Running notes.

Haven't posted anything about running lately.

We ran the 21.1 kilometre half-marathon and I posted about it but Blogger lost it. And then I lost it.

Anyway, the half marathon was a little over four weeks ago. T., a little over six months into her running career and having never run more than about 14 kilometres, completed the half in just over two hours.

Since then, we've had a few training sessions with the group, I strained a hamstring and took a week or two off but now I'm running again.

Last night we had a time trial of 1000 metres, 600 metres and 200 metres on the university track. It was the first hot night for the season.

After the 1000, I've never heard so much coughing. The heat, the pollen and the nature of the 1000 metres really got to everyone. When you run that kind of distance it really hits your lungs. New runners think they're having an asthma attack or their lungs are about to explode or something, but it's simply the demand for oxygen for a period of time when you are working extremely hard. A longer, slower run or even a shorter one doesn't have the same effect because the oxygen uptake isn't the same. There was a ten minute rest in between each trial and afterwards we went for a twenty minute warmdown jog. Added to the stretching and warm-up at the start, the whole session took almost ninety minutes.