The Long Run

When the radio alarm went off at the early for me hour of 8:00am, the weatherman announced the outside temperature as 4C!!! For the next 30mins I kept telling myself I couldn't get out of a warm cosy bed into that sort of cold morning! At the end of 30mins. I made a dash for clothes : 2 top layers, warm cap, long tights & gloves & didn't remove any of it until getting back home 26kms later; a quick cup of coffee before I could think of going back to bed! I couldn't get warm all the way out & back even though it was brilliantly sunny & hardly any wind until the top of Range Rd where it nearly blew me sideways off the road & over the cliff!

Truly, I've never been so terribly cold; quite sure the blood supply had frozen in my veins! Amazed too, that during the week I've been away from those hills, that they have become so much steeper....must have been some underground disturbance going on!

Enough of complaining, but it was a very tough morning : quads were screaming all the way back, especially the 1km very steep hill out of Glenquarry...how Plu ever rode his bike up there, I'll never know; saw a cyclist fall off his bike when trying to change gears & he couldn't release his foot from the pedal; it seemed to have spikes that his shoe locked into; don't know, but that's what it looked like as I stepped over him & continued on my way! No I didn't, just joking! I actually helped yank his foot loose; he was OK but the bike had a few dents in it. They all passed & called out further along so all was well. Swallowed a gel at half way.

Also had a group of bikers roar past; wonderful sight & sound (they wave now), reminding me of my ride with Wombatface on his great big bike (forget it's name, but it's big & beautiful) in Canberra. Anyhow, smiling back at the bikers relaxed my frozen facial muscles, but did nothing for the pain in the quads & knees.

This is long I realize, but I love 'talking' to my blog & always think of it as a real person listening intently to everything I have to say! It never seems to get bored, never answers back, agrees with everything I say, allows me to moan, complain, unburden myself & never says, "Why don't you just shut up!" It even smiles back when I have good news & then quietly slips away until called on another day & that's what my blog/friend is for!

Lastly : this 26km took me 3 1/2 hours (with walk breaks of jog 8mins/walk 1min; keeping HR at around 70-80% of max). Good God, I'm slow! After GC marathon, I'm going to do some speed work & see if I can run just a little bit faster next year; I can't get over that 80yr. old Strider doing the SMH half in 120mins....I shouldn't have been 20mins. slower than that, so I'm going all out to catch him!

Tough morning for Chickybabe who is now going to have a nap & hopefully wake up refreshed later tonight!