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Well, we're into November. Like sand through the hourglass, these are the days of our lives.

I struggle to find interesting things to write about, though I actually enjoy my daily routine quite a lot. Of course, it consists almost entirely of working out, eating and sleeping, but those are very good things. So in general, life is good. Just not particularly exciting to read about.

I did do a fun thing the other day, and that is this: buy a plane ticket to Australia. I am going to zing down there for a month, in February. Right now I have no reals plans, although I'd like to go on a road trip. That might mean staying for a lot longer than a month, haha. I'm also going to run another marathon.

We (Brendon and I) have decided to sign up for "The six foot track". Here's a little exerpt from the website:

The Six Foot Track is a 45 km footpath stretching across the Blue Mountains... The marathon started in 1984 and follows the length of the entire footpath. It is Australia's 5th largest marathon and by far the largest 100 % off-road running event. ... It currently attracts over 850 entrants each year.

Here's a link to a hydration document for the race. I can honestly say that I'm afraid, after reading this. http://www.sixfoot.com/docs/hydration-sixfoot.pdf

The part that has me really scared is this:

Train for the terrain: Include hilly runs, and walk up and down steep hills weekly.

- Train in the heat (about 100 minutes of running in greater than 25 ºC) every few days if possible to heat acclimate. The number of runners who collapse is proportional to the maximal temperature of the day!

- It takes about 2 weeks to train the body to exercise more efficiently in the heat.

Two weeks! Well, I've got two weeks before the race, so I guess that means spending a lot of time in the heat. It sure as hell won't be hot here in Vancouver...

In the meantime, I am running with lots of clothes on, trying to get used to sweating my arse off, and running to the point of reasonable dehydration. I just found a great article on "Exercise Associated Hyponatremia" or EAH, which is essentially drinking yourself to death! The article is free! I believe in science!

Anyway, I'm not that worried about it, but I do plan on doing some reading to try to estimate my sweat rates, so I can plan my hydration during the race. I'm also going to get on the power gel program, because I'm pretty sure they allowed me to kick ass and take names when I ran the Black Tusk last year. Incidentally, I want to do that again. Any takers?

Here's the Wikipedia entry for the 6 foot track. Looks pretty nice! Except for those stairs. That doesn't look nice at all... That looks grim. Gotta get back on the Grouse Grind, pronto.

The course looks pretty hilly, but I actually don't think it's steeper than the Black Tusk. Black tusks seems to climb about 950 m in around 7.5 km, on average, whereas the Six Foot seems to do 600 m in 4 km ... and that's the very steepest 4 km. On average, the entire course is actually a few hundred metres downhill! Which is good, because I love running downhill.

Here's a cool interactive map of the 6 foot track, with a pretty graph of altitude versus distance. Looks awesome! Looks long ...

I guess there's a chance we don't get in, since they only are allowed to let 850 people run each year. Fingers crossed! Although if we don't get in, I'll be just as content to go on a roadtrip instead.

There's also the Canberra Marathon happening just a few weeks after. If you recall, I ran the Canberra Marathon in 2005. Sure would be fun to run it again, esp. after doing the 6 foot track, as I'd be in insanely good shape by that time. Sub 3:00? Haha. I doubt it, but live to dream, right?

Here's a blog post from some woman who hiked it, with some cool pictures: Christine's Ozblog. Looks nice! I doubt I'll be taking many photos though...

And here's a dude who actually ran it! Six Foot Track Training Diary 2009.

Anyway, now you too can be excited about the Six Foot Track.

Mitch out.