Thursday, November 11, 2010

The rains are here.

Yesterday's rains were totally ridiculous. I haven't seen anything like that for a while. We had a mixture of hail, torrential rain, gusty winds, lightening & thunder and whatever else mother nature could throw at us. I remember when I was younger, this seemed to be the usual occurence during the warmer months, however because it happens so infrequently now, everyone is flabbergasted.

My main concern was that I was not going to be able to do track last night. I didn't want to miss out on another opportunity to get better at my running and the chance to learn something new. Who would have thought running was going to be my new love. Especially after everything I have gone through with all my injuries and back concerns.

Sure enough when the rains stopped, the sun came out in full force and it was now not only wet but the mugginess was almost a little too much to take. You could almost feel it rising off the ground. So when the time came to leave for track and the fact that I had not heard anything otherwise to state that it had been cancelled, I was so excited I got dressed, waited for hubby to walk in the door, gave everyone a big kiss goodbye and rushed out the door.

As I was driving there I was preparing myself for the inevitable "the grounds are too wet and we need to cancel tonight", so I was thoroughly surprised when I arrived and it was all good to go. Track just needed to be altered, that's all. We were going to do hill repeats. Never done these before and might I say I quite like them even though they nearly killed me.

The loop we had to do was about 600m in length - 300m up and 300m back down. We started off with a 1 loop nice and easy followed by a further loop at race pace which I did in 3:20. Then main set which came up next would test me beyond all measure. It was 5 x 600m loops, up hard, back easy jog with a 30 sec break between each set.

The humidity had me totally wringing wet soon after the warm up so having done this mainset my singlet was now dripping as well as fleckled with mud all up the back. We then followed it up with 4 x 200's at race pace with a minute break inbetween. I was totally spent. Had nothing left to give but so glad I gave it all.

This morning I woke up feeling refreshed and my legs weren't sore at all. That was until I tried to swim - and then the cramping began. I was meant to do a 3.7km swim but dropped it to 3.4km. Not too much of a drop in distance but nonetheless my legs were protesting from last night's hills.

I am pleased with my performances to date and keep my fingers crossed daily for future success in everything I try.

I was also thinking about doing a Giveaway but have no clue as to what to Giveaway. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. And no being silly - no I cannot give away a car!!!!

Your hard work will be rewarded.

"The path to a dream is paved with sacrifices and lined with determination. And though it has many stumbling blocks along the way, and may go in more than one direction, it is travelled by belief and courage and conquered with a willingness to face challenges and take chances" Barbara Cage