Athlete
Sunday 20 September 2020 This 21km trail race fell smack bang in the middle of my two weeks holidaying in far north Queensland. In the seven days leading up to the race I had completed two of my mountain projects (Mt Bartle Frere and Mt …
Kuipto Forest Trail Run was rescheduled from its August date to 6 September 2020 due to Covid-19. The Covid safe measures were a lot of work for the organising committee, race director and volunteers but did not really require much from participants. As tickets were …
Hanny Allston is a well-known Tasmanian trail and ultra-distance runner who is the only person to have won the Junior Orienteering World Championships and Orienteering World Championship in the same year and remains the only non-European World Champion in orienteering. “Finding My Feet” is her autobiography. While her sporting achievements are impressive Hanny is also an impressive human being and deeply cares for the world and others around her. I purchased a pre-order signed copy of this book because I am a Hanny fan, but I have tried my best to be neutral in this review.
Apart from the Prologue, the book is written conventionally in chronological order, starting with her upbringing with her tightknit family in Sandfly, a semi-rural area just outside Hobart. She writes in delicious detail of her adventures with her brother and other local children, eating berries from neighbouring farms, exploring creeks and fields, and going on camping trips all around Tasmania and mainland Australia with her family. From age 7 to 16 Hanny trained at an elite level as a swimmer and describes how she reconciled the differences between the strict, chlorinated environment of elite swimming squads and her normal life as a child wild at heart (“a child with an impish spirit”). She kept up swimming while attending rogaining and orienteering events with her family, until she found herself on the National Development Orienteering Team which led to her attending the Junior World Championships in Estonia. Hanny describes her orienteering trips overseas in detail including her wins at the 2006 Junior World Orienteering Championships and the 2006 World Orienteering Championships. However, while her sporting achievements are interesting, it is Hanny’s willingness to be open and share her struggles in detail that make the book different from your average sports person autobiography.
Hanny faced some difficult situations from 2005 to 2009 which she then spends years trying to recover, understand and learn from. In 2005 as a 19 year old, Hanny had just had an ankle reconstruction, her father had attempted suicide, and she was about to be told she could not defer her medical degree further so had to sit her medical exams a few days after her father’s attempted suicide. Her parents eventually separated, and in 2006 with her mental health rapidly deteriorating Hanny moved out for the family home and into a share house in Hobart. In the ensuing years she quits medical school, studies teaching in New Zealand, and finally returns to Australia where in 2008 she starts her own business ‘Find Your Feet’, to teach people to run and play. It is at this time, as a 24-year-old that she starts on the journey to treating her anorexia.
Hanny writes openly about her mental health struggles, and in the process, opens herself up to criticism from others. Anyone who has suffered from a mental illness will understand how difficult it is to make sense of the mental illness yourself, and sharing it with close individuals is hard enough. Writing in detail about a mental illness in a memoir is very brave.
As well as writing about anorexia, Hanny covers a number of other topics that impact mental health including:
1. Self-compassion;
2. The danger of defining ourselves by what we do;
3. The achiever mindset;
4. “Be more, do more”, not “do more to be more”;
5. Success and happiness as processes;
6. Comparing your old self to your new self and controlling the inner critic;
7. Letting your heart lead the way;
8. Embracing femininity; and
9. Trusting your abilities and vulnerabilities.
Hanny details how her understanding of these topics developed as she grew into adulthood. Sometimes her realisations were made through intrinsic self-reflection, other times through the assistance of health professionals. If you are looking to better understand your own journey, or are on a path of self-development, Hanny introduces several ideas that you might look into further for yourself.
You may not enjoy this book if you cringe at metaphors and the overuse of themes. I usually don’t appreciate having themes repeated so obviously, but Hanny’s voice and the way she writes is so raw and genuine, I soon started enjoying the repetition of the themes. Hanny also loves using adjectives and it is hard to find a noun without an adjective attached. This slows the pace of reading, which can be frustrating at times. However, the book is an autobiography, a genre that is meant to be written in a way that represents the individual, and as I progressed reading I came to realise that this is Hanny’s writing style, and it added to rather than detracted from the autobiography.
If you are looking for a detailed account of Hanny’s sporting achievements, that is not what “Finding My Feet” is about. Hanny really focuses in on her personal development not her achievements, and this is a story to relate to and learn from.
Thank you Hanny for sharing your life with such honesty. For being vulnerable and potentially opening yourself up to criticism so that your story can help others learn and grow.
