Race Media

New Zealander Ruth Croft (Scott Running/Garmin) is in town for the upcoming MSIG HK50 and caught up with her talking about her summer.

What has your recent summer racing in Europe entailed:

I was in Europe for 6 weeks starting from the beginning of August and in that time I did 5 races (I don’t advise this). That was not the original race plan, but after my first race Sierre-Zinal, which didn’t go well, I found my fitness was not really where is needed to be and I just was feeling a bit flat mentally. So we decided to scrap the original race plan and use that time to build up my base, do the races I really wanted to do, get some long days in the mountains, and just get the enjoyment back.

After Sierre-Zinal a week later I did the Zermatt Ultrak 30km. Then the week after that I decided to do Kima which is 52km with 4,200m climbing, it is only held biannually and said to be the race where skyrunning began. It went well, I really enjoyed Kima, it is probably one of my favorite races, just the atmosphere the Italians provide, the landscape, and there are not many races where you are going over via ferrata hanging onto chains, it is pretty epic.

Three days later I did Lizzy Hawker’s Ultra Tour Monte Rosa stage race which was 116km with 8,200m climbing split into 3 days. That also was a great experience, I enjoyed having a go at a stage race. I got told stage races are like school camp for adults, and I totally agree, for UTMR you just minus the bunk beds and add good food (I can’t speak for all stage races though). I enjoyed the chance to meet new people and share the trails with them for three days, Lizzy and her team have done a great job with this race.

After that I was suppose to go back to Taiwan, but I decided I wanted to do Glen Coe Skyline (apparently logical race planning is not my strong point), which like Kima is on the Skyrunning World Series Extreme, so in order to get a ranking in the series you have to do two out of the three races. Glen Coe is 56km with 4,600m climbing. Things didn’t go too well, the previous month of racing and running had finally caught up to me, and in hindsight I should not have done this race. There are some relentless climbs in Glen Coe, some really technical sections, which added a different element compared to Kima, Glen Coe you didn’t have the safety of chains to hold onto if you fell. The body was tired and I came in 4^th, getting 3rd in the series. Overall though it was a great time in Europe, I got the enjoyment back and liked having a go at the Extreme series and the more technical races, that I would normally not do.

How has your training changed from in Taiwan to Euro races:

I struggle in the summer in Taiwan getting in the training, which definitely showed when I got to Europe. I think most runners in Asia will agree long term training in the heat and humidity is detrimental to your training, and the body takes a lot longer to recover than it normally would.

In Taipei we have technical trails but you can’t find a sustained runnable 1,500m climb like you get in Europe.  You make the most of what you have, but I found after a couple of weeks in Europe in the mountains I started to feel a lot stronger.

How did you manage the logistics with racing in Europe:

The logistics were not too bad actually. I treated Chamonix as a base, so normally in-between races I would head back there. Also being on the SCOTT team is really good, at the main races the team all stays together and you can rely on your team mates for support on the course etc., so you don’t have to go at it alone, which makes a difference.

Hong Kong?

See you there...big smile.

 

Ruth will be someone to keep your eyes on as won the MSIG Taiwan 50 in 2015 amongst other events.

photo credit Guillem Casanova