Rain, hail or shine - my training run must go through!
The cold hard reality of my Ironman quest set in today – and I literally mean cold, and I literally mean hard!
It was sleeting. I had been hoping it would clear up all day, but the luck was not with me.
This is a big training week this week. I’ve had the all clear on my recently sprained ankle and Lee-Anne has clearly decided it’s time to step things up a notch! Today’s programme involved a 15km bike ride followed by a 5km run. I have ridden 15km recently, but I haven’t run 5km for a while and I haven’t put the two together since the end of February.
So despite the sleet and snow (okay so it wasn’t quite snowing, but if you used your imagination it could have been) I was determined to get underway. And as my friend Marie said recently, it might be hailing and blowing a gale on Ironman day so I may as well get used to it now!
I thought I might have gone a bit overboard on my training outfit today, but as soon as I hit the bike I knew I’d got it right. I was modelling very sexy stripy thermal long-johns with my bike pants over the top; another stripy thermal top underneath a further thermal top; a red spray jacket and gloves. A very attractive ensemble.
That’s the cold reality dealt with. Now comes the hard reality part. It was bloody hard today! The bike ride went pretty well – especially since I was on my mountain bike with the nobbly tyres (is that a strict technical term??). I actually enjoyed it and the 15km went pretty quickly.
I got back to the car, loaded up my bike, whipped off my bike pants, plugged in the MP3 player and headed off across the park. By the time I’d gone 10 steps I was aching everywhere and not in my happy place. Usually four minutes is my running barrier – by the time I’ve gone four minutes I’m in my rhythm and usually feeling pretty comfortable. Not so today. I didn’t have an especially hard ride, but it has been so long since I’ve got off the bike and run, my body objected in a big way.
So I had a decision to make. Keep going or call it quits. I went for keep going.
It was a long hard run that I thought would never end. But 40 minutes later I was back at the car and my 5km was done. Stoked. Rest day tomorrow – bring it on!