So I've been back at it for a while now. The longest training run before last weekend was 2:30 in the trails. I even made it up to SFU to run the 5 Peaks course finally. I had meant to go up there on race day a few and leave twenty minutes early and run the course twice (a total of 20km). I thought of myself as a bit of a bandit but seeing as I've never "bandited" a race before, I had to consider exactly what the definition is. I've done some searching and it usually ends up coming down to robbing or cheating or living outside the law. Well if I had done that course before the start without paying for it, I don't think any of those would have applied. To me, a bandit is someone who lines up at a race like every other paying competitor, races with them, and uses the supplies at the aid station. I've seen some pull out at the end without crossing the line/timing chip mat. I was planning on being self-sufficient fuel-wise and wouldn't have influenced anyone's race by being so far in front hopefully no one would have caught me. Therefore I would not technically, in my world, not be a bandit.
This past Sunday was the Summer Solstice 25k run on the North Shore that I did as an easy training run. It was definitely harder than I would have done a 25k training run. It's been a while since I've ran over there and forgot how technical everything was: the roots, the rocks, the uphills, the downhills. As I'm 'gradually' building up the mileage so I hopefully don't break myself again, I wanted to take it pretty easy which I did. The crazy part was the steep downhills that took their toll. My foot was sore for a couple days and only today ran 45 minutes since the race. To 'ease' back into it I'll do the Scorched Sole 50k (as an easy training run) this Saturday to make sure everything is good. Or I could hurt myself and be out of Fat Dog and maybe even UTMB. What will it be? Stay tuned.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
2 Hours in the 'Nut
Yesterday I returned to the mountain where I started all my trail experiences: Chuckanut. I know people are probably getting tired of me saying that I ran in these trails (again and again) but that's exactly what I did. It's close, no traffic, easy drive, and, oh, yeah, no traffic.
It has been three months since I tiptoed through these trails it felt great. Slow, but great. I didn't know I could shift into such a low gear going up hill. I was going slightly quicker than walking and I managed to keep moving the whole time except for the really steep stuff.
I knew it would happen: today my legs are trashed. No matter how slow I go or for how little time, I can't escape the next day's tragedy that are my legs. It always happens when I'm not in the trails for a while. Kind of like not swimming for a month. It's gonna suck. The running was fun but today not so much. I feel like I've run a road marathon. The only consolation is that I've gone through this so many times before that I can tell myself that in only two or three more outings there will be no pain or suffering. At least that's what I tell myself now.
It has been three months since I tiptoed through these trails it felt great. Slow, but great. I didn't know I could shift into such a low gear going up hill. I was going slightly quicker than walking and I managed to keep moving the whole time except for the really steep stuff.
I knew it would happen: today my legs are trashed. No matter how slow I go or for how little time, I can't escape the next day's tragedy that are my legs. It always happens when I'm not in the trails for a while. Kind of like not swimming for a month. It's gonna suck. The running was fun but today not so much. I feel like I've run a road marathon. The only consolation is that I've gone through this so many times before that I can tell myself that in only two or three more outings there will be no pain or suffering. At least that's what I tell myself now.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
1:20 Look At Me Go!
Okay I was going to write the other day about the 1:10 run I did and how excited I was and how glorious it was to be back on my feet. Today, though, I did a whopping 1:20 all on the road with no discomfort or pain or otherwise. Everything was good. Everything, that is, except the weather which was very Haney to Harrison-ish: rainy, windy, but not overly cold.
Doing my 1:10 was the first time in almost two months I've run outside listening to music while running and I realised how much I miss the tunes. I always thought I would never listen to music on the bike but over the past couple months of riding and no running I was a little lonely for my ipod. I would ride out and when I was on the rural roads I would plug in and was quite surprised how well I could still hear cars coming up from behind me. I only got freaked out once when one surprised me. I felt guilty because I was of the opinion that it wasn't safe to ride with headphones and used to think riders like that were asking for trouble. I forgot how boring it can sometimes be riding for hours on end with the same song going around and around in my head.
