A nice early win in my August quest

[RunRabbitRun40]

To get a start on the promises I made to myself in the August quest, I laced up and went out early morning for a 'see how you feel run'. No pressure on time or distance, just aiming for a confident, feel good run after a few stinkers have left me frustrated.

None of my usual podcasts to listen today (desperately need to seek out new recommendations!) so I put on a very eclectic playlist of feel good tracks. The first few minutes of the run felt hard, and my legs felt very heavy but I ignored that to push on through. I ended up doing a sort of reverse of one of my favourite routes, which worked really well as I didn't have the usual mental reminders of places I usually feel tired.

Got to 2.5k, feeling good, nice rhythm and breathing all doing well. Nice one, let's carry on

I was still feeling ok as I got over 4k, and although I can't really claim it was a sprint finish, or in any way elegant, I gave a nice final push to end the run at 5k.

The end result was a PB of 32:23 / pace 6.27. It may only be a PB by 20 secs or so, but I'll take it

[Grannyhugs Graduate10]

Brilliant new Pb after a lovely no pressure run. Changes of routes and podcasts work really well. Happy running 🤗

[Buddy34 Graduate10]

The run sounds great and just what you needed. 20 seconds or 1 second a pb is a pb. Congratulations 😊👏👏

[dijep Graduate10]

Congratulations on your PB 😊 20 seconds when you are out running is or certainly feels a lot so knocking those 20 off is brilliant 👏 Well done x

[Forest_Run_Beginner Graduate10]

Wow, amazing, and 20 seconds is a lot to knock off a PB, well done. And even better as you struggled to begin with, that's a double win.

[Couchphoenix Graduate10]

Great time and distance, sounds like you had an altogether enjoyable run in the end and a PB....Well done, it’s nice when that happens 👍

[Sandraj39 Graduate10]

Fab run - just what you needed! 🙂 Funny how taking the pressure off can result in better (and faster) runs. It sounds as though you got your mindset just right for this one too!🙂👍

And slicing 20 seconds off your 5K PB is brilliant in anyone's book - take a bow!💪 😀👏

[Beatlesforever Graduate10]

That's amazing, well done, great run and a new PB! 👏🤸‍♀️👍

[RunRabbitRun40]

Thanks everyone - it's such a brilliant feeling when you have a really enjoyable run, and so nice to be able to share the enthusiasm with all of you lovely lot!

I think the lessons learnt are that yes, you'll have runs that are dreadful, and runs that are awesome, and an awful lot that fall somewhere in the middle. But a run is a run, and it's a decision made not to stay in bed, but to get out there and have a go. I think I'm going to tweak an old saying: you're only as good as your <NEXT> run!

[Sybilw Graduate10]

Do you always listen to music? I like the podcast No Such Thing as a Fish. It’s a chat by the QI elves based around left over QI facts. It’s funny, rude sometimes and very random. It certainly distracts me. Wish I could take 29 seconds off my Pb - think it was 3 the last time 🤣 and yes I took it!! Well done.

[RunRabbitRun40 in reply to Sybilw]

That sounds quite good, I'll have to give it a go. I generally have either podcasts or music, but some of the podcasts I've had lately have been really disappointing and boring, which then makes me think too much about the run haha! I like something that really distracts me from the actual running.

Podcasts I've enjoyed:

Runpod (although depends who the guest is)

Sh**gged Married Annoyed (sometimes makes me laugh too hard, very off putting for passers by!!)

Table Manners with Jessie Ware

Grounded with Louis Theroux

Happy mum (?) with Giovanna Fletcher (again, heavily depends who the guest is!)

[Sybilw Graduate10 in reply to RunRabbitRun40]

I’ve got Grounded too but pick the guests. Miriam Margolese (?spelling?) of course. NSTAAF makes me grin as I run too but haven’t scared anyone yet - I hope. The good news is that if you like it there are over 300 episodes! Ran naked yesterday as my new Bluetooth headphones refused to play and guess what? - my breathing isn’t as much in control as I’d imagined!! 🤣