Karen writes: New programme
My post marathon rest time is over. I have had the meeting with the Trainer, discussed a detailed programme for the next 5 weeks, and the overall broad view of the strategy taking us up to the March Ironman next year. As expected, for now the focus is cycle, cycle, and oh what a surprise, some more cycling, all to be in excellent shape of the Taupo round the lake...did I say it was a cycle challenge?. A drop of swimming, and a trace of running barely rate a mention but that will change in the next 5 week installment when preparation for the Rotorua Half ironman will come into play. A compromise had to happen around the Sunday run however, I cant possibly replace that with....cycling!
Good trainer that he is, Grant refrained from rolling his eyes when I asked "what do you think about running the Rotorua marathon 8 weeks after the Ironman". The answer was to take out a pencil and make yet another change to the long distance plan, "perhaps we might focus a bit more on running in the final lead-in to the ironman". Hey, I was pleased that this latest brainstorm wasn't dismissed as total insanity, its possible! The thing is, after finishing with Perth the list of impossible goals has shrunk, so I now have the chance to unpack another little wish I had filed away this year while running at Rotorua. I clearly remember catching up with and admiring a few people who had the ironman M transferred onto their calves. I want that to be me next year, talk about getting ahead of yourself, not counting chickens before they hatch, so much as cooking them and stuffing pillows with the feathers before the eggs are laid!
Completely at odds with such an ambitious desire, somewhere in the discussion I suggested that perhaps the last marathon plan might have peaked a little too high for me at 35km, and we decided that peaking slightly lower, but probably more than once could work better... given my...um...age and general athletic decrepitude (not really, I just felt I was getting injured and catching too many bugs as the mileage got that high in one go).
So this programme starts next Monday, oh... those gym sessions, yuck, oh... 30-60-80 minutes of terminal boredom on the as yet not-acquired spin bike, (have to get a new one, the last one was returned to the shop having failed to live up to the claims of its robustness, it sadly couldn't cope with me and was declared deceased), oh...YAY Saturday and a real bikeride...100km no problems (?), and oh...YAY its Sunday again, Tepuru runners.
Now Kate. Kate is injured. This is NOT good. This is a DISASTER. How can I possibly get any satisfaction out of beating her if I end up winning by default???? Actually, we have come so far, how sad would it be not to share the delight of a new achievement with someone else doing the same thing, and of course it couldn't possibly be as much fun without her...but I would never tell her that.
Good trainer that he is, Grant refrained from rolling his eyes when I asked "what do you think about running the Rotorua marathon 8 weeks after the Ironman". The answer was to take out a pencil and make yet another change to the long distance plan, "perhaps we might focus a bit more on running in the final lead-in to the ironman". Hey, I was pleased that this latest brainstorm wasn't dismissed as total insanity, its possible! The thing is, after finishing with Perth the list of impossible goals has shrunk, so I now have the chance to unpack another little wish I had filed away this year while running at Rotorua. I clearly remember catching up with and admiring a few people who had the ironman M transferred onto their calves. I want that to be me next year, talk about getting ahead of yourself, not counting chickens before they hatch, so much as cooking them and stuffing pillows with the feathers before the eggs are laid!
Completely at odds with such an ambitious desire, somewhere in the discussion I suggested that perhaps the last marathon plan might have peaked a little too high for me at 35km, and we decided that peaking slightly lower, but probably more than once could work better... given my...um...age and general athletic decrepitude (not really, I just felt I was getting injured and catching too many bugs as the mileage got that high in one go).
So this programme starts next Monday, oh... those gym sessions, yuck, oh... 30-60-80 minutes of terminal boredom on the as yet not-acquired spin bike, (have to get a new one, the last one was returned to the shop having failed to live up to the claims of its robustness, it sadly couldn't cope with me and was declared deceased), oh...YAY Saturday and a real bikeride...100km no problems (?), and oh...YAY its Sunday again, Tepuru runners.
Now Kate. Kate is injured. This is NOT good. This is a DISASTER. How can I possibly get any satisfaction out of beating her if I end up winning by default???? Actually, we have come so far, how sad would it be not to share the delight of a new achievement with someone else doing the same thing, and of course it couldn't possibly be as much fun without her...but I would never tell her that.
Comments