I experienced two small firsts on my little run this morning, and they are always so welcome. Little life-enriching experiences contributing to what makes running so enjoyable. 🏃🏼♀️
1. Interval Podrunner Sessions 🎧🎶
I’ve been running to podrunner podcasts lately. They provide podcasts with electronic music to a set beat. I know by now that I run between 145 and 155 beats per minute when comfortably juggling along (feet hitting the ground, not heartbeats), but I can do 165 with a bit of effort.
But I had downloaded one of their podcasts called Gateway to 8k Week 1, which is the first (but you guessed that, right?) of 10 episodes of interval sessions getting a runner up from 5k to 8k, or 30min to 50min.
Now you probably saw how proudly I’m wearing my 10k badge 🤗, and I can run for 2 hours straight (but ultra-ultra slow) without intervals. But I wanted to try this podcast and recently I had only run up to 6.5k. So this was a welcome opportunity.
Rather than the intended run-walk intervals, this ultra-slow runner chose slow-fast running speeds to run through the bouncing podcast. Or rather ultra-slow / ultra-slower intervals. 🐢🐌🤣
Music is actually more diverse than the usual podrunner episodes based around one stable BPM. But one probably has to like at least a bit electronic dance music (loads of beat, huge synth sounds and no/less lyrics) to find it enjoyable to run to. 🕺🏼💃🏽🎤🎹
But I actually liked them better than the good old Stepping Stone and C25k+ podcasts, that worked with the same model of running to EDM (Electronic Dance Music) with a set beat, composed by the people from Audiofuel. But I must plan in some runs with the Stepping Stones, again. I did them more than a year ago after graduating C25k as part of my consolidation. It will be nice to see how I’ve improved!
But the podrunner sessions felt great, and it’s a match for my Japanese Slow Jogging pace, which is not always easy to find. I’ll be doing these again.
2. Explored the road not taken:
And setting out on my old C25k 45 min route, I geared myself up to turn into that shortcut halfway up the hill! The short cut that I never have taken, and not sure if it is actually a long-cut, taking in a little more distance. And yes, I still had to get that tiny little courage up, just at the right moment, to turn into the unknown. Will there be a stile? Will I have to turn back? Will it feature trees, fields, goats, horses, cows or dogs?🌳🌾🐐🐴🐮🐶🐪
But I turned and rather then going around a coppice forest, it goes through it on a little path besides two farm properties on either side, one with gardens the other with horses. It was so beautifully new that on that 1k stretch I had to stop 3 times to take pictures! There was that little earthen shady path, then the gorgeous new fence posts I wanted to show hubby (we need more fence posts), than three mature lifted willows, which again reminded me of the one willow at home that needs some serious pruning love!
So those are my new takeaway from my little run this morning!
Don’t you just love how running allows you to see your neighbourhood anew!
Happy running everyone!
week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
