Thursday, June 23, 2011

the western approach again

Fig Tree Bridge by Auswomble
Fig Tree Bridge, a photo by Auswomble on Flickr.
I dipped into my buffer a little bit today. Sal is seeing a couple of estate agents this afternoon so I'll be picking AJ up from her sports afternoon. I'll leave work early, which means no lunchtime run, which means I had to get all the Ks done before work. I'm not exactly speedy Gonzalez at the moment. I knew I'd not be able to do the full 21.1 before work...well, unless I'd left earlier, but that wasn't going to happen because I needed to walk the dogs and have my coffee and social with the regulars in the dog park. I did a bit of maths and decided I could be a slacker today (ha!)

I'd decided yesterday that I'd run to work along the bridges/Victoria Rd route. A couple of reasons. I need a bit of a change because running the same routes over and again is getting somewhat tedious. Although I've run the western approach a few times it is far fewer times than the straight-to-work-harbour-foreshore stuff. The other reason was that it would force me to do a decent total. If I'd run straight to work (7.5km) the temptation to stop instead of doing another 10km around the City may have been too hard to resist. I knew that Iron Cove Bridge was 11km, and even if I stopped there I would have managed to maintain my target average, albeit it at the expense of my entire buffer. As it turned out I managed a shade under 18km and therefore only "spent" 3km. Fairly pleased with that. The temptation to stop on Victoria Road is quite easy to resist; in the rush hour it is quicker to continue on foot than get on a bus. That was especially true today, at least up until the middle of the Iron Cove Bridge where there had been a shunt that took the outside lane out. Felt a bit for the person at the back of the accident; it looked as if they had swerved to avoid hitting the car in front and in the process had hit the steel of the bridge. That resulted in far more damage to the front of their car than if they had run into the bumpers of the car in front of them.

The run was OK. A hobbling start, and the shin-splintesque feeling in my left shin did, for a while, take my mind off of the general aches in the right leg. After a pee stop (lovely view from the pee stop, took a pic of Fig Tree Bridge) the splinty feeling went away and once again the right leg was front and centre in my aching mind. Legs still seem to work though. More fabulous running weather, cool and clear blue. Another day done and a 22hr break until I hit the road again. Gotta like that. At work I decided, for a change, to have some of Steve's whey protein; usually I take take the piss out of him for using Weightgain 4000 - BEEFCAKE! Sprinkled a couple of scoops on my muesli. Can't hurt, I suppose.

One week left. I think I've already used my week-weak pun for the month, so that's it for today.

No comments: