Good Day

Great session this morning. It took me a bit of effort to get out the door, but once I did it went really well.

The session this morning was a bit of a ride followed up by a bit of a run. 70 minutes on the bike and 7km off it to be more specific. The legs were feeling the last couple of days of training a little on the bike, being down a little in the zing department. It just made the power output on some of the efforts a bit of a struggle. This wasn't helped any further by the fact that the wind was absolutely howling this afternoon.

Given that I struggled a little on the bike, I was a bit concerned as to how the run would go. Turns out though that I didn't really need to worry. Once again the wind was a factor on the run, but it did mean that the outward, downwind, section of the run really flew by. I got to the turn around still feeling good. Once I had turned and was heading home, things slowed down a little in the headwind, but not too much. As a result I got through the run with a time that I was very happy with. My second best in fact. The only time I have gone quicker I had a toilet stop half way through which gave me a bit of a rest.

The pace I held for the 7km was very similar to the pace I held for the 3km effort yesterday, and if anything it felt easier. Makes me realise just how much I was feeling Friday's run yesterday.

After my run today I got a bit of a push in the self belief from an unexpected source. One thing the new Garmin 920XT does (as well as a number of other Garmin devices) is give an estimate of VO2 Max and predicted race times. Now obviously this really is just an estimate of VO2 Max. I remember VO2 Max tests from my rowing days and as far as I am aware the Garmin hasn't been measuring the amount of oxygen I am inhaling or taking any blood. Although if it has been sampling blood it might explain the strange puncture marks I have been finding in my neck, my new aversion for sunlight and the fact that I now seem to 'sparkle' in moonlight.

Assuming that the Garmin hasn't in fact been taking these samples without me noticing, then the VO2 Max estimate is most definitely just that. As such, like many of the bits of information that the Garmin produces, it is perhaps interesting without being earth shattering. Rather the bit of information that I found more interesting this morning was the predicted races times that the Garmin produces. These times are based on runs that the device has tracked you for. The more runs it has in its dataset, the more accurate the prediction gets (in theory). I don't do really do many pure running races, however, from what I have seen the predictions given by the Garmin are probably at the upper end of my capabilities, although not outside the realm of possibility. Based on that, this morning the Garmin really made me think. If this little device, that probably knows more about my physiology than I do, believes I can do some of these times. Perhaps I should start believing it too.

The run this morning was another step forward in that belief.

Public Holiday tomorrow. For anyone unaware tomorrow is Australia Day, which is a day off here. For many people, over the last decade or so, Australia Day has morphed into an excuse to get whipped into a patriotic fervour, which a lot of people interpret as acting like a racist idiot. For the rest of us though it is really just a great excuse to have a day off and perhaps have a bit of fun. That is my plan.