Paul Petch

Over cooking it & some well deserved respite

What a week! Truth be known, the past three weeks efforts have finally caught up with this weary bloke and after 3 days off- I’m just coming back to earth. I’ve clocked up over 240KM in this time and Tuesday’s run was “the run” that made me think twice about how much I’m putting my body (and mind) through lately.

“Another 20km” run was all I could think about as I dragged myself out in the freezing cold wind….. on Tuesday. Physically I was feeling “ok” considering that I had ran 36+ KM only a few days prior- but mentally I was not feeling the love. Something was niggling in the back of my mind about “over cooking” it and that this never ending stream of physical energy could surly not continue. Even so, the plan was to do this 20km run and then kick back for the remaining week to mountain bike on the weekend…..so that was that.

Eventually, I arrived at the base of the Port Hills and after securing my bike I got my gear together and headed off. It felt different, kind of lonely, kind of unnecessary…..kind of pointless. But I’ve felt these feelings before- it is called lack of motivation and the body/ mind is rebelling against what it will fairly quickly be subjected too……which I can fully understand! A bit of a niggle above my right knee was now back too, and doing nothing more than causing me to focus on it…..damn…I hate these niggles!

Anyway, heading up the Rapaki things felt “better” once I hit some sunshine- but the legs were feeling it. Oddly, on arrival up top my watch was showing a time 15 mins faster than on the weekend……which I put down to carrying significantly less gear. What ever the reasons, I was now up in the hills so it was time to let it rip a little. Due to this run being the last run this week I opted to “mix it up” a little with some faster (higher heart rate) stretches with some slower (lower heart rate) plods.

Heading over the Mount Vernon Track found a pace that was fast and I was having a lot of fun- but I knew that I was taking risks as I powered through the rocky stuff. But as much as I tried to tell myself to slow stuff down, it just felt that I was running at the right pace…..so I just let it go and ran with it. Across the Traverse Track I went and it was fairly slippery and I could not avoid running through puddles that splashed up all over me. I was now starting to have some fun! And by the time I arrived at Vic Park I was well and truly on track to get under 50mins for 10KM. Holy shit! On I went through the single track to the Sign of the Kiwi and once I arrived there- I just filled up my water bottle and headed back. By this point the legs were really feeling it….but I kept on trucking.

Things were sweet until I hit the Mount Vernon track in reverse and was faced with…..yeah….you guessed it…..DOWNHILL running. By this point my legs were really tender and the knees had packed their bags…..and wanted out. Arriving at the Rapaki I was not enjoying things at all and the 4+km descent on hardpack was nothing but torture. No matter how hard I tried to re live the moment from the weekend and “get shit together” the more the magic just did not happen…..and my knees/ quads were the centre of attention.

I suppose that you could call Tuesdays run “crap” even though I covered 20KM in less than 2hrs off road- because the magic was just not happening. Having mountain biked for years now- I understand that after a really magic ride- the following couple are just not the same as you desperately try and re create the buzz you had just a few days before. I am a buzz Junkie…….what can I say! I should know better though as you can’t win them all…..and I know that.

Considering the amount of KM’s I covered on the weekend I should have chosen a flat run or took better control of my urge for “that buzz” while out there on Tuesday. Thankfully the knee niggle after flaring up considerably afterwards has now come good after 3 days off my feet- along with the tender quads and mental state.

I’m finding that this training lark is really tricky as I want to let rip- but pushing myself just “a little bit to far” like I did on Tuesday can have really bad consequences. Hopefully I’ve learnt my lesson as I head toward the final weeks before I start to taper off ……..

The constant “icing” and massaging, motivating, pushing, but not pushing to much, cadence watching……..blah blah blah……. is starting to do my head in a bit. But tomorrow is another day eh :) Thankfully with some nice weather planned and a new set of wheels for my mountain bike I’ll be taking my mind off all of this “training” this weekend and getting out there with friends for some socializing and fun. I think that I’ve earnt it.

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Related posts:

1. The aftermath of peaking…
2. Another weekend- another run!
3. First week of Kepler training DONE :)
4. My first ultra marathon distance of 49KM
5. Weekend run (week one) – Port Hills

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 5:46 am and is filed under Running and tagged with downhill running, gear, motivation, port hills, saloman, trail running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.