{"id":279,"date":"2011-06-14T04:20:09","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T04:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/ultimatecomrades\/?p=279"},"modified":"2015-10-11T06:28:16","modified_gmt":"2015-10-11T04:28:16","slug":"comrades-digestion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/ultimatecomrades\/2011\/06\/14\/comrades-digestion\/","title":{"rendered":"Comrades 2011 digestion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Part of perfect ultra-running is being able to run with, let\u2019s say, ultra-efficiency for hours on end. The best I got to was maybe 6 hours on tar with hills; maybe 10 hours on a paved, flat 100-miler; and, around 14 hours on mountain trails as long as I didn\u2019t twist an ankle or two.<\/p>\n

At the right effort level, wear on body-legs-mind is minimal. With a little refuelling and good hydration, the effort is, let\u2019s say again, near-effortlessly sustainable. No recovery required besides maybe an espresso, maybe a beer, a little snack and dreamy snooze.<\/p>\n

Body-in-motion, every system functioning strongly and in harmony, active, meditative, soul-filling, spirit free \u2013 a kind of the fullest being, a kind of perfection.<\/p>\n

It takes a while and lots of running to get there. No doubt about that. For 2 \u00bd years\u00a0I’ve\u00a0been trying. While I\u2019m on my way back \u2013 I can get into that zone for maybe an hour if the route is flat or down,\u00a0I’ve\u00a0still got some way to go to keep it up for most of a day.<\/p>\n

In a way it\u2019s a pity. The Comrades Marathon is much more enjoyable running in that easy, effortless state for maybe half the run. That means only half a run of concentration, effort, discomfort.\u00a0Because of what Comrades embodies \u2013 a race, a culmination, a goal – I run a little faster and the effortless state ends earlier anyway.<\/p>\n

Not that I mind. I like the idea of all the easier work in training – lots of spirit-free running \u00a0– and then to race, to get there in close to the best time possible on the day with the training done. Racing has its own riches.<\/p>\n

Reflection: <\/em><\/strong>Maybe I could have gone a faster this year. But it wouldn’t have been much \u2013 not much more than 20 min. But \u00a0faster increases the risk of failing. I wanted a finish, a medal. I played it safe.\u00a0Given how glad I was that the race ended there in Alexandra Park and not up in Hilton I was pretty close to being finished by Comrades even if I finished it. And now\u00a0it strikes me that I\u2019m glad Vic Clapham lived in Pietermaritzburg and not in Howick \u2013 another giant climbs and a good few kilometres further.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part of perfect ultra-running is being able to run with, let\u2019s say, ultra-efficiency for hours on end. The best I got to was maybe 6 hours on tar with hills; maybe 10 hours on a paved, flat 100-miler; and, around 14 hours on mountain trails as long as I didn\u2019t twist an ankle or two. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,6],"tags":[89,10,35,15,34,91,23],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comrades-2011","category-running-shorts","tag-89","tag-comrades","tag-durban","tag-marathon","tag-pietermaritzburg","tag-racing-training","tag-running"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/ultimatecomrades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/ultimatecomrades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/ultimatecomrades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/ultimatecomrades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/ultimatecomrades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/ultimatecomrades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1083,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/ultimatecomrades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions\/1083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/ultimatecomrades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/ultimatecomrades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.time-to-run.co.za\/ultimatecomrades\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}