Starting to go long again

I felt like I was under the influence of some strong drugs this morning. Just hazy and out-of-it, slept in and meandered around ineffectually at work. It was my first weekend of going long in quite some time so a bit of a shock to my body.

Saturday I wanted to do a 3 hour run, but I slept in and wasn’t ready to go until 7.30, then I didn’t want to waste half the day having to come home, stretch, eat lunch, shower, get in the car and go to the beach (because it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day).

So I asked Sarah if she minded driving to Freshwater and meeting me there at 10.30, then ran from my house in McMahons Point to Freshwater Beach. I followed the harbourfrount as much as possible through Kirribilli, Neutral Bay, Cremorne Point, Mosman, Bradleys Head, Chowder Bay, Balmoral, Chinamans beach and over the Spit bridge. I had initially planned to continue following the water on the Spit to Manly track, but decided that time was against me and I’d better go along Sydney Road straight to Manly Beach, then along the beachfront and over the headland to Freshy, exactly 3 hours.

It was HOT by that stage so straight into the water, then when Sarah arrived – with breakfast bless her – I had a stretch on the sand and we read the papers and paddled around a bit, a lovely day.

On Sunday Marty had organised a bit of a big ride, the “4 valleys” he called it, from Seaforth along Wakehurst Parkway and then Forestway, Mona Vale Road to Bobbin Head (Valley 1), Galston Gorge (Valley 2), Berowra Waters (Valley 3) and finally back down to Bobbin Head (Valley 4). Of course coming from North Sydney it also involved doing Spit Hill at the start and the end, just for a bit extra. About 130km all up on a very hot and humid morning where Dan estimates he lost about 8 litres of sweat - he weighed himself before and after, and even with drinking 6 litres of water he was 2 kilos lighter by the end.

It was a bit of a struggle, although I have to say easier than last time I did the ride and I’m happy to report that, apart from taking a little while to warm up and get into it, it didn’t seem like the long run the day before had taken too much out of my legs. A very very good ride through some beautiful parts of Sydney and I was extremely happy with it.

It was a conscious decision not to do the Kurnell race on Sunday because I really hadn’t had a long ride on the bike since Canberra a month ago, and if I’m going to be halfway in shape for Huskisson I definitely need to get some long rides in. I pretty much didn’t ride at all for 3 weeks over Christmas so I figured a sprint triathlon would not be nearly as beneficial for me at this point as a long run and long run.

Beneficial it may be, but boy did it knock me around! I only started to feel normal again after going for a swim at lunchtime today.