Anyways, going to try and build up slowly the time on my feet for the next few weeks starting in Chuckanut tomorrow for two hours - less than 10% of what I'll be running for Fat Dog.
On the weekend the boy (Elias) and I drove out to Manning Park to do my trail maintenance for Fat Dog. Little did he (and me actually) know what he was getting himself into. It involved driving to Manning and meeting with about ten people including Heather the race director, driving another 20k down the highway, and another 20k up a gnarly forest service road. My van still hasn't forgiven me for that trip. We walked a pretty rough trail flagging and clearing branches and obstacles. It ended at an incredibly steep decent down to a river that we'll be crossing during the race. Heather says they'll have to go back and make switchbacks and or stairs to make it a little less difficult. No arguments from me. All in all it was a good but tiring day. We even managed to rush home and be ten minutes early for Elias' hockey game. As tired as he was he had a great game.
Doing my 1:10 was the first time in almost two months I've run outside listening to music while running and I realised how much I miss the tunes. I always thought I would never listen to music on the bike but over the past couple months of riding and no running I was a little lonely for my ipod. I would ride out and when I was on the rural roads I would plug in and was quite surprised how well I could still hear cars coming up from behind me. I only got freaked out once when one surprised me. I felt guilty because I was of the opinion that it wasn't safe to ride with headphones and used to think riders like that were asking for trouble. I forgot how boring it can sometimes be riding for hours on end with the same song going around and around in my head.
Anyways, going to try and build up slowly the time on my feet for the next few weeks starting in Chuckanut tomorrow for two hours - less than 10% of what I'll be running for Fat Dog.
On the weekend the boy (Elias) and I drove out to Manning Park to do my trail maintenance for Fat Dog. Little did he (and me actually) know what he was getting himself into. It involved driving to Manning and meeting with about ten people including Heather the race director, driving another 20k down the highway, and another 20k up a gnarly forest service road. My van still hasn't forgiven me for that trip. We walked a pretty rough trail flagging and clearing branches and obstacles. It ended at an incredibly steep decent down to a river that we'll be crossing during the race. Heather says they'll have to go back and make switchbacks and or stairs to make it a little less difficult. No arguments from me. All in all it was a good but tiring day. We even managed to rush home and be ten minutes early for Elias' hockey game. As tired as he was he had a great game.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Old and New Articles about a Comrades Runner
I thought this was a pretty funny story. We've all wanted to do this at some point during a hard race, it's just that we're all not blessed with an identical twin.
TRACK AND FIELD; Deception in Marathon Has Race Officials Seeing Double
By DONALD G. McNEIL JR.
Published: July 22, 1999
JOHANNESBURG, July 21— One of the top finishers in South Africa's most famous road race admitted today that he had cheated by running it in relays with his virtually identical brother.
Sergio Motsoeneng, 21 years old, and his brother, Fika, 19, were desperate for prize money, their lawyer said, and gave the $1,000 Sergio won to their father, who lives in Qwa Qwa, a depressed former black homeland, with 11 children. The lawyer added that the family had been on the verge of selling the $85 gold medal Sergio received for finishing in the top 10.
The Comrades Marathon, first run in 1921 by 34 men raising money for a veterans group known as the League of Comrades of the Great War, has grown into South Africa's biggest road race, with nearly 15,000 entrants of all ages. Each year, it reverses direction between two cities, Pietermaritzburg in the Drakensberg Mountains and Durban on the coast.
This year, on June 16, it was the downhill run, which is 89.9 kilometers long (about 56 miles), for which the record is 5 hours 24 minutes 7 seconds. But watching the winner finish is less entertaining than the bitter end of the race. It is considered a great shame to be among the last 1,500 competitors who fail to finish in 11 hours and are ''swept up by the broom wagon,'' sometimes paralyzed by cramps and clawing at the rescue vehicles.
