Stretching the legs in Taupo…on the Ironman course!
I am sore. Very very sore. Challenging bunch ride for me on Sunday which left me not only feeling stiff and sore in every part of my body, it also left me quite disheartened. But that’s a blog post for another day.
Important to move onwards and upwards and what better way to restore the faith than by a run on part of the Ironman course in Taupo!
Whenever I go to Taupo for work I always make sure I drive through Reporoa along the Ironman cycle course. By travelling it every second or third week I’m starting to get quite familiar with its dips and dives. Of course, that will be nothing to actually riding the course on my bike, but its a good start.
Today I also had enough time to take a very early lunch break and fit in my run down there as well.
I set off at a decent pace - heart rate zone three to be exact - and managed to maintain that for most of the run. I started just up from the swim/start finish, and then ran along the lake front until I got to the Napier/Taupo Highway - a good milestone turnaround point, and exactly 25 minutes, theoretically making it a 50 minute round trip. The loop back was slightly faster so I finished in just over 45 minutes, having run just under 6km. This is getting slightly faster for me, so I’m pleased with today’s effort.
Of course, the big reality check is that isn’t even one quarter of the Ironman marathon, but it still felt great. I’m a big one for visualisation, and as I was running I could literally picture the path on the day, with crowds of people on either side. I could feel the heat, and the exhaustion, and while it was nowhere near an accurate re-enactment of the day, I do feel like it was a good start. Even just realising I would be running on cobblestones for around half of the Ironman run was an important note to take.
So all in all, a good day out.
Postscript: Having the theme song to Rocky coming on the MP3 player may have been over-doing it just a little however.