Crackneck

This week has been dedicated to recovery. Lots and lots of recovery.... The first couple of days all I did was walk at lunchtime, just stretching out the legs and drinking copious amounts of water. Particularly on Sunday I just couldn't get enough water. It was also a good opportunity to catch up on everything else in my life that has been getting ignored because all my time has been spent training (I still need to organise a new downpipe and side fence, it's just fortunate that the chooks aren't particularly adventurous when it comes to escaping the yard). I got a massage on Tuesday night and while my muscles were "well-used" everything seemed to be fine which is very reassuring. I got back into exercise on Thursday with an easy 1km swim followed by a core session. Then had my first run on Friday morning along my favourite running track which as it turns out was an awesome day for a run. It was the day after the Bateau Bay hailstorm and the track was still all c...

Going into GNW I honestly didn’t know how far I’d make it. I’d ended up limping after 2 training runs a couple of weeks before the race and my right leg still wasn’t feeling 100%. So my race plan was “Do or Die”. If my niggles were going to flair up, it would happen before Checkpoint 1 (28kms). The start of the race was a nervous affair with lots of runners disguised as workmen huddled on the oval at Teralba as Dave counted down to the start of the race and with perfect timing we headed off across the oval at 6am, out the gate and onto the GNW as crossed the railway bridge. The entire way to Heatons Gap I could feel niggles in my leg, but with only having run twice in the last few weeks I couldn’t tell if it was injury or my legs warming up. It was consuming a lot of my thoughts so I didn’t talk to people as much as I normally do that early in a race. We reached Heatons Gap and dad was there directing people across the road, I crossed the road and started powering up the hill, this is ...

Lighter on the training and it's also the most exciting day of the week with both #sandwichtoasterfriday and #bbqfriday Training This morning it's active recovery with a 1km swim at Mingara Pool. In general I'm a pretty terrible swimmer, my form is not particularly good and I'd need to do a lot of work if I ever want to look at going in a triathlon, although i'm sure that at some stage that will happen. At least I'm better than the Sea Cucumbers. The pool at Minga's is busy every morning, most of the lanes are full of squad swimmers with only 2 pubic lanes open, I go in the slower of the two lanes, the fast one tends to be actual swimmers or triathletes. On the way home I stop off for my 1 hour run. I will admit that it is kind of crazy to pull over on the side of Wilfred Barrett Drive, jump out of the car, put a headlamp on and dissapear into the dark and cold red gum forest to run around for an hour, but it's also very convenient with the loops and We...

Another heavy day of training, not much spare time and a broken skateboard Training This morning it's hill repeats. Matt gives me all sorts of different hill repeats to do and today is a new one. From the bottom of the ramp at Bateau Bay to the top of Reserve Drive (where it makes the right hand turn). 5 repeats at 85% and running hard down (so no recovery). I don't mind hill repeats, I mean they're hard and they hurt and I often dread them, but they serve a purpose. Sometimes the fear of having to do the hill repeats is worse then the hill repeats themselves and at the end of it my legs always have that good heavy feeling which means that I've worked hard. With my skateboard still broken (It needs new Pivot Cups). I setup my stretching and rolling session in the office. I prefer the gym, but the office will work. Followed up by a walk to the park with the cool Mustering Point sculpture (what I've been calling the steel church) and back. The sculpture is huge, the ...

An early start to get in the required Km's. Followed by the regular Wendesday night trivia outing. Training This morning it's a longish run, easy pace, but more then the usual K's so I need to get up earlier then normal and be out the door at 4:30am. There was no set location for the 17km's, so I decided to head to Cromarty and over the hill to Forresters Beach, running to the turnaround point which is as far south as you can run before you hit sand. Plus a bit extra at the end across Shelly Beach Golf Course to make up an extra k or so. I ended up with a hilly run closer to 18kms then 17kms... But close enough. AM - 17km run Lunch - Stretching & Rolling Food A big run means a big breakfast and today it was a Black Bean Quesadilla on the office sandwich toaster. One of the more delicious and filling semi-regular breakfasts that I like to make on the sandwich toaster, this particular one also makes enough for 3 meals, and I have no issues eating the same thing for mu...

Tuesday is a proper training day, with lots of running Training The morning starts with an easy 10km run to the tower at Cromarty & back. Technically this is closer to 11kms, but I count it as the 10k run. This is my favourite run and a pretty standard one I'll do a few times a week. Sometimes easy pace, sometimes faster. Most of the track is through the bush following the coastline from Shelly Beach to the Tower at Foresters with a couple of decent climbs up to Crackneck, then up to Cromarty lookouts. It's a particularly spectacular track in springtime when all the flowers are out, but at this time of year I'm running in the dark with only the possums & wallabies crazy enough to also be out. The descent down from Crackneck is notorious for tripping people up with the loose rocks, tree roots sticking out and washed away track. I have fallen over here more then once, Katy tries to fall over here at least once a fortnight. It's a fantastic run! The evening track s...