Pacing mishap XCVII

[ktsok]

One of our family stories tells of the time we were kayaking in a Welsh lake somewhere. The instructor exclaimed “well done, Lesley” to my mother and as she beamed a smile at him she promptly capsized and had to be rescued. We don’t say “pride comes before a fall” but “remember the time mum was kayaking...”

I made the mistake of feeling a teeny weeny bit confident about an improvement in my running, to the point where I committed the other day to juju’s 10k plan. I have been daydreaming about plodding with ease past 8k, 9k, 10k... hell, why not sign up for a few 10K’s now and get myself some running bling?

Sadly, gang, the wheels came off today. Don’t be fooled by the stats; you can add 3 minutes to the time for ‘stretching’ (aka pauses to control my ragged breathing).

It started badly two days ago, which is when I meant to go running. Somehow yesterday passed me by too, and so I was 48 hours overdue leaving the house today. It really couldn’t be put off any more. In some sort of strange compensation for not running as much, I decided to run further/longer, and although my arms for some reason felt like lead weights, I steered my plodding body along a route I haven’t done in one go before.

It was tough going. My plan had been not to look at the watch and recreate that lovely, easy feeling I experienced on the last run, in tune with my body and the world. But it wasn’t happening. I heated up to simmering point quickly and stripped off at 2k, leaving the Garmin exposed to my desperate eye. I realised then that I had set off too quickly - my good runs have all had a very easy first km or two. It’s funny how I run nice and slow when I’m feeling good, and too fast when I’m feeling pants. Almost as if I want to get it over and done with, rather than relax into the run... anyway. It was just like the bad old days - I went off too fast, my heart rate hit hummingbird speed and I never really found a good rhythm.

Three ladies ran past me, going the other way and we waved and smiled at each other. It’s funny how many women runners there are out there. And how many men parked in cars and vans by the side of the road!

On the plus side, I got out there. And kept going. And even if I did pause a few times, I ran my furthest run on a hilly 7.5km. And the last km wasn’t as bad as the one before. So it’s not all bad.

Happy running all. And remember; start off slow!

[Bluebirdrunner Graduate10]

Great work ktsok, especially with those lead weight arms and setting off too fast😅

Loved reading your run report, you will absolutely be making that 10k mark soon too! Keep going onwards and upwards! 😊xxx

[ktsok in reply to Bluebirdrunner]

Ah thanks BB 😊

[PaulS83]

By rights I shouldn’t be here, given the fact I could probably manage 4K if you stuck a large predator on my tail. I’m an interloper. Nobody really minds as long as I keep myself to myself. Like an under-anger nursing a pint in the corner. I get all this. And I get that, because of this, my opinion is about as valid a mid-afternoon bus stop drunk’s, but...

WTF are you harping on about? What exactly went wrong? You did 7.5K in a decent time - even if you paused and had a sandwich on a park bench midway, that’s still bloody good...

...isn’t it?

Now I’m confused. And worried.

Are you perfectly sure it wasn’t just one of those runs when you had to battle through the “meh” factor and it all felt a bit laborious? I think you should be happier with that than you are. I would’ve been striding around the house in nothing but my undies, flexing in every full-length mirror that’d have me if that was me.

But, I am a mid-afternoon bus stop drunk.

[ktsok in reply to PaulS83]

Another classic family expression: in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King...

But you are right. Just because it felt like hard work, doesn’t mean it’s a bad run. It just feels like it is because I am psychologically damaged.

Thanks 🙏

[PaulS83 in reply to ktsok]

It’s all about perspective isn’t it. And this is an existential pondering that recurs after copious amount of brain-lubrication.

All of mankind’s achievements, disasters, cohesion, conflict, love, hate, success, failure, happiness, misery, etc, etc, etc, all boils down to perspective.

Reality is not a constant for any 2 people, it’s something that’s processed, measured and understood in an infinite amount of ways. And if reality is not constant, that means nothing therein is constant.

Which means that you get to choose What is success, what is failure, what is disaster, what is love, what is happiness.

Choose everything. Including beetrooting up, stripping down and ferrying lead limbs around all the while.

Christ...I think this acid just kicked in.

[ktsok in reply to PaulS83]

Are you meant to be working, by any chance?

[PaulS83 in reply to ktsok]

Er, yes. I’ll, ahem, crack on then...

[Jell6 Graduate10 in reply to ktsok]

Heaven help us, but often the replies from PaulS83 contain more than a nugget of truth, and common sense. This must be how he functions in the real world 😊.

It was a good run!!!!

That said slower does equal further, and that is a tough reality.

It feels very different and I still struggle with it, but this year I am going to try one slower, longer run a week, and see how far that gets me.

Maybe just set yourself timed runs without any distance markers and set off at a comfortable trot.🚶‍♀️🚶‍♀️

[PaulS83 in reply to Jell6]

I’m not sure about “function” but I somehow made it biological adulthood. That alone had Darwin spinning in his grave.

I’d go the opposite way. Set a route, set a distance and get there when you get there.

And. Oop. Sorry, couldn’t help myself. Back to work...

*shuffles important looking papers*

[Grannyhugs Graduate10]

Great run, ignore the 48hr delay, you got out while it was still January. Imagine, we all ran in January, how bonkers are we. Slow starts are hard, somehow your legs don’t listen to you. Happy running

[Katnap Graduate10]

Oops! My latest run had positive splits (which perhaps counterintuitively are bad).

Well done us for getting out there!