My week in review:
Monday, day 5 of a 5-day golf safari which included a game at Royal Melbourne. Incredible. I played like crap and loved every minute.
Tuesday, 8 slow km, working out the kinks after 5 days of walking.
Wednesday, basketball.
Thursday, slept in, no time for running
Friday, 8km in the morning, forgot that my running club had its blue ribbon 'pub to pub' handicap race that evening. Remembered during the day, so I had a go. I actually felt good, which surprised me. The run is about 6.2km, mostly along the beach. I ran barefoot, and made a big deal of being able to cut through the shallow water to take a shorter line around the u-shaped beach, splashing through the waves that came in a little further while the shod runners were heading up the beach to keep their feet dry. I roughly paced a guy who passed me and tried to keep him in range, hoping that I might have a little bit left at the finish. As it turned out, he dragged me along at a very quick 4:30 km pace for me, and I was able to catch him and pass him Just before the brutal climb over the sand dunes to the finish. I managed to pull away to be clear in third place after the hill, but I couldn't catch the lady in second who was sprinting the last 500m. I was happy with third, and my time was very fast by my standards. I don't know if the morning run helped somehow, or if I'm just so lazy that I never run to my potential and I need a guy to push me to run fast. Probably the latter.
Sunday, back on the long run horse. 15km on the beach, trying to keep the pace slow and the effort to a minimum. Still trying to teach myself to run long by slowing down, and I think it is starting to work. The weather was cold and windy for summer, and I even copped a couple of showers. The highlight was watching an albatross eating some sort of shellfish on the shore, each time I got close, he would grab his breakfast and fly into the air, gliding 50m or so ahead to give himself time for a nibble or two before I caught up again.
This was my longest run, barefoot or shod, for over twenty years, so I'm feeling pretty good about that.