So much new!
This week has had so much happen, I’ve now completed a whole week and two sets of long weekend training down here in Dunedin. Unfortunately, I have somehow created a streak of falling, where I fell off my bike while not looking ahead and for the correct path going off the curb, and this weekend in my long run rolling my ankle on a drain while grabbing my gel and going shoulder first into the ground, ripping the sides of my new shoes.
Even with the falls I have managed to stay pretty well looked after mainly only having post whiplash on my opposing neck after my bike fell from the hard impact, showing the use of a helmet though! I’ve settled into the new environment pretty well, and better than I expected other than the falls, but with more knowledge of my paths and surfaces I will improve in that aspect I’m sure.
I’ve had to become good at sharing a lane while swimming again as I was spoiled with my training conditions back home, rarely ever having too, the pool facility is much larger but means that when sharing only tends to be with one other.
When looking at my training phase early quality fits perfect into Dunedin with being surrounded with hills to use for my hill sprints, having tried two spots this week I went up near Signal Hill doing 3 minute repeats, and by the end of each especially the last I was gasping for air on the way back down.
I enjoy hill sprints as you can feel yourself working and know that you are working your muscles in a different way than on the flat like the general of my training.
Today I was excited to drive myself out slightly from North Dunedin towards the airport too find the open farm roads just like they were back at home in the Waikato, much less windy, busy and no crossings to obey other than the normal giveaway at intersections, traffic lights are not my favourite thats for sure, being out of the crowd to train is a nice getaway and break to focus on myself again and clear the head.
I am defiantly feeling the fatigue of the week kick in but know each week will slowly improve with the adapting of the new culture. excitingly I officially joined the Leith Athletics Club so I am able to race and represent Otago and Leith at a range of my racing now, maybe even finding new training buddies and routes for every now and then.
I am not super fond of completely joining into everything the club does as I know I have worked well off individual training dedicated to what my personal goals strive to be, tending to be slightly further than what the track offers, but I also know that building short distance speed works in a pattern to help the long term speed like in my 10km and halves.
Next week will have new stories to tell especially if I compete in the Otago 10,000m Championship race on the track next Saturday. I predict only a small group but it will be my first time running more than 3km on the track so will have to find some mental capacity to do so many of the same loop repeating, again its all part of my long term goal training so anything to better myself is what I will do to get there.
On Friday I celebrated my 18th birthday, slightly different to normal as I’m away from family but still got to enjoy the day after studying physics over the middle of the day, with a few of my new friends we walked down to the UniPol Gym which we have free access to, and completed a free yoga class with lots of people, this may be a new go-to for me as it helped relax and stretch my muscles which I can be honest and say I am good at neglecting at some points of time, going out and joining others makes me plan my time around it more.
– Jessica Bray