... by viewing the Ironman championships live last night. Man, those ladies & gents were something once again!
On the personal side, starting has been quite a sluggish. I've originally decided that I'll start with creating a stone-hard core (SHC, muscles, not fittness ;)) by ditching my crunches. With only yoga as the main source of sort-of-weight-training for the last 5 years, I got my core muscles so sore after two tries on those abovementioned moves I couldn't believe it. I actually thought I had some sort of core-fitness already, but apparently not.
I've now decided to carry out core-training every second day to get the core to support my other pursuits :)
Ok, and now I have to tell about this "encounter" I had yesterday. I took my daughter to her swim-training in the morning (she's done with the swim-school now and started tecnique-training this fall in the local club) and as she was swimming, I went for a trail-run in the nearby 6 km route (see the run: http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/99783646). This was a trail I've never run before, so I did not know what to expect. And boy was it tough :). Uphill-downhill-uphill-downhill... and this continued for the whole 6 k. Not more than one or two 100 -150 meters/ yards nearly flat sections, other wise just climbing or sliding (it was quite wet also).
So, as I mentioned, tough it was, and it did not help that at one point, when going over a trail-crossing, I saw another runner coming to the intersection from the corner of my eye. At that point I did not pay any attention on that, but almost cr**ped my pants when the guy went storming past me in the following uphill. At that point I thought "ok, it's been a while since I was overtaken on my daily run-training, but who cares, I've got my hands full with these hills anyway". I have to admit that my self-esteem got a slight hit there still... :) But I decided not to start to race anyone anyway at that point.
So the guy went past me high-speed in the uphill. But when the ascent flattened, he started to stall. And then, in the next corner, when he was only 10 yards in front of me, HE CHECKED MY POSITION BY LOOKING BACK OVER HIS SHOULDER!! Ok, so at that point I realised that maybe my bright-yellow Ironman® gillet or something else had caused the fellow to level up his pace to get past me. Maybe even a bit higher than he was able to sustain in the pretty steep uphill.
But ok, as mentioned, I was in my own misery with the steep hills, so I recorded his check, put on a smile, but did nothing else. I tried to look like I wouldn't have cared less of his overtaking. And then, on the next curve, HE DID IT AGAIN!
Ok, as he had still not gotten more than few yards more on his advantage, this started to feel quite silly for me. To be honest, I am quite competitive, and this guys actions really started to itch my race-nerves. And then on the next hill-top, he checked my position once more. At that point I couldn't help myself but to laugh aloud. "Are you serious?" I thought... But I guess the guy heard my laughter as he sped up once more, and slowly started to gain ground once again. So in the next uphill I thought maybe I'll give him some space and slowed my pace quite a bit (and this was not because of my exhaustion level at that point but because I thought the guy would die soon if he was going to continue at that pace :o). Result: I never saw him again in front of me during the run, and I was pretty happy about it.
When getting back to my car, I realised that maybe, but only maybe, I had levelled up my pace a bit during the incident, as I was quite exhausted. Even more than I thought I would be... :)
However, a good run, even though a bit on the tough side. And I got a laugh during it, which was quite unusual :D
I've decided I'll record all my runs & rides with the endomondo and link them here, so if you're interested, fel free to check them out.
And I'll also try to record my encounters with the nature, other athletes and myself here in the future...
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