The whole race is covered on national television, and most of the runners finish in the last hour, staggering into the stadium, collapsing at the finish line, crawling or carrying each other over it.
According to an account by the South African Press Association, Nick Bester, a former champion who finished 15th this year, had complained that something was wrong with Sergio Motsoeneng's ninth-place finish. Bester had counted everyone who passed him in the final miles and there was one too many -- and electronic-race records showed Sergio was behind him earlier.
Sergio confessed through his lawyer today after Beeld, an Afrikaans-language newspaper, published pictures of both brothers in the race wearing the same number. They looked very much alike, but their watches were on different hands, and one runner had a scarred shin.
Apparently, Sergio began the race and ducked into a mobile toilet after 45 minutes to change shirts and shoes with Fika. Fika ran the next 30 kilometers, and they changed again at least once. Changing shoes was necessary because microchips in each runner's shoelaces and sensors allowed constant tracking of every entrant. South Africans across the country were able to log on to a Web site and find out exactly where their favorite racers were at any moment.
Clem Harrington, a lawyer who has run in 21 Comrades, said Sergio Motsoeneng was a desperate young man from a poor family. He and his unemployed client, both from the town of Bethlehem, will meet with the Comrades Marathon Association on Saturday to return the medal and negotiate repayment of the $1,000.
This has not been a great year for the Comrades. Motsoeneng is the third runner to be dropped from the list of top-10 finishers. Viktor Zhdanov, from Russia, who finished second, was disqualified after testing positive for ephedrine, and Mahlala (Rasta) Mohloli, the sixth-place finisher and a popular local runner in the same club as as Motsoeneng, tested positive for nandrolone, a strength-building steroid.
The Comrades prize money is so low that it attracts few world-class entrants, but many runners from the former Soviet Union participate and do well.
''This is a tragic story,'' the press association quoted Harrington as saying. ''Hopefully, Sergio will not be lost to the sport because he is a highly talented runner. If he harnessed the energy he put into cheating into rather running the race properly, who knows, he might have finished among the top five.''
'He didn't need to cheat'
Iqbal Khan
May 31 2010 at 01:56PM Get IOL on your
mobile at m.iol.co.za
Sergio Motsoeneng has paid his dues and has started a new life in his road-running career.
The man who finished third in Sunday's 85th edition of the Comrades Marathon was reluctant at first to speak of his antics in 1999 when he was found guilty of cheating after being placed ninth in that year's race.
Motsoeneng twice swopped clothes with his younger brother but was eventually found out after newspaper photographs showed the runners wearing different watches.
"It's been a long time now and I have come through a tough time in life. I have suffered the embarrassment. I'd rather not talk about it as it's in the past," he said on Sunday night after his outstanding run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban's Sahara Stadium Kingsmead.
"I know I should not have done that - I was a young man then and when the idea was thrown at me I went with the flow. It's now history.
"I'm a family man now and I'm a grown man at 33. I realised that one makes mistakes in life. I came through a tough five-year period of suspension and want to look ahead.
"I knew this would crop up again when I got close to winning the race. It has to come back to haunt me but I appeal to all to leave it at that - it's really the past. It's finished and I look ahead all the time."
Cheryl Winn, who was chief executive of the Comrades Marathon Association at the time Motsoeneng was bust, said he should have had faith in his running ability.
"It just goes to show he did not have to do what he did in 1999. He has great ability in running ultra-marathons - his third-place finish proves just that," she said.
Motsoeneng was in his early 20s when he ran the 1999 Comrades and was slapped with a five-year ban by the Comrades Marathon Association. He was also stripped of his ninth place after he admitted cheating.
An investigation was launched after a runner further back in the field complained that Motsoeneng had not overtaken him.
After examining time sheets and data from the computer timing system, race referees initially cleared him of cheating.
