Well, we’re deep into week 10 of this 12 week New York half marathon program now, and things seem to be going remarkably well.
Since we last spoke, I’ve hit just about every training session, albeit a left knee scare earlier in the month saw me cutting short an interval workout. A quick visit to the physio followed and it seemed to fix itself as fast as it appeared. Not a peep since.
The only other dent in my consistent six-day running weeks was brought about by a trek along the Six Foot Track last week. I’d walked this historic 45 kilometre route from Katoomba to Jenolan Caves about 100 kilometres east of Sydney in the magnificent Blue Mountains on two previous occasions as part of a three day guided group walk, most recently in December 2015. Back then, I promised myself that, someday, I’d come back and walk it in reverse (from Jenolan Caves to Katoomba I mean). And that I’d do it in one day. Last Wednesday became that day. Unfortunately for me, it was one of the hotter days of the summer and after a very strong start, I became badly dehydrated with an equally badly blistered right foot. With several forced rest stops throughout the afternoon, I finally managed to stagger into Katoomba 13 hours and 44 minutes after setting off. After all that, I didn’t run again until Sunday. But it really was a great challenge and I’ll certainly be back!
It’s all good now, and this week - at around 65 kilometres - is on track to be the most prolific, and toughest, running week since I first started on this running comeback precisely 104 weeks ago.
A couple of other brief updates.
First, after around 650 kilometres on the previous pair, my trusty shoe dealer in Potts Point fitted me with a new pair of wheels the other day. I’ve gone from a pair of Asics to a (slightly less garish) Nike model for the next 600+ KMs, which will, of course, take in the New York half. They feel fine, I suppose, but then they all have so far. Just so long as they keep doing their job.
And second, I’ve made a slight change to my future half marathon schedule. I’ve decided to jettison the Sydney half marathon in May 2017 and replace it with the Canberra half marathon a month earlier. I had a look at the Canberra course on-line a few days back and it really is quite an attractive one alongside Lake Burley Griffin. I guess it’s also a bit of an omen thing. My Canberra marathon time back in 2006 was a 20+ minute improvement on my best to that point, so maybe the gods will be with me again there in 2017 for the half. It also evens up the period, and the training programs, between the preceding and succeeding half marathons (Hobart and Gold Coast, respectively). And, finally, and perhaps most compellingly, it’s a good excuse not to run Sydney again - and avoid those annoying little hills around Pyrmont and Ultimo!
But the next stop is the Big Apple in just 17 short days (or, perhaps more accurately, 15 short days and 2 very, very long days stuck in aeroplanes and airports). More on that next time.
