A baptism of water (and fire).

Another Sunday, another big training run for the team around Lysterfield...

Each fortnight we've been trying to up the distance a little bit more and push ourselves in terms of speed and distance. However, this weekend we had something extra planned...   As well as pushing ourselves a bit further we would also do some 'equipment testing' and 'experiential learning' by jumping in the lake, clothes on and everything, halfway through the jog!

That actually all got us quite excited about the run and was something we were, perhaps a bit foolishly, looking forward to. We took a different route (which I'll upload as a GPX soon as it's a good'un) and pretty soon we were at the lakeside beaches. No more procrastinating now. So, with only a brief pause to remove my hydration pack we charged into the water.....

First, rather thankfully, the water was surprisingly warm. OK - perhaps not the preparatory experience we needed, but it was much appreciated. The second surprise was how, with shoes on, swimming becomes much much harder. It almost becomes entirely an upper body exercise as it's almost impossible to kick properly with water-logged shoes. That really took me by surprise and I'm really glad I know that now, otherwise all that lap-swimming at the pool would be a bit misguided.. 

After a bit of splashing about and generally feeling a bit daft (and celebrating that fact!) we emerged like soggy cats and continued on our run. Here come the next surprise - I was expecting the biggest problem to be chafing of shirts or shorts - when actually I felt quite comfortable (perhaps thanks to the lycra/compression gear we were all wearing) - But what was actually the greatest challenge were those same water-logged shoes which, while still comfortable, now weighed an extra kilo each (or so it felt) and the next km or so became much harder to run. I can only imagine how much harder it will be with water + mud sticking to the shoes... 

Slowly we started to drain out and could run a bit more easily again so we continued on for the next few kms. We were almost foiled by some backburning activities in the park (which for a second there I thought might be an unexpected bonus in preparing for the fire obstacles!!), but the path we needed was open and allowed us to continue and finish the 13kms that made up the route today.

All up a great run - All of us moving a bit quicker, more comfortably, and feeling a lot less sore the next day - so it's definitely paying off.  Now to just find some electric fences, commercial freezers and swamplands and we'll be prepared for all the terrain!