The lookalike brothers' plan was only foiled because photographs of the race published in Beeld showed runner number 13018 at one stage wearing a yellow watch on his left wrist. At another stage the runner with that number was wearing a pink watch on his right wrist.
Other photos later revealed Sergio twice swopping clothes with his 19-year-old brother, Arnold, in portable lavatories.
"I was naive at the time. I did not think we would get caught but we did. I lived through hell for the five years - tried to keep my mind on running by helping youngsters and coaching development kids," he said. "I've turned to God and I'm guided by him. I feel I have paid my dues for my mistakes and want to look to the future rather than look back in life."
Motsoeneng returned to road running in the 2006 Soweto Marathon. Last year he finished 29th in the Comrades.
TRACK AND FIELD; Deception in Marathon Has Race Officials Seeing Double
By DONALD G. McNEIL JR.
Published: July 22, 1999
JOHANNESBURG, July 21— One of the top finishers in South Africa's most famous road race admitted today that he had cheated by running it in relays with his virtually identical brother.
Sergio Motsoeneng, 21 years old, and his brother, Fika, 19, were desperate for prize money, their lawyer said, and gave the $1,000 Sergio won to their father, who lives in Qwa Qwa, a depressed former black homeland, with 11 children. The lawyer added that the family had been on the verge of selling the $85 gold medal Sergio received for finishing in the top 10.
The Comrades Marathon, first run in 1921 by 34 men raising money for a veterans group known as the League of Comrades of the Great War, has grown into South Africa's biggest road race, with nearly 15,000 entrants of all ages. Each year, it reverses direction between two cities, Pietermaritzburg in the Drakensberg Mountains and Durban on the coast.
This year, on June 16, it was the downhill run, which is 89.9 kilometers long (about 56 miles), for which the record is 5 hours 24 minutes 7 seconds. But watching the winner finish is less entertaining than the bitter end of the race. It is considered a great shame to be among the last 1,500 competitors who fail to finish in 11 hours and are ''swept up by the broom wagon,'' sometimes paralyzed by cramps and clawing at the rescue vehicles.
The whole race is covered on national television, and most of the runners finish in the last hour, staggering into the stadium, collapsing at the finish line, crawling or carrying each other over it.
According to an account by the South African Press Association, Nick Bester, a former champion who finished 15th this year, had complained that something was wrong with Sergio Motsoeneng's ninth-place finish. Bester had counted everyone who passed him in the final miles and there was one too many -- and electronic-race records showed Sergio was behind him earlier.
Sergio confessed through his lawyer today after Beeld, an Afrikaans-language newspaper, published pictures of both brothers in the race wearing the same number. They looked very much alike, but their watches were on different hands, and one runner had a scarred shin.
Apparently, Sergio began the race and ducked into a mobile toilet after 45 minutes to change shirts and shoes with Fika. Fika ran the next 30 kilometers, and they changed again at least once. Changing shoes was necessary because microchips in each runner's shoelaces and sensors allowed constant tracking of every entrant. South Africans across the country were able to log on to a Web site and find out exactly where their favorite racers were at any moment.
Clem Harrington, a lawyer who has run in 21 Comrades, said Sergio Motsoeneng was a desperate young man from a poor family. He and his unemployed client, both from the town of Bethlehem, will meet with the Comrades Marathon Association on Saturday to return the medal and negotiate repayment of the $1,000.
This has not been a great year for the Comrades. Motsoeneng is the third runner to be dropped from the list of top-10 finishers. Viktor Zhdanov, from Russia, who finished second, was disqualified after testing positive for ephedrine, and Mahlala (Rasta) Mohloli, the sixth-place finisher and a popular local runner in the same club as as Motsoeneng, tested positive for nandrolone, a strength-building steroid.
The Comrades prize money is so low that it attracts few world-class entrants, but many runners from the former Soviet Union participate and do well.
