Back to Boundary and HuRTS Fartlek

I woke up this morning and, after some wavering, managed to drag my lazy arse out the door to go to Boundary Riders for the first time in over 2 months (since about a week before the Canberra marathon). I was scared that people would be unfriendly, that I’d get dropped by the group straight away etc etc.

As it turned out there were only 4 of us at the start (“oh great, nowhere to hide”) but the blokes were really friendly and the pace was fine. I wasn’t that far behind coming up Roseville Bridge hill (even ahead of one guy) and although I got resoundingly dropped by the paceline, I gasped “I can’t do it, I’m dropping” and one guy said “No worries, we’ll wait for you” and they did!

I even stuck with the bunch through the Military Road dash and at the end one bloke said, “See you Thursday!” Of course I felt tremendously good afterwards, so I’m totally in for it from now on. It was really good to be back.

HuRTS at lunchtime was the 45 min fartlek and I thought it might be a struggle when my legs were sore before I even got there. However I started ok and even kept with some of the faster guys on the way out, trying to match their barely noticeable “recovery” pace. Admittedly Enda was taking it real easy at that point, but it made me happy that it took a good ten minutes before he disappeared into the distance.

After 10 mins I couldn’t handle the faster recoveries (my HR wasn’t dropping below 170s at all before the next effort) so started taking them a bit slower and trying to keep pushing the fast bit. I had a couple of guys around me from there til halfway and then back to the Opera house which kept me honest, but then I shortcut across the front of the forecourt to make sure I got back at a reasonable time and I lost everyone. The last bit by myself was difficult and I know that I really didn’t push it as much as I should have (or would have if I had company – Greg and Inhisshadow, where were you guys??? Hope your foot is healing Greg), but it was a good session nonetheless!