Holy Moly... Saturday I was trying to think of all the hashtags I could possibly use (if I was actually active on twitter) - #worldofpain, #worstideaever, #conqueredredhill, #slowpainfuldeath, #whydowedothistoourselves, #notforants, #notevenforelephants etc. And then of course on Sunday morning, in a whole new world of pain and blisters, all conversations revolved around when and where the next race is and what we are going to do to improve our times. Suckers for punishment I tell you!
It was actually an awesome weekend, and considering all factors, I never cramped, passed out, got picked up by the ambulance or the sweeper bus, and made it to the end in one piece. But it was a long, winding and painful 42.2 km road to get there.
We headed through to Fish Hoek on Friday after work, picked up our race numbers, checked into our little guest cottage (up the side of the mountain, spectacular sea views, the owners actually use a venicular instead of the stairs from the garage to the house) and headed down to the beach for a bite to eat. I woke up a couple of times during the night, with dreams of oversleeping, missing the start and a bunch of other such things.
I had a slice of low GI bread and bovril for breakfast which I actually thing did me well, the boys only had energy bars and said they were so hungry on the race. I ran so well (by my personal standards, 6:30 - 6:40 min/km) on the first half, thinking I've really found my rhythm, it is such a beautiful run, thoroughly enjoying it... and then I crashed and burnt!
Check out the route profile below -
That dip in the middle - the hill right after that was what broke me, it just never ended, I actually think it was worse than the actual Red Hill stretch (the last big hill). I almost burst out crying 5 or 6 times going up and down the other side of Red Hill, almost gave up and just sat down on the side of the road at least 10 times, the only things keeping me going were the fact that I couldn't face arriving at work on Monday and admitting I bailed out and, I told a few friends and my husband (E) "I don't give up". So I kept going, with a few "come one, I can do this" patches every now and then.
When I got to the bottom of the last hill, I had somehow convinced myself I was going to make it to the end and then, I saw my husband waiting. Confused, I thought there is no way he could have finished and already be back! No, he said, he was done, "divorcing running", "this sucks, we are finding a ride home". I told him there was no way I was stopping, its single digits home (9km), lets get our shuffle on and finish this thing! And so we shuffled, jogged and walked the last 9km. Thank goodness we found each other there, I might have got him back on the road, but he carried (not literally) me to the finish. The family were also cheering us on with about 4km to go, my two year old nephew shouting "go boy go" to the guys and "woo woo" to the ladies.
So we made it, about five and half hours later, but we got our medals and we didn't come last (even a few 36km runners came in after us) and that's all that counts. It can only get better from here! In hindsight, a category 4 marathon (1 being easy and 5 being painfully difficult) was probably not the smartest choice for a first time.
Sunday was a bit painful, but we headed to the beach anyway and tried to keeping moving the legs every now and then. Thankfully, because today I'm not hurting nearly as much. My whole core ached yesterday, half from the jarring on the long downhill and the other half I think from bearing the brunt of the home stretch. The GUs I had a the 12km, half way and 33km spots really helped me with a boost, the water was so awful smelling and tasting, but I took two sachets every time anyway and a coke every second water table after the half way mark. My husband says the GUs actually make him cramp more, he said it felt like someone shot him in the calf it was so painful, we're thinking he needs to carry salt tablets or slow-mag or something with him. Just shows how different all of our bodies are.
My brother-in-law (A) was the star of the day, the only one who actually finished in a reasonable 4 and half-sh hours with not too much complaining - well flipping done!
Now we rest, and plan out the map leading to the next one.
Week's kms - 45.2km
Month's kms - 91.2km
2014 year's kms - 91.2km
Anyone got any good recovery tips? We have been trying to get a good 8 hours of sleep in every night this week and been drinking loads of liquids, but it has taken almost the whole week to get over the exhaustion factor.
We had planned to go for at least one short run this before the marathon on Saturday, but being so tired and temperatures of 37 degrees (Celsius), we landed up just doing a brisk walk up the mountain on Tuesday evening after work. It is light until about 8:30 and the gates are open until 7pm. It is really beautiful up there, with loads of different trails. We just did the short one from the gate to the Paarl rock and back along the dirt road. There is a decent hill along the way and we definitely loosened up the legs, but nothing to strenuous.
