Tarawera Training - Week 3

This week started off differently because of a wedding we were going to down south and then changed again when I ended up with food poisoning! 

We didn't have time to do a long run on the weekend so my coach scheduled that for Monday instead.

On the Saturday I was supposed to do an easy 10km while we were down south. Scotty came with me because it was a rest day for him and unfortunately my pace doesn't really register on his scale for running! As it turned out it was quite hilly and really sandy on the Cape to Cape Track where we ran so instead of doing 10km we just ran for about an hour. It was nice running along the Cape to Cape Track because when we'd started to do the walk for our honeymoon a couple of years earlier we'd stopped in Yallingup (long story - too many snakes) so hadn't seen the section we were running on that day. 

Sunday was a rest day and thank goodness for that because I ended up with food poisoning and could barely eat anything let alone run. 

I decided not to do my long run on the Monday either so that I could give my body a chance to recover from being sick. 

So Tuesday it was for my 3 hour run. Scotty had done his long run the day before so I was running solo. I went out to the Camel Farm and decided I'd do an out and back towards the Mundaring Weir and then an out and back towards Kalamunda. 

The first 45 minutes were good, I felt pretty strong. After about 1.15 hours the heat started to get to me but I was still running quite well. I refilled my water at the Camel Farm and then headed out towards Kalamunda. 

At about 2.20 hours I was standing at the bottom of a valley and it was hot! I stopped to catch my breath, looked around at all the trees and the lack of human presence and suddenly thought 'Geez, I really don't know if I'm going to make it back to the car!' I'd never felt like that before, and hopefully I won't feel like it again! I had enough water, but it was just so hot. I was struggling to walk up the hills and I just couldn't cool myself down. 

Finally after a bit of running, a lot of walking and far too much sweating I made it back to the Camel Farm. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see the car! 

Wednesday was supposed to be stair repeats so we set our alarms for 4.30am thinking we'd go before work. Unfortunately the alarms went off and then we realised it wouldn't be light for at least an hour... Epic fail. Back to sleep!

The rest of Wednesday got away from me so I didn't end up doing anything that day. Thanks to my fantastic coach I emailed him for his advice and he recommended doing my intervals on Thursday and then doing my stair repeats on Friday. 

After the morning shift on Thursday Scotty and I went out to The Dell and did our intervals/tempo run on the Munda Biddi. And surprise surprise, it was a scorcher again! After my warm up and my first 15 minute effort I was roasting, I'd gone out way too fast! I struggled through the rest of the session and was so pleased to finally finish my cool down 1.5 hours later. The only plus side was that I had plenty of water so I could tip most of it over me while I ran. And I was eating my Gu and Chomps like they were going out of fashion. 

Friday was a great session. I met Kate up at Kings Park and we did a warm up before heading to Jacobs Ladder to do stair repeats. It was fun having some company and having someone to high five on the way up and down the stairs. I felt so much stronger on the stairs than last week which was really good - finally starting to get some strength back in my legs! We even had the pleasure of Scotty's company for some of our run - but we all know he was only there for the coffee and breakfast afterwards! 

Three weeks down, three more to go!