Saturday morning dawned sunny and blue with shimmery seas tempting me out for a run . It also turned into a glorious day until evening brought some light rain ☔️ , I was expecting a cloudy day 🤷🏼♀️😃
Today, as I write this, I can see we are to be treated to another lovely sunny day .
I had talked myself out of a run since Mondays 3K so was keen to get a 5K done to log for (Not) Parkrun, so I skipped the usual ‘lying in bed ‘thinking about it’ and got myself out relatively quickly.
After a quick walk and faffing about with Spotify I settled into a’When Katty met Carlos’ podcast and headed off up the village for a quick loop around the old Cathedral Square and the ‘big houses’ around it . Always a lovely feel to this area in the early mornings and especially when sunny.
My pace for the first two K was nice and easy as I headed down the side of the bay road , full of hawthorn and whin hedgerows with a multitude of birdsong coming out of them . My usual Mr & Mrs Wood Pigeon were in their usual spot and the blackbirds don’t bother shifting when I run past .
At this point it crosses my mind that this might be the morning for a little distance stretch 🤔🤔🏃🏻♀️, having not gone beyond 6K since I embarked on this little calf strain recovery path.
I resolved to keep an open mind and to concentrate on keeping this easy pace as I turned up the single track road along the golf course. There are a few houses starting to get built here and I think their views will be absolutely stunning looking over the golf course and looking all the the way down the Moray Firth and across it over to the distant Cairngorm hills 🏡🏌️♀️🏔🌊. Lucky them ☺️( could be a tad windy tho😉)
At this point I’m at 3.5 K which seemed to have gone in a flash so as I turn right onto my lighthouse road I’m thinking maybe I’ll do more than 5K 🤔 , the Lighthouse road and back that about 2.5 K so maybe I’d stretch to 6.5 K and that would be the longest run I’d done since the calf strain.
I felt good, I was hanging on to this easy pace ( any thought of a ‘good’ 5 K time was out the window so I relaxed into this run) , the calf was quiet so I ‘sat back’ and admired the views 👌🏃🏻♀️😂
A few early morning golfers were emerging and the green keepers were buzzing about on quads keeping their pride and joy in good order 🏌️♀️🏌️♀️
The road I am on has views of the sea on both sides and it is indeed shimmering 😃 a few little boats on the go too. I love this time of day .
I get to the Lighthouse ,turn and head back , 6.5K done 👌so I decide as the body appears willing that I’ll head in the direction of home and do 7. I turn down one of my favourite streets and admire the trees and gardens , at the end of this street I’m at 7.3 so would seem a shame not to do 7.5 K 🤷🏼♀️🤔 so I turn and head back up it where I will turn left and head home down a path behind the houses .
I decide that in order to land nearer my house and in light of how steady my pace and legs are that 8K is doable ..... and So I did it ! 😂🥳🎉🎉
It wasn’t really a ‘bells & whistles’ kind of achievement but just a gradual realisation of things ‘coming right’ and being ready to stretch a bit .
So I did 8.2K in 1:04 with average pace of 7:52 . I graduated 60 mins n December with 7.5 K in the hour with an average pace of 8:04.
So although I feel I’ve been struggling these last 2. 1/2 months since injuring my calf and feeling I wasn’t really ‘getting back’ I was ! It’s just that it was quietly, gradually and unseen because I wasn’t pushing it .
So I’m delighted that switching my focus to taking care of my calf, strengthening the muscles ‘further up’ ,my glutes , quads and all that stretching has really helped me improve .
I know I’ve been enjoying my runs more lately because I’ve taken that ‘desire to continually improve’ or ‘do more’ off myself but today I thought let’s just see 🤷🏼♀️
I will now go back to my short runs, mix it up with the hill sprints and speed intervals and when I feel like a longer run I’ll stretch it but if I ever get to 10K it’ll probably be ‘unplanned’ 😂😂🏃🏻♀️🏃🏻♀️
Photos are ‘en route’ but it also just occurred to me that this particular route looks like a baby elephants trunk 😂🐘🐘