I’ve run 150 km this week and feel no worse for wear. Other than a planned 30 km on Tuesday on the ultra course, the other days will be light ahead of next Saturday’s race.

I am about to leave for the airport for my 40 hour door-to-door flight. Luckily I’m a pretty good sleeper on planes. I’ll be reporting on the Icarus races during the week, starting with updates on Jesper Olsen and Kevin Carr in the six day event. this begins at 7 am on Monday morning US east coast time, which is 11 pm Monday night (tomorrow) Sydney time. Tony Mangan and I will be helping out with the support crew duties before my race starts.

I will also aim to post photos from the event during the week. So stay tuned for news from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Today’s world run photo is another from the Garden of the Gods in Colorado. You can see why I chose to run through this park.

On This Day

Nov 15, 2015

Distance today = 50.20 km; Total distance = 14,423.84 km; Location = San Martin, Argentina (27 km east of) – 33 11.910′ S, 68 14.935′ W; Start time = 0909, Finish time = 1650

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/243647474

Back on the road today, and it was quite a warm one. It was also very flat, in contrast to the nearby Andes.

I got through a solid 50 km, on a mixture of roads, cycle paths, and shoulders of hard packed dirt. There were many eucalypt trees along the side of the road, and the heat caused them to be more fragrant than usual as they baked in the sun. It brought back memories of the Tour de Bois.

The problem of the day, however, was the air conditioning in the hire car was not working. Carmel was absolutely sweltering in the heat, and she doesn’t feel safe enough in these remote areas to sit with the windows down, the doors open, or to get out and walk around. So we got in touch with Hertz. Once again, they were very helpful, and agreed to change the car. So, after I finished my run, we drove back to Mendoza (by now 70 km away), and exchanged the car.

Tomorrow morning it’s back to the finishing point to start again. We will definitely be getting into the more remote areas as of tomorrow, so I might not have internet coverage for the next few days. Don’t panic if there is no update. Fingers crossed, though.

Nov 15, 2013 

I decided to do another time trial around Centennial Park today. It’s been more than three weeks since the last one. On that occasion I ran the 3.85 km in 15:11. I have managed the occasional session of speed work since, so I wanted to see what effect it has had.

Today I was a whopping two seconds faster than last time, coming in at 15:09. It seems that you can’t get faster by training slower. I knew that anyway, but it was reinforced today. At least I ran the last 800 metres today in 3:09, which was eight seconds faster than last time. My overall pace was still essentially 3:57 per km. I’ll just have to work harder if I want to run faster.

It’s a bit demoralizing, as I’d stand no chance of running the City to Surf (as hard a 14 km run as you’re ever likely to encounter in a race) in under an hour, which I’ve never failed to do in the past. In fact, the last time I ran it, in 2009, my time of 54:10 was at a significantly faster pace, hills and all, than the short flattish Centennial Park of today. At least I have a target at which to aim.