The aftermath....

What an epic sounding title for my first XC season practice. The weather this evening was absolutely perfect. My first two LRDC practices were run in near 40C sun, so a chilled 25C is a welcomed change.

The turnout for the practice was substantial and included collegiate, high school and post collegiate runners. The workout took place at Weldon Park in Arva, a park I have very fond memories of. Ah the injury filled 1km loops from years gone past!

This workout sounded rather easy, and thanks to the weather I was able to hang in pretty well, tucked in between the senior group and the junior group (cept for miss sexton that was rockin' it with the big boys tonight!)

I started things off with a 4km warmup and then proceeded into some dynamic stretches/drills and ended with 4 100m easy strides. Then the real fun began. We had the choice of doing 12, 15 or 20 minutes of tempo running and as I'm still new and want to stay as injury free as possible, I opted for the 12 minute tempo. I managed to crank out just over 3km in 12:01, a pace I'm damn proud of! Let's hope I can squeak in 5km at that pace in a few months' time.

The second segment of the workout was 4-8 x 250m hills. The hill isn't too steep, but when you're attacking hard they are more than enough to knock the wind out of you.  I logged 5 of those and called that chapter closed.

The last segment of the actual workout was the choice between a 1km or 2km HARD tempo loop.  I chose the 1km HARD tempo and managed to stay relatively close to the big boys again. They clocked in at just over 3:10 for their first km, and they went off for a second. I clocked 3:30 for my 1km loop, a time that both hurt and surprised me all at once. I had no idea I still had that kind of speed and stamina in my legs, I'm so happy that I was able to rock it that hard at the end of the workout. I tired in the last 250m however, but I'm sure that will get easier with time. I hope.

Some more strides to loosen up and then I closed things off with a nice 3km cooldown, some stretching, rolling and icing.  My legs feel great considering I ran 13km tonight and had a wonderful effort. Time for a nice bath, perhaps a glass of Brandy and then to put my nose into Once A Ruune by John Parker Jr.

What a wonderful night of running, I'm so excited that physio and practice went so well. My legs feel better than they have in a few weeks now. Time to make sure I keep it that way!