Comrades Tracking

The race isn't until June 3rd, but I leave on today, so you probably won't be seeing many posts until I return.

You can track the race here:

http://results.comrades.com/default.aspx

I'm bib 47580

I'm not doing this total unprepared, but I'll be gutting it out, at least in the latter miles. Due to nagging injuries earlier in the year, I didn't get in the type of training base I wanted. I've run an 18 and a 20, but nowhere near what I'd want for a 56 mile run. Luckily, I've been on the bike and in the pool a lot, so the cardio base is there. I've also toughed out some pretty brutal races in the past, so I'm prepared mentally. Add in the downhill year and cooler temps and I think I'll be ok, but I won't lie that I have a slight fear of not making the 12 hour cut-off.

The race starts at 5:30 am local time, which translates to 10:30 PM (June 2). In reality, I guess you can just check the results the next day, as I'll have to finish by 10:30 am Texas time.

Training "Camp" weekend

Yesterday we wrapped up a training camp weekend.  Katie had to work the majority of the weekend, but Ben drove down and we made the most of it.

Friday evening, we headed over to Pflugerville Lake for a splash and dash.  Somehow both of us left our goggles behind, so it ended up just being a dash.  And by dash, I mean slow 3 mile jog.

Saturday, the three of us headed out to tackle the Dam Loop (plus a little on Parmer) to cover 70 miles of wind, heat, and hills.  I felt ok until about the 60 mile mark.  We turned around on Parmer to head back, which was directly into a stiff wind.  I bonked.  I bonked hard.  I think it was a combination of not taking in enough calories, the heat, the wind, and the hills.  Additionally, I likely should have take in more water.  Regardless, we got in 71 miles, which turned out to be Katie's longest ride ever.

After Katie headed to work, Ben and I drove over to Pflugerville Lake (this time remembering goggles) for an open-water swim.  The wind had picked up, so the water was less than calm.  Not quite white caps, but rough enough to provide the occasional mouthful of water when trying to breathe.  I hadn't been out to Pflugerville in almost a year.  The lake seemed much less weedy than last year, and I was happily surprised by the addition of a couple buoys.  We only swam for a little over 20 minutes, but I think we were both still a little fatigued from the ride.

Based on dead legs, I re-mapped our Sunday run to remove a few hills.  I had 20 on the schedule and Ben had 18.  By mile 4 or so, I realized the flat version of the run was still pretty hilly.  The heat made the run pretty difficult, but we both toughed out our respective runs before head to to get Mexican food and some beer.

All-in-all, it was a great training weekend despite the heat and wind.  I'm looking forward to the next one in early August.

Open Water and a little running

Having the lake a Pure is an enormous training asset that I think will pay huge dividends on race day.  I'm putting in work in the pool with the masters class to clean up my stroke, but the bi-weekly practice in open water is invaluable.  In the past, I've had a lot of trouble even remotely swimming in a straight line, even with sighting.  After a few weeks of regular open water swimming, I've noticed that I'm swimming in a much straighter path, which is resulting in less sighting.  Less sighting means faster swimming.  I have a ways to go to really get my swim in line, but I'm already swimming at the same pace I did IMAZ and I've still got months of training to go.  I'm cautiously optimistic about the swim at IMWI.

After the swim, I knocked out 7 miles at a fairly easy pace.  With my fitness going back up, my easy pace is starting to get faster as well.  Everything is encouraging, let's just hope I don't come out of Comrades with any ailments.

Raining? Take your training indoors.

Roads were wet last night, and not wanting to clean road gunk off bikes, Katie and I took our training indoors.  After one of the spin classes cleared out, we posted up on a couple spin bikes in the back and prepared for the boredom that was about to ensue.  I have a passionate loathing for treadmills and stationary/spin bikes.  My tolerance level for them maxes out at about 15 minutes, and even that is a stretch.  To break up the monotony, I came up with some intervals to keep us distracted and make the "ride" hard since it was supposed to be our hard effort day on the bike.  We powered through an hour of intervals, with a quick break at 30 minutes for a drink of water.

I prefer to do my riding and running outside, but if you end up relegated to the gym due to weather or other factors, try varying resistance or speeds to break things up and distract yourself.  Personally, I need to change something everyone minute or so in order to keep from getting too bored.  Figure out what works and use it instead of skipping your workout next time there's bad weather.

Comrades

One month from today I will be toeing the line at the Comrades Marathon alongside my good friend Francis Laros.  It's really tough for me to sum up how I feel about this race.  This is one of those races I've dreamed about for years and years, so its a bit difficult for me to believe that I'm actually going.  I'm excited for the trip to South Africa in general, but this race is one that means a lot to me.  Its a race that I probably put even above Boston.  I've been held captivated by fascination as friends have regaled me with stories from the race.  Maybe its the exotic location.  Maybe it's that it's the largest ultra in the world.  Maybe it's the rich history of the race.  I'm really unsure.  All I really know is that for me, this is one of my "bucket list" races.

I wish I was going into the race with a better training base, but at this point I'm just going to have to manage.  I have a big cardio base to draw off of, and I've muscled through some pretty tough races in the past.  I know I'll have to run/walk this race, but I'm really there for the experience.  I'm not trying to break any records.  Luckily it's a downhill year.

Finally feeling like I'm getting back into this running thing

Katie and I got a nice brick in tonight.  We rode 64 minutes on the bike and then hopped off for a 6 mile run.  We did the first 1.5 miles at an easy pace and then picked it up for three miles, dropping a 6:34 pace for the second half of that, and then doing another 1.5 mile cool down.  We had a little trouble with motivation to get out the door, but I felt fantastic after knocking out the workout.