Sibling Rivalry – My battle in The 2013 Salomon Trail series

Sibling rivalry in sport...

For some, sibling rivalry brings out the best in us. In AFL there are four Selwood Brothers all playing at the top level. There is Serena and Venus still rocking the tennis world. Australia had the three Chappell brothers play for their country in cricket.

In the past it had never affected me. I grew up playing top level junior hockey while my brothers played top level basketball and football (AFL).

We all enjoyed our sport and I guess the only rivalry was who would be able to have mum and dad come and watch them.  I think did miss the chance to stick up for a little brother or show off the skills out on the field but I nearly always won back yard cricket. 

This brings me to my current life as a runner. The Salomon trail series is just under two weeks away and I’m getting both excited and a little nervous as well. Why? Sibling rivalry. Well, almost. My brother-in-law is also running in the first race, the 11km ‘medium’ course. He’s becoming an excellent runner. His last 10km time was a few seconds quicker than mine. 

That makes me nervous and brings a lot of personal searching.

How do I run the next race? Will I go out with him? Do I trail him and see how he paces over the early stages of the race? What if he beats me?

I’ve never really had to deal with this before. I ran ‘against’ him in my first Puffing Billy run, before I took things more seriously and I was beaten by a few minutes. Now it gets a little more real. My personal pride and ego are at stake.

I’ve also been running with the Dandy Runners and quite a few of my good running mates are running the 11km Salomon trail series or the Salomon Series medium courses as well. I know I can keep with them and possibly place ahead of them. But I’m getting nervous. It’s gone from racing the field to racing people I know. Maybe I finally have to start really racing… Maybe it might be the push I need to get a solid top 10 finish.

Let me know your thoughts with your comments below.

How do you complete when sibling rivalry gets involved?

How do you race when fellow club members are out in the field? Does it improve your performance or does it hinder and start niggling away mentally?

I’ll let you know in a couple of weeks after the first race in the 2013 Salomon trail series. 

Cheers and happy running as always, 

The Fish

Keep moving on the trail with 10% off at barefootinc.com.au with 'fish10' 

Salomon Trail series - Training Update

So what's new with the fish? 

I was hoping to be writing about how I was chosen to be one of the four 2013 Salomon Trail Series ambassadors. The prize included some photo ops, Salomon trail kit and the chance to write a training blurb and and race reviews for the Rapid Ascent website http://www.salomontrailseries.com.au/. Alas, I was not chosen but had fun thinking of 25 words that summed me up. Between me and the organizers I thought they were pretty good, but for now I'll leave you wondering. 

That leads me to my next point, my training. 

My recent focus has been building speed and strength. I have been putting more power sessions into my weekly routines. Admittedly I've dropped the long runs a little, but I've enjoyed learning to, and pushing myself to run faster. 

My weekly for the last month has been a mix of hill repeats, km on into km off hard tempo runs and a few 6 - 8 km Fartlek sessions. 

It's been a challenge but I feel as though I am making ground. I have three training weeks days until the first 10.9km trail race and I'm keen to go. 

This morning I ran my 'testing ground' run at a planned 4:25 min/km rate. I averaged about 4:35 on the way out and 4:15 on the way back. Total time was 39:43 - the quickest yet. 

So, where to? I have a planned morning run by 'torchlight' on Thursday down along the Yarra trail of the first race, a long run in the hills next weekend and then more speed and power work. 

Again I'm aiming for top 10% in each race. If you spot my pirate wragg, come and say g'day. I hope to see you our there!

Watch this space. I'll update with pics of the first trail race when I find them.

Cheers, Lachie