly 1500m of elevation through the morning, and was definitely feeling the heat on some of the climbs towards the end.

I was wearing a hydration vest and ended up refilling both water bottles at around 20k, and ate one Clif Bar. Wore my newer pair of Jackals, which handled all the different terrains nicely. Finished with a swim in a nearby waterhole, a great way to cool off after another enjoyable hit out on the trails.

Sunday – Morning run, 10km, Mt Tarrengower.

After yesterday’s run in Mt Macedon I headed a bit further up the highway to Maldon for the weekend. I’ve spent a fair bit of time up here over the years and it’s a nice little town. Enjoyed a good catch up with friends Saturday night, which led to me feeling a little dusty Sunday morning. Luckily it was a nice, warm morning and Mt Tarrengower was very enticing prospect to get out for. I ran up and down it via a few different trails. It's a mix of single track and fire road, with an abundance of late spring wildflowers. Wore the Mutants again, which were great as the trails here are quite rocky. Only 10km, but around 500m of elevation. Blew the cobwebs out nicely and left me feeling better for the day.

Two weeks until race day!

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