...is there a metric HM? 8.25 miles done today... that’s 13.27 km. I discovered that not all miles are equal, but they don’t necessarily come in the order I expect.
First 3 miles were easy (which is amazing as last year they were just going from impossible to damn hard) and my biggest issue was keeping the pace down for what was to come. Mile 4 sucked, felt like there was very little left in the tank, convinced I wasn’t completing today’s run. I think this may have been the gremlins, my other remaining runs for the week are 3.75 miles and 400m sprints... I knew I could have swapped them around, and thought about it briefly. Quick body scan, and while it was tough there was nothing actually wrong with me. Mile 5 was a battle, head was all over the place, pace erratic, I’d made the wrong decision for sure. Miles 6-8 were back to the start, they just came and went so easily, and I ran that last quarter mile as fast as I could, wearing a stupid grin. Job done... somehow.
Then a really strange thing happened... I wanted a cigarette! Not smoked or wanted one for over a year and yet if I’d been at the newsagents right then I’d have probably bought a pack. Better option came to me... over to the bakery for 3 huge vanilla slices... 2 to replace my calorie burn and one because it was lunch!
Looking forward to an easy 3.75 now.
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UnfitNoMore
Graduate10
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No way do you restart smoking UNM, that would be a disaster, OK getting three vinilla slices, yum yum, glad you enjoyed your run today, by the way I ran a 10K PB, my second 10K in two weeks, my time was 70 minutes and 20 seconds. compared to 73 minutes two weeks ago. 😊 🏃
I don’t even have a sweet tooth! Maybe my body needed sugar, and I went into quitting knowing that the cravings were satisfied by eating, it was just hard to do then as I want burning the calories.
I’m pretty happy that I got to a parkrun from the finish and then it came easy... bodes well for my 10 mile warmup and a parkrun thinking for HM!
Ah cool... I knew there was a 26.2km one somewhere, but now there’s a 13.2 I can tick a distance off. After my marathon, hopefully next year, I may look at some of these uncommon distance events, and Edinburgh is somewhere I’ve never been to.
Xx Sounds good....I'm starting prepping for my HM next March, in case the weather closes in again after Christmas. Currently pretending to be a turbo snail! Whhhhhhheeeee!
I got lucky last winter, think I only missed a couple of days. I’m thinking Liverpool Rock n Roll HM on May 24th, but it’s on the same day as the Manchester one which is more local. Chester half the week before either could be asking too much 🤣
I have a 400m speed session this week, thought I’d seen the back of the sprints... I really shouldn’t let my plan adapt 🤣. So I’ll have to join you in that turbo snail thing.
Check out the Kilomathon in Edinburgh. I did the half kilomathon a few years ago. It finishes inside the Murrayfield rugby stadium. Quite an experience!!
Glad you stuck to the bakery option! It amazes me how one minute you can be doubting if you'll even make the next k, and the next everything is smooth and easy. That sounds like a real mind over matter run, huge well done for powering on through.
Haha probably a first in the running world... running makes you want to smoke. Well done on this long run and good to know that sometimes if body is ok it’s worth pushing on a bit more!
Well done! And thank you for that very timely reminder that in a HM you go through "stages" of "hard" and "doable".
Remembering that will be a HUGE asset on Saturday
Glad you didn't smoke - I finally quit the filthy habit in '13. Now I cringe around smokers - I am so embarrassed I used to smell like that and that I used to bother so many with second hand smoke.
That’s the way I see it... doing well on a run for me is feeling better at the end of the run than I did at the start. This logic may not apply to HM and Marathon of course, but just getting to the top of that mountain is what I’m there to do. If I’m not going to enjoy it, why do it?
I believe I end each run a better runner, but not by the measurable definitions... being a better runner for me means being a person who runs and is better for it. I will climb the distance mountain just because it’s there... the view from the top isn’t dependent on speed... and most of me is looking forward to the journey back down.
I was listening to an old running commentary episode today, and they were answering listeners questions. They do marathons and lots of events, but one of them said his favourite runs are the ones without his watch. I really wish I’d been able to carry on running in my youth, pre GPS and HR it was probably easier to just have fun out there.
I have two taped playlists that help me keep my pace, and track my time so I don't overrun at events. I play them every run - I'm so used to them now I kind of "nod off" which really helps cover the miles and stave off boredom.
I am approaching this HM with the attitude "Let's see how many tracks I get to listen to" rather than breaking it down into "big scary number of miles/k's" or sections of minutes.
Athletes in some sports have their entry music... you’ve got a whole soundtrack! That has to be better. Enjoy the music, you may even get to tracks you haven’t heard in a while if you don’t shuffle... and rediscovering old tracks is always good for me. I have quite a few tracks over 10 minutes... maybe I could get a new 5k PB there if I measure in songs 😀. Seems a great way of measuring, nobody knows the tracks you hear, so the only person who can even estimate a time there is yourself... the epitome of not comparing!
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