Having been very slack for two weeks since Tough One, I decided enough was enough and, although I haven’t been very good about posting updates on our progress this past week, we have actually been running. Becs and I set off from home on Saturday morning, shortly after 05:00 to run the just over 5kms down to the club to meet up with our various running groups to do mini-boys. At about 05:50, as we were coming under the bridge at the bottom of Heartbreak Hill, we ran into the Fledgelings, and so Becs turned around and promptly headed back up Gillooloys Hill. I carried on up Heartbreak to the club.
Joining up with the B-School we set out towards Essexwold, at a frightfully quick 5:10/kilometre – so much for a nice slow warm-up. The next 3kms through Essexwold we covered at an average 0f 5:15/kilometre and by the time we started up Gilloolys Hill I was pooped, having now done around 9kms. I decided, rather than struggling along at the back of the B-School (and probably losing sight of them more than once), I’d head off on my own route back home. With that in mind, instead of crossing over Eastgate roof towards Queen Street, I decided to carry on straight up Bradford towards the Bedford Gardens Hospital, where I stopped in for some h20.
Then I headed up Sovereign towards home. It was at this point that I had the bright idea of breaking the last of Sovereign hill by turning up Oxford and then up Royal Oak to Buckingham. Error. The last block of Oxford Road, between Royal Oak and Sovereign is just one über steep hill after another. When I eventually got home, I was pooped and running at about 45˚C! I headed straight up through the garden and into our ice-cold pool to cool down. Becs was home already and had done the same when she got in, apparently great minds do think alike.
Yesterday’s run was a little better. We met with the Fledgelings at Tasha’s, and despite the constant drizzle set off for a nice easy trot. The route saw us taking on sections of the Dischem 21.1km route to give everyone a taste of what is to come in January. It was a really nice run, with great camaraderie and friendship exhibited by all. I don’t have my watch here and haven’t downloaded the runs to Garmin Connect so I can’t share routes/splits, etc. at this stage, but I’ll be sure to post them during the week.
We didn’t run this morning because of the public holiday (and our house’s 100th birthday party) yesterday, but we plan to be back on the roads tomorrow, and Saturday has been dedicated to conjuring Big Fred. Not sure if I’m looking forward to that, but I am looking forward to ticking it off the list of things I have to do before Oceans.
From Zero to Fifty Six 