You know some days you just feel ready to run, and today, for me, was that day! I just don't know what has happened.
This mornings run was with Michelle and Vivien and Wendimoo. I had a route thoughtout, well, ok, it was one we have done before so not much thought, but its a great route through the parks. But when I saw DiscoRich going into the woods I asked the ladies if they fancied it! There was a unanimous 'Yes' and so a quick think from me as to which route to take. "If it is still to unpassable without wading through it we can still do the route that I had planned" I said to them.
As soon as we were just a few meters in the wood it was obvious that it's still not quite ready for us. Both me and Wendi really do need to clock up the miles, and tippy toeing through the mud is not going to cut the mustard! So over the footbridges we went and then through Jubilee Park!.
Now, I know I said I was on fire, it wasn't this morning, I hadn't even had my dose of caffine by the time I left. I think all I managed to do was to eat a banana! I was hoping that would kick in half way though the run. I was at the back, leading like I do, but I was keeping up with them, vivien was running along beside me as well, so niether of us was last!
It was pretty much that way all the way back to the rec, going through my local park, past (passed? !! which is the right spelling for this?) my house and then up Hollingworth. A steep little hill, very short, but after a couple of miles it will feel a lot longer!
With just a mile left to do we all virtually stayed together as we ran along. As we were running along Tudor way to the rec we saw DiscoRich driving back home. He had finished his run, and his group had gone home. I stopped the Garmin at 1:00 on the nose!
A good run, even if it was a slow sticky start in the woods!
Geeky stats.
Track Session.
I could feel the chill in the air as I stood watching on of my charges play footie with her class mates. I just knew it was going to be a chilly evening. I picked up WendiMoo, a little bit later that I said (I had forgotten to pick up some cash for the track!) and then we drove along to Norman Park Track.
I did a warm up lap with Wendimoo and then we waited for PhysioMike to get underway with the drills and warmups. I was feeling ok, I tried not to think about it. I had a little niggle in my knee, which was there this morning as well, but being addicted to running now I did what all runners normally do and ignored it!
And then the session started. For group 4 and above runners they were doing 2 lots of 1200 meters with 90 sec laps and for those not running so fast, we were doing 2 lots of 800 m. Then there was to be a 3 minute break and then everyone was to finish with 4 lots of 800 m. Sounds good. Normally, I have found it hard to do the last laps on these sessions. I usually just leave at least half a rep off if not a whole rep!
I had my determined head on this evening. As I had said to one of the club members Thursday track sessions are my 'Get out there and do some hard training' because there at the track we have fantastic support, from all the other runners and from Hels and PhysioMike we have great coaches and support from them! What's not to like about these sessions, and Hels and PhysioMike and here standing in the freezing cold to help us achieve our goals then we just gotta get out there and do it!
"Go at your usual park run pace" says PhysioMike. Well my usual Parkrun is about 12:00 minute mileling, so I may just have to push it on out a bit, just to see if I can keep it up. WendiMoo has been getting some great times in Parkrun so I thought I would try and keep up with her. So we started running side by side when we started on our reps.
But after one of the faster runners squeezed through us on one of the reps, I was told to nip in behind WendiMoo, and then maybe to 'share' the slip streaming moments. When I did nip in behind WendiMoo I just felt so good, so strong! I didn't want to think about it, I just wanted to keep on running and pretend that I was knackered and couldn't go on after all that is how I usually am. But today.....wow......I can only put it down to 'Chicken flavour Super Noodles' I saw them in the cupboard and I just really fancied them once I saw them! So I whacked them in the saucepan for my lunch this afternoon!
When we started the 5th rep I took the lead so that WendiMoo could slip stream behind me. But I think WendiMoo was feeling just a bit tired. This is the first week that she has done the 'double' (morning run and then track session) and it can be a shock to the system, she started to fall back a bit, I just carried on running. I kept looking at my Garmin to make sure I was still on the same pace as all the other laps that I had been doing and had to 'slow' myself down a tad as I was going faster! Can you believe that!
All the faster runners was waiting around, at the end, the end of the session had come. I couldn't believe it, I had actually done all that was planned for us! That's a first! But then PhysioMike noticed that the 'middle' group was till coming in and he said "Actually I think you have one more rep to do, if you want to" If I want to!? Well, yeah, and I took off and finished. The whole of the 6 reps of 800 meters planned, 3.2 miles with those minutes rest between.
I had decided to do what all the other runners do and that is to stop the Garmin after each rep and then restart it after. So my Garmin will show running time, done in 31:21 and then overall time! Brilliant! Love loved love loved todays session! Thanks PhysioMike and Hels!
Geeky stats.
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