Otherwise just drinking lots of water this week, I bought myself some GUs yesterday and a new tub of vaseline ;). Getting a few pasta dishes in, but other than that, I'm trying not to over think it too much and rather use this race as a learning curve to figure out what will work better next time. I'm wondering if its worth trying that whole Tim Noakes, low carb high protein idea?
I shouldn't have told anyone at work that I was running, now there's an expectation and I think my sub conscience is quietly stesssing. Two more sleeps! Trying not to think about it.
Anyone else training / trying to train out there?
So, on Saturday we did our long run for the week. I know I said it was going to be 24.4km but we ended up modifying the route slightly due to fear of the cars and lack of shoulder on the one long stretch of road. Also, we thought 20-ish would be a more reasonable distance.
We started with a 10km loop in the Dorp and then headed out to Windmeul Cellar, total run being 19km. It actually went quite well I thought, one water stop on the first 10km, a few rolling hills on the second and thankfully some water and gummies from the in-laws, who were also on their way to the market (and our ride home afterwards). I feel like there is definitely an improvement - there were no walking stretches, only water consumed and we both felt surprisingly good at the end. I must say though, for water breaks I think its better to keep moving/walking, to stop completely even for 30 seconds, hurts quite a bit when you start up again.
It's great ending at Windmeul market though, love their vibe, boere breakfasts, pancakes, snoek samoosas and more!
With the beautiful weather we thought we'd go somewhere for lunch afterwards, reward ourselves with a delicious Brenaissance pizza and a glass of wine! But even though we felt strong on the run, we crashed and burnt in the afternoon. Even Sunday we felt it a little on the legs up and down the stairs, and just being generally exhausted. We might need to work on our post run remedies / electrolyte replacements etc.
There should be a little bit of resting this week leading up to the Red Hill Marathon on Saturday morning. We drove the route the other day (I'm still not convinced that I like doing that before a race, but some of the others insist they want to know what lies ahead). It's actually quite a beautiful race, through Misty Cliffs, Scarborough, up and over Red Hill with a spectacular view of False Bay as you come in towards Simonstown, the last stretch through Glencairn & Fishhoek might hurt a little. And I am pretty sure my description of the race next week will be quite unlike the one above. It will be my first attempt at a full 42.2km (26 miles), so I'm just hoping for the best, got nothing to lose!
Sunday we went to check out some new shoe options (just waiting for the paycheck to arrive before we can actually buy them). E likes the Adidas Supernova Glides, he said they are crazy comfortable. I'm still looking around. They didn't have my size in the girl's version. Any tips on looking for good running shoes?
Week's km: 37.5 km
Month's km: 46 km
2014 year's km: 46 km
We actually ran on the morning of New Year's eve just to get a good start. We were on holiday in Durbs and so did a quick 8km loop along the Comrades route in Gillits.
Other than that the 2014 training officially started on Saturday 4th with a 8.5km loop from the Paarl Mall. We dropped the car off for a wash which takes and hour, more than enough time to do a loop run. Monday morning was another 8.5km along the main road, Tuesday we snoozed the alarm because it was pouring with rain outside, Wednesday we forced ourselves up after missing Tuesday and the heavens open right as we started so we ran a quick 5km in torrential rains anyway! Thursday we snoozed again - anyone got any tips on our to get this early morning thing right? - but ended up going for another 5km after work, up and down a bunch of hills.
Early mornings are definitely the better option because then you are done for the day and when you get home after work you can just relax. We really need to work on that.
To end off the week we are supposed to be running to the Windmeul Market tomorrow, the long way around, about 24.4km. I'll let you know how that goes - we did the Winelands Half Marathon in November last year and then another random 30km route during December, so tomorrow should be alright.
Dinners have been pretty good this week too, with
great left overs for lunch. Jamie's 30minute meals are actually quite a hit in our house, this week was the fish with sundried tomatoes and mashy peas as well as the cheat's pizza on another night - both delicious. Crumbed chicken open sandwiches last night and I made lasagne for a birthday dinner on Wednesday, with a pavlova dessert. The lasagne might have been mince, but I hide a lot of veggies in there. So all in all, a lot of fruit and vegetable intake for us this week and a sneaky birthday champagne - but a good start I think.
If you have any meal plan ideas - please send them through.
So far so good... we'll have to see what the weekend holds.
Week's km - 27km
