Pounding the pavement

Today was long run day with a bit over 20 k on the cards. Off nice and early too start but it was already humid. I did the running whilst Belinda rode her bike and provided me with water and sustenance as needed. Belinda is just learning to ride and she would give me water etc then ride off on her own and come flying back past me with the biggest smile on her face. Awesome to watch someone having so much fun getting back in to riding as an adult.

So on to the ride it was as humid as it's been for sometime and my singlet was soaked in sweat in no time, but I felt good and maintained a good pace. For the men out there I had taped my nipples with band aids before starting but the sweat obviously caused them to come away so I finished the last have of the run with some fairly good bleeding.

As for the run it ended up being around the 22k mark in 1hr 45 minutes which I am very happy about as I didn't feel like I was pushing too hard. Have pulled a little sore this evening but that's to be expected. See how I fare in the morning.

So this week I have a run of about 1 hour and then a speed session Thursday which seems to have made a world of difference to the speed I do my long runs at. I aim to do these sessions on a grassed area to help the recovery and so that I'm not constantly running on bitumen.

Enjoying the goat track

The texts started early both Singer (aka Black Death) the hard nut training partner and Adam (Old Skool) asking if we were still riding with the rain pelting down. A quick check of the BOM website (gotta love that internet thingy) and hey lets ride. Early morning departure through Samford and just prior to the start of the ascent comes the first flat of the day for me. Quick tube change (not)actually needed to use a five dollar note to stop the cut from busting another tube and we are back underway (thanks for the tube Singer).

Old Skool was a virgin at climbing the GT and was spared actually seeing where we were going due to the low cloud around the summit. A quick snack at the bottom and we are away. For those that haven't ridden GT it is unsealed road with a 10% gradient and with the rain last night made for an interesting climb. Old Skool only has his hard man 53/39 whilst BD and I run compacts. So the climb was interesting to say the least for him. But he seemed to manage all the same. Yes he was dropped on the climb but he made it.

The descent back to the Gap via Mount Nebo was sweet with Old Skool pretending he was attacking ala Il Pirato (Marco Pantani) in the drops and in the dog (i.e. the big ring) over any little climbs the whole way back. Awesome ride even made the coffee at the Gap Coffee Club seem bearable.

Highlights included the number of cars using the goat track in the morning. What is doing there an ungraded road carrying so much traffic ? At least they were all courteous and left us enough road to get past.