New Scenic Rim Trail FKT of 5H 32M 19S
Physical Preparation
Leading into this weekend I have been focusing my weeks around 2 major sessions and one major goal. One speed/interval session in order to improve stride efficiency and lactate clearance and one long run session to build tissue tolerance and prepare the body for the longer route attempts through the year. This has been a very slow gradual build over the year with these as my focus and some aerobic and tempo sessions sprinkled between based on how my body feels each week.
The week before the run I only did one run and one bike and one strength session to allow my body to adapt to its previous training and recover and repair any damage to my tissues. Most people think its the intensity you need to take from your sessions but it's actually the volume. I kept some good intensity through the three sessions but I was no where near the volume I would normally do because I knew that by the end of the week after the 45km run on the trail that my weekly mileage would be near the amount and duration I wanted to allow me to recover and continue training the following week without having to take too much of a recovery week.
I tried to get as much sleep as I possibly could; life did get in the way a little bit. Normally I like to get at least 9 hours before any significant events or sessions, and I was good on that a couple nights but life gets in the way and most nights were just over 8 or just under 9.
Mental Preparation
Normally for any sessions where I have a goal in mind visualisation is a huge technique for me the night and morning before, but in this case the FKT before me was not a very quick time at about 11 hours+. Therefore I knew if I went out and started comfortable, enjoyed the views and focused on being grateful for where I was in that moment and be happy with what my body was allowing me to do that I would get to the end with the new fastest recorded time on the trail and in a time I would be happy with... for now.
Nutrition
- Hammer nutrition bar
- 2 home made gels
- 2 precision fuel (90g satchets)
- 6 tropical hammer gels
- 2 chimpanzee gels
- 2 maurten (1 caffeine/ 1 regular)
- 12 endurolytes
- 6 endurolyte extremes
- 2l water
I started the run with a hammer nutrition bar while I was packing my gear just to get something in my stomach, through the run I took in one gel and one regular endurolyte every 30 minutes throughout the run (about 60g of carbs per hour) which worked really well for me. I drank to thirst and took some water in with every gel. This got me to the finish feeling really strong and with lots of energy.
I ended up having 4 hammer gels, 1 precision fuel sachet, 1 chimpanzee gel, and one of my homemade gels. I was not a fan of the texture and taste of the chimpanzee gel. I got it because it was more natural which normally agrees with my stomach a little better but I will probably not purchase them again. Precision fuel has a decent taste and texture easy to digest but I was not a huge fan of the vast amount of chemicals in it. My homemade gel was too over powered by caffeine. The other great part about this trail is there are three water barrels stationed at 9, 22, and about 32kms so I brought water purifying tablets to treat the water and a filter for my soft flasks. By the end I had consumed 3.5 litres over the 5.5 hours
Equipment
- Shoes: Altra Mont Blanc Boa (they have cause a discomfort under the right ball of my foot)
- Sun Protection: Fractel Leggionaire ("TheGoatFarm" for 15% off)
- Hydration vest: salomon 12
- Naked Run belt
- Salomon running shirt
- Nike 1 inch running shorts
- Injinji High ankle socks
- Hammer Nutrition Fuel (TGF10 for 10% off) I can't recommend their Endurloytes enough for long runs
- Water purifying tablets from chemists warehouse (12$ so much better than some other expensive brands)
- 4 solomon flasks
- Snake bandage
- Phone
- Runshocks (for the podcast relentless)
The Run
I was incredibly excited to run this beautiful trail, as out of all the great walks in the scenic rim area this is the best! We camped at the starting of the hike at the Thornton View trailhead. As Isla and Brittany were still sleeping I left at 5:30am just before first light and was rewarded with beautiful 180 degree views of the Thornton valley while the sun was peaking over the mountains. The first 9 kms and 1000ms of gain went by so quick because of how beautiful the morning sunrise and views were. That inner peace I felt as I ran along the ridgeline was a feeling I carried with me through the rest of the run.
I skipped the first water barrel as I knew I had two litres which would be enough to get me to the second camp and continued onto the second section of the trail which changes from the switchbacks up the mountain into about 13kms of fire trail through the Gondwana Rainforest. This section was pretty straight forward and easy to follow and nice open trail.
Once I got to the second camp at about 23kms and water barrell that's when the technical rainforest trail started for the next 23kms to the finish at mount Cordeaux. With the beautiful rainforest single track though a creek crossing, some beautiful views, a small waterfall and then an amazing view of the Scenic Rim at Bare Rock and mount Cordeaux. While the trail was fairly technical because of back and forth single track, sticks, tree branches that had come down, and rocks dispersed across the trail, it was still very easy to follow making sure to stick to the orange markers.
Overall this trail offers some amazing views a varied terrain and it is one of my favourite trails to date in the southeast Queensland area and I will be back to put a full effort at some point. But for now I leave the time of 5H 32M and 19S as the current FKT and see if anyone heads out to try and best it.
GPX file:
Strava Link:
Learnings
- Need to find more consistent nutrition as I felt like I had high energy the whole run but felt like I was taking too many different types.
- need to find a long distance shoe that doesn't create the hot spot under the ball of my foot
awesome review and FKT