I'm so happy with myself after tonight's run that this post is going to wind up being a bit of a self-appreciation session. I have to keep reminding myself that at the start of this year I could barely run 500m without dying.
Tonight we ran from the gym, up Dixon Street and the Dixon Street steps to the Terrace, then up Salamanca Rd to the Kelburn shops, over the viaduct, and back down past the Botanic Gardens to Tinakori Rd. Allie and I made it to Bowen Street in under 30 minutes, well before the cut-off time of 40 minutes, so we had to run to the bottom of Tinakori, then along Thorndon Quay, and back to the gym via Jervois Quay. We made it back in just over 55 minutes.
Tonight's workout was advertised as a 60 minute rolling hill run. For the record, this was NOT rolling hills. From the gym it was essentially all uphill for most of the way. Thankfully it wasn't as steep as I had remembered, and my hill running has improved beyond belief, so I was able to keep up a good steady pace and at no point did I feel like stopping. Lisa was around 100m ahead of us the whole way, although the front pack did disappear off into the distance as always.
The downhill leg was so much fun. It felt like we were, to use a term from my Westie youth, caning it the whole way down, and it was a LONG way down! We didn't slow down that much once we got to the waterfront, so I'm really pleased with our time. Tonight was one of those runs where my mental dialogue was pretty much "my God you've improved - look at what you're doing", rather than "stop, stop, stop, stop". I still ended up looking like a sweaty tomato, but I was a smiling one!
I can really feel how much stronger my body has gotten in even just the last two weeks. Running an hour isn't an issue for me now. My legs really look the part as well. I have that nice little runner bulge thing happening in my quads. Definition - nice! Not bad for a 33 year old...
Add to that a few of the jog squadders telling me I was a machine, and that they were absolutely blown away by my story of how much I've improved, well...
So I'm in a good frame of mind going into the rest of the week's runs. Our homework run, which I need to get out of the way before Saturday, is a flat 70 minutes. I'm going to try to do it tomorrow, even if it kills me and makes the intervals on Wednesday an instrument of torture. That way I'll wind up concentrating on upper body and core with Duck on Thursday, a light RPM (sniff, farewell Jocko) on Friday, then our 80 minute run with the squad on Saturday.
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