Some R&R

Thanks…
to everyone for your comments. They are very encouraging and a wonderful source of motivation. This is in relation to the race itself as well as during the training. I find it helps keep me on track during the days when I might otherwise just sleep in :o)

The Aftermath
I’ve taken a few days off for a mental and physical break this week.

After finishing on Sunday I was too busy talking and never got around to doing the stretching which I almost always do. I think that contributed to a degree of muscular stiffness afterwards, which is something I haven’t experienced for ages.

I experienced a mild case of shin splints in my left leg. I could feel it faintly about a week or two beforehand. I’d say it’s on the back of the big jump in km for May. The self treatment (in particular stretching) combined with a reduced load thanks to the taper and recovery has taken care of it though. I’m hoping that a more gradual increase in training load and following the preventative measures prescribed will keep it away.

The Future
A big goal for me now is to shift at least 5kg by the end of the year. I can achieve this by cutting some excess snacks out of my diet and including some more HRM assisted aerobic sessions in my training.

The plan is for a run on Friday and a ride on the weekend. There’ll be a couple of quicker sessions thrown in prior to the Striders 10km in two weeks. I’m looking forward to having a 2nd look at the Homebush course, although it may be a bit quiet there with the Gold Coast Marathon on that weekend.

I’ve updated the races I’d like to enter in the sidebar. There’s a big gap between July and December. Anything I enter during that time (including the Lake Macquarie Half) would be more of a last minute decision.

I think the reality of the situation is I’m not going to make the Lake Macquarie Half at the end of August so I want to try for the Hunter Valley Half in July. I’m likely to be heading to Sydney the day after anyway. Last year I offloaded a Queens of the Stone Age ticket which was a couple of weeks after Isabel was born because I didn’t want to leave home at the time. This year with a new baby plus Isabel to look after I think it’s going to be the same situation come August.

Blah
One thing I found from watching the video of the race is how slow 5min/km looks on camera!!

I can see a lot of time will be spent playing with the new features on the Cool Running site.

I found out yesterday that Google Earth now includes detailed coverage of Port Macquarie and surrounds. How exciting!!

Lucky I've only made two posts in the last week given how long they are ;)

Here’s a picture of Isabel and myself just after the race. Not the best shot of either of us, but the best I’ve got. Isabel really just wants me to have a shower and I hate facing the sun for photos!!