What was I thinking....?

OK, so maybe doing 3/4 of a lap of Quarry Rd was not the ideal reintroduction to running. :-) The next day I felt like I'd just run a marathon. Quads ached, I didn't want to get out of bed, all that sort of thing. :-) Anyhow, by Wednesday I was ready to go again. Alas, my planned 40minute stroll through the bush turned into an hour, courtesy of a wrong turn, but at least it showed me that 10k was possible without problems. Added to that, we had a great session at Run Club on Thursday night - a hills/tempo/hills sandwich - which had me looking forward to a 'long' run on Saturday morning with surprising anticipation.

We have a loop from home which is a pretty good approximation to the City to Surf. 14k (of course) and a good mix of short, sharp hills and two long grinding ones. I carefully avoided looking at my watch and just ran on feel, keeping things nice and aerobic. I had the advantage on the longest hill of a particularly complex Santana song on the iPod; by the time I had worked out the rhythmic structure, I was at the top! :-) Anyhow, I was really pleased to be home in 72 minutes without getting overly stressed.

Tiger angel's training continues its gentle upward trajectory as well. It's really lovely to see her doing what she wants, when she wants, instead of being limited by injuries and medical conditions as she has been for so long now. This week included PT & swim squads on Tuesday, Run Club Thursday, PT & swim squads (again!) on Saturday, and then today we rode out along the M7 for 70 minutes. I've decided that tiger angel is someone who benefits from a warm up, as we did the up-hill return half faster than the down-hill outward half! Lovely ride, lovely day, but my numb bum tells me that no way is this little black duck ever going to do long tri's. I'll stick to 6ft and leave the HIM's to TA. Seems fair :-)

Gnome

The long slow recovery gains pace

I'm feeling very positive tonight (hence actually getting around to blogging for the first time in ages :-) ). The first few attempts at walk/running were not outright successes, but each session left me with some hope that things would get better. I managed a good, even (and pain-free) run at the CR5k with Sook and Running Angel, and then promptly came down with a thoroughly gross lurgy.

Thinking that I was over the worst, we made a (possibly ill-advised) appearance at the striders 10k the following week, but I only got through 5k before pulling the plug. Tiger angel stopped at the same point with breathing difficulties again, but when Wildthing came past she decided to start again and accompany her for the second 5k (no further breathing problems this time). A further week of being laid low meant no more attempts at running for me, so yesterday (Sat) afternoon I headed out for a gentle run around the local streets, keeping it as level as living in the Hills district allows. I felt good for the first 6 k, but the last k and a half left me feeling decidedly old. I was very surprised (and very happy) to find that I'd averaged 5:10s for the run. (Not bad considering my total running since the hip cracked added up to a princely 28k! :-) ).

Tiger angel had a long run on the schedule for today, but she really wasn't looking forward to doing it on her own, so I suggested that she do a lap and a half of Quarry Rd, meaning I could accompany her for a little while and then walk, and she'd see me each time she passed. As it was, I ended up running 3/4 of a lap with her (Dural end to Hornsby and half way back) before my quads decided that they'd had enough. She continued on while I walked till she got back to me, and then we walked together to the end. It was a really nice day together, but my quads are definitely going to be reminding me all about it in the morning.

It's only 4 weeks now till the City to Surf, but I'm comfortable that I'll be able to cover the distance without any difficulty, and I don't really care what speed I do as I know that I'll always be able to use Striders results to get a Red bib if I don't get under the 75 minutes. There's no distance in my legs now, but that'll all start to change over the next few months. Happy.

Gnome