Beach running

Last weekend was a corker here in Melbourne - 33 C on Saturday and 37 C on Sunday. I'd done 11km on Friday in resignation that with family commitments I wouldn't be able to get a run in. So be it...

Not the surf on Saturday

Saturday was planned as a trip to the beach down at Torquay where I grew up. We had planned to meet at Point Danger or the 'front beach' which is the calmer of the three coastal beaches.

A long story short, the youngest needed a trip to the hospital on Friday night and was diagnosed with asthma. We were due to meet the paediatrician at 10am on Saturday morning back at the hospital - she arrived at 11:50. Thanks very much, there goes two hours of beach time :(

At 2pm we finally got to the beach and had lunch with my family. A ripper chicken and bok choy roll, a double choc Tim Tam munched down and then we were able to hit the water. Our 4 year old had a ball learning to swim with and against the waves and after supervising duties were done I was able to go for a swim my self.

The tide was coming in, but I could still see the boarders and swimmers standing waist deep on the sandbank about 300m out in the surf. This is where the great training session starts.

We were at the far end

I took off at a quick run, really striding strong, knees high, arms pumping. With the tide and surf pushing against me and the waist deep water it was damn hard work. By the time I reached the boarders my quads were burning and I was completely out of breath. Fantastic! After a quick breather I swam the 300m back into the shore and repeated the exercise again. Again, the quads got a surreal workout, I really needed to be aware of my footing and feet and ankle strength and by the end I was knackered, stuffed. A quick breather and again the 300m swim back in. After a 3rd repeat I was more than happy to be back on sandcastle duties.

And that was that. The weekends training compacted into about 20 mins of exhausting exercise. That eveing the legs felt great and my 11km run this Monday morning felt really good. This was a surprise as the 20 C heat and high humidity had me worried, but I was able to run for enjoyment at a 145 BPM heart rate,  which really surprised me as I was expecting it to be sky high.