#21 - Ouch that hurt

Only did 5 or 6kms with B and M from the office. M put me through my paces. We did the Domain/Woolloomooloo steps/Opera House route but fast.

Started off OK, but M gradually sped up. I decided to keep with him not realising that he would go faster and faster and faster. "Like Darth Vader was breathing down my neck" was how he described it afterwards. I was determined and stuck with him but was breathing heavily and certainly struggling.

Just as we were getting to the Opera House I was really contemplating letting him get away and walking for a few minutes. So I was more than glad for M to stop and wait for B to catch up! A welcome minute's break, some water and the final sprint to the finish.

A poor effort on the weekend though - prior to Monday the last run I did was the Wednesday before. Though we did a great bike ride on Saturday. The forecast was rain but we decided we'd touch base at 5:45am. I looked outside and annoyingly the rain had stopped so there was no excuse to snuggle back up in bed. Having gone to bed at 1:30am I wasn't feeling that inspired. But I was driver and organiser so I could hardly drop out. Picked up J and Z on the way up to Kurungai National Park (1hr north of Sydney). Was starting to get light as we got there.

Fortunately the first few kms are down hill - from the entrance of the park heading in the direction of West Head. I came round gradually as the sun rose and a beautiful, stunning morning was upon us. The ride was short (50kms) but its reasonably tough because of the hills. The first highlight is the views from West Head over to Palm Beach - just beautiful, especially on a still early morning with the sun rising and not a soul or car around.

The second highlight is the breakfast at Akuna Bay Marina. The cafe's apparently just changed hands and they did us an awesome chicken/avocado etc open sandwich. Just enough fill to contemplate the never-ending ascent past the turn off to Cottage Point and back to the van.

I was dreaming of a snooze in the sun on the drive back, but got a call from "On the Cusp Rich" who was off to Kurnell for a bit of kite-in-gale-action. So I obediently made my way down there...but that's for another blog.

I'm generally feeling fit. If my knee gets better (I'm now taking my exercises a bit more seriously) then I should be good for the big day, though my confidence did get a bit of a bashing on yesterday's run. Today I'm gonna go out with AM again to bolster my ego!