Thomas "The Tank" Dade

Blog Update #18

So my last update I was talking about walking the fine line, referring to taking on a large ultramarathon schedule and still keeping the body healthy, well….. I think I may be starting to fall off that line! A week and a half ago I competed in my first backyard ultra and boy I have I paid for it. I managed to squeeze out 200km/30 hours/30 laps which gave me fourth position, 6 laps and 40km less than the winner. And I’ve been feeling every one of those 200kms since, my quad started giving me trouble after running only 6 laps. However I pushed for another 24 laps, some of those laps were excruciating but I stubbornly continued, accepting that I’d probably end up paying for it in the days to follow. I was right, I’m still paying for it a week and a half later. I’ve had pain in that quad in every run since. Not only this but my body in general has been banged up, tight back giving me sciatica, tight hamstrings, tight glutes, tight calves, heart rate has been elevated (10bpm higher than normal whilst resting) for a week and it’s taken 7-8 days for my sleep to return to normal, it messed me up. This would usually be ok however I’ve got Oscars Hut 2 Hut 100km (now 2x 50km, will talk more about this later) in 2 days. I’m not feeling my motivated, energetic self, some lethargy has stuck around and won’t seem to go away! I feel like my body and even mind is just hanging on at the moment, and Oscars Hut 2 Hut may just completely sink me. And I’m starting to become quite concerned with the quad, maybe it might take a couple months not weeks to become pain free!? However I’m not letting this stop me, I’m still doing Oscars Hut 2 Hut I’m just gonna have to go in and do my best, its the first ultramarathon in a while where I’m scared of the possibility of a DNF. I’m praying my quad holds up, the one thing I’m certain of is it won’t be fun. Bottom line I’m going survival mode, getting to the nitty gritty and I’m just winging it. Whatever happens, happens I’ll figure it out from there. Funnily enough thats also where I’m at with everything else in life at the moment, work? no certainties, I’m winging it, training? No schedule, I’m winging it, what’s my goals for the future? Who knows, I’m winging it. I’m just controlling what I can, work when I can, train as much as much and whatever I can and race as much as I can, hopefully something happens…….

I made a reference above about the Oscars Hut 2 Hut 100km changing from 100km to 2x 50km. Due to a recent 5 day snap lockdown in Victoria, Australia the Oscars Hut 2 Hut course had become impossible to mark before the event. We come out of lockdown on the Wednesday and the race starts on the Friday, it’s a technical, remote, mountain race and because of that the race organisers even with our help just can’t mark the course in one day on the Thursday. As a result they’ve changed the 100km event into a multi-day event, the 100km runners will now complete the 50km Archie course (Oscars Hut 2 Hut Hut baby brother) twice. Once in reverse on the Friday and then once in the traditional direction on the Saturday. Theres also no guarantee this can go ahead as we have no idea if lockdown restrictions will be eased by Thursday!

I’m looking forward to my next blog update, I may be writing about how disappointed I am that I had to pull out of numerous ultramarathons due to my quad or I could be writing about how lucky I am that everything worked out! Who knows! I have no idea what’s currently happening or what’s to come and although its a little scary, its kind of funny and exciting!