Thursday, 10-Feb. 7km
A hot day of 35C so I left it until the evening before I ventured out for a run.
I drove to the beach at 7.30pm when it was around 32C.
The good thing about leaving it until later is that it gives the pavements time to cool off. I would guess that the pavements were around 35C, they were warm underfoot but not uncomfortable.
I started by running along the road from the Grange cafe to the river outlet 3.5km.
It was thirsty work. The form felt good but I was aware of a little less fluidity due to the gym workout yesterday where I did some hamstring deadlifts once again. This time my body has adapted to the exercise and the soreness is minimal.
Once I got to the turn-off to the beach I could see what the sand quality was going to be like on the way back.
The tide was on its way in, probably an hour from the high point. The sand was soft and churned up by hundreds of feet and a few vehicles, this was going to be tough.
It was slow work and sweat dripped off me freely, I just concentrated on the short distance directly in front of me. You really have to pick your feet up and have good balance when running on such an unpredictable surface.
I came off the beach after 2km feeling exhausted and finished the run off on the road. It took a while adapting to the firmness of the road after the soft sand, it was much faster though.
While going through some old paperwork I came across an instruction sheet supplied by my podiatrist when he fitted me with the orthotics that were supposed to sort all my problems out.
It makes interesting reading in that you can see how the dependency on them develops. They will feel unnatural and you have to adapt your feet to the orthotic. This just strikes me as completely the wrong approach, no thought of strengthening the feet, in fact, just the opposite.
Thankfully it has been 16 months since I kissed goodbye to them and my feet have never been better.
Saturday, 12-Feb. 12km
Saturday morning run and my tendons were still slightly sore from the soft sand training on Thursday, I think I worked them pretty hard.
A cloudy morning which would shield me from the sun so no yucky sunscreen to worry about.
There was a nice stretch of wet sand but this had been ripped up by the horses that undergo training along the beach in the early morning. It must be part of the trotting group that pull a kind of chariot behind them.
The horses leave deep prints in the beach and you have to stay alert to not twist an ankle by plunging your foot into hoof print.
It would be nice to run on a pristine beach but unfortunately unless you go well out of the city you are not going to find one. Of course the beaches are better in winter as less people go there so they stay in better condition.
I took it nice and easy and covered the 12km in 1:13:12.
After the run I have a soak my lower legs in the sea until my heart rate slows to under 80bpm. Next come the dynamic stretches to slowly clear the lactic out of the muscles.
By the end of the run the feet and tendons felt good again. Lets see if I can get a bit of speed work in tomorrow.
Sunday, 13-Feb. 4km
I got out on the Sunday to practice a bit of speed to get my tempo up higher than on my longer runs.
It was a cool morning, must have been around 15C.
My first thoughts as I stepped out onto the sand was 'Gee, it feels like autumn is on it's way' , the sand was cold, or rather colder than it has been for the last 4 months. There was also a sharp southerly breeze blowing
This all slowed me down, I just couldn't get the leg muscles moving quickly enough. Southbound I managed 10:47m while northbound I recorded 10:03.
The sand was hard but had plenty of footprints breaking up the surface.
Neil
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