Stairs - what the?

Today was my first Thursday morning session. I hadn't been doing these previously as it was one of the sessions that Mark had dropped off my programme when I became injured.

It was really hard work! We did a lot of drills including hopping up the stairs, 5 on the left leg, 5 on the right leg and then sprinting up the hill with a recovery down and we did a number of reps of this. We did the same drill with jumping up 10 steps. I seem to struggle with the coordination required for the stair drills, I'm not sure if it is a case of not being conditioned to them and once I get a bit more practice I will get the hang of it or whether it is a case of weak core muscles. This was followed by squats that we held for 1 minute followed by a quick 500mtrs to get the feeling of running off the bike in our legs. This was hard work, my legs were burning. After the 3rd time of this I thought my quads were going to explode.

We then did a staggered run back to the goodwill bridge which is probably 2 - 21/2 k's @ 85%. I started out strong keeping pace with Sophie, however about halfway back my heart rate was at 95%, so I had to slow down and let Sophie go, just after I slowed down Dad overtook me. I knew this was going to happen one day, so the day is here. I'm hoping that once I get a bit more running fitness in I'll be able to reel him in, but I'm not so sure. He is running really well at the moment.

This session was followed by watermelon, coffee and toast - it doesn't really get too much better than that!

Back on deck

Well, enough sitting around licking my wounds.

I didn't even turn the television on to watch the Australian Open tennis today (OK maybe just while I was eating my lunch...). I managed to use the last day of my sick leave productively - I went for a run. Well, I guess you could call it an amble if you were unlucky enough to witness it, but it felt like a run. I was working hard, breathing heavy and I was sweating, but unfortunately all that hard work did not result in much more than an amble.

The set consisted of the same as what I did last week:

15min warmup jog
3 sets of bum kicks
3 sets of high knees
10 x 50mtrs @ 80%
10min cool down - no such thing when you are as unfit as I am!

It felt good to be doing SOMETHING! I don't really care that it was slow and hard and proved how bad I was going, the only way from here is up.

My wounds (the gravel rash from my Saturday bike fall) are healing nicely. They had all kind of sealed after the copious spraying of Betadine that I had diligently been applying. I could feel the scab on my arm while running, I can't really explain it other than it felt disjointed to my arm and a bit yuck. I wonder how it will go with the vibration of riding a bike. I am doing an indoor spin on Friday and then a long bike ride on Saturday, so hopefully by Saturday it will be better.

I am still doing the 80k Hell of the West ride, it will just be slow and steady (and upright!!!).

Must remember; the rubber stays on the bitumen...