Naked in Queensland

It's been two weeks since my last post. Time really does fly past and I struggle to get to post more often. But in reality, time moves at the same pace as every other week. It's more a matter of how I move to the beat it emits and as such it's a prioritising issue. I'm sure the few of you that indulge won't mind.

Naked in Queensland. A bold title but for a runner, being naked is not all about the drunken nudie run. I went away for a work trip from Mon-Thur and left my Garmin and running sunnies at home. Doesn't sound to serious but for someone who lives and breathes by the garmin, this was a big deal when I opened my suitcase and the revelation exposed. On the sunglass front, Qld was experiencing similar weather to Sydney (just 10deg and 90% humidity higher) so the sunnies weren't always needed anyway.

So what to do. Click onto Strava. Did I have an account? Do I just press go? and so on I considered my options. Back in the 80's and 90's and some of the naughties, it was all about best possible pace guessing, getting in the car and measuring courses and then simply doing the time. No second by second analysis of what the elevation was like, pollution levels, calories lost and so on.

And this was how I ran for 4 days (7 runs). And it was surprisingly refreshing. I surged when I liked, for as long as I wished and I cruised for the rest. The humidity hurt anyway so I did what I could. Not a high quality training week but it was my second at 120km.

The previous week was my first of the new block: 120km as follows:

Mon 6th Mar: 12km at 4:45 pace
Tue 7th: AM: 4km  PM: 15.5km incl 6 x 1km (3:08, 07, 09, 06,06,01) off 5:30min cycles so pretty generous there.
Wed 8th: 16km steady
Thur 9th: My regular CP Monna F. One of the least furthest distances of the last few years. 5.9km overall for the 20mins. 13.5km total
Fri 10th: 7km easy
Sat 11th: 12km tempo in the park incl 2 long climbs of Loch Ave. 42:30 at 3:32 pace so pretty happy with that. 16km in total. PM: slow 4km.
Sun 12th: 32km in the park easy. Legs tired as usual.

Total 120km:


Mon 13th: 12km jog at Maroochydore in the heat. Roughly 4:50 pace
Tue 14th: AM: 5km around the Novotel Twin Waters lake. Very sticky. PM: 14km along the river in Brisbane with some 5min surges. Total 60mins
Wed 15th: AM: 6km Botanic Gardens / PM: 13km at Surfers just jogging.
Thur 16th: 9km easy to Burleigh heads and back
Fri 17th: 7km easy in Cent Park
Sat 18th: 16km tempo with Barts around his hilly loop. Same time as 2 weeks ago 58:40. 19km then 5km jog later in the day
Sun 19th: 30km Striders StAR - Edgecliff to Watson's Bay and along the coast. Very hilly and after yesterday hurt like hell.

Total 120km

Hoping to consolidate with a few more weeks like these but including some quality fast stuff.