Had a very exciting weekend of running. In two days, I managed 52km, which is a lot more than I've done for a long time, and in the process had a few memorable experiences.
Memorable experience #1:
Saturday morning saw my Dad and I braving the drizzle and wind for his longest run yet: 17k, in preparation for the Melbourne Half Marathon. We ambled along for 14k or so, and then realised that we'd fall a bit short for distance if we went straight back to the car, the way we'd come. Dad decided we'd go down this trail he'd seen in the Melways, which supposedly ran on the other side of Dandenong creek. Upon emerging from the bridge at the spot where the trail supposedly started, we looked around, but could see nothing to suggest that it even existed. Not so eager to give up the idea, we ran up the highway for a hundred metres or so, and just as we were ready to turn back, I spotted a little track in front of us.
We ran down through a gate, upon which was afixed a sign reading 'Do not enter without ranger's permission'. We ignored it, after all it wasn't as if there were dangerous beasties around or anything like that. The track was quite rough - it obviously hadn't been used very frequently - but it was very pleasant running next to the creek, alongside some paddocks. It had a very rural feel to it. The sun had come out, and we were both enjoying ourselves, even though it was almost uncharted territory for my dad.
As we were running past a field with a few horses in it, I noticed with glee that they were following us, matching our pace, just like in Once a runner. To test things out, I sprinted to the end of the field, and beat them soundly:P Brought me back to running with the horses in Germany at the start of the year. My chest was so puffed out with pride that I almost failed to notice the fence bisecting the trail. We looked around, tried to get across the creek to familiar territory, but gave that idea up when the fear of snakes made itself felt and instead decided to climb the fence and run through the field.
And thus began our real cross country adventure. The path lasted another 500m before we were met with another wire fence. Dad crept adroitly through the barbed wire, while I looked on hesitantly and then touched the only non rusty, relatively fresh looking strand to see if it really was electrified... It was. Nothing like a mild electric shock to get the pulse racing!
Reasoning that the sound of dirt bikes indicated civilisation, we walked in the direction of the annoying mosquito buzzing that intruded into the otherwise tranquil rural scene. After a while, we found a rude little trail carved by a tractor long ago, and followed that, trying not to get our shoes too soaked from the swampy terrain. Dad's estimate that we were 200m from the main road, turned out to be false, very false in fact, but eventually we made it, and breathing a big sigh of relief, we climbed the final fence and once again broke into a (slow) jog back to the car.
Definitely one of the most interesting long runs I've done!
The next morning, I rode out to Dingley for the 'Dingley Dozen' 12k race organised by the local Rotary Club. It was an amazingly fast/easy ride, I was barely using any energy at all but was still going about 5kph faster than I can usually manage on my trusty commuter. Only afterwards did I realise that the speed was due to a 50kph tailwind...
Got to Braeside Park with plenty of time to spare, signed up, did a 1k warmup and then soaked up the morning sun for a while. Lining up at the start, I found my way blocked by some very eager kids, who were there for the 3k event. The pre-race announcements were made slightly more amusing than normal by the helium-voiced race organiser. I managed to sneak onto the front row right on the far side, and just as I had done so, off went the gun. I started out quite quickly because I had a little distance to make up, and surprisingly found myself in front, accompanied only by two kids who were breathing like an supercritical steamtrain within 200m. Looking down at my FR, I realised that I should probably slow down and let the others catch up a little. 3:15/k was feeling pretty easy, but I am definitely not in the kind of shape to run at that pace for 12k especially after having done 23k the day before.After what felt like an inordinately long time, the pack finally caught up to me. I slotted into fifth, which had been my plan. We were all going nicely, I felt very comfortable. The top three were really stretching the field out though, and looking at my pace, I realised I needed to go with them to maintain 3:45. So I put a spurt on and tried to catch up to this old guy. Couldn't do it though. The spurt pushed me over the edge, and I started breathing hard. I kept on pushing though, and maintained a steady distance from him.
We hit a turn-around and I had a chance to see how far behind everyone else was...They were a lot closer than I thought. One guy in particular was within striking range. As we started to go through some windy turns, I could hear his footsteps getting closer. Tried to go up a notch, but I was feeling like I'd already run my race. Sure enough, the splits were slowing big time. After running 3:34 for the first k and 3:45 for the two after that, I was now struggling to do 4:10. Maybe it was just the wind though (blowing at upwards of 60kph, but luckily we were fairly sheltered for most of the course), because I managed to hold him off until the 6k mark (22 flat).
At that point, I got a bit of a second wind (or was it a tail wind:P?) and was cruising at 3:41/k. He was still right with me though, and as we hit a bit of a bit of a headwind, I graciously relinquished 3rd place and started drafting off him. We had a bit of a chat as we ran the next 2k, which helped take my mind off the pace. He was a 38 flat guy for 10k, so I figured if I could stick with him til the 10k mark, I'd smash my PB. Going round the turn-around again, we were surprised to see we were now fighting it out for 2nd place. No idea where the old guy had gone, but the guy in first was way ahead (ended up finishing 5 minutes ahead of me). I didn't see anyone behind us, so I was assured of a top three placing it seemed.
At about the 9.5k mark, I couldn't keep up with him anymore and dropped right off. Pace went down to 4:30/k, but still, I went through the 10k mark in 37:44 (more about that later..). A new set of footsteps made themselves heard behind me, and I pulled something out from the deep reaches of my soul and gutted out the next 2km, kicking pretty strongly to get through the last k in 3:46 and stop the clock at 46:37 in third place:)
Was very knackered afterwards, but it felt like a very solid effort and I was proud of myself:) Had a good chat with the first place finisher in the 6k (I was ahead of him:P) before we both got our shiny medals.
I really enjoyed the race. It had an excellent grass-roots feel to it, and it's great there are events like that where the whole family participates. My only gripe was the course measurement. My forerunner gave 11.64k for the distance, and I sure as hell didn't cut any corners (made a few long cuts because it wasn't marked too well in places). The 10k marker was 600m short according to my FR, so I'm sadly not going to be able to claim 37:44 until I do it again:( I reckon I would've broken 39 though. In any case, it was a good effort with pretty dead legs. I was really feeling it in the second half of the race. Felt like my heart and lungs still had a bit left in them, but my legs just didn't have the bounce.
Riding back home, I struggled to do 13kph against an absolutely horrid headwind!
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Ended up with 90k of running for the week - the most for a looong time:) It's really cost me though. Ever since the Sri Chimnoy Half the weekend before, I've had really sore calves. I just ran through the pain last week even though it was a quite severe shooting pain. Was hoping it'd just get better and I could get on with training. It didn't improve though. It hasn't really gotten worse, but the pain is really not making running enjoyable and I've decided to stop running until it's completely better. Cycling doesn't aggravate it, so I'll work on that for a while.
I'm hoping it won't be more than a week... Have been rubbing anti-inflammatory cream in every night and trying to massage it a bit, but I don't really know what I'm doing. It's sore to the touch, so I'm thinking it's a mild muscle tear. I know I can still gut out 21.1k, so if it comes to that, I can still finish the Melbourne Half, and it won't slow me down. Strangely, I don't really notice it when I'm going fast..
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Got my Team Monash singlet and jersey yesterday. Wearing the jersey now. It is rather sexy:)
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