School holidays, even better than this – Summer School holidays in Australia, meaning I now have a good seven weeks off before heading back to work. I have made myself a goal this year to continue to commit to my weekly running schedule of every week day, hopefully I will be able to build on what I have managed to do throughout the last three months of the year. While it is a slim chance, there is still a possibility of me bringing up the 700km for the 90 Day Challenge, especially after what has proven to be one of the best running weeks that I have experience so far this year. Who knows, I might even be able to build towards hitting a 100km week next week based on the progress this week and how I feel. Regardless of what happens over the next week, one thing that I know about myself is how goals orientated I am. This 90 Day Challenge has really pushed me to commit. Knowing it will come to an end on the 29th of December has got me thinking about what comes next. I have decided to keep going with setting goals and started another challenge from today (11th December) called the “Summer Challenge”. I will write about this once the 90 Days has finished, there will be a couple of weeks overlap, but I will try and run 450km over the Summer holiday break. I big ask – let’s see how that goes.
Being school holidays, we have headed away for some relaxation the before the Christmas rush. This is a great chance to rest, relax, and recover after the busy school year. Before heading down to “Busso” on the Monday afternoon I started off the week with a 16km run which included two laps around Lake Monger. I didn’t set any records for times completed, but doing it in 1:28:49 was a solid effort to start the week.
Tuesday morning saw me start my Busselton runs. I had gotten on maps to try and work out distances and a couple of different courses. My goal will be to complete a run from where we are staying in West Busselton to Siesta Park – on the map it says that it is located 10km away – after one of my runs this week I have since found that it is a little further away than that! I completed an easy 12.62km on the Tuesday morning in a time of 1:07:07. The run is quite flat which could lead to some faster times, however, there is a killer easterly blowing which will slow my return when it is a head wind.
Wednesday morning saw me increased my distance slightly, completing 14.5km. I did a similar route with a slight twist – heading first towards Busselton and doing a loop the jetty precinct before heading back out towards Dunsborough. There a little loop path that I utilised for my turn around just before Abbey Road Beach Resort, I then headed back to Busselton Jetty before finishing any home.
Thursday, my second half marathon and I set a PB for the distance coming in at 1:55:22 which is running at 5’17” per km. I combined the distances of doing the jetty and then also ran further towards Siesta Park. I didn’t get anywhere near it, turning around once past the Abbey Road Beach Resort precinct. I think there’s going to be a decent way further to go to get to Siesta Park!
Friday morning saw me ease off the distances in a recovery sort of effort. I complete 12.46km in a slower time of 5’36” per km.
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I have been really happy with the progress this week. I initially thought that I might try to run Saturday and Sunday as well, but then thought having two days to recover is probably a wise idea. Next week, I am going to try and hit the 100km for a week – I’d love to get to Siesta Park at least once. Maybe Monday will be the day!
