Enter The Dragon - Exit Johnny Clarke

Well, the Caterpillar Invasion continues, however the lack of motivation for running in general from last week has gone, replaced by a renewed desire to get out on the road.  

Today (Tuesday) had that "First Day Back After A Long Weekend" feeling (because it was).  It's a bit like a hangover without the headache.   You get lulled into that extra day without responsibilities and it goes to your head.  Next you find yourself day dreaming about retirement.  Your eyes don't open properly and you feel like you are sleep deprived, even if you had a four hour nana nap the day before.  Well, that's how I felt....

Anyway, my office is always freezing and coupled with the fact that I had managed to get some Deep Heat in my eyes last night, I was feeling tired and grumpy and in need of several coffees to kick start anything - brain, manners, mouth.  I huddled over my fan heater and contemplated lots of things but achieved nothing. 

Feeling cold is never a great motivator to get out and run, but I have this theory that last weeks Achilles problems stemmed from two rest days.  So, no matter what, I will run every day.  On my "rest" days, I will only run a wee bit.  "A Wee Bit" is a very technical term for how much I feel like doing on any particular day.

So - shivering and not feeling into it, with "sort of sore" Achilles, new shoes to break in (another tale of woe) I set off.  By the time I got back to work, it was like I had taken some speed or mood enhancing chemical - seriously, what is it about a little jog that sparks up those endorphins and before you know it you are blethering on about god knows what?  In fact it was so good, and I had a spare hour this evening, I went out again tonight.  And I got my tax forecast to balance, and made a phone call I'd been putting off all of last week.  The amazing powers of running endorphins.

So, I now have two weeks before this race.  Last weeks running wasn't great, but it wasn't awful either.  The few runs I did were good ones.  Thursday I was feeling very angry and upset about something and so did laps of Allen Street, which is a rather large hill.  To me, it felt like I was going really fast up it.  I am sure I wasn't but a bit of fiery temper is a great thing for hills, I find.

Oh - and at the weekend I went to Enter The Dragon Massage Parlour again.  This time I loitered with intent until the Fat Sumo Man with the long hair was free.  I told him I wanted him to fix my ankles again like he did the last time.  You know how they give you a tissue with a hole in it, so that your makeup doesn't go all over their table, and you don't get other peoples face germs?  Well by the end of my "massage" (insert the word "torture" here and you wouldn't be far from the truth) this was in shreds.  I knew he was doing me good but he practically had to shove my head down the hole because it is very hard to grimace purposefully AND be massaged, because we all know that gritting your teeth and grimacing actually make it better, don't we?

I will admit to having a little sob or two, so ended up with streaks of mascara down my face and so I tried very hard not to make eye contact when I was paying him.  I don't think I am going to be able to go back there. 

However, Sunday morning we did a 27km run up the Oaks (imaginatively, cos, I never run anywhere else, and lets face it, it is the best trail around) and then off to the Nepean Lookout with a detour out and back to see the Pisgah Rock (or Pigsah Rock, not sure if it is pis or pig).  Wow!!!  This has been in my backyard all this time and I have never seen it.  Gorgeous scenery, the lookout looks down onto the Nepean River and if that sounds boring, you gotta get out there and see it.  Just devine.  But the really good news was that although I could "feel" the Achilles, it wasn't awful.  In fact, the most awful it got was when we stopped, because my bum and back felt unnaturally cold and wet, and it was when I discovered my skirt was halfway down my arse that I realised my new Whiz Bang pack, bought specially for the race was leaking somehow.  I knew I wasn't sweating THAT much.  So that and shoes are two things to "tweak" before race day.

My beloved Mizunos are dead.  They have been through the washing machine about fifty times.  All the tread is worn off them.  They are the most comfy shoes I ever had, and it took me six months of on again, off again wearing to break them in.  So here I am, two weeks before race day with the new Asics I ordered on line two weeks ago still stuck under a cloud of volcanic ash in the UK.  So I bought a pair of Adidas (which I took out of the box, left the box in the back of the car, and snuck into the house in my handbag - even I was ashamed of the number of shoes failures of late), which feel "ok" but I am worried about race day, my achilles, blisters and the pure stupidity of leaving it this late.  

However, there is no more stressing about this race.  What will be will be.

Hopefully it is going to be a fab day out in the bush with a really rewarding glass of red at the end.  Amen!  I booked accommodation today so it is really happening!!!

The pic below is at Nepean Lookout.  Or maybe Pisgah / Pigsah or whatever it is called.  But that river below is the Nepean and this photo does not do the view any justice.  It is GORGEOUS!