I am in the box, deep deep in the box, tough week!
After thursdays nice little windtrainer set with big t, it was up early friday morning for the usual friday swim, boy did i swim cr*p!! Gah i could not get going and felt like i was swimming like a sack of...bricks.. I still managed to get through the set but i was glad to be out of the pool. The rest of the day was taken up with personal happenings, so unfortunetly i didn't have time for another session.
Saturday morning and it was up early to the new Perry Lakes stadium for TEP running time trials. I picked up paige and she was pretty nervous, i was trying to tell her not to worry and it would be fine, that view all went to poo when i saw mike and kenji run past the car, immediately i became about 10 times more nervous and i was eating my words :/ (sorry paige).
We had a good warm up with some easy/hard laps and some run throughs. Brian and i decided i would run the 5k tt and if i felt good continue on for the 10k. We were off and we ran through the first k at under 3 minute pace..ekk. I quickly realised this and settled into a more reasonable pace (3.30's). With one k to go i quickly realised that i wasn't going to be able to crack the required pace for the 10, so with the help of craig i put the hammer down on the last two laps. I was hurting bigtime, but managed to cross the line with a 17.03. I was super psyched considering the real lack of running over the past couple of months. I was well under 3.30 pace and was super psyched.
After a couple of ice-cream sandwiches and a nap, i was off to Jarrahdale yay! :) Got there mid arvo, and paige, grace, todd and i were of on the mountain bikes for a good spin. Was a lot of fun, but mountain bike riding really makes me appreciate how easy road riding is haha. After having a nice feed and maybe a couple of beers, it was off for another night trek through the jarrahdale forest, where and owl and about 6 billion kangaroo's were spotted, good times with Paigey :D
Bam, up at 6.30am Sunday morning and Bruce and i had decided to ride from Jarrahdale to Rockingham to meet up with the training crew, for a 14k hill/beach run and ride back...heapppsss good idea :/
We got there a little early so decided to ride an old race route, and consequently got lost, but got back in time to start the run. I set off pretty quick and was quickly joined by clarky for a couple of k, we had a good chat, but i then lifted the pace to sub 4 mins k's and quickly found my self on my own. I ran the 14k super fast and felt real good, about the worst thing was my decision to jump in the ocean afterwards to cool down...oh my god it was cold, but good for the muscles! We popped of to dome afterwards and i filled myself up in prep for the ride home. Clarky and Clarky kept offering to give me a lift back to Jarrahdale but i was confident to ride home.
My god, what a mistake, 60k of pure headwind. Down Thomas and onto the freeway, but it got killer when i got onto Mundijong Road. I am seriously going to incorporate this road into my training over the next few weeks, there is no, hiding from the surface or the elements. I really suffered out there today and the worst part was the 9k climb to jarrahdale to finish. I was gone and was just spinning like a granny.
I was suffering, and with about 100 meters to go to "the shack" i saw a car pull up next to me...it was clarky!! She had driven the whole way home, seen the conditions, seen how hard i had run and driven all the way from theirs to Jarrahdale. I was so taken back by this and made me realise how lucky i am to have people like this. All she could say was sorry sorry sorry! for not making it in time and all i could say was thankyou thankyou thankyou for trying!! I was so happy that she did this and it ment so much to me. We chatted for close to an hour out the front of the house before i finally got the energy to jump in the car and drive home, not with out thanking her a million times again, you rock clarky :)
Just before leaving i also found the best note on my car that put a smile on my face the whole way home :) :)
Well, that brings us to now. Deep deep inside this box i am currently sitting. Happy as though, not only from the training but from the people that make everything, well, a sh*tload better :)
Looking forward to another tough week of training, hope everyone else is too :)
See you around, maybe?? :/
Marky Mark
