Running notes
Route: 1km hill repeats at 30% x 5
Time started: 6am
Total time: 1:20
Total distance: 10km
Temperature: 20˚
Runner’s condition: Drove there so a bit easier

A big fat 25 minutes! Now thats what I like.

Running notes
Route: Treadmill
Time started: 06:45
Total time: 25 mins
Total distance: 5km
Weather conditions: None
Temperature: 20˚
Runner’s condition: Very happy

The weather is definitely on the turn. A distinct chill in the air on the mountain tonight.

Running notes
Route: Kloof Nek car park to the Lower Cable Station turn at the end of the tarmac on Tafelberg Road and back
Height climbed: 180m
Time started: 17:45
Total time: 1:25
Total distance: 12.5km
Weather conditions: Mild to cool
Temperature: 25˚
Runner’s condition: Fine

I’m %$£@ing tired of this now. A 30km race yesterday and pretty much the same distance this morning, by the time I get home its lunchtime and half the day is gone – not to mention I can’t %$£@ing do anything today because I too tired to move.

I wore my race shoes out again today, because yesterday they rubbed my little toes. Seriously? I don’t have time for this before Comrades, and now I’ve got another worry I don’t need. I thought that I might have inadvertently bought the wrong size as I got them in New York, but no they are the same as my battered Nikes (same model different look). This morning I re-laced them and tried taping the small toe, leaving the other foot untaped as a control. After inspection the tape had moved so its not going to work. I’ll try again next week taping two toes together. I’ve done over 100km in them which is all I planned before race day (so as to keep the cushioning) and now I’m going to have to make a decision – wear them in more or buy a new pair. If I go with the second option I need enough time to wear those in which I probably don’t have. Crap.

Its Argus day today and the cyclists are out and about. My route took me through Camps Bay which is relatively close to the finish in Greenpoint. As the pelotons swooshed past, I wondered what it must be like to freewheel down hills and not have the sodding chafing that I have to put up with. Lucky buggers with their skin tight lycra, drinks on hand and road bikes that cost more than my car*.

Running notes
Route: My flat to Kloof Nek, down the Glen, left through Camps Bay, back up Camps Bay Drive to the Nek, out and back along Signal Hill and back to Chez Moi
Time started: 08:55
Total time: 3:05 mins
Total distance: 25km and yes I did walk a bit
Weather conditions: Slight breeze and sunny

*1979 Mini

The bloody wind was so strong this morning I couldn’t keep my eyelids open. I actually had that flapping face thing going on that you usually associate with sky divers. Of course this was fartlek day so running into the wind felt like I was pulling a car. Speaking of which I couldn’t run properly because I thought I was going to be blown under a taxi.

Running notes
Route: My flat to Keizersgracht Street for the 40 mins fartlek session and back
Time started: 07:00
Total time: 40 mins
Total distance: 5km
Weather conditions: Gale force wind

Only did 5 – felt a bit weak which was entirely due to the fact I didn’t eat dinner last night.

Running notes
Route: 1km hill repeats at 30% x 5 I was too lazy to run to bellevue so I drove there
Time started: 6:28am
Total time: 1:25
Total distance: 10km
Temperature: 20˚
Runner’s condition: Bit grumpy that I couldn’t get the full 6 in

Running notes
Route: Kloof Nek car park to the Lower Cable Station turn at the end of the tarmac on Tafelberg Road and back
Height climbed: 180m
Time started: 17:45
Total time: 1:25
Total distance: 12.5km
Weather conditions: Warm
Temperature: 25˚
Runner’s condition: Fine

And its even better when you get to drive up the hill. Given the stupid amount of running yesterday, I parked at the Nek and ran Signal Hill. Nice.

Running notes
Route: Signal Hill and back
Time started: 10:15
Total time: 43 mins
Total distance: 7km
Temperature: 20˚
Runner’s condition: Was a lovely morning and no niggles from yesterday

So I’ve been psyching myself up this week for the ‘big one’, the mother of all training runs that happens every year and makes me want to vomit at the thought of it, yes its ‘Nek to Nek’ time.

Its a 46km training run which follows the course of The Two Oceans Marathon and supposedly is good practice, or a good way to kill yourself depending on which way you look at it.

So today, over the course of the five hours it took me to finish, the temperature rose violently from about 20˚ at 6am to at least 33˚ at 11am when yours truly was ready to quit 2km from where the car was parked. Surprisingly after last week’s hideous 25km training run experience I was feeling pretty good running up Chapman’s Peak and down into Hout Bay, but then the sun got me – I went so red that the others thought I was seriously sunburnt (I knew I wasn’t because I’d slapped on the block at 5am). It had got to the stage where I was dreading running in the sun between patches of shade as the heat was so strong.

As Gregg coaxed me up with the typical ‘just another km, just another 5 minutes’ type pep talk that I give to novices, the twisting turns of Constantia Nek proved too much and I just gave up and walked. The knowledge that I was the last and the most crap of the group didn’t help. As we arrived at the car park, it was obvious the others had been there a while and were now lounging under a tree. Turned out that of the 25 that started at 6am, 14 bailed and called their wives and girlfriends for a pick up. Ha! felt a bit better after that.

Running notes
Route: Constantia Nek down through Ladies Mile to Main Road, Muizenburg, Kalk Bay, Fishhoek, Sun Valley, Chapman’s Peak, Hout Bay and up to Constantia Nek
Time started: 6:10am
Total time: 5:20
Total distance: 46km
Weather conditions: Scorchio
Temperature: 33˚
Runner’s condition: Slightly nauseous at the end from all the coke I bought at the petrol stations along the route.

No not quite, but I did do 8km, just not very quickly.

Running notes
Route: Flat up to Roeland Street and left onto De Waal Drive then back
Time started: 06:15
Total time: 45 mins
Total distance: 8km
Weather conditions: Beautiful sunrise
Temperature: 20˚
Runner’s condition: Knackered

Joy!

Running notes
Route: My flat to Keizersgracht Street for the 40 mins fartlek session and back
Time started: 07:00
Total time: 40 mins
Total distance: 5km
Weather conditions: Hot but no wind in Woodstock!

Kind of got up a bit late and could only do 3 x 1km repeats – shame.

Running notes
Route: My flat to Bellevue Street, 1km hill repeats at 30% x 4
Time started: 6:45am
Total time: 1:40
Total distance: 12km
Temperature: 22˚
Runner’s condition: Bit guilty

Suffered a serious lack of energy and enjoyment this morning when I spent a long time walking because I definitely wasn’t running. Yesterday killed me and my normal 1:40 run up Signal Hill turned into 2:35.

Running notes
Route: My flat to Kloof Nek, Signal Hill and back
Time started: 09:15
Total time: 2:35ish
Total distance: 15km
Temperature: 22˚
Runner’s condition: Grumpy

As the title suggests this was neither easy, nor fun.

I was last again and struggled to keep up for most of the 3 hours we were out. The wind added to my black mood and the decision to run up Boyes Drive and away from where the cars were parked on the front at Muizenburg was quite frankly sadistic. Everyone took a dip in the sea whilst misery here brooded over a can of Coke. A week after my pathetic Peninsula and I still can’t run for $£@*.

Running notes
Route: Muizenburg beach car park down through Kalk Bay and Fishoek, to Sun Valley up Ou Kaapse Weg and right down through the golf course to Clovelly, back to Fishoek via climb up Boyes Drive.
Time started: 06:05
Total time: 2:50
Total distance: 25km
Temperature: 20˚
Runner’s condition: Dead