Tigy’s Blog

XTERRA Auckland, Race 2

June 19, 2008 | 2:23 pm

Location:	Hunua
Distance:	14km (aprox.)
Time:	1:17:20
Place:	53 / 194

Completed the second race in the XTERRA Auckland series in the weekend. I’ve been on light training for a couple of weeks and complete rest for the week leading into the race, and I really felt it this time.

The course had some great trails in it, but also some long stretches of dirt/gravel road that really dragged on.

It is fair to say it is the hardest run I have ever had in my life, by the time I crossed the finish line I had nothing left at all in me, my legs were wobbly and as soon as I stopped I started seeing spots. Completely and utterly exhausted!

Given my lack of build up I found setting a pace really hard, my injury in my leg didn’t help and although the first 40 minutes were pretty sweet the last 20 really killed me!

What did I learn?
1. That the difference between your base-line and peak fitness is huge. Building up and peaking for a race correctly is just so important if you want to do well.

2. That unless you’ve been doing some good conditioning leading up to a race it’s bloody hard to gauge how fast (or slow) to go.

3. I need to get back into training again!

Another month before the next one so I’ve given myself a training plan which I hope will get me right. The next week is complete rest through to Sunday or Monday, then running 3-4 times over a short distance the next week and then build the week after that until I’m back up to my peak distance!

There were two photos taken at the finish, I’ve published the better of the two. To the other one someone quoted, “If you were a horse my dad would have shot you…” Sort of sums up how I felt

Comments: No Comments »
Categories: Race, Running
Tags: off road, Race, Running, xterra
Comments rss
Trackback

XTERRA Auckland Trail Run Race 1

May 20, 2008 | 8:45 pm

Xterra 2008 Race1 Team

Tiger Yamasaki, Coyote Colquhoun, Panther Hamilton, Mountain Goat Maloney, Bobcat Boyce, Big & Little Horn Clark

Did my very first off road race in the weekend, a mild 16km jaunt out in riverhead, northwest of Auckland.

I’ve done a couple of 10k races on road, but never anything this long, or off road! I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. It was tough, pretty much the first 30-40 minutes were uphill, with one real leg killer at the 7k mark. The rest of the team from work opted to downgrade to the short course, just 6.5k, but me being me wanted the challenge.

Gave my ankle a roll at the top of the big hill, but it came right after a few more km. It was awesome running through the bush on the flat and downhill, at least the bits that weren’t wet clay lined mud slides! There is nothing like being in a row of guys, running through the bush, all wordlessly pushing each other along… Highly recommend the experience!

Managed to knock off the course in 1:21:12, which for me was a great time. I have to admit that by the end I didn’t have much left in my legs and was pretty pleased to finish in one piece. Big ups to Macs’ who provided beers at the finish line, great idea!

Thinking if I can polish off 16km in that time I might be up to a half marathon before years end. We’ll have to wait and see on that though.

Next ones in a months time, can’t wait to see what the course is like!

On a final note I saw the most awesome mushrooms/toadstools in the forest. I mean these were exactly like the ones in the story books, you know the bright red with white spots. Had there been a few fireflys around I would have sworn there were fairies there too!