Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb...

...dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, stupid (geddit?).

On the way back from the 5k challenge yesterday, I remarked to Ben (CR Chunderbolt) that as long as I got through Sunday's long run OK, then I would have managed to get to a goal race uninjured for the first time in ever(?). As usual, I spoke too soon. I noticed this morning as I was getting out of bed that my right quad twinged. I don't remember straining it yesterday, but I was doing lots of squatting while working on the house, so that may have strained something. Anyhow, I though no more about it until I was stretching a bit before the Striders Star and felt the twinge again. I went for a bit of a jog and it felt OK, so I decided to continue. Like I said above, dumb, dumb, dumb!

Tim (CR Redback) and I started with the 6:10am group again, and again they shot off like they had something to prove. We had already decided to do a shortened run (23k) so we figured that we'd try to hang on until the first short cut at about 12k. At about the 10k point, the group was very strung out, and I arrived at the back just in time to hear the tail end of someone giving the group a good dressing down and telling all those who wanted to run faster to run ahead, because from now on the group was going to do the 'right' speed. The usual suspects ran off, and at least for the next couple of k until we turned off, the pace seemed a bit more sensible. Much thanks to whoever it was :-)

During the course of the run, my leg was starting to get a little tight, but I kept going (why, oh why?). It still felt ok(ish) when I finished, but as I cooled down it started to hurt. A fair bit of self massage plus an ice pack (took it to church with me and left it on during the sermon) plus lots more squatting during the rest of the day has it no longer bothering me, but it's still sore to touch. Looks like this week's taper with lots of short, sharp work has just become a taper with not much of anything. Ah well, it wouldn't be a goal race if I didn't carry some kind of injury into it :-(

As for the rest of the week, I did another 5 reps of 5 min @145bpm, 1 min recovery on the bike on Tuesday morning. The idea is to raise the lactic threshold without thrashing my legs. Wednesday morning I covered 15k at 5:20 pace overall, though that included 3k in the bush which slowed things down rather. Thursday at Run Club we did 3 x 2k reps. I was really pleased with the evenness. The 500m splits were
1:54, 1:54, 1:53, 1:49 - 7:30 total
1:56, 1:52, 1:54, 1:49 - 7:31 total
1:57, 1:55, 1:54, 1:51 - 7:37 total
I had ideas of pushing the last 500m, but there was nothing at all left. That's the way reps should be, so no complaints there.

Finally, Saturday morning was the CR5k. Not a bad turnout, considering that CR drinks were not too many hours earlier. I ran with Wayne (CR Johnny Dark) off 21, with the bold goal of him breaking 21 for the first time. Alas, we fell tantalisingly short, but it was still his best time for a number of years.

With a bit of luck (and a whole lot of hard work), our next post next week will record a new pb of 95:xx, and a great set of times from the 95 train (currently at least JD, Redback, Rags and myself). Unfortunately, Evie has been called away at the last minute for work and won't be able to be there, so the bus is going to be minus one piston :-(

Gnome