An encounter with Big Bertha
Having returned safely from the badlands of Bordertown last night, this morning I was feeling surprisingy perky after about 14 hours travelling in the last 2 days.This mornings session was 10 laps of Big Bertha. This is a hill in Centennial Park that Sean likes to train on and has named Big Bertha. She's definitely big and a little unforgiving I thought!
After some warm-up drills and stride outs we set off on the main workout. This is like doing a 5km time trial really as you don't get any rest between laps. It's just keep on going up Big Bertha, down Big Bertha and repeat x 10. I started off at what I thought was a pace I could maintain 10 laps for and off we went. I was soon being lapped by the speedy DJ and Royworlds and eventually everyone had lapped me.
Coming down to my last lap Sean said if I put in a good one I could go under 28 mins so I pushed on. Coach Kit, ready as ever to encourage me on, lept into action and started off up the hill with me to give me an extra push. Now that's what I call dedication doing an extra lap of Big Bertha for me, thanks Kit. Anyway we made it to the top and then let rip for the final downhill and finished in 27.50. Not bad for a first encounter with Big Bertha and something to beat in the future.
Poor Mr lulu is now suffering from shin splints, so he headed down to the beach for a swim this morning. We hope he'lll be back in action in a few days. He's been having a few too many niggles lately which is unusual for him and perhaps he has stepped up the training a bit too quickly after a long lay off with his calf injury.
posted by Lulu @ 8:57 AM
10 Comments:
Big Bertha is tough for the uninitiated.
Hope Mr Lulu's 'muscle' also recovers its strength. There are various pharmaceutical concoctions for that now.
Good to peg a benchmark time on a new course with hills lulu - it will give you heaps of satisfaction in future to see how much you beat it by ;-)
Sorry to hear about Mr L's shins - seems like a contagious condition in the Eastern Suburbs.....
Yep def sounds like a shin splint epidemic happening here.
Big Bertha ? I can only think of two hills in the park. The road from the Cafe up to Paddington Gates or the road going up Woollahra Gates. Is it either of those two ?
Great stuff pushing yourself to go under 28 mins Lulu! And now you have a goal for next time.
Its interesting reading all of the accounts of BB session (DJ, Kit and yours).
Lulu (captain h)
Apologies firstly for missing you last week in my blog rounds. Yours is one Ivery much catching up on and in my haste I missed yours.
I have just briefly read you report on your run down in Melbourne. Sounds like one of those days and it doesnt matter if you are Radcliffe or Eddie the Eagle we are all going to have days like that. You even said yourself that you have trained faster which further adds to the one of those days theory.
Use it as motivation next time you toe the line for 10kms. Pick one area you felt you could have done better and concentrate on doing so next time.
Catch up soon.
Woohoo - well done Lulu. What a great session :-)
Sorry to hear about Mr Lulu's shin. I certainly feel his pain
Mr Lulu had better get fit for Christmas! I'm wondering which hill is now called Big Bertha!! Stay away from "her" over Christmas & both you & Mr Lulu have a happy day!
So Big Bertha put you into retirement!
Parece divertido y emocionante eso de subir y bajar especialmente con un equipo que te motiva y ayuda a continuar con el esfuerzo.
Como te sentiste despues de este entrenamiento?
Good to hear you made it back from the badlands in one piece and then was able to back up with repeats of big bertha. I'm impressed!
I hope Mr Lulu's niggles have gone but if not, a rest is proabbly required!
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