Happy 500th!

A slight indulgence as I dedicate this post to my 500th session at Camperdown Fitness, the Sydney gym I’ve been frequenting for the past couple of years. It happened back on Saturday 9 April 2016.

Just for the heck of it, and given it also happened to be the day before the start of my 12 week Gold Coast half marathon program, I decided to replicate the workout I undertook at my very first session back on 26 August 2013. That is, 20 minutes on the elliptical machine at its easiest setting, followed by 10 minutes on the treadmill at 5km/h at an elevation of 0.5%.

While I don’t remember that very first session well, I do have an extraordinarily vivid memory of being completely buggered at most times in those first few weeks, culminating in my attempt (in session 13) to run 5K in 30 minutes on the day before I headed overseas for a couple of months. As it happened, I could only manage 4.41K in that time. I can’t remember how I felt when I stopped, but it was probably more relief that it was over than disappointment that I’d missed a target.

Between then and now, there’s been many a running session where I felt I could have gone on forever, sessions that were a real struggle and which left me completely exhausted (but which I finished!), and the odd one where I just couldn’t keep going and was forced to bail. I even remember one where I started warming up but then stopped and went back home because my head just wasn’t in the right space. And, of course, there were those couple of awful sessions cut short by torn leg muscles.

So that’s a total of 500 gym visits in the 700 or so days that I’ve been home over that time. Throw in the various races I’ve run, several loops around the Bay Run and a few other bits and pieces and it’s not a bad strike rate really.

Here’s to a productive next 500!

And, of course, here’s to all those with their hard-won BQ’s who are lining-up at Hopkinton on Monday. Good job, and go well everyone! With a lot of hard work, and a little bit of luck, I'll be looking forward to following in your footsteps on Patriots’ Day 2020.