20km out and back - monaco-richmond

What a week I have had. My poor legs feel like lead bricks.

I did go out and do 10km yesterday, I just didn't blog about it as it was rather slow and uneventful - 1:07 for 10km.....sad really.

I got up this morning and really didn't feel like going out and doing 20km. I was tired and weary. I was trying to figure out which way I would go and in the end opted for the Monaco loop. Going this way gives me some different scenery to look at and so passes the time. The walk way is not too bad to walk on with a slight up hill gradient. Plus by diverting a little at the end I get to tackle the last hill with a slightly better gradient which is more like how Buller is.

So I started out up along the walk way and was really surprised to see my first km at 6:27 (normally its 6:50) so I thought to myself..."maybe this wont be such a bad walk"

I went through 5km in 30:35.....hmmmm if I can keep this pace up my coach will be really pleased with me. But then I slowed a little to go through 10km in 1:02 so I started working out in my head how long it was going to take me to get back as I had the 3km of up hill a head of me at the end. I sort of figured if I can get 20km done in under 2:08 I would be happy with that as it was still quicker than last week. It was starting to get tough now and I was starting to work hard to keep my form up and speed. I looked up ahead of me and gritted my teeth and pushed up the hills finally making it to the crest at the top of the track near home. Yes, its down hill for the last km and so I pushed myself to pick up the pace and raced towards home. I was so pleased to hear my watch chirp to say 20km.....I hit stop and looked at my time.........OMG....2:06:01 thats 3mins faster than last week.......Yay.....I was so thrilled. I finally feel my training has come together and that I have a good shot at Buller now.

20km out and back - monaco-richmond