20 Days to Go

Some mild pain in my knee this morning but nothing major. MASSIVE success. Nevertheless I decided to take today off completely in an attempt to be sensible after yesterday. I figure there's no way fitness gained from an hour or so running today stacks up against that the chances of doing more long lasting damage by doing so.  I'm still sitting here now at 9pm thinking should I just go out and do it anyway.... but prudence will prevail I think.

I ran through my mileages tonight to see how volume is stacking up. Obviously quantity is not everything and actually a lot of the miles I've put in for RR have been at a much better pace than those I laid down before Badwater but:

During a period 11 - 3 weeks prior to Badwater I cleared 517 miles running plus an additional 380 miles bike.

During a period 11 - 3 weeks prior to RR100 I have cleared 415 miles running and 0 miles bike. 7 days off with flu before Christmas and 5 days off with ITB problems last week have been major hiccups.

From here on in pre Badwater, 3 full weeks, injury forced me down to a total of an additional 51 miles. I should be able to get one more full week of training in before RR100. I'm fascinated to see the difference come race day as long as I stay healthy from here on in.

The results just came out and a runner, Craig Stewart, ran a 4:54 over the '45 miles' to win yesterday. Now the course is short by 2 miles as I mentioned yesterday and the last 22 miles are absolutely pan flat BUT I can't help wondering whether the winner is someone we should be keeping an eye out for as a world class athlete in the ultra world. To put that time in perspective, Mike Wardian, probably the best known current ultra runner to regularly compete/ win over road marathons and yet have also laid down a number of 'flat' 50 mile times, has PBs of 2:21 in the marathon and 5:50 over 50 miles. That works out at 5:01 for 43 miles. Ian Sharman has a 2:32 marathon PB and a 6:01 Comrades PB. 4:47 for 43 miles. Comrades isn't flat, neither is JFK where Wardian set his 50 mile best and both are significantly longer than 43 miles, but yesterdays course has 22.5 miles of relative undulations and some very sticky ground. On balance either the course is significantly shorter than even the 43 miles I had down, or Craig Stewart achieved something pretty special yesterday. I would guess there is a bit of both in there but i'll look out for his name in future.