thecages

I ran my first half marathon of the season on Saturday morning - the 10th Winelands Half Marathon in Stellenbosch starting at 05:45.
The early start is extreme (waking up at 04:30 sucks) but makes sense as it means that the race is done by 07:30 before the heat and Saturday morning traffic.

The course ran from Stellenbosch along the R44 to Somerset West and then in among the farms of Blaauwklippen Rd before heading back to the start; a tough but fair course which includes a 5Km section of gravel road along vineyards.

It has been my goal to run a silver(sub 90-minute) h/marathon for a long time and the closest I got to it last year was a 92:something run on a relatively flat course in Brackenfell.
Since then I've started training with Celtics(once a week)[1], have become more serious about my energy intake on race day(a mixture of carbohydrates and protein that works for me) and am careful to be very aware of any muscular or ligametary damage that I might sustain during training[2].

So I was feeling confident that somewhere(hopefully early) this season I could drop two minutes:something and get to 89:59.

Imagine my surprise when I ran 87:36 on Saturday, beating my best time of last season by around four minutes[3] and strolling home for an easy silver. Fuckn unbelievable.

I've always run with a plan that breaks the race down into shorter chunks and target times for each section.
My typical plan would be to get to 10Kms in 42-43 minutes and then to push harder for the next 6Kms[5] to be in a position to race the last 5Kms as hard as possible.
Somehow this never worked.

The most crucial part of a race this distance[6] is the third quarter(kilometers 11-16). By this time you've settled down and know exactly what your body is capable of on the day[7] and have done enough work to start thinking about chasing down times in manageable chunks.
You've also burnt all of your carbohydrates[8] and are starting to burn fat and(crucially) muscle. This is the part where your legs start hurting and your cardio-vascular system is straining.
If you lose focus in this section of the race you are unlikely to be able to regain the lost time later - focus, focus.
I've always been clear on this race plan and what I need to do when.

So what made the difference on Saturday?
Simple, I ran with a stopwatch for the first time.
No superhuman effort; no crazy banzai attack.
Just more information on how you're doing against the plan.

Rather than only checking my time[9] at 10Kms and again at 15/16Kms I could check it at each kilometer. This meant that I knew when it was OK to relax a little[10] and when to use an advantageous part of the course[11] to regain time lost on difficult parts. Great.

At 10Km I knew that the time could be fast. At 15Km I knew that I would survive the hard part[12]. At 16Km I knew I could start to accelerate and by 18Km I knew that a sub-90 time was within reach.

So great; fantastic - yes?
Well... somehow despite having finally run a really fast time[13] I wasn't particularly elated or surprised by the result.
The thing is that at 18Km I knew that I would have to kinda screw up the last 3 kilometers to not make a silver and by 19Km I knew that I could basically walk the last two. By the time I entered the sports grounds I knew that I had done it - done.

So something is lost.

When not managing the race so closely you rely a lot more on how you feel to judge what needs to be done.
There's a lot more focus on what your legs are telling you, on guesses about the course to come, and on the runners around you.
Legs fucked along with everyone else around you? Hold back some.
Everyone flying along? Better push a bit harder.

What I did lose in running with the watch is an aspect of the feel of the race - that nebulous assessment that you do based not on a hard empirical quartz tick, but on experience and what your senses are reporting.

Feel. There's something very alive about relying only on your senses and your experience.

I have a horrible suspicion that professional athletes give up the feel in exchange for closely-managed performance.
Actually, I take that back.


Does this mean that I'm not running with a watch again?
Absolutely not - I have goals[14] and they require a serious attitude and planning to achieve.
Refusing to run with a watch ignores this reality.

But here's the deal - running[15] is all about plateau's. You train to breach a specific ceiling; a distance or a time. But once you've breached that ceiling you can quickly reach a plateau where that particular level of performance becomes easy and natural to maintain. A sub 40-minute 10Km? No problem.

So here's the challenge: kick stopwatch-assisted ass on a few races around 90 minutes[16], breach that ceiling for real - do the work.
But then regain the feel, ignore the watch - fire the senses - feel where you are.

I take it back - I bet that really serious athletes face the reality of timing and management during training.
But the real racing is done on feel. And that is the real achievement.

work. to. be. done.

[1] Though I still only train four times a week and a maximum of 15Km's per session.
[2] Especially after the knee injury I sustained around the Two Oceans half in April.
[4] Which is a LOT in racing terms.
[5] Hopefully getting to 16Kms in around 67-68 minutes
[6] For me at least
[7] Sometimes you simply cannot fire and then just have to sit back and enjoy the scenery.
[8] Apparently you run out around between 11 and 15Km
[9] By asking other runners or marshals
[10] We went through 10Km at 41:something - too fast
[11] A gentle downhill
[12] Though I was taking strain
[13] By my standards, at least
[14] I'm convinced that I can get below 85 minutes and the guys in my running club make it clear that sub-80 is not about hyper-talent, all it requires is focus and work.
[15] As I suspect most sports do
[16] Not all courses are gentle enough to allow a fast run