1000km, Over The Line

Distance 39.5km [total: minimalist 132km: Barefoot 1023.4km] Week 8

Monday, 21-Feb. 8km
An 8km road and beach run on a cool breezy evening. I did a bit of higher speed running on the way back, just the 2km between jetties, I struggled on the broken sand though and only managed around 10:20m.
It looks like these are the conditions I can expect on March 4 for the Beach Bash, there will actually be a beach to run on this year due to the council building up the beach with extra sand. Maybe the shoe wearing runners will keep themselves dry this year.

Wednesday, 23-Feb. 8km
Today I ran the 8km along the river as an alternative to the beach. A runner passed me about 1km into my run and I tried to use her to pace myself, she was going slightly faster and by the time I got to the river mouth she was around 150m in front. My running felt good, feet felt good.

On the way back they started to get tender, the bitumen was hot as the sun was shining directly onto it, I could feel my feet on fire. I ran down the white dividing line as it was smoother and slightly cooler. I was a full 5 minutes slower on the return journey 50:21 total.
My feet were tender by the time I got back to the car. The path on the south side of the river has much more debris over it, small stones and tree seeds.
After giving the feet a good clean I used some Isocol alcohol rub to clean up any abrasions. After a nights sleep the feet will be ready to go again.

Friday, 25-Feb. 7km
It's getting close now!
I could have put 1000km in this posting but to be honest, on my Saturday 14.5km run I walked the last 4.5km, I ran out of energy.
It may have been that on the Friday I went on a 7km run in the heat, then rushed out to go into the city to watch some comedians who were part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival, so, I had a few drinks and eventually got home at around 11.30pm.

Saturday, 27-Feb. 14.5km
So I blame the late night, drinks and dehydration for my lacklustre performance on the Saturday. Mind you it was warm, even at 8am, 25C and an hour later it was 30C, it seems to knock me out more in the morning than when I run in the heat during the evening.
Even on the run up to Semaphore jetty I had to stop a couple of times. ON the way back I just ran out of steam, I felt hungry and thirsty.
So now, I'm sitting just below the 1000km barrier, my run tomorrow should break through that.

Sunday, 27-Feb. 2km
I think I can now say I've got 1000 barefoot kilometres under my feet.
On a warm Sunday with the temperatures getting up to 31C I pulled out of my usual early Sunday morning run, I decided to listen to my body and it said 'have a lie in for once, relax' so that is what I did, no early run and no gym later.
The urge to run came later in the day so I waited for the temperature to drop and headed across the road to the sports field to run some laps.
I didn't bother taking my watch for timing, I don't need that pressure.
I did a couple of nice easy warm up laps the ran 5 x 350m at a pace fast enough that it would take me a minute or two to recover at the end.
After those I did some Pose drills with 80m sprints in between, I did around 10 x 80m in total. I just love that feeling of speed.
The longer distances are harder as your breathing has to catch up with your legs.
I'm hoping that practising these sprints might just help in my race on Friday.
The temperature is forecast to be 27C on Friday so that sounds ideal.

Neil