If someone had told me 10 years ago that taking the contraceptive pill would significantly decrease my ability to build muscle, recover from hard training and potentially decrease my aerobic capacity I likely would never have started taking the pill in the first place. In …
This is my training log for the first week of isolation. My coach, Caine Warburton wrote the program, but this is my log, so it includes other additional things I do that are not programmed. The cycling on a stationary bike and rower are as …
I was so excited when it was announced that the Beast would be the first race of the Spartan Australian National Series in 2020. Not only is the Beast my favourite distance but Oberon is extremely hilly which plays to my strengths as a trail and mountain runner. In January and February, I completed an 8-week training block to build aerobic capacity for a long season and to prepare for a hilly Beast course. I also practiced obstacles including preparing for twister which would make its Australian debut at the race. The race map was released the Wednesday before the race and featured only 400m vertical gain over 21km. This was a bit of a shock, but I guess that means the truly hilly course of National Series will be at Sunshine Coast.
About 40mm of rain fell in Oberon the few days before the race, so I was expecting a mud bath. That was fine with me. I love mud and running in the rain. When Saturday morning arrived, I was surprised to find during the warm up that the paddocks had drained really well, meaning there was a relatively firm surface to push off. This farm also had quite even land, so there were not deep cattle hooves or holes to watch out for. The grass that had sprung up with recent rain was thin and short, so there was no deep energy sucking grass to get through. The men and women elite started separately with women starting five minutes after the men. This was my first race experiencing this in Australia, but apparently gendered start times were also used at the Melbourne Stadion in February. The advantage of separate start times is that there is less congestion at early obstacles and if there is congestion at least you will be bumping up against your own gender who are approximately the same weight/height as you. It does feel safer starting in gender waves, but it then means the women have to overtake the slower elite men as the race progresses. I didn’t really find this a problem as there was always enough space and the field was quite spread out.
The first three kilometres was quick running with some lower walls and a barbed wire crawl. As usual, the barbed wire crawl was low and fairly long, but at least the ground was slightly softer with the rain. There were still plenty of rocks and a prickly plant I put my hand on. I tried to run this first part fast as there were not many obstacles to break up the momentum. I was leading but not by any significant time. I couldn’t see behind me, and given there was no one in front of me, I was concentrating on choosing the best running routes over the terrain. The dunk wall was followed by a steep uphill barbed wire crawl. The dunk wall was a swim for me because the water was so deep. After getting out of the deep mud of the dam I found the barbed wire crawl was crowded with men who were trying to roll sideways up the hill (not a good technique choice unless you happen to be particularly excellent at this technique). There was room to the side so I did a forward crawl up the hill which was relatively quick. There was now a fair few obstacles in the space of two kilometres. The multi rig was a set of rings which were dewy but not as slippery as expected. I used two hands on most rings. Better to be slightly slower on an obstacle in a Beast than do burpees. The Z-wall was next with the wood surprisingly dry. It was simple and quick. This was followed by a swim through a dam then by more running on gently sloping land before an over, under, through. The course then went up a gentle slope to a collection of granite boulders. Rounding the boulders was the sandbag carry which was about 400m long and went up and down a hill.
The female weight is light enough that you can run with it, even on the uphill. I could see as I was finishing that there were quite a few females on the first half of the sandbag course, so I estimated I had about a 60sec lead. This was significantly lost on the first cargo net crawl which I arrived at by myself and couldn’t get a knee under. I had to go head first and slowly make progress. The net crawls can take half the time and energy if you arrive at the net with someone. At this point we had run 7km so I was trying to eat a gel as we dropped down and out of a creek crossing and to atlas carry. At this time when I was hyperventilating, covered in mud and eating half a gel also covered in mud, I heard footsteps right on my shoulder. Luckily it was just the camera guy, so I stashed my gel for the next obstacle.
The atlas stone was dry and the distance seemed very short, so it was a quick obstacle. Some sandy bumps in the terrain led to Hercules hoist which was very light despite the rain. Three pulls and the bag was at the top. I completed the rope climb and for efficiency dropped onto the mat almost from the top. I banged my ankle hard. Note for future, climb down a little bit before flinging self to the ground.
This was the point in my race plan I would hammer the running, as from here the distance between obstacles widened. This worked well and the quick terrain made it easy to run fast. However, there were a few more obstacles than anticipated, as between each paddock we had to jump over a wall to get over that fencing. So it was hardly uninterrupted running but still wide expanses to get up to speed. There were some really enjoyable sections of single track, particularly around the granite formations that are typical of this altitude (1,100m above sea level) and can also be found on farms on the drive up to Thredbo. The use of creek crossings and the marshy areas was also great. It was fortunate it was overcast and cool because on a hot day this course would have been super hot with almost no shade. The course continued to undulate up and down but on very runnable gradients and no large climbs.
