The tortoise and the hare

Most of us will know the story of the tortoise and the hare.  The hare thinks he is the fastest animal and challenges the tortoise to a race.  They start the race and then as the tortoise is so slow the hare decides to eat some breakfast.  This makes him a bit drowsy, and so he takes a nap.  Meanwhile the tortoise plods slowly onwards without pausing.  When the hare wakes up he sees the tortoise is almost at the finish and sprints as fast as he can, but it is too late, as by the time he gets there the tortoise has already crossed the line.

This weekend I went cross country skiing in the Goms valley, and it was a bit like the tortoise and the hare for me at first.  I set off at a good speed and flew past the grannies and grandads, but after a while I needed a break as I was blowing harder than a steam train.  I continued like this for a while, stopping and starting, stopping and starting, thinking that my progress was quite good.  Then you guessed it, the grannies and grandads passed me slowly by and disappeared bit by bit into the distance.  That was the first day.

Then today I decided to take the tortoise approach.  I took much fewer rest breaks and paced myself well.  All in all I think this approach was the best as the progress was good and I arrived at the finish to feel like I could still row out a 5000m on my indoor rower.  And guess what, I did just that when I got home.

Weekend training summary:
Total distance covered on cross country skis 30km
Total distance covered on indoor rower 5km