The Running Man

I hate running. You all know that. It sucks. Every single step seem to sap all my fitness enthusiasm. I don't know how people like Isla and Natasha get up everyday and go running. I think peeling myself and rolling around in salt would be more fun.

Unfortunately, the last part of the triathlon is the run so it's an important part of the training. I've been hitting the running machine for the last few weeks trying to improve my time and distance but the other day something was wrong. It was like the machine had been recalibrated and when I set it to 9km/h, a leisurely jog turned into a full-on sprint. I managed to jump off the machine before it fired me into the wall behind and it kept on accelerating.

Once I'd stopped it, reset it, switched it off at the wall, kicked it and retried it, I realised that 9km/h was now set at about 6km/h. Weird. I couldn't quite figure out what speed I was running exactly so I wasn't able to be sure of my times. Instead I started doing sprints which is even worse than distance running (for me).

So today I was due to run again. Not wanting to face the deamonised machine I took to the road for the first time here in Sydney. DAMN! It's bad enough on a bike but running the back streets really made me realise how ridiculously hilly North Sydney is. I ran all the way to Chatswood which is about 3.5km uphill and then ran down into Artarmon. By that point I was really dying and the funny left sided chest pain I get when running started playing up. Don't worry, I'm sure it's muscular because it only happens with running and no other sport and it's worse when I'm running down hill. Strange.

So... I was running through Artarmon all sweat and salt and spit and snot when I was acosted by a group of Greenpeace activists who were ranting about "Save The Whales". I actually thought they were talking about me. That little altercation gave me the oomph to dig in for the last km even though it was, again, uphill.

I don't really understand the hills here. They seem to appear from nowhere. When you run up hill you expect the relief of downhill on the other side but here your run starts at the bottom of a hill and ends at the top of a hill. It makes no sense.