Monday, December 05, 2005

It's a fine line.......

......between pleasure and pain
You've done it once you can do it again
Whatever you done don't try to explain
It's a fine, fine line between pleasure and pain" (Divinyls)
*This was how I felt on my long run - not pretty at times*

Felt recovered sufficiently to attempt a long slow run yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. Decided to run a slightly different way down to the lake, via Melba cycle path, to the peninsular and then return home the usual way along Florey cycle path. It was about 5pm when I started and it was quite warm and sunny - something we haven't had too much of recently. In fact Canberra experienced a severe thunderstorm Friday afternoon which caused $$$$m of damage and one death.

Stats:
Session - longish run
Distance - 16km (10 mile)
Time taken - 1hr 25.54min
Av pace - 5.22min/km
AHR - 162
Calories - 882
Weather - blue skies, windy, warm

The run started well - felt fresh in the legs even though the troublesome R glute was complaining, but nothing out of the ordinary. The first part of the run was new to me so that kept me interested initially. Fortunately I had the sense to take a small drink bottle full of water with me as I found I was getting very thirsty.

Down to the lake and I was starting to struggle. My glute hurt, my legs were tired, hell I was tired. At the 10km mark I succumbed to these feelings and walked for a short while, drinking from my water bottle. Then I set off again, trying to maintain a slow but steady pace and just listening to music on the ipod - I swear I'd be lost if I didn't have that wonderful little gadget sometimes!

I started to pick up closer to home and managed to get home with my average pace somehow not creeping up beyond 5.30min/km - god knows how!

Post-mortem of run: Why did I feel so crap? I didn't think I went out too fast. My average pace per km, while quicker for the first 10km than the last 6km, was still not that quick - about 5.10min/km. Maybe I didn't hydrate sufficiently yesterday before the run - drank lots of coffees but not a lot of water *smack on wrist.* Oh, and I had had an ear infection...mmmm, that probably had something to do with the crash and burn tactics as well! Guess I'll never learn! ;-) Maybe the title of this blog should've been Dumb Things (Paul Kelly)!

4 comments:

Tesso said...

CJ, for a long slow run that's not too shabby a pace!

I have the same feeling for my iPod. I like to load stuff up on in the night before a run, it makes me really keen to hit the road in the morning.

"Dumb Things" is a good running song :-)

2P said...

Hey CJ 5.22 av for 16k aint too shabby in hot conditions with an ear infection :-)

As they say "it's the water in your belly, not your bottle that counts" ;-)

Jen said...

Well done on a tough run under really tough weather conditions, not to mention that you haven't been well lately.

Make sure you rest up now :-)

Katie said...

Don't beat yourself up... that was a great pace for a long run. It is all relative though... sometimes it is not the pace but the effort it takes- sounds like it was abig effort! I think you hit the nail on the head.... not enough water will do it every time! I always feel like I am running in quicksand when I am dehydrated!

yeah for the i-pod!!