Comrades Training: Part 2 of 6 parts

Part 2 : 56 k run.

Feb 28^th, 2010 : Khadakwasla, just outside Poona

1 am: Have my pre race meal. Have hardly slept at night and we have to run a 56k run.

3 am: We start our run at this time so we finish before the heat really gets us. Lots of planning goes into this as when do we have our lunch and dinners as we need enough time to digest our pasta meal. Had dinner by 6pm.

The weather is good and fairly cool. We start our run and my body is tense as I have no idea if I can run at the planned pace of 6:30 minutes per km to finish at a target time of 6 hours 5 minutes.

The road from Khadakwasla to Lavasa can be best described as continuous rolling hills and no flat stretch. To our horror, we covered the first 28k and realized that 95% of the time we were either running up hill or down hill. As a runner you know that the back leg will hurt.

Again Danny is with me and the ever-efficient driver Badal following us in the Honda. I had to make sure he stays awake or alert till dawn breaks. There is a remote possibility that he could fall asleep and run us over.

Danny is the first human I have seen perfect the art of taking a leak while running. Thankfully, he always ran ahead.

At 8 am, the sun burnt into us and then we were roasted for 1 hour. Lucky no major cramps in the calf and hamstring muscles.

From 48km onwards, my quads were hurting and this is the first time I understood why all endurance athletes say that running down hill is tougher than uphill. I preyed for climbs all the time and god help us during the 89 km run for Comrades as it’s a down course. Much tougher.

Ran the 56km in 6 hours 10 minutes. Pretty good effort and managed to run non stop.

Details of our 56k run on Garmin with km splits given.

Overall

Time:	06:10:13
Distance:	56.00 km
Elevation Gain:	752 m
Calories:	4,167 C

Timing

Time:

06:10:13

Avg Pace:	06:36 min/km
Best Pace:	04:59 min/km

Speed

Pace

Elevation

Elevation Gain:	752 m
Elevation Loss:	756 m
Min Elevation:	578 m
Max Elevation:	668 m

Split Time Distance Avg Pace Summary 06:10:13 56.00 06:36 1 00:06:04 1.00 06:04 2 00:05:59 1.00 05:59 3 00:06:12 1.00 06:12 4 00:06:05 1.00 06:05 5 00:06:55 1.00 06:55 6 00:06:22 1.00 06:22 7 00:06:09 1.00 06:09 8 00:06:54 1.00 06:54 9 00:06:32 1.00 06:32 10 00:06:12 1.00 06:12 11 00:06:24 1.00 06:24 12 00:06:22 1.00 06:22 13 00:06:39 1.00 06:39 14 00:06:21 1.00 06:21 15 00:06:39 1.00 06:39 16 00:06:16 1.00 06:16 17 00:06:16 1.00 06:16 18 00:06:47 1.00 06:47 19 00:06:34 1.00 06:34 20 00:06:51 1.00 06:51 21 00:06:20 1.00 06:20 22 00:06:28 1.00 06:28 23 00:06:31 1.00 06:31 24 00:06:25 1.00 06:25 25 00:06:14 1.00 06:14 26 00:06:43 1.00 06:43 27 00:06:25 1.00 06:25 28 00:06:43 1.00 06:43 29 00:06:39 1.00 06:39 30 00:06:34 1.00 06:34 31 00:06:21 1.00 06:21 32 00:06:24 1.00 06:24 33 00:06:34 1.00 06:34 34 00:06:18 1.00 06:18 35 00:06:48 1.00 06:48 36 00:06:47 1.00 06:47 37 00:06:32 1.00 06:32 38 00:06:31 1.00 06:31 39 00:06:25 1.00 06:25 40 00:06:47 1.00 06:47 41 00:07:03 1.00 07:03 42 00:06:41 1.00 06:41 43 00:06:56 1.00 06:56 44 00:06:28 1.00 06:28 45 00:06:40 1.00 06:40 46 00:07:11 1.00 07:11 47 00:06:53 1.00 06:53 48 00:06:35 1.00 06:35 49 00:06:26 1.00 06:26 50 00:07:14 1.00 07:14 51 00:07:01 1.00 07:01 52 00:06:48 1.00 06:48 53 00:07:25 1.00 07:25 54 00:06:56 1.00 06:56 55 00:07:07 1.00 07:07 56 00:07:23 1.00 07:24

Additional INight of the 56km : All I can say is that its very painful. My body just kept hurting. Quads were a mess and took 2 days to recover.