Karen writes: Running with tired legs

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I am starting to understand the concept of "running on tired legs".  Trainer Grant has said this a couple of times, he wants me to practice with "tired legs".   Yesterday I had a lovely bike-ride with Kate.  I needed 80km according to the programme, and at about 50km I thought we would have to give up and head for cover, it was that wet and miserable out the back of Pukekohe.  But then the weather cleared up, and we kept going and did a total of 95km…actually, my bike said 93.5km, but Kates bike computer had the more positive distance so we took hers as being accurate.   

Today I planned on a nice flat run with the Te Puru runners, some of them are about to taper for the Auckland half or full marathon so I didn't expect anything onerous, I got sidetracked though and gave up being sensible to try a variation on another route with them and 2 1/2 hours later I got home...and hey, I managed to get genuinely tired legs!   Now I don't know what to do with them.   

I did have an unusual moment of self-doubt while I was out on the road willing my legs to keep moving, thinking that we only have 4 months to go until Ironman. That doesn't equate to a whole lot of weeks once you build in a bit of recovery from the two events in the leadup, Christmas (sorry, I have other things to do apart from train at Christmas!) and a taper, and here I am feeling knackered after only half the ride/run distance, and even that was spread out over 2 days.

A note for the cyclists, I got a real fright on yesterday’s ride, a hazard I hadn’t thought about before.  I know about trucks which blast past and make you rock, or vehicles with trailers cutting corners, or inattentive or uncaring or even vindictive car drivers, but the danger came from a van with an oversized wing mirror sticking out on the passenger side.  I felt that mirror whistle past my ear, I don’t think the driver realised that a couple of millimetres closer would have taken off my head because the vehicle itself was a little way away from me.   Something else to look out for out there.

Now I need to eat again, something sensible, I've just started experimenting with taking in a bit more chromium to see if I can cut the cravings for sweet stuff.   Here's hoping.  Then I must clean my poor bike before I take it into the shop for a service, and to see if they can figure out the strange rattling noise which I was sure meant it was going to catastrophically self destruct on the road yesterday.

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