Comrades Marathon Blog

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.

technorati tags:training, running, cape+to+cuba, fish+hoek, tafelberg, time+trial, polar, S625X