By the time I got to the plate drag at 12km I was really starting to look for a sip of water. This materialised at 13km just before the bender, which was nice, but just shows if it is sunny or a hot Beast, you really need to be carrying your own water, as one sip ever 13km will not be enough. There were a couple of water stations to refill your water, but only one water station with cups (that I saw). Given the course was going back and forward, I could see I had a bigger lead now, but occasionally I could see both Bec and Tania who seemed to be changing position, but it was so hard to tell because they were both wearing the exact same hydration pack and 2xu tights! When you are running competitively with someone it helps with keeping up the pace. I didn’t have this, so I worked harder to ‘compete’ with and overtake the men running in front of me. Given the men had a 5min head start, you should be overtaking men the whole way to the finish. I was pushing really hard. Tom Bleasdale yelled out to me while passing on a nearby hill and I just could not even say thanks. I also overtook Yosti but was breathing too hard to say hello. I give 100% while racing and I still enjoy myself, but when running at threshold heart rate for 2 hours, it doesn’t leave much for anything except running and focusing on the next obstacle.
Started on knees as wall felt a little slippery. The climbing holds were very dry so I started off using those.
Then moved to feet on wall and alternating the cut outs with climbing holds once I was confident the wall was dry enough.
The obstacles and distance passed by and at 17km after the jerry can carry (and another net crawl) I started to push hard on the last climb and descent. Given the course had been kind to the body I was able to run relatively fast up the hill and then run fast downhill. The descent was relatively uninterrupted which helped with getting more lead. Arriving at Olympus I knew I had a lead but with twister and monkey bars coming up, I couldn’t afford to fail anything. I was conservative on Olympus, starting on my knees and using the cut outs and climbing holds, then half way switching to crouch position. I was relatively slow on twister choosing to go sideways right arm leading, but again better safe than sorry at this point. That is the first time I have completed twister with three sections (woohoo no burpees!). Heading to the last obstacle gauntlet there was a techy piece of single trail through button grass and swampy areas as well as three ‘hurdles’. The hurdles are elevated horizontal pieces of wood that you jump over. They are at neck height for me which is quite awkward, but they were on a downhill that made them easier this time.
Finishing the techy part we came to spear throw. The main in front of me sunk his spear easily so I opted to use that one. My spear throw unfortunately went about 5cm too high (I think the target was closer than usual??). About 400m from the finish I was doing burpees. Not an ideal situation, but trying to stay positive, I flowed through 31 burpees as quickly as I could. Surprisingly, no one passed, so I got up and ran as fast as I could (without my calves cramping) to get to the finish line. Hitting the bucket carry with a super high heart rate, I found I was able to run the while course with the bucket on my shoulder. I don’t know if I got lucky with the bucket weight, but it felt crazy light. Then it was just monkey bars and the A-frame to go. The monkey bars were again surprisingly dry (probably from the fortunate breeze that was blowing), so although I was ready to use sideways alternate grip, I just went forward, hit the bell then ran up and down the A-frame to the finish. It was such a relief to cross the line on a really fast course that had me far outside my comfort zone. I like mountainous, grindy, techy courses with heavy carries. This was the opposite of that! A bit over a minute later and Bec and Tania crossed for second and third, having had what seemed like an epic battle the whole race.
Thanks Spartan Australia for putting together a fantastic course. Looking forward to sharpening things up for the shorter 5km distance at Tooradin and practising more spear throws.
Mel Parlato who was finishing age group 5km trying to pip me at the finish line! We used to play soccer together. On the A frame I was like “I know that girl”. The people you bump into at Spartan races 🙂
New racing season. New racing gear. I have been racing and training in Spartan by Craft gear for a year now, so have reviewed some of the gear to make choosing easier for you. While I have reviewed the female range, the fabrics are the …
This is not a traditional athlete year in review where I outline my biggest race wins. This is a reflection on the two biggest lessons I learned racing in 2019. If all you want is race results scroll to the bottom. Part 1: Honesty …
Recommended for: Everyone, including people in a running rut, people who are trying to find their running identity, people who are injured, people looking for a running book that is more than a training plan.
Highly recommended for: burnt out runners, people trying to find their running “why”, and people trying to rediscover the joy of running.
The main message David and Megan Roche are spreading is that “you are enough”. Your running results, times or whether you have run or not that day do not affect how worthy you are as a human. You are always enough. Your happiness and wellbeing should always come first.