''This is a tragic story,'' the press association quoted Harrington as saying. ''Hopefully, Sergio will not be lost to the sport because he is a highly talented runner. If he harnessed the energy he put into cheating into rather running the race properly, who knows, he might have finished among the top five.''
'He didn't need to cheat'
Iqbal Khan
May 31 2010 at 01:56PM Get IOL on your
mobile at m.iol.co.za
Sergio Motsoeneng has paid his dues and has started a new life in his road-running career.
The man who finished third in Sunday's 85th edition of the Comrades Marathon was reluctant at first to speak of his antics in 1999 when he was found guilty of cheating after being placed ninth in that year's race.
Motsoeneng twice swopped clothes with his younger brother but was eventually found out after newspaper photographs showed the runners wearing different watches.
"It's been a long time now and I have come through a tough time in life. I have suffered the embarrassment. I'd rather not talk about it as it's in the past," he said on Sunday night after his outstanding run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban's Sahara Stadium Kingsmead.
"I know I should not have done that - I was a young man then and when the idea was thrown at me I went with the flow. It's now history.
"I'm a family man now and I'm a grown man at 33. I realised that one makes mistakes in life. I came through a tough five-year period of suspension and want to look ahead.
"I knew this would crop up again when I got close to winning the race. It has to come back to haunt me but I appeal to all to leave it at that - it's really the past. It's finished and I look ahead all the time."
Cheryl Winn, who was chief executive of the Comrades Marathon Association at the time Motsoeneng was bust, said he should have had faith in his running ability.
"It just goes to show he did not have to do what he did in 1999. He has great ability in running ultra-marathons - his third-place finish proves just that," she said.
Motsoeneng was in his early 20s when he ran the 1999 Comrades and was slapped with a five-year ban by the Comrades Marathon Association. He was also stripped of his ninth place after he admitted cheating.
An investigation was launched after a runner further back in the field complained that Motsoeneng had not overtaken him.
After examining time sheets and data from the computer timing system, race referees initially cleared him of cheating.
The lookalike brothers' plan was only foiled because photographs of the race published in Beeld showed runner number 13018 at one stage wearing a yellow watch on his left wrist. At another stage the runner with that number was wearing a pink watch on his right wrist.
Other photos later revealed Sergio twice swopping clothes with his 19-year-old brother, Arnold, in portable lavatories.
"I was naive at the time. I did not think we would get caught but we did. I lived through hell for the five years - tried to keep my mind on running by helping youngsters and coaching development kids," he said. "I've turned to God and I'm guided by him. I feel I have paid my dues for my mistakes and want to look to the future rather than look back in life."
Motsoeneng returned to road running in the 2006 Soweto Marathon. Last year he finished 29th in the Comrades.
Monday, May 31, 2010
A Positive Update
After waiting yet another two weeks from my last podiatrist appointment I've again set out running thirty minutes at a time in the trail. So far it seems that things are okay other than the predictable discomfort of not really running for six weeks.
Friday night around 11pm I tuned in to the Comrades Marathon website to watch the race live. I sat in awe for two hours. I don't know what it is but I can sit and watch that kind of stuff - marathons, ultras, Tour de France, Ironman - all day long on the tv/computer. I marvel at the skill these world-class athletes have. The commentators' verbal skills and knowledge of the athletes rivaled that of any I've ever heard. It was a little tough watching the runners knowing I could have been there although the chance of starting back at square one was the chance I didn't want to take. I woke up in the morning and immediately checked the winners' times and to watch the finishers coming through the line. Again it was hard not to imagine myself finishing and making a fool of myself in front of the camera to people back home. Technology - ain't it great! With an hour to go before the 12 hour cutoff there were still 7,000 runners to come in. The finishing line at this time looked like the start of the Vancouver Sunrun where 50,000 people are all moving towards the start line after the gun goes off. If people in North America think ultrarunners are crazy, ultra races must be as commonplace as the marathon in the rest of world. How else do you explain the number of runners who started the event? Another comment on the coverage: never once in all the time I was watching did the screen "freeze", "overload", "fail to load", or in any way, shape, or form inhibit people from watching. That sort of thing seems to happen a lot on other webcasts I've tried to see over the years especially for the Hawaii Ironman. If their webcast gets overloaded with hits from friends and family of 2000 athletes watching from home, how does the Comrades site do it for over 20,000??
