I ran on my own today; M slipped on the stairs yesterday - bruised but recovering and already talking about returning to running in the coming days. We’d intended to run yesterday morning, but decided to delay due to the rain... and the promise of sunshine today. Thankfully, I ran at 8.30 when that forecast was accurate; by mid morning the rain had resumed control.
Being on my own I could get out earlier than usual. I headed to a park where we’ve only run once before, but took a different route there. My aim was to make the run 35 minutes, as my first deliberate step to bridge from our c.4k/30-minute consolidation runs to 5k. A half-hour run feels very comfortable now, even if we do often overdo the starting pace. We’re also feeling good about getting to 5k without much trouble; we’re just making that progression steady, and now working with the 10% guide. A few recent runs had inadvertently overshot the 30-minute mark by a couple of minutes, so 35 minutes was the next target.
To be honest, it felt really easy and right. I’d ended up having taken 3 ‘rest’ days (with classes in yoga, Pilates and breathing/meditation. Still, I’d not had a great night’s sleep, so anticipated it being more of a struggle. Instead, it was about as perfect a run as I could hope for. Loved it. I could have easily continued well beyond, but stuck to plan. Correction: I did allow myself to take my run through to the street orchard at the end of the mini-park.
I ran without any accompaniment. I’d asked Runkeeper to inform me of my pace at 5-minute intervals so I didn’t have to keep pulling out my phone. It wasn’t too extreme, but I set off a little faster than I wanted to, especially as I was adding distance. This quick audio-stat helped confirm my suspicion and I was able to pull back just a bit. Perhaps this helped preserve energies and made the run easier.
I spotted a pied wagtail, crows, magpies, parakeets, mallards, Pochards, tufted ducks, swans, Canada geese, coots, moorhens, pigeons, black-headed gulls. My favourite dabchicks were hiding - and I circuited the water a few times looking for them to no avail. I took a photo of the reeds in the light of the sun as it rose above a cloud on the horizon. Seconds before the same cumulus cloud had been outlined in gold. Beautiful.
While circling the ponds, I sang Ding Dong Merrily on High a few times (waiting for patches when no one else was about). I’m late off the blocks, but this means I’ve now done a couple of the festive-bingo tasks!! The long drawn out ‘Gloria’ is hard enough to sing when standing still, but it sure was a (fun) challenge while running! Maybe the resulting oxygen starvation gave me an appetite for more breath work? Anyway, I tried the longer nasal inhale to shorter oral exhale method, which I quite like. On the way home, I also played with breathing counts to get my breath-points to alternate with the left- or right-foot landing. Interesting. Feels odd at first (unsurprisingly). This coincided with my fastest km section.
36:19 run-time, 4.61 km, 7:53 average pace.
7:42, 7:47, 8:38, 7:28, (7:47) - The 3rd km coincides with ‘Gloria’, running-on-the-spot photo-opportunity and a long slow incline back to the park gate. (My starting pace in the first 5 minutes was 7:34.)
Happy running!
Written by
GailXrunning
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That sounds like a delightful run for you this morning! I do hope that M is back to fighting running form soon 👍.
It’s good to take things steadily and increase gradually. You achieved your target today with lots of bird sightings. I love to see dabchicks as well, but can’t remember seeing any round here. I know them as little grebes but I think they are one and the same. I’ll have to post more of my wildlife and bird sightings, sometimes I forget! I’ve seen a lot of barn owls lately and hovering kestrels are a common sight here.
I’ve missed out on the whole Christmas bingo thing, but found the post explaining it!
Well done Gail- Sounds like you had a great inspiring run- it feels brilliant when it all fits together and the run is everything you want it to be. Hope M is feeling better after his stumble - you’re both doing great 👍🏻😁🦌
Thank you... Even the incline was a peaceful chilled out stretch, thinking about the silhouettes of tree branches. Or maybe just felt easy after nearly collapsing on the bingo ‘Glorias’!
If I were to sing Ding Dong! Merrily on High, I'd be singing one of the men's harmonies (I'm most likely to be singing it as Tenor nowadays, but I'm most comfortable with the Bass part) and nobody would know what I was singing.
Well done in sustaining the 5½ bars of that Gloria.
Sounds like a great run , lots of observations in there .Pace has always been my Nemesis (or at least bolting off too strong, feeling it was ok actually and then hitting the 🥵🥵🥵 spot 😂) I was always wittering on about it in my early posts .
I concentrated really hard and now seem to be ‘catching on ‘ to what the people who know what they're talking about mean in all those pace discussions 😂😂
My meditation class at the weekend had involved the breathing cycle: 4 counts in, hold 8 counts, out for 8 counts. That took some getting used to, but in retrospect was good preparation for today.
Sounds like another successful run, avoiding the rain, had the same here, went out in sunshine today, just a short 4k run, my average pace, is what your 3k was, so your still much faster than me 🤣 so no music for you, your singing, made me chuckle, i sometimes have a chat, with people that arent around any more!Hope M gets over his fall, the big derby game, was disapointing! 😴
My thinking typically is: if I run in the rain today, I won’t be able to run in the sun tomorrow as it’ll have to be a rest day. I find myself hopscotching through the weather forecast to catch the winter sunshine.
Yes, looks like we’re in the COVID new-strain zone too. On the plus side, I see a number of sunny days coming up.
Sounds like a fab run...shame about M...hope he’s back to running soon.
Love the sing-a-long 🎶 very brave with the “Gloria” 😂
Wow, you see a lot of birds...I see more on the Boating Lake than the canal...ducks, moorhen, coots and goosander on both usually. Did see a kingfisher recently on the canal though...
Did a short run in the dry yesterday. Today is a good day...but then rain again. Might risk a 30 minute run this afternoon...😬
Thanks, LottieMW. I didn’t really think ahead to ‘Gloria’, just started up with first the chirpiest carol that came to mind. 😂 I love to see goosander... but it’s something I associate with holidays. And kingfisher are such wonderful flashes; I used to live by a river with kingfishers, and do miss seeing them. Enjoy your next run.
A great run AND Ding Dong Merrily on High 😁👍 Go Gail 👏👏👏You must explain to me about the breathing techniques you were trying 💨 sounds really interesting. I've been doing pilates since the beginning of the year but don't think I'm flexible for yoga 😬🧘♀️
I was just trying things out of interest; no stressing. The 2:1 nose:mouth is very close to what I’ve done in Pilates.
In my meditation/ breathing class (sitting!) at the weekend we’d worked up to 4 in/ pause for 8/ 8 out. That’s quite a challenge, but it might have been good practice for the run itself.
Yoga: It’s definitely possible to do yoga at any level, and flexibility isn’t a pre-requisite. The point (with a good teacher) is always to work with your own body’s limits, and let go of the ego to compete and compare (this is really the hardest part!) Flexibility improves with practice, of course, but I’ve found that modern teachers in uk emphasise holding back from too much flexibility, which can be a weakness. I’d suggest looking for Iyengar or Yin or Slow-flow or Restorative (joy!) yoga classes first. (Names of classes vary a lot, as do teachers.) Give it a whirl!! 😄🧘🏻♀️🧘🏾🧘♂️
Thanks for the intel Gail 👍😁 I normally aim to breathe in for a count of four through the nose and blow out through the mouth- which all goes to pot when I'm over reaching my fitness 🤣 I'll take a look at the link you sent 👍 and have a think about fitting yoga into my life 🧘♀️😁
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Made it over the bridge! 
Beginning the bridge to 10k soon
Bluefin Bridge to 10k completed!
First post on the bridge, first 5.5k and first run in rain.
CR9 - Jeffing works?
