On Sunday... VERY, VERY early... before the sun was even contemplating poking its bleached head above the horizon I headed out the door.  4.30am and I’m having my first run with a head torch for 2010, a warm up run of twenty minutes along the Pipeline Track.   This is my usual routine before a race as it helps to remove all the staleness of the easy day prior to a race and helps de-stiffen the entire body.  It also helps by decreasing the amount of time you need to spend warming up in the last hour before the start, therefore, reducing your glycogen consumption – the more left in the tank for the actual race the better!  I follow these early morning runs with a quick shower to get the blood pumping and a piece of toast with jam to replace the energy I just used.

Last week I was at the AIS bewailing the fact that I cannot get ‘pumped’ before a race.  I am never nervous and if anything I begin to feel flat, stale and unmotivated in the hour before the start.  It was suggested to me that because I NEVER have coffee or much caffeine, I should try this on the race morning.  So there I was at 5am sculling a coffee. 

Not sold.  By the race start I was jittery, headachy and busting to find a tree to squat behind.  And once the gun went I shot off the front like a ‘bull at a china gate’.  Dear me.  I paid for the early 3min12sec/km on the later regions of the race, not just physically but mentally.  By about 6km I began to feel flat and unmotivated, something that I don’t think I have ever experienced in a race.  With a strong women’s field including Olympic representatives Donna Macfarlane and Sonia O’Sullivan streaking down behind me this was not a great way to feel.  But adrenalin and the sight of the finish line as I entered the final straights along the Hobart waterfront were enough to spur me on to the line.  I finish the hilly 10km race in 35mins24sec in first place, my first major fun run win of the season.

The rest of the week will be spent ironing out my incredibly stiff quadriceps and preparing from the Briggs Classic 5000m on Friday night... my birthday.  Today’s 300m and 200m track session indicates that things are on track... literally.