Day 76 – Perth City to Surf (Well, Almost!)

Exercise Summary: Perth City to Surf Route (Abridged) (11.3km): 66:30

Yesterday’s run was great. I planned the day to get a few things done around the house and spend time with the family and decided to do the run in the afternoon. That way, I figured, if it took everything out of me I had the whole evening to recover.

My thinking was pretty spot on!

Just a couple of points to clarify for any Perth people reading this:

• Yes, the Perth City to Surf IS 12km, not 11.3
• Yes, I did take a wrong turn! Happy? 

When I had finished the run I was happy with my time but when I realised the wrong turn had cut 1km off the official length I was feeling a little flat.

The good news, I felt, was that the parts I had missed were flat runs, no hills or anything of significant challenge. So, I was happy that I hadn’t wussed out on a particularly challenging part of the course. I’ll live with 6.5 mins/km for now. (See honey that’s why I need a GPS watch! )

Challenge 1 – Hill 1

One thing the run requires in the first km or so is a 900m (I measured it in the car) hill. I started knowing this and took it very easy (or so I thought) but very soon, probably 300m into it, I decided to go easier (not walk, never walk up a hill) but did slow down. 600m into the hill I was thinking “just get to the top and then you can walk.”

Well, I got to the top and the only real silver lining was that about 1/12 of the run was done and I only had 11 to go.

The next good thing was that I didn’t walk. I kept jogging at a light pace. It was a small decline so that helped. I think I jogged around 2.5km before I decided to have a rest and walk for a bit. And that was after another hill challenge, though not as hard as the first one.

My plan was simply to complete the course so walking at any time wasn’t a misdemeanor but I made sure I ran up every incline and only walked if I felt I had to.

I had set a maximum time of 90 minutes to complete the 12km course but hopefully get in around 72 mins at the average of 6mins/km. So, again, walking wasn’t a problem if I kept to my loose time targets.

Challenge 2 – Hill 3

Hill 3 was similar to Hill 1. Not as steep but reasonably long and, while listening to Matchbox 20 I kept saying to myself, “come on, come on” until I reached the top. I allowed myself a small congrats when I got there an then figured how far I would walk before I jogged again. The walks were generally small (no more than 200m) as I was generally feeling okay.

Small Targets

I found that having small targets I could see was very beneficial.

Anything from:

• the “next set of lights”
• to the usual “next lamp post”
• to the more challenging “just get up the hill”.

I had been told that during the course there may be times when I might think, “This is the last hill” and give it all I’ve got. I’ve been warned to realise there is generally always one more and to maintain my pace. I did that and it worked well. When I saw the water (i.e. finishing area) for the first time, I knew I wasn’t going to collapse and I was going to make it in the time I had set. Woohoo!

It had been a nice cool run and dusk was settling in when I finished so there had been no real heat to bother me. I’ll need to consider that when the race is on as it starts early in the morning and may bring some heat into it.

Finally below 80kg!

There was one other small benefit from doing such a run and that was my weight. I’ll admit this weight is taken while wearing the absolute minimum (sorry about the picture that might create, especially if you’re eating!) but I’m pretty happy about it! I am now on my way to the 76kg goal and this was becoming a barrier, as you will see by the weight loss graph to the right. I had flat lined a little. But no more.

Today is 100 push ups day and that happens tonight, so there’s a 24 hour rest period between the run and the push ups. We’ll see how we go on that.

Just 11 weeks ago …

I was seeing if I could run between lamp posts (walk one, run one) and now I’m doing a City to Surf! And I don’t think I have done anything more than small gains each time with the value of doing the exercise regularly. Andrew over at “Andrew is Getting Fit” has written a good post about the value of blogging about our challenges and goals and how reading other blogs is beneficial too. I have to echo his post and say that hearing of other people’s efforts have inspired me, mostly because I don’t read too many specialist athletics blogs, mostly blogs from people like me who decided to take up the challenge to simply be better. I’ve even changed my tagline from “From Average to Athlete” to “Eat Better :: Move More” simply because that describes the challenge better. I don’t know that I want to be an athlete, just fit and healthy!