In honour of the runners who did the race I took off on the bike and covered 92km in about 3 hours, almost 31km/h average speed. The winner of Comrades ran 89km in 5:29, over 16km/h. Amazing.
Friday night around 11pm I tuned in to the Comrades Marathon website to watch the race live. I sat in awe for two hours. I don't know what it is but I can sit and watch that kind of stuff - marathons, ultras, Tour de France, Ironman - all day long on the tv/computer. I marvel at the skill these world-class athletes have. The commentators' verbal skills and knowledge of the athletes rivaled that of any I've ever heard. It was a little tough watching the runners knowing I could have been there although the chance of starting back at square one was the chance I didn't want to take. I woke up in the morning and immediately checked the winners' times and to watch the finishers coming through the line. Again it was hard not to imagine myself finishing and making a fool of myself in front of the camera to people back home. Technology - ain't it great! With an hour to go before the 12 hour cutoff there were still 7,000 runners to come in. The finishing line at this time looked like the start of the Vancouver Sunrun where 50,000 people are all moving towards the start line after the gun goes off. If people in North America think ultrarunners are crazy, ultra races must be as commonplace as the marathon in the rest of world. How else do you explain the number of runners who started the event? Another comment on the coverage: never once in all the time I was watching did the screen "freeze", "overload", "fail to load", or in any way, shape, or form inhibit people from watching. That sort of thing seems to happen a lot on other webcasts I've tried to see over the years especially for the Hawaii Ironman. If their webcast gets overloaded with hits from friends and family of 2000 athletes watching from home, how does the Comrades site do it for over 20,000??
In honour of the runners who did the race I took off on the bike and covered 92km in about 3 hours, almost 31km/h average speed. The winner of Comrades ran 89km in 5:29, over 16km/h. Amazing.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Sad Update
Okay so the longer the break from writing the longer the blog, right? A lot has happened in the past couple weeks so hang on, here we go.
So in the past couple weeks I was toiling and stressing over whether to go to South Africa for the Comrades Marathon. Was my foot healed up enough? Would it be able to go 89km without fracturing again? Was it worth taking the chance and setting myself back another six weeks?
Even though it's been seven and a half weeks since my last long run of 20 miles, it's only been four with the walking cast. Not supposed to have been running at all for four to six weeks I went out a few times last week just to see what was what. I started with a 17, 19, 30, then 45 minute run. There was definite discomfort in the foot but it didn't feel like a sharp pain or one that was getting worse. Weird thing too was that it didn't hurt more afterwards or ache later on in the day. Having said that I went to the podiatrist on Monday for a check-up.
He was at first not happy seeing me without the cast on but that was only because I was out doing stuff that didn't take too much walking. He also didn't think my small runs was such a good idea, either. The topic of running Comrades never came up and I never offered that I was still thinking about it. He said I should do another two weeks in the cast and stay on light duties at work for those two weeks. Well, having gone back to the hall on Saturday it was too late for that but I would try to stay in the cast as much as I could. Really. What kind of scared me straight was his statement on how I could be running along, feeling not too bad, then all of a sudden feel that sharp pain in the foot of the bone fracturing again. Not a pretty thought.
