Friday, March 02, 2007

Training Secrets

At 4:20 am the alarm went off, but my hand was poised above the snooze as I was already awake. My running gear was already laid out the night before. I have a routine of eating a banana, drinking some water and having a bathroom stop with enough time for me to arrive at 5 am to meet Glenno and the crew, all set for Saturday's long run. This morning I was 10 minutes early, I had a gut feeling that this run meant a little more than others...



It was already hot by 5am. The relative humidity was in the 90s (according to the weather guys), and when we finished the temperature was about 86 F. Garmin played up, but I worked out the pace to be very close to 5 min/km or 8 min miles for the entire 35 km.

For most of the day, I was strong on the hills and cruising with a revitalised determination. At one point I wondered when IT was going to catch up with me... well, IT did... 30 km (something like 20 miles) the heat came through, my skin felt like it was burning and there was a chill at the same time... I figured best to call off the effort and back off for the last 5 km home. Did I say "back off"? It was more like pick landmarks and will myself to each one .... all the way to the pool (with a little bit of Proud Mary by Tina Turner going through my head).

Glenno and I sat in the pool for half an hour. It was an ordeal that had us both wondering why we do this.

The nausea will pass. The ice bath will do some good - twisties are the secret recovery food (carbs, sodium and crunchy)



This week was 94K with quality in most sessions. It all starts again tomorrow.

16 Comments:

Blogger E-Speed said...

If you haven't gone over 20 in a while it is understandable that the last 5k were a bit slower ;)

I am sure that pool felt great!

12:56 am  
Blogger Ewen said...

I'll stick a few twisties in my pockets next Saturday.

Don't know how you do those long runs up there - too damn hot and humid. At least we only have the humidity.

9:58 am  
Blogger Phil said...

Reading your blog reminds me what I've got to look forward to in 4 months. Great run under tough conditions ... and thanks for the "Proud Mary" video.

3:43 pm  
Blogger Rob said...

It's a great feeling to be able to put in those big efforts. Training in this humidity certainly is character building..or so my running buddy tells me.

3:58 pm  
Blogger Rob said...

It is a great feeling to complete a hard training session. The good feeling comes from the completing bit I think. The humidity is character buuilding..or so my running buddy tells me.

4:01 pm  
Blogger Tesso said...

Nice work yesterday Toasty. It was obvious from the word 'go' you guys were on a mission. Glad it didn't turn out to be an impossible one :-)

6:38 pm  
Blogger Robert Song said...

I was left wondering myself after my long run this morning. Although sitting in a pool wondering, sounds a lot better than sitting in a pool of sweat wondering.

9:54 pm  
Blogger Mat said...

Great work on that long run! We'll give you 10 bonus points for doing such a hard run in that heat/humidity.

You forgot the best part of twisties , food acid (470) and my favourite Colour (160e).

Mmmmm...yellow dye 160e beta-apo-8'-carotenal...urrggggg.

9:33 am  
Blogger Mat said...

Great work on that long run! We'll give you 10 bonus points for doing such a hard run in that heat/humidity.

You forgot the best part of twisties , food acid (470) and my favourite Colour (160e).

Mmmmm...yellow dye beta-apo-8'-carotenal...urrggggg.

9:41 am  
Blogger Mat said...

Oopps. I didn't read this bit...Comment moderation has been enabled. All comments must be approved by the blog author.

9:42 am  
Blogger Mat said...

So this would make your 'comments' approval inbox fill up probably. So I should stop re-submitting my comment. Ok. I'll do that :-).

9:43 am  
Blogger Clairie said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

11:04 am  
Blogger Peterhorse said...

Nice work mr ilikechickentwisties. I'm afraid i a beg to differ... cheese only for me, but i had never justified them as a long run recovery food, now i am forever in your debt. strangely i crave beer and list it's therapuetic properties.
good work Mark - building up well for you! cracking pace in that heat.

5:08 pm  
Blogger CJ said...

That would've been so hard in that heat and humidity so you did pretty well all things considering.

Never tried twisties as recovery food. Used to have potato crisps when I was ironman training -nothing better!

8:18 pm  
Blogger Triseverance said...

Let me just say you have guts and heart, great job, hope the IT holds up. Seems like everyone is troubled with those things lately.

1:04 am  
Blogger Beanie said...

oooh, what an inspiring description of those long runs i used to love! nice work. (jealous of your pool & heat btw, but not of you having to get up at 4:20 because of it)

12:02 pm  

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