Wednesday, August 21, 2013

RECOVERY

With 3 days of hard racing under the belt it was time for a rest week, OK I don't really rest, I just run less... So even on Monday I popped out for an easy 6km run to ensure that the legs were still mine!

Now with the boys at UCT looking to run well at Cross Country Champs they were on a taper week, so come Tuesday it was time to turn the legs over for real with a couple of 500's. Cape Town in the winter can often through a spanner in the works, and with the bit of rain we've had the field / track didn't look like the right place to run...

Now I am a Coach of many talents and with Ms 310 on my arm, 500m can be 500m anywhere... So in the quiet of the suburbs we have a nice little block to run around. My plan? Race pace, their plan a little faster, and we are all having lots of rest in between. I stopped at 2 and they finished off with 6.

Now I think I owe you the truth, yes my legs still hurt, well only the quads, and that is from flying down the forestry roads on Day 1 and Day 2 of SOX. So I also kept the rest of the week easy and then... after Saturday's easy 8.4km and the legs now starting to feel OK it was time to get back on the road and get a couple of miles under the belt, I do have another 2 big races in September... A 35km trail race that should take 4 hours and wait for it, a marathon the week after!!!

Where was I? Oh recovering from SOX with an easy week, and it was easy, Saturday was only 8.4km and then.... Well it had been our wedding anniversary (15 years), so we had a party!!!

18 PEOPLE (9 COUPLE) SOME DRESSED UP
SHE STILL FITS HER WEDDING DRESS
It was a great party with 5 brides still fitting in their wedding dresses, feel stupid now as I didn't take a picture of those as we have in other years... Yes we often have parties like this!!!

Back to training... Well it was after 01h00 when I climbed into bed after cleaning up and getting the house looking normal again. No sooner than I had turned off the light then the alarm went off, it was time to get up and head out to the 30km race!!!

A great race around the Simon's Town Block... Red Hill, Cape Point and the coastal road back. Lucky for me it was just a training run and really just to tick off another 30km long run, so no pressure!!!

Ran over Red Hill with a couple of friends, but lost that bus at the bottom (11km) as I popped into the bushes!!! 5kg lighter I set of to Cape Point after them... No I didn't chase them, in fact I slowed a bit and let the guys behind catch me so I had some-one to run with. The running was easy and with 10km to go it's downhill and easy, so I (we) kept the pace honest. and with 5km to go I again found myself along and chasing the guys in front. I wanted a little bit of running at the end... I am thinking of maybe running a fastish marathon at the end of the year.

I was happy with my run and the fact that my legs still work, now I'm ready for week one of training...

OK I race 2h01:31 (running time 1h59:45) the last 10km had been 38:30, and best of all I bet I had another 5+km in me at that pace, so bring on the training...

Ed Note: I ran a couple of 1km reps on Tuesday and the 30km, well it was in the legs a bit and I really had to work hard to get going...

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your 15th anniversary. I would have loved to have seen all the brides in their 90s dresses.

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  2. Awesome job on the running as usual. Congrats on 15 yrs. it's an accomplishment these days. We have 21 years coming up for us.

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  3. Congrats on your wedding anniversary, and congrats on your marvelous 3 day race win - just read it, what a brilliant and exciting account!

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