Fair weather runner

It seems my body has decided that I am a fair weather runner. I was supposed to run around Karori Sanctuary with Karen and Sarah yesterday morning, but languished at home instead with an unexplained dodgy stomach. Outside it was cold, grey, windy and intermittently wet. Bed seemed like a good place to be, so there I stayed.

This morning I woke at 7am, once again to the realisation that it was both sunny and seemingly wind-free. I left home at around 8.30 and was glad that I'd decided to tie a polyprop around my waist. Once I got up to the street I was hit by a rather icy south-easterly that was likely to make things interesting running around the coast.

I was down for 80 minutes of hills today, in preparation for the Rimutaka Incline run on November 17. I started out taking things easy down the hill to McAllister Park. Turning left I ran up Liardet Street, then headed uphill as if to take the saddle to Newtown. Instead, at the top of the hill I hung a right and ran up onto the City-to-Sea walkway, pst two little old scotty dogs. Down onto the grass, down a gravel trail, around the edge of the playing field, and it was onto Britomart Street and down towards Island Bay..

All that downhill gave me a bit of a stitch, but it died away once I got to the Parade and was running on the flat. The wind around the coast ended up not being that bad, although the surf was certainly impressive.

Before too long I was at the bottom of Happy Valley Rd and a deceptive five kilometre climb back up to Brooklyn and home. At around 50 minutes I started to have a few residual stomach issues. On the way up the valley I had to slow to spit a few times, something I'm not usually in the habit of doing. It got me through though, and I realised that I'm just going to have to learn to run through the nausea. Rather than my stomach the queasiness is based at the bottom of my ribcage and I wonder whether it's the way I'm breathing that's triggering it. It was annoying today particularly because I could have run up the hill faster but every time I pushed I had to fight back the urge to hurl.

Anyway, the climb seemed easier than last time, which seemed easier than the time before that. I'll have to start timing myself to see whether I really am making it up there more quickly. I felt fine afterwards and very proud of myself. My quads finally lost the stiffness they've been holding onto yesterday and felt good all the way around today. My calves are a little tight but I spent a good length of time stretching out my hips and glutes and they are both feeling very free. I'm not one bit tired. My stomach wasn't too keen on the chicken-bacon and hash browns Hamish cooked for breakfast afterwards, but that's probably to be expected!

Kate ran the Auckland Marathon today. I probably could have run the half and felt ok, but I didn't know that a couple of weeks ago when I would have had to make the travel arrangements. Oh well, there's always another half.

I'm dreading my run tomorrow. Duck has me down to do some insane intervals on the treadmill. I'm not quite sure that what she wants me to do is actually humanly possible. I'll update on how it goes tomorrow!