Saturday, July 16, 2005

A (briefly) beautiful morning

Plan today - long run, approx 26km, 2hr 36min
Route - from Scullin down to Lake Burley Griffin and Commonwealth Park and return
Time - 7.30am
Weather - 4*c and no wind when started, about 9* degrees and windy when finished

It was very briefly a lovely morning - blue sky and sunshine (couldn't feel the sun but could see it). Had toast, honey and banana for breakfast. Really enjoyed run and had no problems getting into my stride today. Met up with Roy, who was riding his bike, on the cycle path in Macquarie and we headed off down to Lake Burley Griffin following the cycle path. Its a really pretty run and you are surrounded by trees, green paddocks, horses, black cockatoos - you feel like you're out in the country. There are several hills on this run - Black Mountain peninsular, Hospital Hill (being an out and back course I got them both ways), the run back up through Cook/Aranda, the steady climb back up Belconnen Way to Scullin, and finally the final bit of Petterd St heading towards Chewings St and home (I must admit I was over hills by this point). The run down to Commonwealth Park was great, it was a little harder on the return as I was running into the wind, which had picked up. Also, the sky had clouded over and it looked to be another cold and wintry day. Felt some tiredness/soreness in the glute/top of hamstring area on the final stretch of run but otherwise I felt I ran strongly today (actually still have some tightness in that area - 7hrs after run). Had sports drink and 2 energy gels, followed by coffee and crumpet and jam when I got home. Have been feeling very hungry all afternoon.

Went birthday shopping after long run as it is #1 and #2 sons' birthday tomorrow (twins) - they will be 23. Also managed to buy the latest Harry Potter book. Will read it once I've finished Dirt Music by Tim Winton.

Tomorrow - looking forward to a sleep in and chocolate mousse cake later in the day (#1 and#2 sons' birthday cake preference). #3 son feeling much better today. He bought me a book about HTML - what is he trying to tell me?! (He's our resident IT expert).

6 comments:

allrounder said...

sounds like a nice run (but sooo long!)...the weather did get worse today - nice and icy off the mountains while we were playing golf...you sound confident about the 301 - wish i had a tax refund to use though!...have a nice rest tomorrow!

Ewen said...

That was a good BBQ stakes run CJ. Yes, it was a tad windy today. I was at the Cotter and it seemed like we were into a headwind the whole run.

Jen said...

Sounds like a great run CJ, even if the weather did change. I loved Dirt Music; enjoy ! J

Lulu said...

Sounds like a good run.. I'm totally over hills at the moment as you can tell from my blog.. but they're good for me I'm told!

Happy birthday to the twins.. only a day before my birthday!

miners said...

Great to see you got to enjoy some nice weather early on too CJ!

btw - I'm up to page 132 already - of H.Potter, not the HTML book ;)

Gronk said...

Nice looong run CJ. They do you the world of good I reckon. Good article in R4YL about them this month too. :)