Monday, August 2, 2010

Hit By a Bus

This morning I experienced the joy of waking up feeling like I had been hit by a bus.  And what a great feeling it was.

No, I wasn't hungover (duh, I don't drink!), and no, I hadn't actually been hit by a bus.  Rather, it was that wonderful sore, achy all-over feeling you get when you've pushed your body hard and it's now frantically repairing all the minor muscle tears and, in the process, getting stronger.  Oh yeah!

It all started on Saturday morning with what is normally a standard club run with the Christchurch Marathon Clinic.  It turned out to be not a typical run, however.  Periodically we have a change of scenery and this weekend we hit the blue track out at bottle lake forest.  The off road terrain is great for the joints (not so much jarring as on the roads and footpaths that we normally run) but it does have an added dimension.  Particular attention is required in order to safely negotiate the unevenness of the path, tree roots, sand and undulations, including three or four sharp, short climbs that would reduce some people to a walk (including myself in my less fit days!).  You have to watch your foot placement and adjust your stride length and pace every step along the way.  It means you can't just zone out and plod along like I'm prone to do - you actually have to think about what you're doing and pay attention to the track.

It turned out to be a great run.  I started off at what I thought was a steady pace, not sprinting but head down concentrating on foot placement and enjoying the change of scenery.  We got about halfway around the 11km loop and hit the hilly bits which I proceeded to charge up like, well not like a charging bull, but more goat-like (if there is such a thing).  Proved to be great interval training.

The last couple of kilometres was a bit of a slog but, once we finished, I realised why.  A typical "good" run sees me running at 6min 30sec to 6min 40sec per kilometre pace.  I finished the whole thing in 6min 20sec pace.  Awesome!

That afternoon I headed down to the Aquagym for a session in the pool with Dave - that turned out to be a full on session of not only technique drills but also hard out laps.  Yep, more interval training!  One lap easy, one lap hard.  And to think, just a couple of months ago I only had one swim speed (slow!).

The weekend was, of course, only half over.  Sunday saw me head out with the group on a jaunt out to Sefton and back into Sumner - 106km in total.  Great day for a bike ride (apart from the gale force norwesters!) and, after 10 minutes shy of 4 hours riding I got back home and found I had managed to achieve another leap forward in my training.  An average cadence of 83rpm - a great result for me in a group ride.

A nap was definitely in order on Sunday afternoon, and savoured!  

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