With all the running I’ve not managed in the last fortnight/3 weeks I am well and truly off my MyAsics plan, so muddling along to fill the gaps till I get to a place where I can jump back in again. Mostly because I can’t bear the thought of starting a new one (even though I have time).
So... Tuesday morning I headed off to run 8k with a couple of friends and our dogs. It was a gorgeous sunny morning, and cold, but not cold enough to make the muddy parts of the path we were running any nicer to negotiate. I was running one friend’s labradoodle with Taylor Beagle as they are great friends, and the labradoodle runs in harness better if she is chasing after her humans. We set out a bit fast for me really, but sometimes that happens when you’re running with dogs, and you just have to dig in and wait for their first rush of energy to be over. Which it did fairly quickly - though we did have another mad dash at about the 3k mark when Taylor and male friend’s dog decided there was something ahead that they really needed to chase 😉.
We weren’t anywhere I knew at all - until suddenly I recognised a bridge over a stream leading to a stile into a field from a night run I did at the beginning of the year! We hadn’t been able to get into the field when we’d been there in the dark - I can’t remember why now - but it was all good this time and into the field we went, admiring the bird of prey that took flight as we went. None of us are clever enough to know for sure what it was - but maybe a buzzard? - and it was a nice thing to see. Past the sheep, with the labradoodle on best behaviour and ignoring them (which she doesn’t always). Into the woods for a bit - lots more mud! - and then out onto a farm track, just in time to have to give way to a couple of farm vehicles. We’d done about 5.5k by this time, including a couple of walking breaks, but not really been stationary apart from negotiating the stiles, and were all feeling fine, but then disaster struck. Male friend had his hamstring go twang on him!
We mostly brisk walked the rest of the route, with a few slow jogging sections when he felt able, partly to stave off the cold and partly because he and I both had appointments to get to.
In all we covered closer to 9k than the 8k we thought we were going to do, and at an average pace MyAsics would have approved.
Planning on a dogless 5k tomorrow, which will bring my total for the week 19k. Then a Canicross run Sunday that’s 8-9k again. After that, I’m not sure as husband and I head to Nottingham on Thursday to attend our youngest son’s graduation ceremony on Friday, though I would rather like to do another Parkrun up there before we head home on Saturday.