NO PAIN NO GAIN

I know I was talking about retirement but it's not retirement that I need, just a rest and a visit to a Physio... Yes I have been running these last months with a broken body and it is crying out for repairs!

So after my run up to the mast I popped into the local physio to have my body beaten back into shape. Now you must know that I was born in the 60's ('69) and grew up in the 70's & 80's now, back then it was all:

'NO PAIN NO GAIN"

Now there are times when this philosophy works, but with a torn/strained muscle... Not a good idea... as pain normally means the muscle is put under strain and could be tearing again!!! I don't know how much rest I need, but I've got 3 weeks before my next race so let's see if I can get this fixed...

But before my 3 weeks starts I have a taper week and a little 26km race... I promised the physio I would run slowly and I did... (over 8:00 min/km)

With a week of easy and doing the couple of exercises I was given I was ready to race (slowly) OK we didn't start that slowly with the first 3km under 5min/km but the running was easy mostly on the gravel road below the mountain... Then, yes we went up!!! I was still mixing it with the kids, but I didn't have my climbing legs with me as we climbed to the saddle...

In the saddle

From there we turned left and climbed the West Peak (yes climbed). With 6.5km done (52:30) I was at the top 5min off my fastest time up and 1 min off 2nd pace, couldn't see Bernie in the front. While I was moving a lot better that a couple of weeks earlier at JMC I was still scrambling down like a pregnant woman! (no offence to pregnant woman, but I was being careful and going slowly). I lost 1, maybe 2 place before we started up to the saddle again:

watching my every step!

This time we turned right and headed up to conquor The Dome.

it's gets a little steep at this point!

This was an out and back section and it was amazing to see Duncan (he had taken Bernie who's ankel didn't let him bounce up and down the mountain) hopped down the mountain. (OH to have young legs!)

The views up there are amazing, but there was no time to take them in as...

Katya was kicking butt in the Ladies!

It wasn't only the ladies chasing, the old men were also on their way up. The 2 guys I had been holding onto on the way up were running away from me on the down. Okay running isn't really the right word as I was really sliding down on my ass!! One of the old men, Derrick,  took a tumble and after cartwheeling was able to get up and keep running! Last year and the year before some-one had been airlifted off the mountain after a tumble!

On my second West Peak ascent I run into one of the rocks I had run into on the first loop, you think you would learn!!!

The second loop was great as while I was been caught buy a couple of the Kids I was catching guys running the shorter 15km loop.

With over 3 hours of running under the belt I was happy to still have a little running in the legs!  I really thought a couple more guys would run me down,  but it was me who ended up catching a couple of the guys who had hopped past me on the vertical rocky decent...

Race done 3h32 for the 26ish km  (over 2000m climb) Now it's time to rest, and listen to the physio!!! It's 3 week to my next race and being only 20+km I should be fine with 3 weeks rest!!!

Perfect morning on the mountain!