SMC 10k and a pleasant brain-off Sunday recovery

Out of bed at 5 (after a lovely meal at the Rangood Racquet Club in Crows Nest on Saturday night - highly recommended) for the SMC April round. I had nominated the 10k during the week, as the prospect of running at race pace for more than hour wasn't particularly appealing.

I got out for a little 5 minute jog at about 5:30 and felt stiff and and bit busted up - better at the end, but certainly feeling Saturday afternoon's effort and some lingering impact soreness.

Settled into around 4:00 - 4:05 pace pretty quickly, and as seems to be the case at the SMC the 10k field thinned out pretty quickly. I ran with a blonde woman named Kim, and we to'd and fro'd all the way through the race, although she didn't know the course and asked about hills and such - we had a bit of a chat during the run. She seemed to be breathing heavier, so I suspect that if we were close at 9k I could probably scuttle away from her.

And so it proved - I managed a 3:47 last kilometre and finished 7th outright.

Odd run - it felt a lot faster than 40:29. I seemed to have no real 'grunt', relying instead on high leg turnover to maintain pace - imagine a high revving high powered 4 cylinder motor compared to a low revving V8 with good low down torque - today, I was the four cylinder. Bit frustrating.

Still, I actually enjoyed the race, and was pleased I'd stayed 'in the throttle' all the way through the race. Aerobically, I was fine - it was just leg strength.

Got home, did some shopping, mowed the lawn and washed the car - usual urban stuff - and pottered down to Rotary Park late in the day for a pretty relaxed, 'brain-in-neutral' 5.83k of laps in just under half an hour. Shirt off, MP3 player going, warm air and the dying embers of sunlight in a bush setting on a grass setting. Mmm.....starting to enjoy it again....