This was a week of two halves. I was travelling again early in the week and was, simply put, exhausted. The long trail run last week, combined with the travel and the meetings I was there for meant that I had no energy and heavy legs for much of the week. I ran twice, once on the hotel treadmill (11km) and once around the park at home (6k) before I decided that the best thing I could do would be to take a couple of days off, let my hair down on Friday and rest my legs for a long run on Sunday.
My plan paid off. I set out on Sunday morning with a full fuel belt, plenty of drinks and a pair of legs that felt light and agile. Knowing I needed to 'up my miles' I decided on a route that would mainly be quiet streets, some good but not too tough hills and some shaded flat trails to try to avoid the heat that I knew was coming.
This week, due to some diary issues, Will and I couldn’t get it to work out to run together so I knew my challenge was going to be to keep a pace I could maintain. I was aiming for 27km and I knew it would be a hot one within about three miles.
Shortly after I got away from the main roads and into a quiet neighborhood that takes me to the trails, the sun was coming up and there was not a cloud on the sky. By the time I go to a loop up around a golf club (around the 9k mark) it was warming up and had hit 30 degrees (C). I had plenty to drink with me and a couple of granola bars so I just kept my pace, kept my head down and had hit 18k before I knew it. My favourite loop, a flat trail around the Ampang reservoir, just outside KL made it go so quickly and get me to those miles.
Stopping briefly at the 20k mark to fill my bottles with 100 Plus (a genius carbonated energy drink you can by in Asia) and water and I was off on my route home. By that point it was likely 35C and there was very little shade and no wind. However, I had about 2 liters of cold liquid over the last 8k and I got home feeling pretty good. A total of 28.5km, a touch over 3 hours (which given the heat and the terrain) was pretty good. It was definitely the boost of confidence I needed at this point and whilst I have a lot of work to do before NY, I feel like I am on track.
No long run this week as I am off to LA on Friday, but will try and do three of four 8-10kms a little faster as I really need to do more speed work from here on in!
only 45.5km for the week, but a solid long run that I am happy with. BOOM> Got 'er dun!
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