Wednesday, December 28, 2005
The anti-Owl run
No, not a protest against noctural birds-of-prey, or those enjoying far better ciders than me on the other side of the world. However, when I got back from my run last Friday, I noticed a couple of contrasts to the Owl's bunny run.
Temperature: A chilly 6 degrees on the bunny run versus a balmy 38 degrees in Dubbo!
Clothing: Layer upon layer in Potters Bar vs running shorts, socks and shoes (and a heart-rate strap - to maintain my modesty)
Landscape: Green English countryside vs brown Australian country
Under-foot: Clay sticking to your feet vs sandy trails that made upills quite challenging
Wildlife: No bunnies, but a lot of kangaroos (in various states of aliveness)
We had driven to my sister's place at Dubbo that day with the mercury sitting on about 41 when we arrived. After giving up trying to explain to my family why I can't "just have a day off", I headed out at 6:30pm, thinking it had cooled down a bit. My sister's house backs onto a National Park (actually, it's about a 2km from the entrance, but it's dirt roads most of the way), which is ideal for running in. Took the first km easy, and was starting to think that my fitness had dropped a bit, until the second km came up in 3:49. The third rolled around in 3:56, and I was feeling good, and decided to try and hold the pace for as long as I could. That turned out to be about 200m, and despite maintaining the intensity, the heat was taking its toll, and I droppped back to 4:15 for the fourth km, where I turned around. Realising that pushing it would be stupid (I had left my drink bottle at the 1km mark), I dropped back to aboutt 4:30 a km before finishing with a 4:15 once I had a drink.
I actually thought it was a bit cooler than it was, and only afterwards realised that it was so hot during the run, that my body would have difficulty radiating heat, hence the drop off in pace. Not the cleverest run I've done, but came through unscathed.
The day before (Thursday) was my first proper run back with my quad - but just an easy 8.2km in 35 mintues. The quad was tight, but running was pretty easy, and the muscle soreness from lunges the previous day was a greater discomfort.
Saturday saw things cool down a bit, but the temperature was probably still in the high-20's when I headed out at 7:00am. Took it much easier, and did 16km of fire trails in 1:14 - just below my target pace of 4:30/km, but given the terrain and my notoriously fickle ankles, it was pretty much the run I was looking for. Felt great, particularly on the firmer stretches (the fire trails changed constant from sandy to ankle-threateningly rocky), but I started to tire towards the end (once again muscle soreness from the gym appeared to by the culprit).
Sunday I headed out in the evening to do an easy 8km (mainly to tick the Xmas day box), but as I had left my Garmin on and run the battery flat, and experienced a few other mechanical mishaps on-route, I didn't have much of a run, and came back feeling a bit disillusioned (Xmas Day lunch had been a bit of a let down, and my day wasn't getting any better). My quad was still bugging me, and it looked like I wasn't going to train my way through this one. So I gave myself three days off, which with return journeys to Sydney and overnight stays with the in-laws fitted my schedule well. Back into training tomorrow, with a gym session and a 7.5km mixed pace run on the schedule.
One sad aspect of the brief Dubbo trip was having to leave Bronte, one of our two labradors, behind. Having made the decision to sell-up in Wahroonga, and rent in the Eastern Suburbs for a while, to be closer to Amelia's family (and Centennial Park and Sydney Athletics Centre), we realised that rental accomodation that would allow two large dogs was going to be scarce. However, as Bronte is now allowed to sleep on beds, and has a Jack Russell cross playmate, we think she will cope just fine. And Sally now has all the scraps Louis throws over the side of his high-chair to herself.
Oh, and on the subject of Owls, according to a guest on "Speaking in Tongues" (SBS, Monday, 9:00pm), fear of Owls is often a sign of alien abduction!
Temperature: A chilly 6 degrees on the bunny run versus a balmy 38 degrees in Dubbo!
Clothing: Layer upon layer in Potters Bar vs running shorts, socks and shoes (and a heart-rate strap - to maintain my modesty)
Landscape: Green English countryside vs brown Australian country
Under-foot: Clay sticking to your feet vs sandy trails that made upills quite challenging
Wildlife: No bunnies, but a lot of kangaroos (in various states of aliveness)
We had driven to my sister's place at Dubbo that day with the mercury sitting on about 41 when we arrived. After giving up trying to explain to my family why I can't "just have a day off", I headed out at 6:30pm, thinking it had cooled down a bit. My sister's house backs onto a National Park (actually, it's about a 2km from the entrance, but it's dirt roads most of the way), which is ideal for running in. Took the first km easy, and was starting to think that my fitness had dropped a bit, until the second km came up in 3:49. The third rolled around in 3:56, and I was feeling good, and decided to try and hold the pace for as long as I could. That turned out to be about 200m, and despite maintaining the intensity, the heat was taking its toll, and I droppped back to 4:15 for the fourth km, where I turned around. Realising that pushing it would be stupid (I had left my drink bottle at the 1km mark), I dropped back to aboutt 4:30 a km before finishing with a 4:15 once I had a drink.
I actually thought it was a bit cooler than it was, and only afterwards realised that it was so hot during the run, that my body would have difficulty radiating heat, hence the drop off in pace. Not the cleverest run I've done, but came through unscathed.
The day before (Thursday) was my first proper run back with my quad - but just an easy 8.2km in 35 mintues. The quad was tight, but running was pretty easy, and the muscle soreness from lunges the previous day was a greater discomfort.
Saturday saw things cool down a bit, but the temperature was probably still in the high-20's when I headed out at 7:00am. Took it much easier, and did 16km of fire trails in 1:14 - just below my target pace of 4:30/km, but given the terrain and my notoriously fickle ankles, it was pretty much the run I was looking for. Felt great, particularly on the firmer stretches (the fire trails changed constant from sandy to ankle-threateningly rocky), but I started to tire towards the end (once again muscle soreness from the gym appeared to by the culprit).
Sunday I headed out in the evening to do an easy 8km (mainly to tick the Xmas day box), but as I had left my Garmin on and run the battery flat, and experienced a few other mechanical mishaps on-route, I didn't have much of a run, and came back feeling a bit disillusioned (Xmas Day lunch had been a bit of a let down, and my day wasn't getting any better). My quad was still bugging me, and it looked like I wasn't going to train my way through this one. So I gave myself three days off, which with return journeys to Sydney and overnight stays with the in-laws fitted my schedule well. Back into training tomorrow, with a gym session and a 7.5km mixed pace run on the schedule.
One sad aspect of the brief Dubbo trip was having to leave Bronte, one of our two labradors, behind. Having made the decision to sell-up in Wahroonga, and rent in the Eastern Suburbs for a while, to be closer to Amelia's family (and Centennial Park and Sydney Athletics Centre), we realised that rental accomodation that would allow two large dogs was going to be scarce. However, as Bronte is now allowed to sleep on beds, and has a Jack Russell cross playmate, we think she will cope just fine. And Sally now has all the scraps Louis throws over the side of his high-chair to herself.
Oh, and on the subject of Owls, according to a guest on "Speaking in Tongues" (SBS, Monday, 9:00pm), fear of Owls is often a sign of alien abduction!
