The form is good. Quality run on the beach.

On the 7 hr drive back to Stellenbosch after Ironman South Africa, we stopped at Klein Brak river mouth so I could do my last quality run before XTERRA South Africa this weekend. The sun was setting, the sea was thundering unhappily, and Amber sat on the beach, resting her Ironman legs and poking at blisters.

The session:

The run was 1hr in total, and after 20 minutes of warm up and Darcy Normans’ Movement Prep, I did 5 x 3min (roughly 1km) at 5 beats below my AT. Anaerobic Threshold is about 160 (will go higher -about 165- later in the season as I get fitter), so I held my heart rate at 155. My speed hovered around 18km/h and the recovery between reps was 1min jog. At the end of the set I walked for a minute and my heart rate went from 155 to 95 in 60 seconds. AT to 100 in 1 minute is normal. Of course my Suunto t6 with Foot Pod kept track of the whole session, which I’ll email to my coach Libby Burrell for further evaluation.

Afterwards I played in the ocean with my shoes on, which I’ll enter in the logbook as “Iced legs- post run recovery”. It also doubled up as a shower, and tripled up as a shoe and Falke sock wash, since after all the off road running I have been doing my Avia AVI Trainers looked like mud cakes. Refreshed, smiling and salty for the last 4hr drive home.

Mason, thanks a lot for the loan of your bakkie, the Grand Luxury Express surely wouldn’t have made the trip!

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