The Sweet Spot

Before I get into my topic a few updates.

My personal technology management strategy is working out great. I'm offering up better quality work, ticked off a sub-goal from my Top Ten list (submit book outline to publisher) and participating on my board is back to being something that I look forward to.

Most importantly, I am staying on top of (my "reduced" level of) everything and have more time for things that directly impact my personal Top Ten. Much of my time was being spent on items that poisoned my mood and didn’t benefit my list.

I suppose that I’d lost control of a big chunk of time within my week. Nice to be clawing that back. It is tough to break the habit of checking in all the time but I turns out that it wasn’t necessary. I’ll have to remember to thank my friend Allen when I see him in ten days.

OK, on to my topic.

Last weekend I ran a “mountain marathon” called the Motutapu Icebreaker. Here is how their website describes the run…

…The run starts at the Motatapu Station 9kms from the Glendhu Bay Motor Camp and, follows a well-maintained farm trail up the Motatapu Valley. From there, the course climbs gradually over undulating terrain with several small stream
crossings, until topping out at 887m when you reach the 35km mark.

The course descends gently until it reaches a steep, rocky descent down the Soho Creek into the famous Macetown Road. There are several river crossings over the last 8kms. Depending on recent rainfall, stream levels can vary dramatically sometimes reaching waist deep in places. But often if you look carefully there will be a shallower route across. The course finishes in historic Arrowtown.

Kiwi “undulations” – if you’ve been down here then you’ll likely smile with the memory of your first undulating ride or run. As much as Americans have a tendency towards “the greatest”; “the biggest”; or “the toughest” – Kiwis prefer to massively understate.

Scott set us up in Arrowtown, close to the finish. As the route is point-to-point we needed to take a shuttle to the start. So, at 6am, we were standing in the dark waiting for a bus to drive us to the race start. That had me hoping that the race was going to follow a short cut back to Arrowtown. However, I had a feeling that the short-cut might be straight through the mountains that we’d been skirting.

We arrived around 8am and had a short jog to the start on the sheep station. Ultrarunners are “different” than other runners and I get a kick out of hanging out with them. While my full-body-shave and Speedo appearance might indicate otherwise… inside, I am an Ultra Dude.

They tell me that there were about 500 runners doing the marathon and with the toot of an airhorn, we were off!

I find race starts (with the exception of open water swim starts) quite entertaining because there is always a selection of folks that go totally bananas. Last weekend was no exception – my favourite was a lady with a large backpack that started at 6-minute per mile pace. I found myself in about 15th after the first km. My strategy was to try to keep the leaders in sight for as long as possible. That was going to prove pretty tough as a group of five took it out HARD!

In the first 5K, the “undulations” had my heart rate up pretty high but I was keeping a lid on things as I wasn’t planning a go-to-the-wall marathon.

As the lead group went through 5K, things started to splinter and I slowly moved closer. One guy that I passed was complete old-school running (cast on his arm, massive backpack, bandana and sweat flying off him). I said g’day when I rolled on by and he countered by bounding downhill at about 3:30K pace. As I left him behind, all I could think was “that’s going to hurt later”. Not much later, either. Molina passed him shortly thereafter and he was pretty quiet when The Terminator tried to say “hi”.

By the halfway mark, I was alone in third. The two leaders were long gone and I settled into a steady rhythm for the rest of the run. In the last hour I found it a bit tough to hold form so I though about Cam Brown’s running style as that is the smoothest, most compact impact that I have in my internal DVD player. That settled me down.

The ending to this run is unique. Steep downhill and river crossings when shelled. I was glad that didn’t have to duke it out with anyone.

Here’s how it turned out. Ben posts on my board a bit and it was nice to meet him. Chris is called “The Flying Pencil” by the locals.

Marathon - Open Male
1 2:43:39 Cox, Martin 10137
2 2:48:26 Dagg, Chris 10007
3 2:57:44 Byrn, Gordo 10038
4 3:02:29 Thomas, Ian 10051
5 3:08:06 Leese, Ben 10025

Typically, the longest that I’ll run this time of year is the Zofingen Champions Loop in Christchurch – that takes anywhere from 2:30 to 2:45 depending on your running partner (Baron vs. Molina respectively). While this is a bit of a stretch, with eleven weeks until Brazil, I figured that I had lots of time to put back the pieces if I crippled myself. I’m happy to report (on Wednesday) that I don’t appear to have done much other than overload my calves.

The run surprised me. While I was well suited to the course, I didn’t think that I had enough training completed to perform at the level that I did. Specifically, my steady-state pace in the second half was a pleasant surprise. Could I have run with the first and second place guys? Not a chance! However, I don’t need to. I simply need to repeat my run after a “little” aquabike warm-up.

Scott was happy for me as he saw the effect that the race had me. He pointed out that I was in the “sweet spot” – long enough back into training to ride the upswing and far enough from my race so that there wasn’t anything thinking about the event itself.

I pointed out that any outcome in Brazil was hardly going to change my life. But I did like that concept of being in the sweet spot.

One last thing – when looking for a confidence boost, sometimes it is useful to run without data. The only gizmo that I used on the weekend was my iPod Shuffle. Even left my computer back in Christchurch and teased Molina for constantly cranking his computer up. The technology-free days are quite restful.