I must admit, I did briefly question my sanity this morning as I crawled out of bed at 4am to go and do the 32km Samford loop with Phil and co. Woke up feeling nauseous and tired – the antibiotics and new inhaler seem to be working but I spent most of last night coughing my lungs up. Blah! I just kept telling myself that it was my last loonnggg run before the big one, so I didn’t really want to miss it!
There were two groups running, the slow and steadies (us) and the
After a while, the hills started getting bigger and longer, and bigger and longer still. I felt like I was doing one huge Mount Cootha summit run (I can’t wait until after the GCM to have a go at that again actually – dying to see if I can run the whole thing yet) Everyone said I was very quiet during the run (except to whinge occasionally or swear profusely at the next upcoming mammoth hill) but mostly I was stuck in ‘survival mode’ as Angie calls it – chugging along trying to breathe.
By the time we hit 3 hours, I was starting to h-u-r-t quite a lot – my knees and calves were seriously aching and really fatigued. I think that sort of running is probably good for me – to teach myself to feel that and know I can keep going anyway.
Looking at the positives, even though I’m still fighting the tail end of the flu and felt tired, I ran the vast majority of the hills. I know that not so long ago, I would’ve been walking a lot more of them than I did today. All up we did about 32km in Phil’s 3:30 (which in real time took us about 3:50, including drink stops)
I can’t believe that I’m now on the tail end of the marathon training! So exciting!
8 comments:
It isn't long to go now, you must be pretty chuffed about finishing your last long one before the big day.
I think you are entitled to a whinge running for that long im sure I would be whinning.
I hope the flu gets better and you can enjoy your last few casual weeks of training.
That sounds like one hell of a tough run ... promise you will show us it one day :-) That's a great time for such a training run, must fill you with confidence for the marathon.
Well, its all a breeze from here on in. Just a matter of keeping yourself healthy (once you get healthy) and uninjured.
Wow. You are amazing Hannah. 32kms of hills while sick. You are going to fly come GCM!
I'm with Tess, that run sounds fantastic, definitely one to try sometime
Good one Hannah. You have the tail end of a Tiger...the Tiger being the marathon. You ahve built a very good base for the big one Hannah. Now the anticipation really begind to build.
You have done so much hard work. With a proper taper, you'll be suprised at how well you are going to do.
So 32km of hills when you are sick and fluey still.....okay so what can do you when you are healthy and rested?????
Great run, great report and hopefully you have recovered well.
Keep the cotton wool on for another few weeks. No need for any more long runs now. The work is in the bag. Bring on Gold Coast!!!
Today I could here Pat telling someone that there was "NO CATCHUP" .... great advice ... stick to what is on your program and you will be great! If you miss a run here or there it won't hurt.
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