So It was after my appointment with him that finally pushed me over the edge to dropping out of Comrades. It was a supreme struggle with myself to weigh the pros and cons of going or not. I'm barely in shape now to run, let alone do 8 hours or more. I didn't want to hurt myself further and get set back another month. That would have taken me to the beginning or middle of July which would have killed any chance of doing Fat Dog and give me barely six weeks to train for the Tour de Mont Blanc. As it is now I should be able to ease back into things in a couple weeks, get a decent base of trail running, do Fat Dog as an easy, easy long run then hopefully be able to climb 31,000 feet at the end of August. Comrades has been on my list for a long time and may or may not get done next year. It'll remain on the list and it might take me 15 years to be there for the 100th anniversary. I could only be that lucky to be healthy enough to still run that distance then.
On the training side of things I've been staying out of the pool just because of sheer boredom. The bike has been my forte since the weather has been so decent. I've been hitting the three hour mark quite consistently with a bunch of two hour ones thrown in. Last week I was just at the halfway mark, about an hour from home, when I had to stop at an intersection due to traffic. What I'd done a thousand times before somehow escaped me and instead of clipping out of my left pedal and resting my left foot on the ground, I ended up unclipping and leaning to the right (right foot still clipped in) and was about to fall. I managed to forcefully get my right foot out of the pedal to avoid the crash but in the process heard the snap of my plastic cleat on the bottom of my shoe. I quick exam proved what I feared: the tip of the cleat (the Look type) had broken and there was no way to clip in solidly to the pedal. Quick assessment: no bike shop anywhere close, an hour from home, no sag wagon to call (not that I would anyways, goes against everything I believe in). Good thing I didn't have to be anywhere in a hurry. I basically had to keep downward pressure on the pedal the whole way and if I hit a bump my foot would fly off the pedal. The novelty wore off in a hurry but I made it home safe and sound. Luckily I had a set of older ones that I'm now using.
So the plan for the coming weeks is to get pain-free then hit hit every trail race I can, time permitting, as training. That's right, run the race, not race it. If I'm going to drive somewhere like Chuckanut or the North Shore to do a training run, I might as well do a race where I don't have to think about the course and there's aid along the way. I'm going to do that all through the summer and fall as well. Not that I'll be 'racing' because I learned the hard way a couple years ago that too much racing doesn't do my body good. If that goes okay then I'm going to approach next season the same way - race my way to fitness!
So in the past couple weeks I was toiling and stressing over whether to go to South Africa for the Comrades Marathon. Was my foot healed up enough? Would it be able to go 89km without fracturing again? Was it worth taking the chance and setting myself back another six weeks?
Even though it's been seven and a half weeks since my last long run of 20 miles, it's only been four with the walking cast. Not supposed to have been running at all for four to six weeks I went out a few times last week just to see what was what. I started with a 17, 19, 30, then 45 minute run. There was definite discomfort in the foot but it didn't feel like a sharp pain or one that was getting worse. Weird thing too was that it didn't hurt more afterwards or ache later on in the day. Having said that I went to the podiatrist on Monday for a check-up.
He was at first not happy seeing me without the cast on but that was only because I was out doing stuff that didn't take too much walking. He also didn't think my small runs was such a good idea, either. The topic of running Comrades never came up and I never offered that I was still thinking about it. He said I should do another two weeks in the cast and stay on light duties at work for those two weeks. Well, having gone back to the hall on Saturday it was too late for that but I would try to stay in the cast as much as I could. Really. What kind of scared me straight was his statement on how I could be running along, feeling not too bad, then all of a sudden feel that sharp pain in the foot of the bone fracturing again. Not a pretty thought.
So It was after my appointment with him that finally pushed me over the edge to dropping out of Comrades. It was a supreme struggle with myself to weigh the pros and cons of going or not. I'm barely in shape now to run, let alone do 8 hours or more. I didn't want to hurt myself further and get set back another month. That would have taken me to the beginning or middle of July which would have killed any chance of doing Fat Dog and give me barely six weeks to train for the Tour de Mont Blanc. As it is now I should be able to ease back into things in a couple weeks, get a decent base of trail running, do Fat Dog as an easy, easy long run then hopefully be able to climb 31,000 feet at the end of August. Comrades has been on my list for a long time and may or may not get done next year. It'll remain on the list and it might take me 15 years to be there for the 100th anniversary. I could only be that lucky to be healthy enough to still run that distance then.
