Good start to Monday

[Yesletsgo]

Today was the day for an 8k on the NRC HM plan. My previous furthest was 7km so this feels like a fair increase.

Yesterday evening I read up on what to do before a longer run as I knew it would take me more than an hour. Fiddled with the PacePro Pacing strategies on the Garmin App and decided if I could do it in less than 1hr15mins I'd be happy. The only proviso was the weather. The forecast looked bleak - sleety showers. Then, before I went to bed there was a power cut. Not a promising start to the week....

...but I woke up to clear skies and the sun peeping through. Decided not to have coffee on the basis that it would raise my heart rate and I probably don't need that. Just had some plain milk free porridge with a big dollop of raspberry jam and a drink of hot water. Did my warm ups and off we set.

My plan was to start slow, effectively warming up for the first km or so. First km was 9'48. Asked Mr OBK how he felt. 'Cold, you need to speed up'. It was probably harder for me being smaller, female and older but I took pity and the next km was marginally faster.

We ran 4 km through the forest then turned and ran back. Last week I was moaning there were no hills. We found some, well, steep undulations along the track we were running. Careful what you wish for lol.

Some parts of the path were quite difficult, narrow, muddy, covered in fallen branches. We had to climb over a fallen tree at one point, and towards the end I skidded on some mud but miraculously kept my balance, all these yoga workouts are obviously doing something.

Finished the run in 1:11:17. My overall pace was slower than on shorter runs but I think that's to be expected. The important thing was that I finished well within my target and I didn't feel like I was going to die from the exertion.

Happy Monday everyone!

[Roxdog Graduate10]

Great news and that sounds like a lovely run through the forest! How lovely

[Yesletsgo Administrator Graduate10 in reply to Roxdog]

Thank you, the sun even started shining at the end

[Readandrun Graduate10]

Well done sounds a good run in difficult conditions!

[Yesletsgo Administrator Graduate10 in reply to Readandrun]

Thanks,it could have been a lot worse. The surface is mostly hard packed sandy roads so much easier than the mud back home. Plus it's pretty flat, these are the first inclines I've noticed. There were strong winds a few weeks back so a lot of trees are damaged hence the obstacle course. Gave me a chance to catch my breath lol

[AlMorr Ambassador Graduate10]

Happy Monday to you, congratulations Oldbadknees on that run through the forest, I am sure you enjoyed it in the sunshine after the sleety previous day, regarding the weather, yesterday I went a 10K walk, part of that walk was through a forest, just while I was walking between the trees there was a snow shower, the snow was quite heavy but I was sheltered from the wind by the trees and the snow made the walk very pleasant, by the time I got out of the forest the sun came out and the snow went off.

[Hidden]

Sounds like a good run, you paced yourself well, not going too hard and ending up gasping for breath. And you ran further than before, while it kept feeling good. Well done!

[Yesletsgo Administrator Graduate10]

Thank you