4 Seasons in one week

Distance 51.9km [total: minimalist 329.1km: Barefoot 5212.6km] Week41

Monday, 7-Oct. 16.4km

Now this is more like it, the Labour Day holiday and the sun is out and throngs of people are walking along the beach and enjoying the mild spring day.
For a change, I ran to Glenelg today, a distance of 8.2km. The northerly breeze pushed me from behind as I sped along the beach. I had to exit the beach at one point as the tide was still lapping at the rocks despite the tide being low. There was quite a bit of erosion of the dunes close to the West Beach surf club, steep sand cliffs rose up from the flat beach. It wouldn't take much to undermine that stretch and see the path above collapse unless they take some action and add a rocky breakwater at the bottom. I got back onto the beach and ran the rest of the way to Glenelg. I ran part the way back along the road before finishing off the last 2km back on the beach to sooth my slightly sore feet.

Wednesday, 9-Oct. 4km

A short fast beach run to see what my time was like on the 2km stretch between the jetties. Not too bad considering the sand was soft and there were lots of broken shells in big patches along the run. I covered the distance in 9:40m.

Thursday, 10-Oct. 10.5km

I had a pacer tonight on my run. As I was just setting off ater having a 60s rest at the far end of my run I noticed a girl running around 30m behind in the same direction. It was only around another kilometer and she was a couple of metres behind and that was with me doing a faster than normal pace, my pulse was up at 143. The only times I causght a glimpse of my tail was if I was going around a sharp corner. She didn't have the power to overtake and leave me behind until she made her move as the path moved away from the beach. I was actually quite surprised as thought she was gone back the all of a sudden she appeared alongside then moved in front. I wasn't going to let her get away that easily so I started to tag along just a few metres behind. Finally when we got back to the concrete where I had my car parked I sped up and thanked her for pacing me and making me up the running effort. She said she was amazed how I could run that speed without shoes. That always makes me feel good.

Saturday, 12-Oct. 15km

The tide was just on it's way out from hit's high point for the day so the sand was very soft, well trodden and uneven and pretty hard work. I found a thin strip of wet sand to run along, this made it much easier. After around 4km I saw another runner up ahead and I wondered if I was catching up or not, after another km I was getting closer and by 6km I'd caught and passed him as I carried on to Semaphore jetty.
On the way back I met up with the same guy, he passed me initially as I was taking my t-shirt off for the run back on the beach. There was now much more flat wet sand to run on. I' thought I'd catch him easily and pass him fairly soon but he put up a very good fight and we ran neck and neck for the next 5km. My pulse was up near 150 so I was putting in a much higher than aerobic effort. As we neared Grange jetty I knew it was going to be case of who was going to make a break for it first and would they be able to keep the effort up. At around 150m I just put the effort in and pushed my heart rate up to 160. I was running at full out sprint, my lungs were bursting and I knwe I couldn't keep it up for long. I outran him at the end and when he arrived at the jetty I shook hands with him and thanked him for a great run. He had was I guessed to be a scandanavian accent, could have been German. We had a chat for a few minutes then headed off on our separate ways.

Sunday, 13-Oct. 6km

Met up with David and Cathy today for a barefoot run at a different venue, further up the River Torrens Linear Park. I was woken at 7am by the heavy rain outside. At one point I rand David with the thought of calling it off. I got Cathy's answering service so I decided I better go. The meet was over the other side of the city. It was only David and myself that went on the run, Michael called it off because of the rain. As it turned out the was a good run. The rain had stopped and some sun came out and warmed the ground, it was much warmer than running in rain during mid winter. The Torrens Park was a beautiful spot to run, it has been upgraded with lots of trees and a large lake area for water conservation. After the run we headed for a coffee at a cafe at the bottom of Gorge Road where we chatted for around an hour before heading off.

Neil