Wednesday 16 February 2011

Wednesday 16th of Feb 2011

10k run yesterday was pretty tough due to very very cold and windy conditions. It wasn't just me finding it hard though so that was kind of reassuring.
Did another 10k today and felt much better. I can still feel that my legs are a little tired but I think its going in the right way now.
I guess I am going to try to keep the kms down a bit for a while but keep the frequency increasing. Lets see how that goes :)

Tuesday 15 February 2011

Tuesday 15th of Feb 2011

Its been over a week now and I am starting to feel more human again. I have managed a few training sessions on my bike (turbo trainer) and also a couple of spinning classes. I still have a few small niggles but today I am going to run 10k, nice n easy just to see how it goes. Will post later to tell you.
the two guys I ran with are still in trouble. One guy still gets pain just walking..maybe I got off lucky on this one.
Anyway, I have been asked to do IM Lanza in 2012 so that is my plans for 2012 sorted..just need to get a place now:)

Ciao
Johan

Tuesday 8 February 2011

Tuesday 8th of Feb 2011

I am feeling a little better today. Legs feel more like they actually work and are not going to go into cramp! I cycled home last night 3k and it was "interesting". Cycling in this morning was much better and I hope this eve will be another improvement.
If I feel ok I plan to go for a short and very gentle run just to get the legs moving again.
One of my mates who did it with me has knackered his knee, the other is weeing blood...nice. I guess I was quite lucky!
I plan to try to focus now on my IM training again..want to do well in that this year.

Monday 7 February 2011

Monday 7th of Feb 2011 - race report

Morning,
Well I made it...just. 50 miles (80k) done in around 8:45 (thats the time on my watch but haven't seen official race results yet). This was by far the hardest thing I have ever done and I came close to wrapping at 45K and then I wrapped at 65K but somehow found my self running a minute later - this was due to being lied to in order to "motivate" me...got to love that stuff.
First 40k was done in 4 hours and the going was very hard as we were basically on bridal paths where horses had been messing the mud up nicely for us - I never was a huge horse fan! My ankles were very sore pretty quickly as I guess most of my running has been on roads...wont make that mistake again.
I felt a little odd from the start and could tell that things were not going to feel better so just put my head down and ran. 3 of us set off as a team and that was actually one of my problems as our paces didn't fit together and some wanted to walk while others wanted to keep going. At 65k I had to just say sorry, get jogging and keep jogging to then end as I knew that if I stopped it would be en ex for me.
This is me at the start, stupid nervous grin cant be helped I'm afraid:
This is me at 45k...not so smiley now hey!



And at the end:

The guy I am with is my mate who I have to say has the strongest mental attitude I have ever witnessed and he managed to drag me back into the race when I really had had enough! cheers bud.

At the end of this I had stomach cramps, leg cramps and a sore back. But I felt really great as I knew how hard I had just worked.

What did I learn from this? Well, you cant judge a book by its cover as some people at the start did not look like ultra marathon runners! Also, you need to have a focused training plan to deal with this if you want to do anything more than survive...I am not sure I would do one of these again but if I did I would treat it with much more respect! I would plan my nutrition much more carefully!

I met some quite amazing people and was blown away but how helpful and cheerful everyone was. People were still cracking jokes at 75k! There were some hard core supporters who were at every checkpoint! One lady runner stopped and gave my right calf a massage as she could see I was in trouble! not many sports where someone who is racing will do that.

I am still in a word of pain so I will keep this brief but will come back and edit this page and add to it as I remember more and more.

few..thanks god that ones over! now onto the ironman.


PS quick edit, just found out the official time - 9:11...guess my watch was pausing when we lost GPS. oh well never mind.

Friday 4 February 2011

Friday 4th of feb 2011

Slightly bricking it today! not in an exercise way but more in a really quite worried way! starting to dawn on me just what tomorrow may entail...bit late I know!
Anyway, nothing I can do about it now so ill just get on with it. I promise a race report v soon with some photos...could be quite amusing.
Have a good weekend...sooo wish I was just chilling this weekend.