I was sceptical about this book to start with. It looks like a relic from the 70s with a giant smiley face on the blue front cover. There is a lot of (attempted) humour intertwined with the text as well as parts of the book being told from the perspective of Addie dog. There are references to unicorns and zoomies, which I initially found childish and annoying. Then I started loving the book because it is something you can read for support and laughs when you might need a small pick me up. By the end I loved the author’s positive and open approach to life. It is hard not to like David and Megan Roche.
The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 discusses the more difficult parts of running including finding the reason why you run, mental health, eating disorders and ageing. The Roches outline how to start enjoying the process of running rather than using it solely as a form of external validation. The Part 1 I have re-read the sections in Part 1 more than I have the sections in Part 2, and it is really what sets this book apart from other running books.
Part 2 contains concrete training advice for running along with sections on cross training and strength training. They even have a program for runners who hate strength training which you can get through at the end of a run. The running advice centres on David Roche’s approach of doing almost all running under 85% effort. This is similar to the generally accepted approach that to develop as a runner you need to do a lot of easier running and focus on developing your aerobic base. A long term approach is emphasised and there are examples that show long term aerobic development will trump short term specificity. Training specifically for an event (ie a technical mountain run) can improve performance, but only if built on the aerobic base.
I may be a bit biased because I met David Roche at the Spartan World Championships in 2019 and even got to pat the famous Addie dog, but I really like his coaching philosophy and approach to running, and highly recommend this book. I had to order my copy internationally, but I have noticed that Dymocks Canberra now stocks The Happy Runner so it is now more widely available in Australia.
Recommended for: mountain lovers, mountain runners, ski mountaineers, OCR athletes who want to find out how to prepare for mountainous courses
This book is a mountain running bible. Building on the aerobic training theory set out in Training for the New Alpinism, this book adds specific training principles for all mountain endurance athletes including skyrunners, trail runners, ski mountaineers and climbers. Although this book delves straight into theory and training principles, it is surprisingly easy to understand. It also has extremely inspiring imagery and personal accounts of top mountain athletes. Usefully, if you live in or close to the mountains, this book can cover both your summer and winter pursuits and even explains how to transition from your summer sport (running) to your winter sport (skimo/cross country). Despite the multi-sport focus, most of the book focuses on mountain running with some specific chapters for other sports.
The authors have three lifetime’s worth of mountain experience between them and this shows in the attention to detail. They warn of “aerobic deficiency syndrome” which is where athletes have an under developed aerobic system due to spending too much time doing hard training above their aerobic threshold and not enough time training below aerobic threshold to increase the size of their aerobic engine. OCR athletes should really pay attention here, because the training style that many OCR athletes adopt of low volume high intensity running training is a recipe to develop “aerobic deficiency syndrome”.
House, Johnston and Jornet focus on aerobic development above all else due to the large performance gains from raising the aerobic threshold and its relevance to mountain endurance sports. They see little utility in focusing on VO2 max because according to the authors, athletes reach their VO2 limit early in their careers, and this is limited by genetic factors and does not correlate as directly to gains in endurance sport as increasing the aerobic threshold.
The authors use a 5 heart rate zone system to help guide training and how much time should be spent in certain heart rate zones. They also usefully provide ways to calculate your aerobic and lactate threshold heart rates without having to do expensive lab testing. Although there are no “12 week training programs”, there is sufficient detail that you could read the book and then make a training plan for yourself using the principles.
The theory is broken up by interesting athlete stories and beautiful mountain imagery. If you are after a less instructional more inspirational mountain sport book I would go for Emilie Forsberg’s Skyrunner (the books cost about the same).
Recommended for: people looking for inspiration, people interested in mindset and performance psychology, people interested in altitude training
An inspiring autobiography outlining how Deena went from child cross country prodigy to constantly injured college track and cross country runner to develop into one of America’s best long-distance runners. Deena outlines how her shift from a fixed to growth mindset freed her to run faster and stronger, as well as how she went from cross country distance to winning marathons. Each chapter has a theme running chronologically through her career and how she developed into an optimistic person. Each chapter starts with a quote which foreshadows the learning Deena went through in the following chapter.
During college, Deena had a mixed relationship with running, and alternated spending time running with her burgeoning baking business. After college she was minded to open her own bakery, but in the end decided she wasn’t finished with running and moved to Alamosa to train at altitude under coach Vigil. This is a great read to gain an insight into the elite road runner mindset and also details the incredible training load that these athletes take on each week. It covers Deena’s bronze medal performance at the Athens 2004 Olympic games as well as her retirement from elite marathon running.
At the back of the book Deena has included some exercises on how to implement some of the mindset techniques she discusses in her book. This part of the book is titled “The Optimists Guide 7 Mental Habits for Reaching Your Potential and Living a More Positive Life”. I found this section quite basic but it is only a few pages and if you are new to sports psychology and goal setting you could find the exercises useful. I would buy this book for the incredible and inspiring story rather than the pages at the back.
