Ironstride Performance

Heysen 105 (114.5km) ✅

Official time of 19:22:39

What a roller coaster of a day. All types of weather, every emotion experienced, a variety of paces ran and walked. It wasn’t the outcome I wanted with many moments of despair, but also many highs that really made for a long exhausting day worthwhile. I’m glad I finished and I’m grateful for the experience. I wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for my crew and the many people that came out to see me as well as those who sent messages of encouragement throughout the day.

I especially wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for , thank you for supporting me not just on the day but for so many weeks of preparation. I’m lucky I have you by my side 😘

Now that it’s been a few days I’m keen to try something even bigger, but not for a while, maybe 2027.

I’ll still do some shorter trails in 2026, but it’s going to be the year for speed. Time to get fast 🏃💨

Heysen 105 training week 14/16

Possibly the biggest week of training I’ve ever had. I hit a single at 95% of my all time PRs for bench and deadlift during my biggest week of running ever, 82km total.

I ran Mt Bold Extra Long course (35km) with no taper and heavy deadlifts 2 days before, plus cardio and a 8km run the day before.

Running Mt Bold under fatigue was deliberate to help prepare for heysen 105 in 2 weeks. Simulating what it might feel like in the second half of the 115km. I ran Mt Bold in 3:45, which is great news for the time I’m aiming for with heysen…. just gotta triple the distance 👌

Now I’ll taper for 2 weeks to get to the start line feeling fresh for my biggest challenge so far.

Heysen 105 Training Week 12/16



Solid week of training last week. Let’s see if I can lift heavier and run further this week.

Heysen 105 training week 12/16

Not a great week for training. I was lucky to get 30km of running and some heavy benches in. Had a sinus infection turned chest infection, not sure exactly what from but it’s finally coming good. The body felt okay but had some crazy congestion so I just didn’t feel like running or pushing myself.

At least bench is feeling good and strength hasn’t gone down after all this running, plus losing about 5kgs. I’ll be testing bench and deadlifts next week with the EC crew.

🤞 I can get some decent kms in this week.

Heysen 105 Training week 11/16

C2B time: 51:05

Totalled slightly less kms for the week than planned but I was carrying more fatigue than expected and wanted to feel fresh to send it for C2B. Hit exactly what I planned so I’m happy with the outcome.

Now to build into some large volume weeks and increase the aerobic base a little more. Let’s see what one more month can do!

Heysen 105 Training week 10/16

Back to normal training the past week and managed to hit some good numbers for strength work (bench & deadlifts) and back up to 75km of running.

I’ve also joined in on a study for how predictive lactate threshold is of a race time. I did a lactate threshold test which they’ll be using to predict my city-bay time. I’ll now go out and send it on Sunday and they’ll use that data to compare. The LTHR test will also give me some useful numbers for my own training which is handy.

I hit a couple of big runs this weekend and feel great considering. I’ll take it easy this week so I can try get a big PB for city-bay, then I’ll have one final ramp up of volume for the last month of this training block.

Heysen 105 Training week 9/16

Managed to get sick twice in one week. Yay me! Somehow still got in 2 good days of training, then felt terrible on the 3rd. Had a 30% drop in running volume from my de-load the previous week. Hopefully I can get a decent week of running in this week and get back on track.

I’ve made some adjustments to the plan and I might not get in the 2 weeks of +100km during my peaks of training, but I wasn’t expecting to actually build that volume at the start. It was just the ideal scenario.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens from here. Still aiming to send it for city-bay in under 2 weeks as well 🏃💨

Heysen 105 training week 8/16

Started this training week off with a complete rest day after Barossa marathon, first one of the training block. No running, cross training or strength training.

Had a 30% deload in running volume this week (totalling 56km). Kept just about everything else up in terms of intensity though.

Finished the week off with a solid 24km trail run around Sturt gorge and felt pretty awesome for only a week post marathon. Also accumulated just shy of 300km for the month, 20% increase from last month.

Heysen 105 Training Week 5/16 (last week)

Very happy to still hit close to the total kms programmed last week considering I had a rather sore calf. For reasons unrelated to normal training as well. I kept the pace a little slower for most of the week and swapped 1 run out for a bike instead.

Barossa Marathon tomorrow.

Heysen 105 training week 5/16

Started this week feeling great after Mt Crawford last Sunday, until I went for an easy 60 min run Tuesday. Had a bit of a sore calf and didn’t realise until I started running.

Kept it much easier than planned for all my runs this week, as much as I would really like to send it for a 20 min 5k attempt. Regardless, I pulled back.

Then on Friday my HR was suddenly much lower than usual, I’ve got a comparison at the end of the slides from 2 months ago. I didn’t think I’d ever see average HRs of low 140s (I’ve always had a very high HR). Maybe I will see it continue to drop 🤔 keen to see how these recent adaptations to high volume continue to change over the next 3 months.

Happy to still be able to hit 200kg for deadlifts. Also excited to see how Barossa Marathon goes in 2 weeks!

Heysen 105 Training Week 4/16

1 month into this training block and the fitness I’m building is exceeding expectations.

Consistency is everything. I’m hitting every training session, ensuring hard days are hard, easy days are easy, with recovery on point. I’m eating as much as I can, sleeping as best I can, and reducing other stressors (productivity is the quickest way to reduce stress).

The plan can only take you so far, consistent daily efforts are what makes the real difference. No rest days, just lower volume/intensity days.

This was a great week and I’m eager to keep building. 245km total for the month. Slight deload of volume for the week at 53km.

Training Week 3/16 for Heysen 105

Here’s every exercise from my Upper Push Day, last week was the last week of the block. This block had a larger hypertrophy focus.

The session:
1. Flat Bench DB Press
2A. Chest Supported DB row
2B. Barbell Floor Press
3A. DB Shoulder Press
3B. Cable Lateral Raise
3C. Rope Face Pulls
3D. Incline DB Bicep Curl

This week I’m going back to a more general physical preparation style training block with a little bit of everything. Each session will have 1-3 exercises for each training focus with 2-3 hard sets per exercise (Training Focus’: plyometrics, power, strength, hypertrophy). You’ll get a look into some of those movements at the end of this week.

As for the running, training is feeling great and I’m handling the volume increases well, totalled 64km (first training week over 60km, although there will be a lot of firsts coming up). I have a couple small niggles showing up but I’m taking my 2 weekday sessions a little easier this week (small deload). Then I have TRSA: Mt Crawford 24km Trail run this weekend. Looking forward to comparing this run to Mt Bold from last October. There should be a nice increase in speed with lower relative effort.