I thought last Monday was bad. I’d been watching the tablecloth from my office window all day, and it was looking spectacularly violent by 4pm. The lamp posts on the highway were bending by the time I left at 6pm. After I’d done 3km on Tafelberg Road I was considering turning around due to the fact I couldn’t see. The blasts of gale force winds are vicious enough to squash your eyeballs to the point you lose your vision for a split second, which isn’t comforting when you are running on the side of a mountain. Of course I carried on, and it ‘stopped’ a bit under Devils Peak. I did have the pleasure of of being slammed again on the 3km back to the car.

Running Notes:
Route: Kloof Nek – Cable station – End of Tafelberg Road – Cable Station – Kloof Nek
Distance: 12km

By myself, we’ll sort of because the voice is back. I don’t think I’ve mentioned ‘him’ before but he is always there when I’m feeling a bit crap. He joined me as a small voice at 2km when the exhaustion of the last week of training and a particularly trying 60 hour week culminated in me walking a step or two. ‘Is this all you’ve got? Is that seriously the best you can do at 2km? Tell me how you’re feeling at 75km, because that’s tired, that’s exhausted. Now crack on.’ Right then I will. Oh, and I did inhale two packets of jelly babies so we both felt a bit better after that.

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: 3:30

How is it that my most hated race of the year becomes the one I want to do now I know I can’t go…?

Running Notes:
Route: Home – Kloof Nek – 1km down the other side – Kloof Nek – Home
Distance: 10km

I wouldn’t usually write about the sorry state of my upper body strength, but today I’ll make an exception. I thought I’d say to the PT at the session this lunchtime that I wanted to do push ups. He paused, looked a me with a glint in his eye, and said ‘really?’. Oh, you can only imagine the beating I received.

Notes:
360 Training

Lovely chat with Sean Robson.

Running Notes:
Route: Mouille Point Lighthouse – Seacliffe Road – Mouille Point Lighthouse
Distance: 8km

Speedwork in the gym. Surprisingly managed an average of 14.5 on my one minute fast sections. Not bad.

Running Notes:
Speed: (10 mins at 10, 1 min at 14.5 followed by 1 min at 10, repeat for 10 mins)
Distance: 4km

Not my normal trainer, different, not right though.

Notes:
360 Training

First word ‘late’, second word ‘wind’, third word ‘headache’.

Running Notes:
Route: Cable station – End of Tafelberg Road – Cable Station
Distance: 10km

Needed to get a ‘long one’ in as I missed the Bay to Bay 30km race last Sunday. I was concerned that my London ‘training’ had been poor to middling but I screamed round today and felt great. Bounced around the rest of the morning. This is why I run.

Running Notes:
Route: Home – Kloof Nek – Camps Bay – Kloof Nek – Signal Hill – Home
Distance: 24km

14km + children + sun + hangover = painful. I imagine the 7 hours of walking, plus 2 hours of watching them swim (scream) in a blindingly cold river added up to approximately the equivalent 5km of cardio. Hurumph – keep telling myself it could have been a bit of a leg strengthener.

Notes:
Du Toitskloof trail
Distance: 14km (that’s a 5km run if I’m being generous)

Better get it in, celebrating the old birthday with the mates tonight, have no idea what state I’ll be in tomorrow.

Running Notes:
Route: Mouille Point Lighthouse – Seacliffe Road – Mouille Point Lighthouse
Distance: 8km

OMFG the weigh-in after Christmas…

Notes:
360 Training

First run back on SA turf and it felt great.

Running Notes:
Route: Home – Kloof Nek – Home
Distance: 8km

The friend said I was hardcore on the phone that evening, ‘nope’ I said, ‘just stupid’. Then I had a salad in a pizza restaurant just to deny myself even more.

Notes:
360 Training

Getting on the silver red-eyed bird tonight so have no sodding clue when I’ll be awake enough to run again.

Running Notes:
Route: Mum’s house – Shooter’s Hill – Mum’s house
Distance: 12km