Tweaking the Plan...

Thursday 12/10/06:
Made a few minor adjustments to the HM plan in order to accommodate Sundays race.

Plan said: Today - 35min jogging
Tomorrow - 30min inc 5 x 90sec hard/45sec jog
Sat - rest
Sun - 30min interval session.

Figured I would do an evening run today while Courtney was at gymnastics and pretty much combine both todays and tomorrows session, then have tomorrow off, which will give me two rest days before Sundays race which should equal nice fresh legs...

Headed out from the gymnasium at 6pm, it was a fine, clear night - but the wind was awful!
What this post should really be called is: "How to kill your confidence in one session"
1) Decide on an evening run for the first time in 3wks.
2) Make it a blustery night where the wind is so strong and coming from virtually all directions, so that theres never really any reprieve and it almost knocks you over (you know the type!)
3) Also make it an interval session, with 5 sets of 90secs Hard to get thru.
4) Work it out in such a way that all the "Hard" bits seem to be on inclines (unintentionally) and right into the wind.

Need I say more...? Within a couple of minutes of starting to run I felt pooped. I know the wind was mainly responsible, but I reminded myself it could be like this on Sunday or worse still, on HM day. After 10 mins steady running I started the intervals. By the end of the first set, my legs felt like lead... By the end of the second set my feet also started to hurt... By the end of the third set my archilles felt tight... By the end of the forth set my stomach felt like it had rocks in it... I finished the intervals, but it was a real struggle. God I hate runs like this, arrrrrrrrrrrrh!

Brisk walk warm up: 5mins
Steady paced run: 10mins
Intervals: 5 x 90secs hard/45secs jog
Steady paced run: 20mins (Total of 41mins running - approx 8kms)
Brisk walk cooldown: 10mins

So I didn't run as long as I'd intended and certainly not as well. Its ages since I've felt that crap on a run, but s'pose it just happens some times. Did a longer walk than usual at the end and this seemed to shake it off. The fact that for about 3kms of the run I was actually on part of Sundays course (and feeling like crap) did not help, in terms of confidence ahead of the race... But I now have two days off to recover and hopefully banish the doubts from my mind, then go out there and run well on the day.

While writing this upstairs in my office I keep getting distracted by the TV.
Whats on? The NZ vs Aust netball game! 3/4 time score is 37-all !
It always goes right down to the wire doesn't it?!?
Nothing like a bit of trans-Tasman rivalry to get the blood pumping!

Also, thanks to those who gave feedback about the monitors. Am going to do some more research and have a look around...