Peace on the Quarry Run

The Quarry run, from Hornsby to Dural through the bush seems to be hallowed ground as far as bush running goes at least as far as an old bloke we met this Sunday goes who said it was "like a church' to 6Foot Track-ers.....

This bloke, didnt catch his name, was about 65, a 6 time 6foot veteran and smashing it with the best of them up and down the Quarry runs substantial hills..here's Michelle, my running partner, right at the top of one

We also saw at least six very serous runners who must have been training for 6foot....lots of green shoes and calf compression...the Quarry run is 13kms long....2 very steep hills and I know ultra runners do laps! We did one lap which was more than enough until we start training for longer runs later in the year.

Here is the sad sight of police tape from the mum who committed suicide somewhere in the area a few days earlier..this is terribly sad..apparently she suffered from bipolar depression...poor family...one of her kids is in my daughters class

The next photo is for her...if it's 'like a church' lets hope she finally has found some peace...

Rest Makes You Stronger

Decided this week to have a 'rest week' after my legs just felt smashed while running bush on Sunday...Ive put in three weeks trying to increase my speed, forgoing lots of recovery runs and generally breaking my own rules..God, it's addictive...no recovery runs and little stretching for three weeks results in feeling completely knackered.

I have to confess to enjoying a sleep in Tuesday morning and making it up with an avo 2km swim which i thoroughly enjoyed...today my legs are coming back to normal and ill run with the Warriors slower than normal.

Here's a great article on Rest Weeks..basically it says whats the point of training hard if you dont leave a space for your legs to adjust and the muscles to build..this wont happen if your just pounding them into submission all the time..

Three Months of Chi

Im sitting here at my desk after four hours of editing something, taking a break and refelcting happily on last nights 10km tempo run.....5.3mins/km, lots of hills and this morning i only hurt in the right places..

Thats the fastest I have run in about 9 months (slow for many possibly) and it represents the return of my confidence....

It's now been three months since my first chi-running lesson with JR Campion of Vortex Performance.....I remember feeling pretty miserable and burned out at the time, slumping around the field while he videod my terrible form.....last night I felt like i was flying, leaning forward, breathing relaxed, feeling easy but with enough strenght to sprint the last km at the end...

I have toyed with trying minimal shoes given this success but shy away from messing with a good thing...if i did try them it would only be for a km here and there and whats the point of that ?

Either way i can feel a good year coming on, so long as i dont take things for granted and keep it all going...