It was a sudden decision because I missed Parkrun (no car) and missed Jolly Jogging (it threw it down just as I was about to get changed to go so I wrapped myself in a blanket and read my book).
Once the sun came out I had the energy, the time and possibly most importantly, the headspace.
I called my friend to see if he would do the honours and transport me to one end, then meet me at the other and the answer was yes 🚙.
I got ready and off we went. Indecisive about what to wear as the weather has been so changeable and it threw it down as we drove along, but then we drove out from under the cloud. I decided the challenge was to get from one end to the other so walked the first 5 mins for my warm up. My friend did that bit with me then drove to Macc and treated himself to a big Sunday breakfast.
Blissfully unaware of the breakfasting going on, and fuelled by an egg and 2 chocolate biscuits I tootled off. I listened to C25k+ for a bit, then listened to nature for a bit, then tried to go back to C25k+ but it had been auto-deleted so I only had the ‘speed’ version, which I thought was a bad idea, so I used the 155bpm bit and kept rewinding.
I couldn’t believe how quickly I reached 5km, then 7km which I thought was half way. Then I reached a sign giving the distance each way in miles and it didn’t agree with my half way calculation. Then I spent ages trying to divide 5 by 3 so I could work out how many km I had left. That kept my mind busy for ages. Then I decided that as 11km was my current longest distance I should be able to do 12km before doing any walking. I think I was at about 13 before I had a couple of mins walking, but my pace was really good and I didn’t want it to drop so I started running again.
I got to 14km and was not at the end. The weather was holding nicely, sunny but not too warm UnfitNoMore . I’d already decided that no matter what happened at the end, so far the run had been sunny just like I’d imagined it, and a pleasure so it was already a win.
I kept going, couldn’t decide if the Macc end was closed due to a notice I didn’t really understand so decided to find out. At this stage I’m beginning to recognise where I am, it’s downhill slightly so I decided not to rewind the ‘speed’ podcast and end up doing 4 x 60 seconds at 165bpm. Found it impossible to slow back down after these (downhill remember) so walked a few seconds after each one then started back at 155bpm. Then I was crossing the road by Tesco and knew I was almost there. Decided not to include my cool down walk so it didn’t wreck my pace, which was averaging mega fast for me for this distance.
All of a sudden my well breakfasted friend was walking towards me with a bottle of water, two oranges, a fruit and nut ‘protein’ mix and a bar of chocolate. What a welcome sight! 16.66km!!! And a cool down walk together to the car.
I’ve just had a huge bowl of healthy veg and cheese and am about to hit the biscuits again, then bed. That’s one of my goals for the year crossed off 🏃♀️🌤. Feeling good but I already know which bits will be ache tomorrow. I was good and did some stretches 😀.
Anyone fancy running sections of the Macc canal wth me? I want to cover the whole thing, but not in one hit. That’s the next goal.
The other way
That was a grand way to start 2020
Pennine Way - 100 miles !!
A way to catch up
