Thursday, November 4, 2010

Right on track.

Running has always been my enemy. Even as a kid when we used to have to run as a warm up for swimming I would complain and complain and complain. It just never felt natural - that pounding would always make everything hurt, even on young bones. But since I found this awesome world of Triathlons and have embarked on a new training regime with TopNotch, I seemed to found a love and thirst for wanting to better my running - in every aspect. To conquer all those past demons which held me so firm in their grip. And last night I did it. I think I may have finally found my running alter ego.

Last night's track session was fantastic. It really could not have gone any better and I was super impressed with how I am progressing. It's not by any stretch the accomplishments of an elite athlete but to me they show me that even at the tender age of 36, I still have alot more left in the tank.

This is what we did;
  • 800m warm up
  • 4 x 200m run throughs
Then onto the main set:
  • 2 sets of 8 x 200m on 1 minute with 30 sec recovery. I did them all on about 55 sec
Then this is where I got totally excited and scared. Chris said we now had a 1km timed effort. Effort? What did he mean by effort? His effort or my effort? I soon found out he wanted it at a pace faster than my 200m pace. As I started walking over to the starting line I could feel those usual thought' s start to surface. All the self doubt and panic. But within and instant a very stern voice crept in my head and said "FOR @*#T SAKE, YOU JUST DID A SPRINT TRI, THIS IS A PIECE OF CAKE".

So off I went. I really had no clue about my pace only that the speed I was running at felt good, so I kinda thought I was not going to get a good time. With the last 100m Chris yelled "Barb, go for it, whatever you have left". So I did, I sprinted. My time effort for the 1km was:
4:50
I could not believe it. I have never done that pace and still felt strong afterwards. Now I know I shouldn't get too excited - it's not like I could maintain that pace for too long - JUST YET. But I know it won't be too long before I can maintain this for a 2km stretch, then 3, 4. The skies the limit. This is cool.

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