🥔The Bonus Fritter 06/04/25
"like a pair of conjoined Octopus twins trying to keep 16 plates spinning"
Welcome to ‘The Bonus Fritter’.
The “I only paid for one potato fritter, but I got 3” edition of the Trail Running NZ newsletter.
Here’s what’s come out of the deep fryer this week:
🎁Segment Showdown 2.0
⛰️Mountain Skag Merch > Brand
💩Ranga’s Ramble
❓5 Watts
Firstly, a big THANKYOU to you all, the paid subscribers who keep this thing humming.
I don’t take it lightly that people have parted with their money to help me write on the internet. Without you guys, I’m sure I would have faked a wrist sprain by now and given up.
The intention this week is to give you guys a look behind the curtain at some of the things that I’m working on behind the scenes.
Let’s kick into it.
Behind The Curtain
I can’t believe it’s already March. My apologies. I realise it’s been since before Christmas when I last sent one of these out. The truth is, I’ve felt like a pair of conjoined Octopus twins trying to keep 16 plates spinning.
What’s happening behind the scenes?
Trail Running NZ Summit Competition
At the end of January, I got an email from a rep of what I’ll call an ‘Outdoors’ company. They wanted to see if there was a way they could sponsor the newsletter that wasn’t just slapping their name at the start of one of the weekly newsletter segments.
We bounced a few emails back and forth, but nothing really clicked. Then, a few weeks later, it hit—Segment Showdown 2.0. The segments are ascents on summits all around the country. The company I’m talking to has several sponsored athletes, so the idea is to try to beat the sponsored athlete’s time.
There will be instant prizes if you beat the time, and every rep of the segment you do gets you an entry into the larger prize pool. Paid subscribers will get double the prize value if you beat the time, and you will get double points for each rep, so twice the chance to win a spot prize.
We should be good to get the party started in a couple weeks all things going well so watch this space!
⛰️Mountain Skag: Merch > Brand
Mountain Skag of The Week came about as I felt the newsletter needed a reader participation element, and everyone loves sending in pics of their weekend missions. So I rolled with calling it Mountain Skag (to borrow a phrase introduced to me by the great Chris Martin.)
If you have a competition, you need to have a prize, right?
Roll on the T’s, Beanies & Caps using an international print on demand service. It’s been a fun little side project that has ticked over and helped spread the Mountain Skag gospel nationwide.
Well, over the last month, we (Brooke and I) have decided we are going to have a crack at taking Mountain Skag from newsletter merch to a “household” name. The idea is to continue to build the good vibes of the newsletter and everything that goes with it into the Mountain Skag brand.
We’re not quite ready to launch yet. It turns out that starting a clothing brand is a bit more complicated than spouting off fake news and BS once a week on the internet!
When we push the shiny red button and launch, I’m sure you’ll know.
I haven’t worked out if we can produce this as T-shirt yet. but I’ve had a lot of fun making ‘Sam The Man’ inspired designs🤣.
Ranga’s Ramble(Me)
At the start of 2024, my running was a complete shambles. So, I decided to make things simple—just get out the door. Even if it was just a spin around the block, that counted. No pressure, no overanalyzing, just movement.
Did it make me the fastest monkey in the circus? No. But it got the ball rolling. It got my fit enough to “run” the Tararua Mountain Race, which I’ve always wanted to do. Did I hit my goal time? Fark No. But I did get to the start line feeling like I was in the fight.
TMR relit the fire for me. Standing around at the finish, I knew I wanted to push myself more. I hadn’t realised how much confidence I had lost after my 100-mile DNF at Tarawera in 2023.
Enter Nic Ayson from Singletrack Collective. She saw a featherless baby bird squirming around in the grass being stalked by a cat at the bottom of the tree. She’s taken me under her wing and vomited worms into my mouth. With her guidance over the last 12 months, I feel as fit as I have been in the previous couple of years.
Have I taken the world by storm? Not at all😝. But it could be so much worse!
