Monday, 26 November 2012

Body shock


The Cayman Islands are beautiful. Shame I'm seeing them at 3am each day as my body isn't adjusting to the time difference well at all.

Yesterday, despite the jetlag, I did what Shaun described as a "Super-Compensation day". I did 2 sets of bodyweight squats (25 reps each). Shockingly tried to do a third set and my legs were in agony. How did that happen? I then went straight out for a run on the planned 8:4 run/walk for 30 minutes. The thing I had to try was a much faster running pace than the planned marathon pace. As I'm going to try 9:40mm pace for the running sections on the day, yesterday I mostly ran around 8:50 pace. I was absolutely horrendous. The heat hit me like a train, which I blamed on the high humidity as it was desperate to rain. I even at one point walked an extra minute because I didn't want to run slower and felt that was giving in.

A year ago this would have worried the life out of me but not now. I know the first run in a hot country kills me. The second will be better and the third will have me much more acclimatised. When I ran in Tunisia for only 1 mile earlier in the year I was in a right state when I got back to the hotel. On the third day I hardly noticed the temperature. Plus, yesterday I made sure I ran late when the temperature was hotter. I ran around 11am (on Sunday the race will be over by then). Plus, it has to be said, I have never ever tried this sort of super compensation thing before and it was meant to be difficult. Hell, I don't run 8:50mm pace at home in freezing cold weather unless its an interval session!!!

So, I'm looking forward to Tuesday when I get to run again. I will definitely feel more confident as my body gets used to the heat. Graeme did fantastic and ran 6 miles in 45 minutes. He's going to get a huge PB.

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