Up, Down and Around! – Pimping the Beast!

I thought I might be biting off a little more than I could chew trying to attempt running up, down and around the Mount.

I surprised myself today!

In fact if I remember back to the last time I timed my trip up – Starting at the base and checking time once reaching the top (1.2k), I think I managed to get up there in 19-20 minutes.

Today I did it in 18:09!

That guy is totally Photo Bombing!!! He looks as if he’s Popping a Squat!! Yikes!

My effort wasn’t my fastest but I didn’t stop.

Being a super fine and clear day, and a weekend day, the Mount was swarming with people.  So I actually had to keep a slower pace, probably the reason for why I didn’t have to stop.

The beginning of the ‘Stairs’ portion, I managed to run up 3 flights… Walked the rest.  It almost kicked my ass!  Especially seeing as the last time I attempted running up was 4-5 months ago!  Not to mentioned I only started consistently running at the beginning of this week, after months and months of half ass’ed efforts!

I have come to the conclusion that I need to work on my downhill running.  Coming down from the peak meant that I was hitting up those Quads HARD!  I ran all the gradual downs, and walked (with purpose) all the Stairs.  I didn’t want to kill my knees.
I actually thought my Glutes would suffer the most today, but they were actually stronger than I first thought.

My runs earlier in the week had a surfacing tingle in my right glute.  I have been on a mish to stretch it out and Foam roll to make sure it doesn’t become an issue.  It was more those stairs and downhills that really got me so I will have to make  Hill workout’s my best friend!

All in all, I covered around 7k which was about where I had aimed for for Week 1’s Long Run.  I did this in 1:01:22.

Pretty stoked about my first Long Run effort.  I covered a good amount of terrain variation and I came away feeling like I had a wee bit more to give.

I am not so frightened about heading upward in K’s after today’s run, I am actually totally Pumped!!

I just need to stick to my plan and have faith that it will get me to the Tarawera Start Line with enough endurance to get me to the Finish.  Well ‘My’ Finish (36k)!

Tomorrow brings a nice little 2k recovery run, I am looking forward to this to wind myself down for the week.

Have Y’all been Pimping your Beast?

Got some goals you are working hard at?

Till next time,

Jay 🙂