After Thursday’s dramatic day of running, I’ve taken it fairly easy with a few short days. I’ve had no issues whatsoever with recovery. I’ll do a bigger day tomorrow, and will have another long run on Wednesday.

Next Thursday till Sunday I’ll be cycling in the countryside on the annual Tour de Bois mini tour. I’ll do short runs each of those days. Although cycling is not running, the fact I’ll be exercising for six or so hours each day will be great training for the Anzac Ultra. One of the foundations of training for ultras is to simply spend many hours at a time building endurance. I reckon cycling is probably the second best way to do this, and less stressful too.

Kevin Carr is not far off finishing his leg around Ireland. And Tony Mangan ran with him today. Kevin has been averaging about 75 km per day recently, which puts him right on track to break my world record by about a day. It will be a great effort, and well deserved given some of the hard times he’s been through.

I’ll resume the Best Runs I’ve Done segment tomorrow.

On This Day

Mar 22, 2012

Distance today = 49.00 km; Total distance = 3859.54 km; Location = Grand Canyon Village, Arizona – 36 03.295′ N, 112 07.069′ W; Start time = 0819, Finish time = 1555

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/160538391

A classic day at the office, starting in brilliant sunshine, and ending in brilliant sunshine at the Grand Canyon.

Just a couple of kilometres into today’s run I caught up to a guy who was walking. Turns out that Jeremy, from the UK, is hiking the Arizona Trail, which is essentially a walking path from the Mexican border to Utah. He’s a very interesting guy, having done many ultra races and substantive hikes in the past. The recent snow has made the trails impassable, so he has had to do a few days on the roads. It was great to talk to someone along the way – something I haven’t done for some time now. If you click on the Garmin link at the top of this blog and scroll down to the Pace chart, you’ll see where my speed dropped during the time I was walking and talking with Jeremy.

I bid Jeremy farewell and headed off toward the GC. Just before reaching it, I began videoing my approach, as I wanted viewers to experience the same vision that I did as the panorama of the Grand Canyon unfolded before me.

As for the Grand Canyon, I don’t want to wax lyrical about it, as I’m sure you’ve seen and heard it all before. I think Carmel’s photos will do it more justice than my words. Make sure you have a look.

I was wrong about having reached my maximum elevation – just before the Grand Canyon I maxed out at 2,134 metres. Will this be the limit prior to reaching the Colorado Rockies, or will I go higher tomorrow?

I finished the day at our accommodation, the Yavapai Lodge in Grand Canyon Village, with a very rounded 49.00 km. Tomorrow I’ll have a bit of a shorter day along the south rim of the canyon, so that I have time to enjoy some of the other local activities as well. After all, running around the world is about more than just running, and it would be silly to pass up great experiences just for the sake of a few extra kilometres.

Mar 22, 2013

Distance today = 40.21 km; Total distance = 18,313.27 km; Location = Weil am Rhein, Germany – 47 35.568′ N, 07 38.124′ E; Start time = 0848, Finish time = 1519

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/287413335

It was a shorter day, due to our requirement to obtain new SIM cards for Germany. Yes, that means I made it to my 10th country of the run so far.

I started in a thick fog, which didn’t lift until late in the morning. It was also very cold, and I definitely needed gloves. Once the fog lifted, it was a nice sunny day, as I made my way to Basel.

Basel is a reasonably sized city in northern Switzerland, and it was my second sojourn into that country in two days. I crossed the Rhine River and then headed north to Germany. I actually ran in three different countries in less than ten kilometres.

Once in Germany, we stopped at the first major town, Weil am Rhein, and searched for new SIMs for our phones. This took about two hours, and I didn’t feel like continuing to run after that, so I called it a day.

It was a not a day for photos, as Carmel could not follow me through the heavy traffic of Basel and its surrounding suburbs. Tomorrow should be back to “business as usual”.