Tuesday
Up early but had to do final prep for my business meeting, then on a plane back to Sydney to connect to another plane to get to Wellington NZ.
Wednesday
I managed to wake up at 5am NZ time (3am Sydney) but it was pitch black outside and very windy. Running in teh dark in a strange city in a cold wind was enough demotivation to stay in bed :(
Thursday
Back home late last night and wanted to spend some time with the family so running missed out. Did go and visit Therese for some accupuncture on the achilles. She also detected the early stages of a cold and so added a few extra needles to sort that out. She put some wierd smelling herbal patch over the achilles to help reduce the inflammation and told me not to run for at least a day.
Friday
Rest as per instructions
Saturday
I dressed up prepared to run the 10km but also wanted to see what my team mates for the relays in the afternoon were doing. As vat and superflake were also saving themselves I opted to do the right thing and not smash my legs up. I did load my 305 to Cam as he forgot his watch. The trace below is more evidence of the much better tracking the 305 offers, the 301 always struggled at Lane Cove. My watch now has a new 10km PB of 35:06, no way it will ever get close to that while on my wrist!
Headed to Ramsgate in the afternoon for the State XC relays and I was the anchor mane for the Striders 35+ team. The course was 2 laps of a 2km loop, which had a little out and back loop added to make up the distance. Apparently the start was a shambles with mixed up officials seeing some doing the out and back while others being told to miss it on the first lap!
Eventually it was my time to get tagged and off I went, sprinting out way too fast. I slotted in just behind Darren Benson who was on his second lap and actually held him at about 20m for the first km. Then the body started to winge a little and I eased up to ensure I could finish the 4km running.
The soft ground underfoot and a howling wind into your face along the back section made for tough running, I eventually finished with only 2-3 teams going past me, what a lung burner! After fumbling with the watch at the start and finish had no real idea as to my time, but saw the results today and I ran 15:54 and our team finished 5th in our category.
Actually felt ok after the race, commenting to Horrie that the achilles felt ok and also no niggles recently for the LH hammie/glute.
Sunday - Pymble STaR
Up early to drive over to Pymble, one STaR that I have not done yet somehow! In keeping with my new approach I hung around waiting for the 6:20 group and off we went. Had not realised the extent of the hills on this course, that coupled with a twinge in the LH hammie and I was starting to struggle a little before dropping off just before the short cut turn off. After here I also noticed the achilles was starting to complain and so I also took the 2nd shortcut which was still going to see me do about 24km. Caught up to a slower group near Turramurra shops and a few of them joined me on the downhill run back down to Lane Cove River for some biush running before climbing back up to Pymble.
Stats
Distance 24.3 km
Time 2:11
Avg Pace 5:23
Avg HR 162
The achilles has pulled up quite tender (again) and I am getting a little frustrated with the scenario.
4 comments:
Dave - Wellington has to ber about the worst place on the planet to go for a run!
Nice XC relay result and STaR - hope the achilles comes good ;-)
Nice relay mate - and keeping up with Benson too! Running with the big boys now :)
No wonder your new garmin PB'd it measured 9.95k. Maybe still some issues with the trees on that course? Nice job on the relay mate. I didn't realise we were that close(5th) to a medal. Just read Guz's blog and he ran the 30k at pymble in 2:02, how? He is mad!
Sounds like you guys have all the fun in Sydney. Excuse my ignorance but what is a 305?
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