Friday, July 4, 2014

The last couple of days + running with Brad

The past few days have been quite busy due to the fact that my sister has had her baby boy. I have still been training everyday, except for today, which turned out to be a rest day. Yesterday was a great run up on some trails with a mate of mine Brad, who lives in Canberra and I wanted to give you a little bit of an insight into who he is and how we came to know each other.

I met Brad a few years ago as he ran into Cairns. He had been running from Canberra and was headed for the top of Australia raising money for mental health research. For anyone who doesn't quite understand the enormity of what he did, the distance from Brisbane to Cairns is about 2000km and I assume it would be around 1500-2000km from Canberra to Brisbane. I first ran with Brad for the last 8km as he ran into Cairns and then I ran with him for about 20km as he left Cairns to continue his run. I still find it hard to comprehend what he actually did, but since then we have remained in contact and most times that I come to Canberra we catch up for a run and usually a coffee.

Yesterday we had the chance to go for an awesome run in what he describes as his backyard. We ran up what I think was black mountain here in Canberra and some of the trails he took me on were astonishing. I have never run on such fantastic terrain and running through the fog as we ran up this mountain in about 5 degree temperatures made the experience so much better. We finished off with about 9km of hilly and not so easy running, but I can say that I want to go back there.

After a rest day today, my coach has asked me to do a Parkrun tomorrow just to test my fitness and see how I am going. Keeping in mind that I’m about two weeks out from state cross-country. I’m not sure on the course or anything so I’m aiming to just run hard. I have a time in my head, but that’s something I want to keep to myself in case I don't achieve to the level that I think I’m at.


Unfortunately I haven’t taken any photos since I’ve been here so I’m hoping to get some tomorrow at the Parkrun. It’s expected to be about 5 degrees again so I’m quite nervous about racing in such cold temperatures, but I know for sure that I’ll have my gloves on. As far as training for the next week, I’ll be here in Canberra acclimatising until Wednesday before I return home for some very intense sessions leading up to state cross-country.

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