This last week has been hard.
My body has been starting to remember what it can be like to train for a marathon. Ah yes. I remember now. Why didn't someone remind me sooner. It can be painful.
This time last week I was sluggish and sore and just couldn't bring myself to do much. I sucked it up in time to get back on track for the weekend. Things are back on the up.
Rewind to last week though and it was like I was back in 2009, training for my first marathon. Throughout my entire preparation for the Gold Coast Marathon I felt more tired and much more sore than I ever had while training for the three Ironman races I'd done up until this time.
I remember feeling like I should be supplementing my running with a recovery swim. I felt intuitively that a commute on the bike would help loosen up those tight muscles. But at the same time, I felt like there was no energy for any more than the minimum (and sometimes not even the minimum).
So last week my training suffered. In fact I ran once (just 5ks) and did a short core session, before the weekend rolled around and I was once again looking down the barrel of some ridiculously long runs.
It was time to (wo)man up.
My body has been starting to remember what it can be like to train for a marathon. Ah yes. I remember now. Why didn't someone remind me sooner. It can be painful.
This time last week I was sluggish and sore and just couldn't bring myself to do much. I sucked it up in time to get back on track for the weekend. Things are back on the up.
Rewind to last week though and it was like I was back in 2009, training for my first marathon. Throughout my entire preparation for the Gold Coast Marathon I felt more tired and much more sore than I ever had while training for the three Ironman races I'd done up until this time.
I remember feeling like I should be supplementing my running with a recovery swim. I felt intuitively that a commute on the bike would help loosen up those tight muscles. But at the same time, I felt like there was no energy for any more than the minimum (and sometimes not even the minimum).
So last week my training suffered. In fact I ran once (just 5ks) and did a short core session, before the weekend rolled around and I was once again looking down the barrel of some ridiculously long runs.
It was time to (wo)man up.
KKB has ridden up South Boundary Road many times, so each time I run there, he always asks me where I got to. Did I get past "The Three Sisters"? Did I get to "The Storm Shelter".
I don't know these landmarks so I never know how to answer, so on the weekend I took a picture to show him where I got to.
I don't think he recognised the spot either so I think he now realises how hard it is for me to describe where I turned around.
The run wasn't easy by any stretch, maybe partly because I'd taken it easy all week - had my legs forgotten what running felt like?
I spent a fair bit of time walking, particularly up hills. I made use of this time to eat and drink, so it's probably fairly good race preparation. So in retrospect I'm actually not that disappointed with this outcome.
On the way back down the hill (though "down the hill" is a bit of an overstatement... it's really "undulating with a down hill trend") I heard some rustling around beside the track. I looked over to see this little guy. I've never seen an echidna in the wild before. I was pretty chuffed.
I'll admit it. The "Easy" route marker is a bit hard to cope with sometimes. It doesn't seem that "easy" running the distances I'm covering on trails. Particularly when none of it is flat - it's always either up or down. But I guess if the only other option I have is a place called "Hellhole Break" - maybe I can start to embrace the "Easy" thing.
In total it was over five hours of elapsed time for the run, so by the time I got home it's safe to say I was tuckered out.
On Sunday it was a 13k run into the city, before working all day (mostly on my feet), before running 17ks home. Sunday is not a normal work day and a colleague had organised drinks after the event we were working at finished. Instead of heading for the bar I bid goodbye to my workmates and changed into my running gear. As I headed out of campus to start my run I passed by the bar, averting my eyes and thinking to myself... "don't look at the bar... don't look at the bar..."
The run home was not fast, but I feel like 17ks is a fairly honest distance to cover on very, very tired legs.
Recently I have had a few people tell me I'm a machine when I tell them what I've been up to and what I'm hoping to do in approximately seven weeks time. On Sunday afternoon, from time to time, on that run home, that's how I felt.
This week I'm back to normal midweek training before a slightly easier weekend. Though Friday night will be my first real night run (in the bush). Stay tuned for an update.
You can look at the bar once Glasshouse is done. And you can then sit at that bar for as long as you want. It will be worth it!
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