An update, some thoughts, some links

Update:  Last weekend I ran the Punxsutawney 50K (a great trail-run ... I think it harkens back to the true spirit of long distance trail running, resisting the forces turning the best-known ultras into overblown commercialized productions, but I digress ...). This was my 6th finish on that course, and it's interesting to have a long-term benchmark of what the years and aging process can do to you ... Although it was my slowest pace yet for an ultra, it was actually pretty consistent with what I've done there the last few years.  On a more subjective level, the course this year was very very wet and muddy (there were extremely heavy rains on the days leading up to the event) and I honestly have never felt better/stronger covering that course.  So I take it as just another victory - for the guy at the back of the pack.

Some Thoughts:  We had visitors the week before the Punxsy, where I justified missing training by calling it a taper - then the week after Punxsy I definitely lightened the training load for recovery ... I need a good week this week to get back into training for fall racing!

Some Links:  I've been searching the web for Comrades info (the great South African ultra-running event), and as usual allowed myself to get sidetracked with other interesting bits. One was Amby Burfoot's blog, which yielded a couple of interesting ideas on training.  Amby Burfoot's story of his own Comrades run is here:   http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-239-281--11867-1-1X2X3-3,00.html  

It's a little ominous to be reading of a past Boston Marathon winner working so hard to beat the cut-off at Comrades.  

I found Burfoot's thoughts on different training methods revealed in another blog entry of his, talking about Alberto Salazar's win at Comrades in 1994 (an amazing sequel to his much earlier marathon wins).. "These days Salazar coaches a handful of top U.S. distance runners. He gives them their workouts. But if you want to know the truth, workouts are like peanuts at a baseball game. Everyone's got them, and they're pretty much the same. Salazar's workouts are no more magical than those doled out by Terence Mahon, Greg McMillan, the Hanson brothers, the supposedly high-concept Italians, or the low-concept, high-success coaches in Kenya and Ethiopia."

Bart Yasso (of Yasso 800 fame) had his own Comrades chronicled in a series of videos by RunnersWorld.  Video number #2 in the series is a good overview of Comrades.

Bart Yasso vs. Comrades video

I'm planning to run Comrades in 2012 ...