It has been challenging to get all the training in this week with kids in tow. The evenings and mornings are so dark and I have been lacking the enthusiasm to get up at the usual 6:30am.
Once the kids had headed off for the week at their other house I was itching to get out for a solid run in some daylight. One of my favourite 10km loops is up Marsden Valley here in Nelson. You head up Scout track (well it’s not much of a track, more of a staircase for 30 minutes). It’s a brutal climb, but I love it. You exit at the top of a trail that doubles as a downhill mountain bike track. I got to this point, hardly able to breathe, dripping in sweat, but still humming along to the John Butler Trio only to hear “did you bloody run up there?” by a young fella who was about to ride down the trail. I smiled, unable to utter any words, as oxygen was more crucial at this point. And no, I didn’t run. Only Superman can run that. I carried on along another winding trail that looks over Nelson at roughly 750 feet above sea level. It’s worth the slog every time. It’s a hard 10km, but a good test of my running fitness, and it’s nice to get a measure that it’s going in the right direction and my legs are feeling stronger by the week.
Today though, I swapped my long ride for 4km of running. I know, obviously 4km of running does not have the same aerobic training stimulus as a long ride, but this one was needed for the mental health. A fun run, in the mud. Lots of mud, raising funds for the local Tasman school. Basically, you run, slide, crawl, get mud in your eyes, ears and hair. And I didn’t stop smiling from the start to the finish. Sometimes, you have to do something to just make you smile. Pulling my friend out of mud well up over her knees, helping kids find their shoes that have been sucked off by the grey squelching goop. Worth every minute, and I’m sure the mud must have some sort of skin cleansing qualities right?
Tomorrow, back to the programme and a solid week!
– Ali
Ali is writing about her experience preparing for the K2M. Join her with her weekly article about her training and experience. Paragraph
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