Week 24:
Easing back into it.....
Swimming....ha! It hurt a bit but time to make the dive back into the waters of the Valley Pool. Probably been a little neglected over the last 6-8 weeks but time to pull my finger out and find the love for the water again.
Cycling this week was a continuation of just spending time in the saddle. Easy time, time to reacquaint my backside and legs with certain pain involved with sitting on a bike for anywhere between 2-6hrs
The running this week was just maintain the current work I have been doing up to this point in time.
2012 Gold Coast Half Marathon
Sunday was the Gold Coast Half Marathon. Time to assess how the running has been progressing over the 'off season'
The previous PB for the 21.1km distance was 1:35:33. The thought was that this could be bettered based on current form, but it was by how much?
The strategy coming into the race was to stick with the 1hr30min pacer and see how long I could hang on. After 5km, I was feeling comfortable and started to pull away from the pace runner and at the 10km mark had done a PB of 41min flat which was a 7sec improvement on the 10km I completed at the QLD Half Marathon a few weeks ago. The interesting and confident building thing was that I did the next 10km in the GC Half in 40min17sec..another PB.
At the 16km the legs were starting to feel a little heavier but there was no giving up and I pushed through. I could see the carrot of a big PB ahead of me.
At the 19km mark things were starting to fall apart a little, I would like to paint a picture for you....I'm actually not sure what an 89 year old person looks like running at approx. 4min pace, but I'm sure I was resembling such a picture. The left hand was 'feeding the chooks' (those who run with me regularly will know what I mean here) not only feeding the chooks in my paddock but the paddock 4km down the road. (the left hand was flying everywhere) The legs were starting to splay in all different directions, it just wasn't pretty, but I was focused on not letting that pace drop below 4:10min. In the end I held it together to the finish, celebrating with a pleasing result. The final time for the race was 1h26m24sec, overall a 9min PB.
Week 24 Stats:
Easy week this week, well the first couple of days to allow the legs to recover. However, Tuesday run session was not one that I particularly found comfortable and a few niggles were popping up, specifically might have overdone it, straining the left hamstring.
A concern....but after Wednesday's easy bike the hammy felt a lot better and thought that I would give it a bit of a test on Thursday morning with an easy 40-50min run, hmmmm, good idea at the time....but 4km in, and it reared its ugly head and created some discomfort for the rest of the run.
It was off to the Physio on Friday for some urgent treatment before it got any worse, better I get on top of it now, there is still a long road ahead and it is now even more critical to get on top of niggles and potential injuries to minimize the time off training. It was decided to give it a break and not run until Tuesday. Returning to the Physio Monday and Wednesday next week.
The Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights I slept in my compression tights to aid the recover process.
A massage today helped with the injury treatment which involved some dry needling and cupping.
Swimming was BRUTAL this week, given my level of swim fitness at the moment. Time to get those feet/legs moving.....really????...kicking.....5min kick effort.....just put it this way...there wasn't a lot of distance covered!......persist...persist...persist.....
One session that I am particularly enjoying, and see some real benefit is the Wednesday evening Pilate sessions. It is a something that I haven't really explored in previous campaigns .....tough work....these small 1%ers are potentially game breakers!
Week 23 Stats:
