What a rush...Tess and I went over the mountain this morning.
We started out at the Regatta at 5:30am and headed up towards Mt Cootha, I have to admit my legs were already asking what I was doing going up this hill. Mentally I was well prepared for a bit of a walk or at the very least a slow paced run. I got neither.
Going up the first incline before you even get to JC Slaughter Falls my HR was hitting 198. This is over my max and I felt every bit of it. I was tired and the legs were screaming at the enforced climb.
Soon enough it tapered out to a flat and then a downhill (before the real ascent began!!). I got my breath back and told Tess that where necessary to push on without me. We started chatting away and before you knew it we were almost there. With 500m to go on the big climb we spotted a young, fit Iron man out running up ahead. He was doing it tough (he looked like I felt). Tess surged ahead and pulled up alongside. Looking at her - no sweat and big smile - you would not believe she had just run up the hill as well. Her very cheerful "Good Morning, How's it going?" was almost comical. The poor young man could only nod and stare as us two beautiful women pushed past - I was vainly trying very hard to not breathe so heavily and smile like Tess did when I went past. Though once we were at the top I was able to stop, get my breath back and laugh hard at the situation. Poor guy I think we demoralised him. He never did catch us or even come close.
My HR average for the run was 159 and most of the time I was sitting on 155 so I was very happy with that for the undulating hills. It shows I was not as tired as I thought and after the initial hill I certainly felt strong and recall thanking Tess the whole way for getting me out there and pushing me up the hill.
No one at work cares that I ran Mt Cootha this morning and/or did a 15km hilly run before work, everyone thinks I am such a weirdo. Yet, they are all come in looking like they just got out of bed (half awake) and have gone straight for the coffee pot and will take 40mins at their desks to wake up....I much prefer my method!!
11 comments:
Nice run Clairie but if I were you I would have chastised Tess for bludging ;-)
Thanks so much for the run this morning Clairie. If you hadn't have shown up I'd have done a ho-hum plod along the bikeway.
Ha ha, that was rather amusing with that young guy. I'm sure when he heard the footsteps he thought we were gonna be a couple of guys. The look on his face was priceless :-)
Gees, how good does running over that mountain first thing in the morning make you feel - hours later I'm still on a high!
Seems as you didn't miss a beat while in Perth where did some good quality runs for distance and speed. I see you are around Sydney in the next few days. Would love to catch up with you and perhaps share a run. Email me at home with some details and we should talk.
Don't worry about me, 6ft and Canberra. The fucus is on Canberra - 6ft is just an experience and cruise.
I here you. I had Monday off, in the office on Tuesday everyone asked if I had a good day off. When I advised them I had ran the 6 Foot Track they responded with blank faces.
I agree... the people in my office think that 5km and 55km are the same thing and it is all crazy!
There is something very rewarding starting the day with a run and watching the sun come up! Another great run!
Luckily at my work, there are lots of us into exercise although I am the only runner. The others are mostly into mountain bike racing. So they don't consider me a weirdo for running. Unfortunately they seem easily able to find lots of other reasons for considering me a weirdo (eg my taste in music).
My mind boggles at your recent training. Increased weekly distance at an increased pace. Hard days followed my harder days. If you can survive it and I hope you can, you are going to run a awesome race sometime, somewhere.
As for that poor guy, I'm sure he had done a 50k bike ride first and was on his second lap of the mountain ;-)
Nice work Clairie!
Good luck in the six foot...say hello to Tracy or Marie Claire my friends if you cross paths as im sure you will!
Cheers R2B
The Ironman was on his 3rd time around Clairie!
Ha ha, next time as we're approaching him we'll say out loud "gees, doing 4 laps wasn't this hard last week" :-)
HR 198 ..... Wow, careful you don't explode.
Good to see you not letting Tesso bludge too much Clairie. You are continuing to train well. I love watching the expression on the faces of workmates when you tell them about your morning's run. Priceless!
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