On the training side of things I've been staying out of the pool just because of sheer boredom. The bike has been my forte since the weather has been so decent. I've been hitting the three hour mark quite consistently with a bunch of two hour ones thrown in. Last week I was just at the halfway mark, about an hour from home, when I had to stop at an intersection due to traffic. What I'd done a thousand times before somehow escaped me and instead of clipping out of my left pedal and resting my left foot on the ground, I ended up unclipping and leaning to the right (right foot still clipped in) and was about to fall. I managed to forcefully get my right foot out of the pedal to avoid the crash but in the process heard the snap of my plastic cleat on the bottom of my shoe. I quick exam proved what I feared: the tip of the cleat (the Look type) had broken and there was no way to clip in solidly to the pedal. Quick assessment: no bike shop anywhere close, an hour from home, no sag wagon to call (not that I would anyways, goes against everything I believe in). Good thing I didn't have to be anywhere in a hurry. I basically had to keep downward pressure on the pedal the whole way and if I hit a bump my foot would fly off the pedal. The novelty wore off in a hurry but I made it home safe and sound. Luckily I had a set of older ones that I'm now using.
So the plan for the coming weeks is to get pain-free then hit hit every trail race I can, time permitting, as training. That's right, run the race, not race it. If I'm going to drive somewhere like Chuckanut or the North Shore to do a training run, I might as well do a race where I don't have to think about the course and there's aid along the way. I'm going to do that all through the summer and fall as well. Not that I'll be 'racing' because I learned the hard way a couple years ago that too much racing doesn't do my body good. If that goes okay then I'm going to approach next season the same way - race my way to fitness!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Fourth time the charm
Finally I've done the first (metric) century of the season on the bike. In honour of the Miwok 100km trail race held yesterday in California, which I did in '08, albeit probably around 106km due to my route error, I thought it only fitting seeing as I couldn't run the distance, I'd ride it.
After three unsuccessful attempts at riding 100km this year I did it yesterday - 100.19km. The three other failures were because of time constraints and one morning I had to be at Hannah's softball so needed to cut the ride shorter. The distances I did were 91km, 95km, and 97km. The 97km was a killer - so close. I don't do junk mileage as I think it's ridiculous to go around the block a few times just to make a certain distance or time. I plot the route out on a map and go and do it.
Yesterday was a beautiful afternoon aside from the wind. It was blowing from the southwest so heading east was a joy. Knowing what to expect coming home I thought I'd hammer out and take it easy on the way back. The average speed eastwards was 33.3km/h and at the end of the ride it was 32.1. It seemed like I had the headwind coming back and with the hills and all returning I figure the wind was coming more from the south so not directly in my face. Pretty happy with the effort of the last 20km which were a mental grind and killing sore lower back. Ah, the joys of the ride.
After three unsuccessful attempts at riding 100km this year I did it yesterday - 100.19km. The three other failures were because of time constraints and one morning I had to be at Hannah's softball so needed to cut the ride shorter. The distances I did were 91km, 95km, and 97km. The 97km was a killer - so close. I don't do junk mileage as I think it's ridiculous to go around the block a few times just to make a certain distance or time. I plot the route out on a map and go and do it.
Yesterday was a beautiful afternoon aside from the wind. It was blowing from the southwest so heading east was a joy. Knowing what to expect coming home I thought I'd hammer out and take it easy on the way back. The average speed eastwards was 33.3km/h and at the end of the ride it was 32.1. It seemed like I had the headwind coming back and with the hills and all returning I figure the wind was coming more from the south so not directly in my face. Pretty happy with the effort of the last 20km which were a mental grind and killing sore lower back. Ah, the joys of the ride.
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