“What we hope to do with ease,
we must first learn to do with diligence”
Samuel Johnson

Resting HR (average): 56

Injury status: Slight Left calf tightness, slight shin pain both legs

Neural stretching (knee to nose. averages in cm):
Baseline 26.5; Afterwards 24

As time ticks ever so much closer to the Comrades marathon 2010 (it may seem like a long way to some, but when you plan your training schedule there aren’t many weeks to get up to speed!), it’s time to really put in the hard work, which will be rewarded at the other end. People always seem to cram last minute training in, so the idea is to invest as much sweat equity now, and reap the dividends later.

Monday and Tuesday were good days, even though the legs felt heavy from the previous week. The good thing is the resting heart rate is slowly improving, and I’ve been feeling better coming home on my runs, indicating I’m regaining some of my fitness.

Monday through to … I managed 2 sessions a day, with 3 on tuesday.

Friday I ran 32km. The alarm went off at 2:30am, and the last thing I wanted to do was get up! But you think about the consequences and you can’t get back the long runs you miss, so weary eyed, I got up out of bed! I was out the door by 3:20am having done lots of stretches, and checking for the sports news!

I felt terrible almost immediately. Heavy legs, sore legs, no flexibility in my body…just a plain hard slog. I thought I’d be lucky to run 10km, let alone 30. Still I focused on running 6km out towards the east of Brisbane. At 6km I turned around thinking that I would do at least 12km to get back home.

When I got to Southbank (10km) I figured if I could run out to St Lucia (10km out to the west of Brisbane) then It’d be 21km and I would turn around and have to run back home. I started to loosen up a bit after 15km, and slogged my way out there.

Coming home I was met by Michael Edmondson, a triathlete I usually see out on Friday morning runs, and after a brief jog with him, I felt better temporarily.

I stopped for a second drink with 5.5km to go, and then my legs started to get very tight. Imagine a piece of string running down the back of your legs, and then imagine someonepulling on that string, harder and harder. I felt happy to have finally got back to a 30km effort since May.

Saturday was a reasonably easy day doing the exercycle and crosstrainer, and then on Sunday we went down to Sydney for a trade show for our Promotional Products business, so I had a rest day. Next week will be disrupted at the beggining of the week, but it won’t hurt to have a few days off/easy days at the end of a couple of tough weeks for me.

“Defeat, like a headache warns us
that something has gone wrong.
If we are intelligent we look for
the cause and profit by the experience”"
Napoleon Hill