Sunday, November 16, 2014

They're Not Always Good Runs

I know it was less than two weeks ago that I was waxing lyrical about how amazing my runs were. How good I felt. How life was filled with rainbows and unicorns.

Well, it really was at the time. And then I did my long, slow run on Saturday. Not my best ever! In fact it could go down in the annals of time as one of my least pleasant.

It wasn't because of the company because the company is always good. And we didn't have any trouble with the route despite all the expected G20 chaos in the city - which turned out to be not much chaos at all.

The run certainly didn't start off badly. The first 10k felt like most long runs - except that it was hot before we even started. But somewhere in the second 10k the wheels started to come off a little. It may have been the long hill going up beside the cemetery that started the rot but the second hill going up to Dornoch Tce was definitely the one that finished me off - and we still had 6k to go till we reached the end.

That 6k felt like a death march. If my ego would have let me stop and walk I would have. At least my ego let me slow right down and plod my way to the end. And all the while I was wondering where the girl from the previous week had gone.

Having had time to analyse what went wrong I've come up with a few thoughts.

1. It was a pretty warm morning
2. I went out a bit hard considering that the temperatures were higher.
3. I forgot to fuel at my usual point and only remembered when I was already tired.
4. This route didn't have as many water stops as we usually have - not great on a warm morning.

Each of those points pretty much says the same thing - I didn't run to the conditions.

And I paid for it. I spent the rest of the day feeling nauseated and headachey. I'm thinking it was a touch of heat stress. Lesson learned - on hot days take it slow and make sure you fuel and hydrate adequately.

And as for the G20. It turned out to be not that much of a big deal after all. Most Brisbanites vanished from the city and headed for the beaches. And the ones who did hang around spent most of their time indoors in air-conditioning because the weather turned really nasty. (Side note to Tony Abbott - how much longer are you going to deny that the science on climate change is real. 40C temperatures in November are not normal.)

Friday wasn't too bad temperature-wise and I got some fun stuff done. Like sorting out this mess.


Looks way better now and all I needed was a drill, the right bit, a long piece of dowel and a handy husband. Thanks Iven!

And I iced a cake. A new technique that I'd seen in a book. Seemed like it would be easy but it wasn't. The icing stretched out when I was putting it on the cake and I almost lost some of the coloured stars. I should also have put on more stars closer together. Que sera. You live and learn. Plus I have even more respect for the Cake Boss now - he makes it look like anyone could do it.


I finished Friday feeling like I'd achieved something. Then came Saturday and the awful run and feeling sick. Didn't get much done after that. Sunday was all about finding a cool spot to hide and trying not to move so all the little jobs I'd wanted to do over the weekend just didn't get done. 

I'm sincerely hoping that that's the only hideous weekend we have all summer (even though it's not summer yet) but I'm pretty sure that it won't be. Roll on winter!


13 comments:

  1. I love the looks of your new medal thingie. It is awesome. I'm a bit jealous.

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  2. Awww look at those medals. And look at that cake!!!!!

    PS. It was ridiculously hot on the weekend. Can't believe you went running!

    Deb

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  3. Your medal display looks awesome!!!
    Bummer on the bad run - I struggled last summer with the heat - not fun.

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  4. So while summer has made it Down Under, here in Africa Winter popped up again... but the Snow on the mountains was just what was needed for my weekend run. running Marathon in the heat isn't nice. (but then neither is running then in the rain and hail, lucky that didn't last long)

    I would go with the heat for spoilling your run and stretching the icing to much!!!

    So feed me the cake, and remember you've got a long run under the belt...

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  5. That is hot for Brisbane. I can remember being down there in November about 18 years ago and it was about 40 degrees but because the humidity was low it didn't feel too bad in the shade. I wouldn't want to be running in it though! Your medals look fantastic. Well done. And the cake... well it's far better than I could ever dream of doing.

    Let's hope the entire of Queensland gets a reprieve from the heat soon :)

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  6. Love the medal rack! good luck with the heat - hope it breaks soon...

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  7. That's funny you posted the medal hanger, I'm getting ready to make (or buy) one of those too. Plus, I'm trying to get back in shape, so the ceasing of cake photo posts would be much appreciated.

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  8. Heat and fuel can make such a difference to a run.

    I must get my medals organised - I think I'll be asking for a medal hanger for Christmas this year. Yours look great!

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  9. Lesson learned about rehydration, Char.

    Fantastic medals!

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  10. I hate when I have those death marches you described. But your sorted out mess looks awesome!

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  11. Well to be honest I'm glad even you have a bad run every now and then. To me you are the running queen and I look up to you for what you have accomplished.

    Sometimes it looks like the weather is changing all over the world. Guess that climate change isn't a fairytale after all.

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  12. Your medals look great! Something must be in the air as the Caveman actually hung a medal rack for me after it sat for about a year. Cake decorating looks so easy on TV but for me it never is. Really? It's hot there? We're back below zero. I loathe hot running but below zero isn't fun either.

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  13. That cake is gorgeous! We've all been there with that run. What I've learned over the years is that it's the bad ones that make the good ones that much sweeter!

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