Early start, longer distance, 10k is beckoning!

[lardofale]

Hi gang,

It came as a shock this morning when my alarm blasted out at 4:50! That's 04:50 - 4:50am, you know bloody early! Madness you cry, madness I cry but when you get into this running lark then the madness tends to take on a life of it's own! I start work at 8am, it takes an hour to get there so my usual departure time of 7am means normally getting up at 6, if I'm running then it's a 5am rise (for a standard 5 or 6k with warm up/cool down) or earlier if I'm attempting a longer distance. Today I was going for 8k so figured a little extra time would be handy. The longer runs tend to be done at a slowish pace with no temptation to blast out of the blocks or sprint for the line, today I ran for 1 hour and 2 minutes to cover 8.03 km. Both are new territory for me but valuable experience as I push up to 10km in the next week or two and ultimately 21km in April.

The other new experience was running for more than half the distance with no music! My Bluetooth headset low power message warning blurted out halfway through a particularly aggressive Machine Head song so I switched it off. To my amazement I heard no heavy breathing just the plod plod plod of my feet with the occasional splash of a puddle and the odd car whizzing past. This is also a valuable experience as the half marathon I've entered is a strictly no headset affair for various reasons, some even make sense!

It's back to Parkrun on Saturday after a week off last week and slow pace 5k on Tuesday, I'm hoping to attempt 10k next Thursday, time won't be a factor as I'm off work next week so it's a case of doing it to prove I can then speeding up some time in the future. It's a long road but one I fully intend to keep running along!

[damienair Administrator]

Well done. I’m sure you will have no problem next week in achieving 10K. I had been running 7K once a week for over a month. Last Sunday I went out to do 8k and ended up doing 10k. You will have no problem.

[lardofale Graduate10 in reply to damienair]

Thanks for that and well done to you too, it appears that once you've got into a rhythm it's difficult to stop! 👍

[Tomas Graduate10]

Sounds like you're doing great, well done! And quite a lovely experience isn't it, when you realise that your breathing is actually relatively relaxed, despite churning out km after km and a nice, gentle, steady pace. Keep at it, and that HM is well within your reach!

[lardofale Graduate10 in reply to Tomas]

Thank you! I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would! The slow and steady line is all over this site and with good reason! The advice is so good that I'm not as terrified at the HM idea as I would've been only 4 months ago ☺👍

[Decker]

Kudos to you for working it around your early rise for work. It sounds like you are right on track and 10k should be yours very soon!

[lardofale Graduate10 in reply to Decker]

Thanks mate! I've never had a problem with getting up early but it does seem nuts to get up that early! Evenings just don't do it for me. Another couple of runs and I'll have a crack at joining you good folks in 10K shiny badge land😁👍

[Decker]

You'll be there and beyond in no time I like the morning's better too. Wish I could run every morning as it really helps set the day up, but I'm trying to listen to the wiser voices here :).

[Kimchoc08]

Wow!! What a wonderful post 😊 You're certainly embracing this running life and I love hearing all about your journeys 😊😊

[lardofale Graduate10 in reply to Kimchoc08]

Thanks Kim! It's certainly changed my outlook on life, hopefully more little tales to follow!

[Kimchoc08 in reply to lardofale]

Oh yes, I love a good running tale 😊

[Bluebirdrunner Graduate10]

Great work Lardofale...yep it looks like if you can run 8k you can certainly run 10k...😆

Good luck for next Thursday.

I've just done 7k so I know I can do 8k😉... following behind you...xx