Recommended for: anyone into crossfit, Olympic lifting, endurance sports
I read this autobiography in one sitting because it was almost impossible to put down. The book is written like a traditional autobiography starting with Tia’s childhood in country Queensland where she grew up on a farm, swimming in the river and running on the cross country track her Dad made for her. Tia writes openly and honestly in a relatable voice which makes you love her even more.
This book confirms that there is no secret to success except for hard work over years and years. Although Tia saw success in Crossfit almost straight after starting the sport, she already had an elite sports background and had been training double session days since primary school. In addition to her inspiring story, Tia discusses a few issues that often go unspoken including how she initially struggled with accepting her weight gain and muscles when she got seriously into Crossfit, and how she was initially shunned by the crossfit community. She details how important it is to have strong female role models and to create supportive communities that are inclusive of everyone. It was also interesting to read about her difficulties competing in both Crossfit and Olympic lifting at the same time with the two sports being so insular, and such limited places on the Olympic lifting team, the negativity from other coaches and competitors made it a really cut throat environment. Tia backed herself despite this negativity.
The book was published in 2017, so does not cover Tia’s participation in the Crossfit Games 2018 or 2019. It does cover her 2015 and 2016 second place and 2017 first place finishes at the Crossfit Games and competing in the Rio Olympics in 2016.
There are a few bonus pages in the Appendix at the back of the book that includes information like ‘how to recovery like a pro’, ‘dropping weight for weight lifting’ and ‘5 reasons to squat’.
I initially hated this book because of the crude, unnecessary language in the title. However it is written by Simon Marshall wo was a professor of behavioural medicine at the University of California and a professor of sport and exercise psychology at San Diego State University before he moved to full time performance sports psychology consulting.
The dedication reads “To all the confident, motivated, well-balanced, and happy athletes…this book isn’t for you”. The book is usefully divided into four parts. ‘The Basics’ covers the science of the brain and simplifies the way parts of the brain interact by creating the Chimp, Computer and Professor brain. The Chimp, Computer and Professor often clash with each other and have inconsistent goals. The next three parts of the book categorises the psychological problems atheletes face, so you can go to the chapters relevant to you:
1. Heart – hone your passion, motivation and identity
a. I wish I felt more like an athlete
b. I don’t think I can
c. Setting goals is not your problem – the secret of doing
2. Wings – deal with obstacles, setbacks, and conflict
a. Other athletes seem tougher, happier and more badass than me
b. I feel fat
c. I don’t cope well with injury
d. People are worried about me – exercise dependence and the incessant need to do more
3. Fight – get stuck in with new battle skills
a. I don’t like leaving my comfort zone – how to cross the fear barrier
b. When the going gets tough, the tough leave me behind – resisting the urge to quit
c. I need to harden the f*uck up – learning to embrace the suck
d. I keep screwing up – developing Jedi concentration skills to become a better athlete
e. I don’t handle pressure well – how to cope with stress, anxiety and expectations on race day
Not every chapter is going to be relevant to you, but I found that I have dealt with issues in most chapters at some point in my 30 years of life and it would have been really helpful to have this book at those times. Each chapter explains the science behind how the psychological problem occurs and then offers extremely useful practical solutions on how to deal with the problem. The reason I have set out all the chapters is because I think this book is worth buying even if only one chapter applies to you.
I didn’t have much use with the Heart section, I have been an athlete my whole life, so I think that helps with those problems. If you are a new athlete then this section could be very useful. There are a lot of chapters in the Wings section I found useful particularly (c) and (d) because I suck at having injuries and I have had people worried about my training in the past. Training for performance and not just for the sake of training is probably the hardest thing for me. The fight chapter titled ‘I don’t handle pressure well’ will be helpful for anyone who is performing under real pressure (i.e. racing at a national championships, at an international level, at a world championships, needs to podium to keep sponsorship). Unlike self help articles in magazines, the authors in Brave Athlete do not tell you there is no pressure, because there is. Instead, they give you 12 strategies to try to perform (perform the skill required as quickly as possible) despite this pressure.
Even if you don’t think you need this book now, it is useful to have in the book shelf for the future. I purchased this as an ebook. Don’t do that. You will be referring to this book so often I highly recommend hard copy.
It is almost impossible to visit the Victorian alps and not leave feeling inspired. I started the weekend extremely anxious and unhappy and finished the weekend confident and energised. Thank you Bright for making me feel like myself again! Two weeks out from Bright I …