January 2010

[Sweder]

A wonderful sun-kissed jaunt up the frosty Serpent today, dragging a swarm of eager newbies behind me. There's nothing more rewarding than listening to bouyant chirruping replaced by saw-sucking breaths and determined grunts.

The hamstring made itself known early on so I deferred, determined to take things easy (hence my shepherding duties). That said I clocked 19.77 kilometres in a frighteningly fast 1:54; that's 8 minutes quicker than my pre-Christmas effort. The climb up the snake had my right thigh giving me heavy hints to take it easy. I deployed my Reading Half 2005 strategy of turning my right toe in a few degrees, changing the angle of my stride. That did the trick. The idea is to engage other parts of the errant muscle, thus protecting the tight area long enough for it to relax. I couldn't push as hard as I'd have liked at the end of the 2 mile ascent. Despite this being my fourth run in four days I felt surprisingly full of vim and vigour.

Regrouped at the head of the Snake my charges were relieved to hear we had only three miles to go, and most of that down hill. I set off again, upping the pace gently to finish the last 2 miles at sub-5 minute kilometre pace. I'm delighted at how good I feel now. I did stretch - a few times when we caught our breath at certain points on the run and again at the end - but I readily accept this has to become habit rather than occasional chore.

Charts below: 1. Elevation 2. Pace