Same but different

I am pretty much back into a normal training routine now, so that meant getting up super early this morning to head out running. But this week it was a little different. Rather than head out to the beach for my usual combination of sand running, intervals and pain, this week the program called for a bit more of a cross country approach (and pain). So instead of the beach it was down the road to a local reserve that happens to be endowed with all the cross country features I was after all in one handy location. Nifty.

This change in approach is all due to my next race being Bintan. The run leg of Bintan is apparently a real mixture of surfaces, hence the cross country running. A bit of sand, a bit of grass, a bit of hill etc. There were intervals thrown in as well. Obviously. This work is preparation for that race.

After the brave new world experienced in the morning, it was back to the reassuring bosom that is intervals along the river this afternoon. This is my first running interval session since Cairns and so it was a bit of a shock to the system. The session can probably be best described by one word. Ow. Actually there are several other words that I could use to describe the session, but my parents read this so those words are best left unsaid.

After some good advice from a great physio, I keep a running diary. That might sound a bit wishwashy, but after several injuries, the physio and I thought it was a good idea. The diary serves two important purposes. Firstly, it keeps track of how I am feeling physically and therefore helps signal injuries before they become injuries. The diary also lets me keep track of how many miles my shoes have done and therefore helps me know when it is time to retire a pair. Based on my running diary, I know that my training shoes are getting close to 700km, which I have found to be about the time when they need replacement. Therefore, today it was time to break out a new pair of training shoes. These shoes are, of course, exactly the same as my old shoes, sticking to the old adage of if it ain't broke etc. But still the time had come for my old shoes and so new shoes it was. Given they are exactly the same it wasn't a particularly exciting event, but it was an event nonetheless.