Welcome to Wave Running
Welcome to the first in a series about Wave Running, a new way of making endurance training programs for pretty much any length endurance event. In the series, I will explain Wave Running to you, as I use it to train for my first hundred-mile ultra.
There’s an old saying that a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step.
Well, my journey of 100 miles began with over 30 years of playing hockey, running two marathons and five ultras – did I do too much?
My name is Matt Jones.
I’m the creator of Wave Running, a new way of making endurance training programs using the Elliott Wave Theory.
But before I get into that, here’s a bit about me.
You could say I’m an old bloke who’s been around the block a few times!
I played field hockey at a good level for 20 years, with and against national and Olympic players.
First Marathon
After that, just before I turned 40, I ran my first marathon, the 2001 Perth Marathon. Being a bit naïve and excited, I over-trained and blew up with an injury a few weeks before the race. I still ran, and I managed to finish. My time was reasonable too, but I wondered what might have been with better preparation. Apart from the injury, it was a fantastic experience, and I was keen to run more and see what I could do.
So I set my sights on the 2005 London Marathon. I was registered and confirmed, and I was training hard. Too hard, it turns out, and I blew up again. This time not from a specific injury, but from overtraining to the point where I got slower and slower, and my body was exhausted. I could not justify flying from Perth to London to compete when I was nowhere near my best, so I withdrew from the race.
Hockey Masters
That put a pause on my marathon journey. I went back to playing Masters’ hockey with some of my mates. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I was playing in the Masters National Championships.
I played Masters for ten years, including 8 National Championships for Western Australia, with four as player-coach. I also played for Australia in six international tournaments. These included 4 Masters World Cups with great people in some of the great cities of the world.
During those years of Masters Hockey, I never lost the urge to run.
Another Marathon & First Ultra
In 2015, I ran the City to Surf Marathon in Perth between an international hockey tournament in Melbourne and the national championships in Cairns.
Then in 2018, a few months before going to Barcelona for my 4th Hockey Masters World Cup, I ran my first Ultra. I ran the 6-hour version of the Light Horse Ultra here in Perth, where I managed to cover 53 km.
Running Takes Over
The hockey finished for me in Barcelona, and I have focused on Ultrarunning ever since.
In 2019, I ran three 20-25 km trail running events in the Perth hills. I also ran the 50 km version of an event called the Feral Pig on the Bibbulmun track (also in the Perth hills).
2019 Margaret River Ultra
2019 was also my first 80 km Margaret River Ultra, run on trails and beaches in southwest Western Australia.
The Margaret River Ultra was unbelievably hard. It is a mixture of breathtaking scenery (on forest trails and the Cape-to-Cape track between Busselton and Augusta) and relentless, difficult hills, and soft beach sand. It was not like anything I’d done before, and there was 80 km of it.
I managed to finish – in the dark of night after 12 hours and 20 minutes.
Wave Running is Born – 2020 Margaret River Ultra
In 2020, I ran the Margaret River Ultra for the second time. I did two full training programs in the lead-up after the event was postponed for 6 months because of COVID. This event was the first time I’d trained using my new Wave Running program, and I smashed my previous time by over an hour.
Wave Running in 2021
So far in 2021, I’ve run the Margaret River Ultra for the 3rd time. Training with Wave Running again, I went under 11 hours for the first time.
Professional Software Developer
I am a software developer professionally, and I’ve had my own business for over 35 years.
I love writing software – and I love running.
Spreadsheets & Stats
When I coach hockey, I have spreadsheets and stats everywhere.
And when I run, I keep spreadsheets and stats about everything.
I love to track my performance, try different things, and get every last bit out of myself.
It was this hunger to experiment and to keep improving, that led me to create Wave Running – but that’s a story for another day.
So it’s fair to say I’ve been on a journey – and I’m still going.
The Journey to 100 Miles – Feral Pig Ultra
I’ve just started my next training program – a 20-week program based on Wave Running. This program will take me to my next event – and my biggest challenge yet – the Feral Pig Ultra 100 Miler. It’s twice as far as I’ve been before, and it’s on the beautiful but challenging Bibbulmun Track, near Perth, Western Australia.
So I invite you to come on this journey with me – “A Journey to 100 Miles” as I train and get ready for the Feral Pig. Along the way, I’ll tell you more about Wave Running, and at the end of it, when the Feral Pig is done and dusted, I’ll be releasing the Wave Running app so you can use it to create your own endurance training programs for your journey, wherever it takes you.
That’s it for the intro to me and my journey. Please join me next time for the Wave Running origin story – where did it come from?
Until then
just keep going