Break Your Limits

“…let’s go for a coffee” said Ray, and at that point, I could have married him. But that’s another story and I’ll get to that later.

So what’s been happening since my last Blog? Just more of the same really, only harder and longer – you know how it is when you’re training for a particular event (or events).

The week before last culminated in an easy ride to Lancelin, or so it was meant to be, until some bright spark decided to go off the front of the group. He build up a sizable lead, then another even brighter spark thought it would be a good idea to chase him down. Once he was caught, things would calm down, I mistakenly thought. How wrong I was. This increase in tempo seemed to set the pace for the rest of the ride. Not good bearing in mind I was scheduled to do the Freo Half Marathon the following day – nice one Ray.

However, considering the ride from the previous day and how tired I felt, I was actually feeling quite good about the race, which was a bit of a worry as ambition and ability can get a little muddled sometimes (well they do in my world).

The gun went, and the first Km was covered in 3:30. Something must be wrong, I was hardly out of breath. But I trusted WAMC and adjusted my pace accordingly as I knew I wouldn’t survive the remaining 20Km at this pace, regardless of how good I felt. On went the race and I crossed the line in 1:26:00 dead. Not a PB, however I would like to ‘point the finger’ at WAMC for possibly putting the first Km marker in the wrong place and therefore going too slow for the rest of the run, ruining my chances of an all new PB. (An assumption qualified by the fact that someone had kicked the sign over by the second lap….)

Sunday’s race was followed by an ‘easy’ week, thank goodness, which meant more time for painting and decorating – great!!!

The week past, rather uneventfully as usual, with a ‘long ride’ booked in for Saturday, and then back on the bike again on Monday, another of Rays ‘good ideas’, only this time I was to join the Papas Bank Holiday ride. I’ve never ridden in this group before, but I had heard about them, and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

I met Ray in Freo under the Old Traffic Bridge as he was going to join me this time. After a few minutes of small talk, the group came round the corner and we ‘tagged – on’, and from that point onwards, it was simply a case of ‘survival’. I knew the course they would take as I do this every Saturday with my usual group, but not at this pace, they just didn’t ease up. The guys up front looked like they were chatting away, peddling into a head wind, whilst at the back, I was trying to hang on. Ray, I must add, looked very comfortable further up the group (Much to my annoyance) and we continued round the course, surging and slowing, surging and slowing until Riverside Drive when Ray dropped back and announced, much to my surprise (And delight)….”stuff this…let’s go for a coffee”….music to my ears!!!! At this point, we were rather wet from the now regular Perth rain, and my shoes felt like 2 small swimming pools strapped to the end of my legs, although this was the least of my issues, the inability to breathe being the main one.

Well that was nearly 3 hours ago now and I can safely report that all systems are slowly starting to return to ‘normal’. …..Anymore ‘good ideas’ Ray?