5 Things I’ve Learned Working With Nic Ayson
✅ There is still hope for this mule: I can run quite fast when I let myself try. Just not for that long… yet😆. In the past, I’ve just freestyled my training. I inevitably run about the same speed over the same trails, bumbling around in the hills close to home.
Having at least one midweek workout a week, with strides and hill reps thrown into easy running days, has kept things interesting and opened my mind to the possibility of moving this carcass a bit faster.
✅ I need a human journal: Scraping together all the wild thoughts that go on during a 40-minute easy run and offloading them to someone else is fantastic. Yes, I could use a journal. But having someone else able to confirm or challenge your thoughts is one of the best parts of working with a coach.
✅ External motivation isn’t all that bad: I’ve read all the books, listened to the podcasts, etc. Yes, being internally motivated is the ideal, but sometimes, not wanting to let someone down is the rocket fuel you need to stop overthinking it and just get sh💩t done.
✅ Progress, not perfection: I’ve always struggled with self-made pressure before workouts or a big long run. I’d overthink them all day and procrastinate before eventually sandbagging the run and giving up on it, only to say, “I told you so.” Aiming to get better, rather than the perfect splits, has meant I’ve been excited to get out the door for workouts.
✅ Being told what to do isn’t always bad: I usually haaate being told what to do. But being able to just get up and run without working out what type of run, how long for, and whether it is too much or too little has meant a lot less procrastination and freeing up brain cells to come up with stupid photoshops for the newsletter.
What I’ve loved about working with Nic is how invested she is. You always feel like you’re the only person she’s coaching. Whether it’s a last-minute question about a workout, swapping around dates, or just needing to offload about how sh💩t your run was, she’s there.
She keeps things simple too. No fancy Apps. Just google sheets. I love the simplicity of it. Anyway, this really is living up to the title (ramble).
If this sounds like an infomercial, well… it kind of is. But Nic has no idea I’m writing it. If you’ve been thinking of looking for a coach but are not sure if it’s for you. Reply to this email, and I’ll put you in touch, and you can figure out if it’s a match.
5 Watts
I thought I would try what all the cool cats do in their newsletters😺.
What I’m Cranking
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm.
This was one of my all-time favourite albums from my late teens into my twenties. And then it was gone. For whatever reason, it didn’t make my transition from illegal downloading to legal streaming. But I caught the back end of a song on Channel X the other day, and it was like falling in love again😍.
I still remember hearing Banquet on a Snowboarding film that I had “acquired”. I paused it and went straight to the credits. It’s just one of those albums that instantly transforms my mood.
What I’m Pondering
“Don’t complain about how full your plate is, when your goal was to eat.”
I can’t remember if I’m quoting it correctly (unlikely), but it stuck.
When life is all go go go, it’s easy to forget that at one stage you would have killed for the life you now have.
At times, things have been a little overwhelming in the last couple of months. Changing “I’ve got to” to “I get to” has helped keep me suitably optimistic when the bullets start flying and the pots start boiling over.
What I’m Reading
Sweet FA - Looking for recommendations. They don’t need to be running-related - preferably “this world” based. Not too keen on getting hooked on cheap fantasy porno.
What I’m Excited About
Brooke (my wife), has started consistently running again. She ticked off a half marathon last year, and earlier in the year, ran the Ian Priest Marathon. She’s officially got the bug again.
All eyes on her return to the trail ultra scene. She’s now snowballing her way to the Faultline 50. I’m not as excited about fitting 2 runners’ worth of training into the small windows through the week (or the extra laundry), BUT it’s incredible seeing her set her mind on a goal, work towards it, and achieve what she set out to do. I could learn a thing or 2!
What’s Made Me Laugh
I’m not sure what the cross-over percentage is from paid trail-running newsletter subscribers to cricket fans, but I guess we will find out.
My algorithm has just been filled with these cricket green screen memes, and they’ve had me in absolute stitches.
This one would have to be my favourite:
Have a great rest of your weekend everyone, and once again thank you for all your support.
Bradley AKA ‘The Hot Mess’