Tuesday - back in form

Finally I'm feeling good again!

I was still feeling fairly average after my 30km on Sunday. Then all yesterday I was knackered and my legs were beaten to pieces (especially the quads) and I could barely walk! I had planned some yoga and maybe a swim but it turned out I wasn't in the mood to do either, I just jogged to work and back - slowly.

Today I was still a bit rough upon awakening but fired up and got out the door at 5.30am to do a Boundary Riders 40km bike. It felt tough at some points, and a couple of times I thought I was fading, but I always rallied. In the end it was a great ride and I came home buzzing, then jogged to work.

At lunch I ran with the HuRTS boys on possibly the hardest session I've done with them. 45 mins of fartlek - one minute hard, 30 seconds easy. I was sticking quite close to the main pack for the first 6 or 7 minutes, but their "recovery" was almost as fast as their efforts so while I kept in touch on the efforts, I lost ground on the recovery. Soon I reaslied I would never be able to keep up that pace so just let them go and took a proper easy job recovery.

About that time I started running alongside Greg who's very much at the same pace as me and that was great because we helped each other through. It's an interesting insight into how time varies with perception - the 30 seconds break seems like almost nothing and the 1 minute efforts stretch out interminably...

After 15 minutes I thought there'd be no way I could finish, but then we decided to do a walking recovery instead of a jog and that made a huge difference. We were able to push a lot more effectively in the efforts (which hovered around 170bpm in the main) and it didn't seem inconceivable that we'd finish the 45 mins!

With 3 efforts to go I really started pushing the speed, trying to hold form at the same time (core tight, back upright, leg strike quick, high cadence) and was able to finish strongly which I was really happy about.

Even better, I've been buzzing all afternoon!!! I feel good, I feel strong, I feel that I've completely kicked the bug and I'm perfectly healthy again and ready to put in a hard 2 weeks before the Canberra taper. Grrrrr.