Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Yay and Grrr Simultaneously

I guess this is now officially both a running blog and a writing blog. So, together with today's inspiration, a running update.

Yesterday our running group was down for a flat endurance-building run. Ingrid assured us that it genuinely was a flat run, not a "Duck" flat run. It's a route we know well right now, and psychologically that familiarity can make it difficult if you're not having a good day. It was that same initial route that left me struggling to Baleana Bay on Saturday.

Last night, however, I was not struggling. From Te Papa I could sense the strength in my legs. My quads, far from being wiped out from Saturday's run, had responded with increased power and speed. Unfortunately Allie wasn't so lucky, and by Pt Jerningham I was pulling ahead.

As I ran past Freyberg Pools I could hear someone right behind me with an unfamiliar footfall. Looking back I saw a rather tall athletic guy running at my pace. As we ran through Oriental Bay he began attempting to chat up Lisa. We all got talking, and he commented on our good speed. However there was a Southerly blowing, and as predicted, once we rounded the point we were hit by an arctic blast. Us tough Wellington chicks braced ourselves and kept going. Our visitor from Tauranga, however (for that was where he was from) turned tail and headed straight back towards town. The guy needed to harden up!

The distraction over, and now running on my own with Lisa slightly ahead and Allie behind, we all continued at a good pace. The 30 minute turn-around point came at Cog Park, with me still pumping away trying to beat my prior performance. On the way back I concentrated on catching Allie, who had turned around before me and found her second wind, and then put in additional bursts of speed to pass other, slower runners.

I timed a kilometre through Oriental Bay and estimate I was doing around 5.5 minute kms. I only started to flag a little as we passed Te Papa, but was barely flushed when we got back to the gym and wasn't really breathing hard at all.

Our run last Monday up to Kelburn was 10km and I did it in 56 minutes, which means I knocked nearly 15 minutes off my Shoe Clinic time in June. Even though I 'bonked' on that day and ended up run walking when I should have been able to run the whole thing, that is an amazing improvement.

Unfortunately my right IT band has decided to do the tight rubber-band thing and I've been hobbling around all day on a bung knee. Thankfully I have a physio appointment tomorrow and I'll spend some time with a foam roller tonight. However I decided it would be stupid to try to run 75 minutes today. We've got interval training tomorrow night, and hopefully I'll get my knee into shape enough to run my homework run on Thursday. Then I'll do the Petone 10km fun run on Sunday as my other homework run.

Instead of running today I did Body Balance. I'm really loving the new release. It's very hard, but very fulfilling and targets all my problem areas. I was able to make the most of the relaxation today, and had a wonderful visualisation involving amalgamating a spirit guide's strength into my own self. Given my usual grasshopper mind I was quite pleased with myself.

So, progress all around, and Pip continuing to feel pleased with herself!

2 comments:

Michelle said...

I had IT band problems for months and increasing my quad strenth really helped. I'm glad to hear you had a physio appointment. That will help. Sounds like you cardio capacity is improving by leaps and bounds. Horray!

Pip said...

Thanks Michelle. In my case I had a sacroaelliac injury a couple of months back and I'm getting related IT band soreness on that side. It's my fault for not letting myself heal properly before upping the mileage again. My body's all out of alignment - I'm very right sided. My physio's referring me to a guy who specialises in running technique, so hopefully this will all end up sorted! I'm just focussing on getting through the next month until the half marathon, then I'll fix this poor body.