Friday, April 02, 2010

Running back-to-back

Wednesday - Hills, hills and more hills!
6.30am - Gym -upper body strength work
7am - Gym - 15mins abs class
5. 15pm - Run!
I arrived at Parliament House early enough to do a short warm-up on my own looping in and out and around the trails of PH for a few kms before meeting up with Geoff, Ewen, Chris, Richard, Jen and Andy for a "different" run.
We ran along Melbourne Avenue and up to the summit of Red Hill Lookout. After admiring the view we continued running (using the term generously at this stage) up, up, up along trails and to another summit. It was rough stony terrain and parts of it were also steep rough downhills giving me a taste of what some of the Six Foot Track surface would be like, putting me off for good! After reaching another peak we ran down again to the lower north trail and headed west back to PH. The last part felt positively easy and comfortable. The hills were really tough for me. I remember cycling up Red Hill when I was training for triathlons some years ago. I also remember the fear of losing control as I cycled back down! I have no idea how I ever did it - it seemed very steep to "run"!!
Later I passed round mini Easter eggs and drank lots of water to revive!
Total distance: 15km (including my warm-up run)
Maximum elevation: 765m above sea level
Calories burned: 823
It was a good run to do before the end of daylight saving as the views were magnificent.
Thursday
I had to rise early this morning for a back-to-back run as I had a function to attend later in the day and couldn't make it to training in the afternoon. I ran from home, past Giralang and through the tunnel towards Gungahlin, gently for 15mins before running 3 x 8mins tempo runs with 3mins of jogging between each set. Then a run back home.
Total distance: 12:11
Time taken: 1:12:43
Average pace: 6mins per km
Calories burned: 704
The temperature was cool and I kept my spray jacket on throughout the run. I haven't run early in the morning for ages and it was still dark at 6.30am. I guess with daylight saving finishing this weekend it will be lighter earlier for a few weeks.

2 comments:

  1. The down hill at Six Foot Track is not too bad, all runable except Nellies Glen at the start. It's the up hill parts that are rough, but then you go so slow, even if you fall over, the tumble is like slow motion. A couple of good year's training, Ewen will show you all the tricks of the trade to get you through with 2 minutes before the Grim Reaper taps you on the shoulder. A good course on Wed night.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Strewth,
    Thanks for the happy birthday wishes.
    I'm glad your average pace is improving slightly. Have a good training and a nice weekend.

    ReplyDelete