Motivation to kick some change in form has been quite high for the last few months. I decided that the running needed a good kick in the pants – as I have not really done any proper run training for almost 10 years, I was very much on borrowed time for reasonable performances running wise.
Last year was similar. I registered for the cross country season, and did two races – the first and the last! I think the season was interrupted with a couple of injuries and a couple of trips over seas. This year will be different (he says with fingers and toes crossed). I even took the spikes out at did a couple of short runs in them, just to get use to them, to try to minimise the injury risk. The first was out at Pukekohe, a nice undulating course. I still felt well under done on the start line– a little bit like the fat kid that gets picked last. I thought I had managed to hide well in the middle of the pack at the start, and with about 10 seconds to go, the guy in front of me panics as he realises he is at the front and should not be there. I was quite funny watching him turn and barge through the pack in the opposite direction. However, the funny side soon turn to dread as I was the one that was shoved out of the way, and was now right up the front. My plans for a building effort were now radically changed to “dam – I better get out of here fast or I am going to be trampled to death!”. I did manage to see the front runners at the first corner, and then it was slowly drift back through the field, to my rightful mid-pack position. As the race progressed everything was hurting. The lungs were burning, the legs were screaming – especially the calves, and it felt like I was just plodding along. Normally I feel like I take corners and gradual down hills quite well, but on this day I was struggling to run around the corners and the down hills got slower and slower. The frustration level went up a notch when the guy in front of me had his spikes fall apart, and he was still running faster than me with the sole of his shoe flapping all over the place! The torment finally ended, but the pain did not subside. The legs were at about the same pain level as post Ironman – it was ridiculous! The only redeeming features were that it must get better and I found out I had somehow burgled 3rd place in the younger vet category (would have been 4th in the older vets category!).
Race 2 of the cross country series was a flat and faster affair, but at 8.6km, and reasonably soft underfoot it was not going to be easy. Especially when my longest run has been around 14km (eek!). I managed a more sensible start this time and settled in to a small group. I quickly decided I was the weak runner of the group and should sit on the shoulder of the best wind break there was. I was probably the biggest pain in the butt of the group, sitting really close in behind. I ended up with a few cuts in the knees where I got clipped by the spikes of those running in front of me. A couple of times I had to pull the guy up in front of me as I half tripped him up. He was pretty good about it – I think if it was me I would have said something! I felt a lot more in control and felt I did have a choice in speed – it was not just survival. When there were surges, I could react, and I was happy going a bit slower when the pace did drop a little (in fact I was quite happy!). The last 1km was always going to be interesting. Our group was down to three, and one took off with a good 800m to go, and he was gone. I was still sitting on the shoulder as we turned the last corner and preparing to launch what sprint I had. The guy in front slowed a little, so I went full speed – with a slight feeling of guilt as I had sat on him for the last 7km or so. But that guilt was soon cleansed, as he then rolled me with 50m to go with easy! It was actually good fun – we had a great little race within the race. I managed another 3rd – so in the money again – so to speak!
I missed race three – as I was full of the flu. Which basically took me out of action for 2 weeks. And getting back into training was a fairly slow. So rather than progress forward in June, it was a case of back up a couple of steps. The first few runs back were pretty ugly to be fair.
Race 4 of the series was a flat and fast race at Long bay – just 4km this time. I was only just starting to recover from the bugs, so was net expecting too much. It was a little soft underfoot, and there were a few good down pours during the warm-up. I was going to be a fast start and see how long I could hold on for. The gun went off – and I went out strong – but not too silly. Could see the front of the race, and was even in front of a few guns in the first km. But then went back a little and settled into a solid pace. The top end was certainly missing, better than it had been even earlier in the week, but when I pushed on the gas pedal – the body just laughed and said “– yeah right, who are you kidding…”. Got a bit ass kicked, and had the lungs well and truly cleaned out. But it was motivating to get out and do more run training. So not all bad…
So where is the training at now? Well, here is a summary:
Swimming – 2 swims this week, which makes 4 for the month of June (ouch), and the local pool is closed for 5 weeks to do the maintenance that they should have done last year when it was closed, rather than just tile around the edges! So fair to say it is quite a sad state of affairs.
Cycling – two class rides and a couple of rides with the school girls (weather playing its part). The last long ride was February. Power levels at the interval session where dropping, but appear to have stabilized a little. Cycling is at a maintaining minimal level of fitness to “do the job” at the moment. I think 4-6 weeks of long rides and one other easier ride and that will come back a bit. So not too bad.
Running – have tried to do at least 4 runs per week. This is going OK. Long runs are still lacking, and struggling to get over an hour and a half. The flu certainly knock me around a bit, but with a good couple of weeks of running I think I can start to lift the running up a little. I am almost at a point where I can now run fit enough to do some good run training. I would like to get in a few 70+km/week training weeks. Mostly just need to organise my ass into gear to do this I think.
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