Saturday, May 12, 2012

The Final Push...

By Frank

Finally seeing the sunshine (and rain) out of the box and plastics, this morning, I tested almost all the race gear that I will be using on 3 June 2012 for the Comrades Marathon. The only thing that I left our was my BV Sport compression calf sleeve which I am pretty confident off. From top to bottom, almost every single gear except for my heart rate monitor is new for this race. Even my race brief is new! And for the cause I'm supporting for a cancer free tomorrow, I even had my shoe laces customised to be of purple colour. For those who didn't know, purple represents the awareness for a cancer free tomorrow.

Here's a breakdown of my race gear:

1) K-Swiss Blade-Foot Run - This is actually a second pair and not the one I've used during Twilight Ultra Challenge back in March 2012. Stress tested it the past 2 months and I'm happy and confident that this shoe will give my legs all the much needed. The only difference now will be the elastic shoe laces.


2) K-Swiss tri top and short - Brand new design for year 2012, I've been wearing triathlon apparels for the past 2 years of running and am absolutely happy with it. No worrying of chafing, I can even choose to unzip up to chest level whenever the weather gets hot. Sponges fits well on the shoulder and I even can store essentials in my rear pocket.



3) Polar RCX5 G5 - My trustworthy chronograph, heart rate monitor and GPS tracker, this have been my training companion since I purchased it last October 2011. And this will track my progress on the big day itself.



4) Drymax Running Lite Mesh - Absolutely loving my Drymax socks due to its dryness but the search was not easy. Torn between this and the Hyper Thin Running, I chose this due to the slightly thicker padding to it.

Despite less than 2 hours of sleep, the run this morning was of 30.85KM in distance covering major hills at Kinrara till Equine Park and back. I'm glad all the gears worked flawlessly. I even tested the exact flavour of the nutrition supplements I will be taking on race day minus the Pepsi of course. The run was did with Roy and we started really early at 4.10am. Started well with cool weather on our side (began to drizzle at 8KM onwards), but legs began to feel tired at 22KM hence went into economical mode. At 28KM, I increase my pace a little to finish the run strongly.

Details of my run as per recorded on Polar Personal Trainer can be viewed here.

Overall, this final push is really tiring but it was needed and I felt satisfied with it. After analysing the data from my Polar RCX5, I'm in fact very happy with my heart rate reading and also pace. I certainly hope everything will go well like today on race day. Will continue to wear the gears for a little while longer before they goes into my luggage for race day packing. Oh and yeah. It's 22 days left!

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