03 September 2014

I feel gooooood!

This week is a recovery week for me and so my distances and intensity is down. What I am discovering is that the last three weeks have clearly had better results than I had thought.

My easy effort is at a pace that a month ago would have been a hard effort. Tonight I was out for an easy run and glanced down at my Garmin to discover that the pace was about 15 seconds above what I would have expected. "We are going too fast" I said to Adrian and we slowed down, but I don't know why, very quickly we were back to the original pace.

All is still quite slow, but progress is in the right direction and more rapid than my stalled weight loss would indicate. So I am feeling confident about the race season ahead.

02 September 2014

Three Great Decisions

Shortly after my last post I injured my hamstring (AGAIN!!) refereeing a rugby game. Then, one thing led to another and I found myself well behind on my training. I didn't let it go completely as I continued the odd run and refereed at least one game of rugby per week so I maintained a moderate level of fitness, but I was far from ready for a marathon. As a result I have canned the idea of a marathon in 2014 - not what I had hoped but certainly a sensible decision.

However, I continued to get niggly injuries from rugby so a month ago I decided to withdraw for the remainder of the season. This is one of the best decisions I have made all year! My body just can't handle changing direction all the time and the cooling down between halves or between two games on a Saturday.

Around the same time I decided to commence triathlon training to see how things would go. This was another great decision! The mix of disciplines has allowed me to train more and train harder, but to reduce the impact on my body.

The end result is a fitter, stronger and sturdier body with (fingers crossed) fewer injuries and a more sustainable fitness program. The other outcome has been a renewed enthusiasm for entering events and I have signed up for a half marathon (plan is just to finish at this stage) and the Lake Wanaka Half at Challenge Wanaka. I have also rediscovered the joy of training around the Otago Harbour and, as much as it pains me to say it, how good I feel after I swim.