Karen writes: Downward slope to Spain
29+ km run on Sunday morning, seaside, road and bush, a beautiful day with the odd patch of drizzle, a light breeze, pleasantly cool. I had my fellow Te Puru runners to chat to for some of it to make the distance go faster, we were excitedly speculating about what the result was going to be from the latest America's cup yacht race. In fact, everything was pretty much completely the opposite to what I expect to get in Spain in less than 2 weeks time. So I have all my excuses lined up for any sort of poor marathon performance on the 29th... like...going from kiwi winter training to end of summer race day... jet-lag... missed the start time because I couldn't read the instructions... no-one to talk to... got a cold.
Yes, I've got a cold. The whanau are all terribly healthy at the moment, I can't even blame them for passing the scratchy throat and running nose on to me. Here's hoping it has gone away by the end of the week so I don't have to be the type of long distance airplane traveler everyone hates, the one surrounded by an almost perceptible haze of bacteria, doing all the annoying sniffing and coughing.
So it is nearly time to get packed up and ready to go, the running shoes have been washed and hung out to dry, for a near new pair of shoes the amount of mud-time has left them pretty grubby. It didn't help that after my run through the deep puddles on Thursday I forgot to turn them upside-down and they were still like miniature swimming pools on Sunday morning, amazing how quick they dry out on a warm road but... hmmm... hazardous to get within olfactory range.
This week I plan on just two runs, a 10km run on Tuesday, and probably about 16-20km on Thursday. Normally these during the week runs would be shorter, especially so close to M day, but I need to make up for the fact that I will be travelling on the weekend and wont get a chance for the final long run. Focus will be on frequent short runs when I get to Barcelona to try to acclimatize to the different conditions, these will have to fit around the 6 fascinating sounding days of conference.
What to run in in the likely hot and dry conditions? Right now I am thinking... the old blue singlet, best sports-bra, pair of well tested zoot tri-shorts, skinny socks (now a funny muddy colour but they still work), buff visor scarf, anti-chafe everywhere including under arms and under the elastic top of the shorts as chafing seems to be worse when you sweat more, super-strength waterproof sunscreen, fuelbelt with 2 GU roctanes with caffeine, 2 packets jelly-belly sports beans, salt-stick salt capsules, small flask de-fizzed coke (plus spare blister plasters and panadol), hanky, watch with lip-dip. I will take along an old poly-prop top to wear to the start, I can throw it in a bin somewhere when I warm up. All that will be in my carry-on luggage, I'm sure not going to risk what happened in Wellington where the luggage went missing.
This is all so exciting, and scary, and before I know it, it will be all over!
Yes, I've got a cold. The whanau are all terribly healthy at the moment, I can't even blame them for passing the scratchy throat and running nose on to me. Here's hoping it has gone away by the end of the week so I don't have to be the type of long distance airplane traveler everyone hates, the one surrounded by an almost perceptible haze of bacteria, doing all the annoying sniffing and coughing.
So it is nearly time to get packed up and ready to go, the running shoes have been washed and hung out to dry, for a near new pair of shoes the amount of mud-time has left them pretty grubby. It didn't help that after my run through the deep puddles on Thursday I forgot to turn them upside-down and they were still like miniature swimming pools on Sunday morning, amazing how quick they dry out on a warm road but... hmmm... hazardous to get within olfactory range.
This week I plan on just two runs, a 10km run on Tuesday, and probably about 16-20km on Thursday. Normally these during the week runs would be shorter, especially so close to M day, but I need to make up for the fact that I will be travelling on the weekend and wont get a chance for the final long run. Focus will be on frequent short runs when I get to Barcelona to try to acclimatize to the different conditions, these will have to fit around the 6 fascinating sounding days of conference.
What to run in in the likely hot and dry conditions? Right now I am thinking... the old blue singlet, best sports-bra, pair of well tested zoot tri-shorts, skinny socks (now a funny muddy colour but they still work), buff visor scarf, anti-chafe everywhere including under arms and under the elastic top of the shorts as chafing seems to be worse when you sweat more, super-strength waterproof sunscreen, fuelbelt with 2 GU roctanes with caffeine, 2 packets jelly-belly sports beans, salt-stick salt capsules, small flask de-fizzed coke (plus spare blister plasters and panadol), hanky, watch with lip-dip. I will take along an old poly-prop top to wear to the start, I can throw it in a bin somewhere when I warm up. All that will be in my carry-on luggage, I'm sure not going to risk what happened in Wellington where the luggage went missing.
This is all so exciting, and scary, and before I know it, it will be all over!
Comments