2006 August Archive at Comrades Marathon Blog

Monthly Archive for August, 2006

The benefits of being lazy

Published
by
Andrew
on 26 August, 2006
in Uncategorized
.

So I’ve had a lazy week. Took Monday off, as a test of my heart rate showed that I was still recovering from Saturday’s run. Gale force winds on Tuesday made sure I didn’t run in the morning, (poor excuse, I know) and I played an early evening action cricket game, so couldn’t get a run in then. Wednesday is time trial day, and there is no way I was going to miss that. I figured that I’ve had a few days of rest, my legs will be fresh, and I’ll hopefully go sub 32 minutes for the 8km.

I hadn’t been feeling fantastic on Wednesday, thought I might have a bit of a cold, which would be disappointing. So I thought I’ll check my heart rate when I warm up, and if it’s higher than normal, I’ll take it easy over the run or stand back and help Joey time keep. (Poor guy has ITB, and can’t run)

Well the heart was fine, and I set out at a solid 4 min/km pace, and tried to hold it as steady as possible. It’s an interesting pace for me, as it’s just slightly faster than comfortable, but more manageable than 5km pace. I went through 5km at 20:04, perfect I thought. I maybe went a little too fast between kilometers 5 and 6, running the km in 3:56, because as I went through the 6km mark, I was finished! There was no way I could hold this pace through to 8km, I thought to myself. Hobbling all the way to 7km in 4:05, my mind suddenly switched. I suddenly had all this energy! I even managed a sprint for the last 50 odd metres. My final time, 31:42, very happy with that, and the last km? 3:35. Sometimes, being lazy and not running, can help.

Log for the 13 August to 20 August

Published
by
Andrew
on 21 August, 2006
in Uncategorized
. 2 Comments

After the Tuff Thirty on the Sunday, the rest on Monday was badly needed. My legs have coped with the extra distance just fine, but my feet are moaning nearly as much as certain Churches are about the new Comrades date. Fairly mild blisters, but blisters they are, and the caused me a bit pain on my run on Tuesday evening.

I ran just under 8km on Tuesday, which included 1.5km recalibration of my Polar S625X’s Footpod. I seemed to have calibrated it at the wrong pace, so I redid it, and it’s far more accurate now. After the calibration, I ran along the Sea Point Boulevard, for just under 6.5km. I’m running this route at least once a week now, but with the icy cold wind, it wasn’t the most pleasant run.

Wednesday is time trial day, and I woke up in the morning with very stiff legs. As the day progressed, my legs eased up, and the anticipation for the time trial grew. Although that could have been the thought of free beer, thanks to a Runner’s World and Cobra Beer promotion after the time trial. Anyway, the time trial came, and heavy rain a few days before meant that the route had to be changed slightly as we cut across a field normally, and also the 8km time trial was out. The free beer ensured a very strong turn out, 33 runners. The splits were as follows:

Km Time Lap     Time
1. 0:03:35.6     0:03:35.6
2. 0:07:16.8     0:03:41.2
3. 0:11:04.2     0:03:47.4
4. 0:14:51.4     0:03:47.2
5. 0:18:39.1     0:03:47.7

It’s quite clear that I went too hard at the start, as I couldn’t increase my pace as I usually do over the last km. However, a PB, one I’m happy with and there’s definitely room for improvement.

I woke up on Thursday to a beautiful Cape Town morning. There was no option but to hit Tafelberg road again. Needed to run 10km, so I started slightly before the cable car station, and the run ended up on being 9.9km which I completed in a comfortable 47:21. I always enjoy this run, and never get tired of it.

I took Friday off, mainly because of the rain and I got roped into a run from Rondebosch to Cape to Cuba, which we guessed would be about 30km. Thought my legs might need the rest. The run ended up being only 22km, so we ran to the end of Fish Hoek beach and back, making it 26.5km. We ran for 2 hours 21 minutes and it was an enjoyable run, I can feel my body getting used to the longer distances. Although Saturday evening was not pleasant to stand, my feet were still complaining.
Saturday night dragged on a bit late, resulting in an inexcusable day off of running for me, which meant my log shows a total weekly mileage of 49.9km. I can live with that.

