Me: ‘Er, how heavy are they?’. Justin: ’12kg’, insert dramatic pause, ‘each’. Me: ‘Er, right’. Justin: ’14 squat lifts, 14 back lunge presses and 20 second lunge holds, each leg’. Me: silence. Justin: looks at me like he’s expecting me to crack on. Justin: ‘Three sets please’. Me: silence and now in my head ‘JFC, who lifts 24kg above their head not once but many, many times???’. Much later on in the session, Justin: ‘Are you feeling okay?’.
Notes:
360 Training
Added 12km to my weekend distance tonight on the mountain. Legs wanted to run, top half wanted to be on the couch. Last night’s gym session was a complete write-off as I could only manage to do the sets that involved me lying down on my back. #sobloodytired.
Running Notes:
Route: Kloof Nek – Cable station – End of Tafelberg Road – Cable Station – Kloof Nek
Distance: 12km
No? I didn’t fancy it either and the 3 hours and 59 minutes it took me to do it was evident I felt like shite. Bumped into a couple of running friends en route which turned into a bitch fest of how tired and bored of running we all are. Adri is doing a full ironman so has a reason to moan about her training. Need to feel better about this soon or its another 4 months of dragging my sorry arse around Cape Town with a face like a wet weekend.
Running notes:
Route: My house – Kloof Nek – Camps Bay drive – Twelve Apostles Hotel – Camps Bay – Kloof Road –Kloof Nek – Signal Hill – My house
Distance: 30km
Time: 3:59
After 77km two weeks ago, I dropped the mileage down to 63km and now I want to nail 80km this week. It is going to be tough based on how tired I feel, and I’ll need to do a big weekend if I want to get close to it. Today I set off for a 20km club run from Camps Bay. Thought I’d just shuffle up to Suikerbossie and back down, take it easy. Sadly the only other person that wanted to do 20km was Shen who is one of our fastest male half marathoners and he’d already done 12km before he showed up at the Vida meeting point. OMFG. Oh yes and I had a hangover, and it was so humid I sweated out 6 beers and every other drop of moisture in my body.
Running Notes:
Route: Camps Bay – Twelve Apostles Hotel – Suikerbossie – 1km down the other side – Suikerbossie – Twelve Apostles Hotel – Camps Bay
Distance: 20km
Red Sock 8km. Second day in a row I had to get up before 5am for a run. I’ve only done a month of training and I need a break already.
Running notes:
Route: Mouille Point Lighthouse – Seacliffe Road – Mouille Point Lighthouse
Distance: 8km
Last week I did 5 repeats on top of a 3km jog to the base of the hill. Today I just could not be bothered to run there so I got in the car instead. I’m being really tough on myself for 1 June but give me a chance to be just a little bit lazy and I’ll take it every time. It really is soul destroying running up and down the same hill 6 times in an hour and a half, but it does entertain the old boy at No.12 who sits in his front garden if the weather is nice.
Running notes:
Route: Bottom of Bellevue Street – 6 x 600m hill repeats
Distance: 7km
24:02. 39 seconds faster than last week. I find that doing a 1km warm up improves the end result. It has taken me more than 5 years to listen to this good advice from the older guys in the club and believe me it works. Though, if I had concentrated a touch harder somewhere in the middle I might have been sitting on 23:59. Damn.
Running notes:
Route: Wakame – turn around point – Wakame
Distance: 6km
Time: 24:02
So tired after work and tonight’s 7-8pm session that I could only manage to cook peas for dinner. I live a small sad life.
Notes:
360 Training
Another late start on the mountain, interestingly enough the legs didn’t feel too heavy. The quads felt okay and the calves were a bit spongy, the difficult bit was generating the motivation to run a large portion of the same route as the race yesterday. Bleurgh.
Running Notes:
Route: Kloof Nek – Cable station – End of Tafelberg Road – Cable Station – Kloof Nek
Distance: 12km
Probably the hardest half marathon you can do, just when you think you’ve run up a very steep long hill there is another one and then another one. Ouch it hurts. Ran with Clement who told me that I was the ‘bus driver’, we had a good chat until Clement decided to ‘get off’ near the summit of Signal Hill so had to drive myself for the last 5km. Weather was perfect with no wind, felt great and pushed it on the downs, managed a personal course record so pretty happy as this race is a good indication of fitness.
Running Notes:
Route: Camps Bay High School – Kloof Nek – Cable Station – Tafelberg Road – Cable Station – Kloof Nek – Signal Hill – Camps Bay High School
Distance: 21km
Time: 1:55:25
Got the Kloof Nek Classic half marathon tomorrow morning and want to race it, so only did a quick 10km today.
Running Notes:
Route: Camps Bay – Twelve Apostles Hotel – Camps Bay
Distance: 10km
Final run of the week for the Red Sock 8km. Pleased with the distance this week. Will drop it down to about 65km next week and pick it back up the following.
Running notes:
Route: Mouille Point Lighthouse – Seacliffe Road – Mouille Point Lighthouse
Distance: 8km
I could have cried real tears I was so tired. After the first hill repeat I wanted to curl up on the tarmac and go to sleep. I had a big pretend stick and I had to hit myself with it.
Running notes:
Route: My house – bottom of Bellevue Street – 5 x 600m hill repeats – My house
Distance: 12km
What a scorcher. The denizens of Sea Point were relaxing on the promenade lawns supping sundowners as the AAC time trialers ran past spraying them with sweat. I was disgusting by the time I finished 5km. My heart was in my throat all the way round due to the heat. I was also one of the worst times ever: 24:41.
Running notes:
Route: Wakame – turn around point – Wakame
Distance: 5km
Time: 24:41
Mental note, remember to eat something before.
Notes:
360 Training
Comrades and other short stories 