Macchiato Pace

Inov-8s at 3,200 mtrs, enjoying the view of Eiger before the 8 day run!

Runners have lots of ways to describe their various paces...marathon pace, LSD pace, "5k" pace, threshold pace, fat burning pace, anaerobic pace...but I've got two more now. Cappuccino pace and macchiato pace.

When I was preparing for TNF100 in May, I divulged my race plan to someone, along with the plan for transitions at aid stations to be less than 2 minutes each. I was informed by this particular someone that she had spent 20 minutes the year before at CP4, over a 44 gallon fire drum in the dark, sipping cappuccino. That gave rise to a race done at "cappuccino pace."

Going into the TransAlpine Run with my partner Rolf, we talked consistently about running cappuccino pace. Rolf is new to ultra running. He literally started running when he met me 2.5 years ago. He has finished one official ultra race (46km). His greatest running achievement, he says, is getting a stress fracture of his sacrum (he knows of no one else who has achieved this!).

Altitude training: gondola up Mt Titlis then a run down

As I sat down yesterday to do some rough projections for each day of the event, I saw that most days looked to be 7 hours worth of running. I took this info to Rolf last night for discussion. Whilst trying to be prudent about not breaking his newbie ultra-running body, we also need to be mindful of how much time we spend on our feet each day. Time on the feet is time not lying down with them elevated! (And not time with beer and chocolate in hand for Rolf, too!).

So we decided we needed something slightly faster than cappuccino pace, but not expresso/body-breaking pace.

Macchiato pace. Something just in between. Lots of get-up-and-go, but with just a little cream on top ;)

Taper running - non impact, as long as you stay in the air ;)

If you're interested in following along (there are a few other Aussies and Canadians going, too), the site is here and come race day they should have a live link with updates throughout each day as we pass each checkpoint. There is no Mixed Masters category (darn!), so we're in the (open) Mixed, team #86. This year's event is the longest ever, at 320km in total and 15,000 mtrs. The days are:

Germany to Austria 49k +1663/-1667 mtrs
Austria 35k +1849/-1742 mtrs
Austria 47k +2258/-2147 mtrs
Austria to Italy 43k +1997/-1420 mtrs
Italy 33k +1821/-2403 mtrs (Rolf's downhill day?!?)
Italy 39k +2289/-1966 mtrs
Italy 42k +1950/-2000 mtrs
Italy 33k +1269/-1104 mtrs

Taper week gave a unique opportunity...tobogganing on the top of Mt Titlis!