Monday, April 09, 2012

Stupidly Motivated for Someone with a Sore Foot

I have bruised a foot or strained some ligaments or something.  I went over on it yesterday and it hurt to the extreme.  I had to hold on to a tree for five minutes before I could walk on it again.  Tentatively I started making steps towards the road, preparing myself for the indignity of phoning for a ride home.

But it seemed OK to walk on and then to run on so I did just that and started to head for home.  After 9.3km in 1hr 10 minutes, I tutted in disgust at myself and resolved to run all the way back to the house - in theory this should've totalled 12.something kms.  In the end, I resorted to walking and running after 11km as the foot started to hurt again and as a reaction, the hip extensor in the opposite leg started to complain also.

It was a miserable 12.1km when I reached the end of the road, mostly walking.

Since the "injury" - but let's not label it yet - I have done little more than check the details for next week's duathlon, Talk to my dad to persuade myself I can do it. Read my fell-running magazine, put my racing wheels on the bike and become increasingly motivated by the season ahead.

It has led me to set, what some might call "goals" but I prefer the term "targets" for next week.

Let's take Saturday's ride which was much longer than next week's race and let's take the hilliest sections - which will be like next week's race - 2hrs 15minutes for 40km.  I should be able to cut that to 2hrs.

Now let's take yesterday's run.  About the same elevation.  Longer distance by 3km.  I'll take the hill climb section as times for both sections of the course since with race face on I'll go faster but without the 12 hours sleep in between the bike and the run, I'll likely go slower.

So, we're looking for a 1:15" 2:15" 40" result.

That's if I can fix the foot in time.

In other motivation, the bike is out of the loft, as is the turbo trainer which means there is room to swing a cat - or lift some weights so (again) once the foot is fixed, there will be weight training to be done to contribute to making  me a stronger person when the big day comes.  The big day that is now, 12 weeks away.

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