Hickson Road Thursday

First run since the marathon. Even though I felt absolutely fine when I finished and walked around for a couple of hours after the race, even jogged around the recovery village to try to find Kathryn, it still took it’s toll. I was pretty knackered Monday and took a full rest day. Tuesday I had a good ride in the morning, but didn’t fancy running a fast session at lunch because my legs felt tired, so did 25 mins of pool running with my float belt and 1km swim after to stretch out, plus a few minutes in the hydrotherapy pool.

Wednesday I just did yoga in the morning and donated blood (plasma) at lunchtime.

On the Boundary ride this morning I was tired to start with and struggled up Roseville Hill. But I hit Parrawi with fire and averaged about 23km/hr to the top which I was really happy with. I thought it was time to go running again, plus a marvellous sunny day which helps, so went down to Hickson Road with only a few of the HuRTS boys to pound out some flat fast ones.

I surprised myself by feeling good on the first rep and sticking with Mike Conway. We came back at what felt like a tough pace and turned out to be 7 seconds faster, so that was good to know I wasn’t blowing up just yet. I noticed that my HR was in the
180 zone already which I don’t think I’ve seen in months and months. Either I haven’t been pushing hard enough previously or I’m just untrained on the faster stuff after a patchy few months of HuRTS sessions. Or I’m still recovering after the marathon?

Either way, came back at a slightly slower pace, then went out for the fourth which was really hurting this time and I only just managed to keep it together and stick with Mike. I could feel the form suffering as well.

I was not sure about the last one, although in the end I managed to maintain for the first three quarters, but halfway back from the tunnel I saw Mike, Dominic and another bloke just slip away from me and I couldn’t make my legs go any faster to keep up. After reaching 183 HR for the last 3 reps I figured I’d just blown up and tried to keep the last bit as fast as I could, but felt like I was slowing with every step. I was surprised actually that I’d only dropped a couple of seconds – I thought I’d run a 4:15 but ended up 4:09 so happy with that.

Ultimately I was stoked to complete one of the harder sessions and maintain fairly consistent times, on the back of a marathon and months of no fast training, with the Achilles injury meaning no HuRTS sessions, Striders 10kms, City to Surf etc. Gives me hope that I may be able to pull off a decent 10km or Half marathon time this year…

Rep – Time – Av HG
1 – 4:02 – 160
2 – 3:55 – 171
3 – 4:06 – 170
4 – 4:02 – 174
5 – 4:09 – 174