Friday, January 14, 2011

Plodding Along

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It was a not a good Time Trial this morning... not very successful I'm afraid.  I drove to the soccer field knowing the grass was long and the field bogged with water, but I wasn't expecting the jungle that had grown in two days!  Nevertheless, I decided to give it a go rather than run on the road at this stage especially as my knee seems to be going well on the grass surfaces.

I was about half way through the warm-up when a teacher and a groundsman arrived to mow the field.  Knowing me as well as they do, they offered to cut a track around the field first for me to use.  Now, wasn't that a thoughtful thing to do! So much better than ploughing through the watery jungle. After that, all I had to do was manoeuvre where there were bogs and small lakes!

This is what I should have done:

3.5km warm-up
5km @ 6:23 pace
1.5km cool-down.

BUT

This what I did:

3.5km warm-up
3km @7:09 pace
1 lap walking cool-down

By 3km in the Time Trial I'd 'had it' and I couldn't see any advantage in continuing getting slower and slower and achieving nothing more than wearing myself out more than I already was!  First TT since September last year!  Heat, humidity, bogs and grass had 'done me in'!

I began the workout wearing water running shoes with socks but removed them after the warm-up by which time they'd become choked with grass and water-logged.  I was moving slowly enough without the extra weight!.

Hopefully, I'll do better next Friday's Time Trial.  Sunday's long run is 13km....can I run round and round and round for that distance?  We'll see!

For now, I'm OK with the result.

3 comments:

  1. You're doing great! Good idea to stick to the grass (even if it's killing your shoes - just buy new ones - Jim won't mind). If you're doing a long run, try reversing direction every 4 or 5 laps.

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  2. Yes - don't get dizzy going in one direction! Maybe take the shoes off all together and run a little way barefoot :)

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  3. Thanks, guys, for the good advice!

    Going round and round in circles could drive a person crazy! Will let you know!

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