Well not long now till I go home! I’m really starting to look forward to getting home. Not that I haven’t enjoyed my time here, its been fantastic, but I’m missing friends and family and 4 weeks without home comforts is more than enough for me!!
Not much has been happening here. Apart from training twice a day, 3 times on the days I go to the gym, my days are spent sitting/lying around reading. I’ve made my way through 3 books already, which is a lot for me – it usually takes me 6 months to read a Topsy and Tim book!! I’ve just finish reading ‘Again to Carthage’ which is the sequel to ‘Once a Runner’ by John. L. Parker. Jr. It was ok, not as good as ‘Once a Runner’ and a bit too predictable and ‘Disneyed’ for my liking, but it helped pass the time away! Before that I read ‘Liz McColgan: Queen of the Track’. It wasn’t what I was expecting, I thought I was her autobiography but it wasn’t, it was more a write up of someone investigating her life. It was still good though; not the best, but it gave a good insight into her hard, often too hard, training! I’m now onto ‘The Secret of Crickley Hall’ by James Herbert. Now this book is good! It’s one of those which you can’t put down, you have to keep on reading to find out what is happens next, then something else happens and before you know it, it’s 11pm and you have to be up at 5.30 for training – not good!!
On Sunday morning we watched the Paris Marathon. A few of the guys were running it and it was shown love on ETV (Ethiopian Television). They broadcast it in a small box in the corner of the usual program for that time/day. It meant that there was no commentary but that was ok at least we could see it! One of the guys did really well running 2.07.?? and I think one of the girls did about 2.26 but I’m not sure!
Apart from that it’s been all training this week. Friday was the 15k tempo again. This week it was back to the road in Sulultaa. The rest of the group were doing 30k so I joined in for the 2nd half – bad choice as it meant I was running all the way into the wind! Still I kept up with them for the first 10k – clicking off 6minute miles like they were going out of fashion! And then they picked it up a bit and I struggled. I tried to go with them but it was too much so I settled back into my 6minute pace and finish comfortably. My time was 20seconds faster than last week and my first 10k was 2.5minutes faster than 2 weeks ago!! I went to the gym on the afternoon to do my usual weights and core and also did 20minutes on the elliptical machine.
Saturday was just an easyish 80minutes. I had intended to run with Yishi again to make sure it was easy but I lost her when she stopped for the toilet so I ended up running with Martha and Sahou. The pace wasn’t too bad but I drifted of towards the end and got a little lost in the trees. Nothing too bad – just meant I came back onto the road about 200metres from where I should have been!! A nice easy 5 in the afternoon and some more self massage and I was ready for my track session the next morning!
Once again I didn’t have a clue what session the others were doing so I had decided to do some fast 300’s. As it happened two of the other girls, China and Sahou, were doing 20 x 400 so I ran my 300’s in with their 400’s which gave me a really good pace of 52/53 for each 300! I did 15 of these and then dropped to 200’s. However after 2 200’s (32 seconds each) I called it a day and got in a longer warm down to make sure the legs were rinsed of all crap! I was really pleased with this session as it is just as fast as I would probably do at home, although the recoveries were quite long – 90seconds, but then again I would probably have that at home also for a speed session. Just shows that my legs can go fast at 5am!!
Just to make sure the legs were rid of all the leftovers from the speed session I did a nice easy 5 on the afternoon. When I got back I tallied up my miles for the week – this week I got a wooping 100miles!!! Not bad eh?!
Monday, I was worried my legs would be mangled from the track session but they were good. Still though I ran with Yishi to make sure that the pace was easy and not edging into steady as it has been with Gete. It was really muddy today as we have had a lot of rain the last few days – some great thunder and lightening storms! My shoes must have weighed more than my body weight with all of the mud clinging to them so it made my legs and feet feel weird – still some extra resistance will only help ‘make legs strong’!! I finished off the day with a trip to the gym for weights and core and 20minutes on the elliptical. On the way home I treat myself to a Kaldi’s Coffee hot chocolate. I thought I deserved it after the training I have put in lately and I thoroughly enjoyed it – it’s the closest thing to chocolate I’ve had for over 3 weeks now!!
TTFN
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