My great 5-week plan had me scheduled with NRC’s Coach Bennet, running “Just another run”.
It was a great morning for it, even the blue sky peeked out early and from my weather app I knew that after 9am I’d be safe to run without getting soaked. I headed off 30min earlier, I just couldn’t wait!
And yes, some forum members had warned me that Bennett talks a lot, but boy.... does he talk a lot!🤣 So I am not quite sure if I like that, as I’ve gotten into the habit of putting my music first, with coaches just updating me on how I’m doing. Running with Bennett is more like running with your best friend who cannot shut up 🤐 🤣.
Some of the stuff he chats to you really helps you to focus, but a lot of chatter seems to be there simply to keep you company. He focusses also a lot on your mental state, and I fear I’m just too pragmatic to hear at length about the new runner inside me, or the mental autopilot switch. ✈️
So whilst he wouldn’t stop chatting, me focussing on switching off the autopilot, I lost my way and in the end my run - including multiple checking of maps on my phone - took me 60 min instead of the planned 35!
So I’m glad I did this run but I think I also know that this is not an audio run I will be doing again. I will still try Bennett’s other “Just a run”, as my plan tells me to. My German genes do not easily let me diverge from my plan! But I fear Coach Bennett is not the voice for me, but nice try! My search for the perfectly coached runs will continue. (My long run this week will be with Runkeeper’s Mademoiselle, and although those are not audio runs, they give you a sense someone is there to cheer you on. But looking forward to seeing how “Mademoiselle” will cheer me on?)
Another thing to ponder is that NRC app seems to draw more battery power than Runkeeper. Having started fully, I was at 18% by the end, compared to Runkeeper’s 60% or so. So that’s a big fat thumbs down, especially as I’m such a slow runner and need quite a bit of time to get a good distance.
In RunLEJOG land, I’ve just passed the centre of the China Clay industry, which has a real personal connection as I live close to the potteries near Stoke-on-Trent. And Cornwall and SoT are the centres of UK ceramics manufacture. So it’s nice to ‚run‘ that connection. And of course right in the first days of LEJOG I was able to visit a Cornishware shop with its typical blue-white striped tableware.
Upcoming for me is Bodmin Moor with a lot of megalithic monuments. Now I love a good megalithic stone range or grave, so I might just have to run some loops to view them all!
Happy running everyone!
Calling fans of Coach Bennett