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Race Update: Tuff Thirty 30km

Published
by
Andrew
on 15 August, 2006
in Uncategorized
.

So the Tuff Thirty 30km race was on this last Sunday, the 13th, in Durbanville, and what a run! The weather was perfect, perhaps a bit cold at the start. As you can see from the route profile, it is a rather hilly run, but by no means “tuff.”

The hill around 6km was a bit long and there were a few grumpling comments from some of the runners, but the climb allowed for some breathtaking scenery. It takes your attention away from the pain in your legs.

I aimed to run the race in under 3 hours, and I would have been ecstatic with 2:50, but I had a good start, joined a few other runners, and we held a good pace of around 5:20 min/km from 10km to 23km. Once I realised I could make under 2:40, I held my pace at just under 5 min/km, for the last 6 kays, and finished in 2:39. A time which I’m quite proud of, and not bad for my first 30km. It feels good to know that I can run further than 21km, now I just need to learn how to run faster for that kind of distance… back to the road I go… (hi ho, hi ho, it’s back.. ok I’ll stop now)

Update: I forgot to mention that the race was superbly organised by the Brackenfell Athletic Club. You can find the race results of the Brackenfell Tuff Thirty 30km here. If you scroll all the way down to 154, you’ll find yours truly.

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Blogged with Flock

Comrades vs Two Oceans

Published
by
Andrew
on 12 August, 2006
in Uncategorized
.

A debate frequently raised over a post time trial beer, is which race is bigger, Comrades or Two Oceans. In terms of number of entrants it’s no contest. In 2006, Two Oceans had 7770 entrants and Comrades had 11039. 2000 saw a record of 24 552 entrants to the Comrades Marathon, while Two Oceans’ record was in 2004, which had 9767.

So it’s clear, Comrades is a bigger race in terms of entrants, and in 2000, it was double the size. Inspired by Bill Tancer’s blog from Hitwise, I wondered how I could do the same type of analysis for Comrades and Two Oceans search terms. Then I remembered Google Trends, the tool from Google that provides, “insights into broad search patterns.” After playing around a bit, limiting the data to just South Africa, and 2005, you can see the result below.

The search queries, “Two Oceans” and “Comrades” only pick up around race time, and Comrades is clearly gathers more searches.

But what if “Marathon” decides to enter the battle:

As the graph shows, there are only slightly more searches for “Marathon” around Comrades, than when Two Oceans oceans is on. It’s pretty clear that South African Googlers are more interested in Comrades rather than the two oceans. However doesn’t seem to inspire anyone to search for marathon any more than Comrades does. Perhaps the distance of 56km is considered more a marathon than 87km, but who knows. I just thought this is interesting, make of it what you will.

I would have liked to have cross references search queries like, “Marathon Training Program” and others, but these didn’t yield enugh results for Google to give a result. The query “Marathon” is most likely broad, which means that other queries like “Marathon Training Program” will be matched, and summed in with the data.

Disclaimer: Google trends data are based on only a portion of searches, and approximated, so they’re not completely accurate, but should be pretty close.

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Blogged with Flock

Running in Cape Town

Published
by
Andrew
on 12 August, 2006
in Uncategorized
.

Aah it’s sometimes hard trying to run in Cape Town, when the weather’s good at least. On Thursday, the good weather helped me out of bed and onto the Tafelberg road, (the road running past the cable car on Table Mountain) for a lovely 10km run.
How’s this for a view:

And to anyone who thinks it’s a flat run, take a look at this:

Not so flat is it? Although not exactly hilly, there a few up and down to make it interesting. At one point in the run there is a stone wall to the right, and your footsteps echo against creating a rather cool sound.

I’m going to run there more often.

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