I slept in quite late this morning it was such a change to wake up when the sun is already out! went to register for tomorrow which I found really badly organised and very claustrophobic and popped by Ian to check out this knee thing if reckons and I know if is right that its my shoes more than anything else I suppose its easy to forget how much mileage we are doing and my shoes are at the end of their lifespan! he helped add additional support to the inner soles so I am now chilling on the bed in my calf guards from Linebreak and hoping for the best! let you know tomorrow - also considering running in my compression tights

The week before Two Oceans

So the buzz surrounding IronMan is starting to fade into a hot,windless memory and life continues. We're now just within the five week limit before Namibia and the radar has two definite big blips. The third and final block weekend next week and Two Oceans Ultra Marathon on Saturday.
Its a little funny to think that the bulk of the runners for Saturday have spent this week with their feet up, enjoying the taper and the always welcome indulgence of carbo loading, but man, my legs are tired.
A quick little 60km in three days taper and now we go into this ultra marathon as a training run. My thoughts are just to approach it as a training run and enjoy the vibe and whatever happens, happens. I know that sounds very lazy, but at this point it may be a strategic decision more than anything. A hard run means more recovery time needed - and have a run on Sunday as a "warm down" before a couple of days rest before the block weekend. Already the tell tale signs of over use are showing, my achilles is starting to become uncomfortable and Chris reckons I have the beginnings of a possible knee ailment purely just from the distances. If I stop to think about the physio, the kinesiologist, the acupuncturist, the coach - I have accumulated quite an entourage.

Irony for the day, Chris wants me to spend extra time in the gym with rehab exercises. Ya, cos I don't go there enough! Ha Ha, that joke that the spin instructor keeps making about moving a treadmill into the sauna may not be that far off.

Compression Gear - Should we wear?

Well the weeks training is over apart from a recovery swim or two. we did maimly road this week and no packs which was quite fun. This weekend is the Oceans Ultra, I havent really been thinking about it but all of a sudden I ve begun to get a bit nervous esp when we were out running this morning and my legs are soooo tired :). O well lets hope the compression gear works. We are getting Line Break gear hopefully today to try out. I hear its excellent for recovery. We are getting the socks and the 3/4 shorts.

Question: Do you wear the socks at the risk of looking like a ponce at Oceans. If you put them on at Ironman its fine BUT we might look odd at Oceans.hahaha watch this space.

We've done about 60km this week as a taper for Oceans. Next week we start gearing for another block week. I must start to think about routes now.

Chat L8A

R

Two Oceans

Two Oceans is looming this weekend and I am starting to get a bit nervous.
I am attaching the profile - its going to be road and its going to be tough!!!!

The Duck Run

Hi
This is the GPS image of our run through, up, down, sideways in St Francis.

The Duck Run & Ironman

Hi guys and girls

Sorry that its been a while but as you know weve been on the road with Ironman PE.

A huge congrats to all our chinas(and wives) that took part. What an awesome day it was - hot as hell, i tell you. I'm very proud of Carla for crossing the line for the 6th time.

With all the chaos we Andy, Sand Crab and I managed to get some good running in. On the friday am we got up at 5. We packed our bags and off we went to do some sand running in Cape St Francis. What a day we had. I think Andy will post the pic later. All went well until 10mins from the end - Rob Blew totaly - hahahahahaha. I had to stop, gain composure and limp to the end. I guess it happens - roll with punches!! After the run my legs ached the whole day. I thought I was gonna have big problems for my Saturday run.

Shot to Sand Crabs Mom for letting us stay at her place in St Francis - it was awesome. She has got like 1000 different types of toy ducks on display - sounds weird but its actually really cool.

Sunday I thought would be a killer coz my legs were so sore the day before - thank goodness for compression gear!

We really had a fun run on Sunday in PE on the IM route. You can imagine the comments we got running along in full desert gear on the IM course the day before the race. We even interupted a heard of Springbok!!

Monday was drive home day so no running. This week is quite heavy with about 60km of week running before a nice training run on the weekend of Two Oceans Ultra.

I'll keep u posted

Ciao for now

R

A Run Most Fowl

What a weekend!
We packed up and started driving to St Francis late Thursday afternoon after work - myself, Rob & Ryan. The vibe was very excited, and the trip went by quite quickly, although we arrived at Ryan's Mom's place at about 23:30 after a pizza stop in Plettenberg Bay. The house itself was fowl. Fowl - as in Ducks.Ducks in the bedrooms, ducks in the bathroom, ducks in the kitchen - a smorgasbord of ducks. It was so funny, and I could so see myself staying there.
We tried out the desert sleeping bags - i really don't think i am going to get cold in it - and headed out for a long, looooooong run through the sands of St Francis and the tail end of Jeffrey's Bay. The sand makes running very hard - your heart rate goes up as soon as you move from trail to sand by far!!!!
We got to PE amidst the Ironman buzz and bling, it was strange not to be participating, but I must admit that feeling passed quite quickly. We got back on the road again on Saturday morning with packs and all and ran up and around UPE, even managing to startle a herd of Springbok that went crazy in front of us jumping a huge fence,or in the case of one unfortunate springbok, going straight through it at pace. We got more than just a few stares from the Iron people three dudes running with packs, made even more funny by people that thought Rob and I were racing the next day!!!
IronMan was interesting to watch for a change, the conditions were brutal.
Well done to everyone for pulling through, you're all my heroes.
Special well done to the Iron Lady Princesses for getting through a rough day!