Follow me prepare for Comrades, an 89km journey.
Here are a few pics of me running in two recent races:
This one is from the Gun Run Half Marathon:
It was at the end of race, running along Sea Point Boulevard, with about 3km to go, I was pushing hard. Well that’s my excuse for that expression on my face.
And this one is from the Cape Town Marathon 10km:
This was also near the finish, I managed to hold off the guy behind me, but the race was 800m short, so who know what could have happened.
Despite my claims to be a geek, I haven’t quite got the html skills that allow me to be able to multitask effectively. I wanted to get a post out quickly about my training plans for the week. I tried to post from work, while working, and being a male, my multitasking skills aren’t quite up to the task, so if you read this blog via the rss feed, you’ll see 2 or maybe even 3 posts come through… Sorry about that, once I have more time, I’ll correct the post and publish it.
I’ve used the Runner’s World Smart Coach to set out a training program, and spent a few good hours converting it from miles into km. If anyone knows of the same tool, but in km, don’t tell me. I’m pretty excited to get stuck into it, and I will be posting my results from each week. This should get me a good qualifying time for both the Two Oceans Marathon and Comrades Marathon.
Here’s the program, starting next Monday (the 9th) until the 28th of January.
I’ve been following Don Oliver’s training program for the Comrades Marathon in 2007, as it’s the only program that is running now, over 250 days away from Comrades. However, the Comrades organisers saw it fit to change everything, and there are two very basic programs from Lindsay Parry, who writes a column for Runner’s World and is a practicing Biokineticist. With all respect to Mr Parry, who has a sub 3 hour Marathon PB, if I follow your “9 Hour Plus” training program, I’ll go mad from “Running Easy” for 30-40 minutes a week, every week, and my Marathon qualifying time in February/March will be awful.
Ok, I’m being harsh, this training program is not aimed at me, and Comrades is still a long way away, so the training will probably build up. But to not train too hard now so as not to risk injury, is like playing touch rugby as practice for full contact rugby practice. It might prepare you for certain aspects, but not for the real deal. I’m prepared to risk injury, so that I can enjoy my running, and therefore be confident in races, and hopefully lower my PBs.
I’m busy searching the web for a decent marathon training program, and hopefully will have a solid plan by tomorrow. Any suggestions?
I woke up on Sunday morning to pouring rain, and it took me less than a millisecond to decide to “postpone” the run, and “hope” it clears up later. Why I can’t remember how much I enjoy running when lying under a duvet cover, I’ll never know. I get half an hour later, and amble down to my parents to watch the Formula 1 with my dad, and by this time it’s cleared up. After some breakfast, I drove home, notice that it’s going to be a fine day, and I’m starting to feel guilty for not running, and it’s 10:30 already. So I lace up my shoes and headed out, with half a plan in my head.
This is what I ended up running:
My thoughts exactly. Was an amazing run, up there with the “best ever” category of runs, which pretty much categorises all my runs… but here’s the route I did:
Amazingly, Mr Polar Foot Pod said it was 21km and I backed this up using Google Earth. And surprisingly, I ran it in 1:45, perhaps a little fast for a LSR. (Long slow run) The route is amazing, and goes through some of Cape Towns best parts, going up Kloof Rd wasn’t that bad, even though it was a solid climb for just over 3.5km. Check out the graphs:
Brown is the altitude, blue is my speed, and the erratic red line there is my heart rate. The pinkish curve is the temperature, although the watch takes it right next to my sweating wrist, so it’s a bit high.
What is encouraging for me, is how my heart rate dropped quickly after turning down onto Kloof Nek, and that I manage to run up the entire hill without stopping.
I shall be running this route more often in future.
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