Well, the last time I did a 10K (well, it was 14k) was June last year !
Then unfortunately life , niggles and the odd illness got in the way and my running was completely derailed .
My fitness and mojo both went AWOL along with my fitness age and VO2MAX
I have been gradually building back up again and also re started mixing my runs up again and I am happy with this progress.
I have been using NRC runs to get me back on track .
Last Sunday's long run was an 8K
And today's was due to be a 10K.
There were lots of Gremlins around this morning accompanied by equal amounts of faffage ! But I eventually got out around 10:30.
It was a little chilly at first in t-shirt and shorts but after the warmup walk and 5 minutes jogging then I was soon up to temperature .
I purposely started off at an easy pace !
I wanted no more than about 8:30/Km .
This was around my start pace on the 14K back last June !
The run started off fine , I was comfortable and relaxed.
One thing I did notice was the NRC app was way off on distance .
No worries though , I know the route and I will run to Garmin distance not NRC .
At a Garmin distance of 2K, NRC was reporting 3.5 !!! π€
I reached 5k on Garmin no problem but NRC reported 7, ahh well, ignore NRC.
It was a little annoying because mentally I would feel the run was done well before it was .
Ahh well, carry on .
When Garmin reached 7.5K NRC said 10K Done !!!
I stopped the app and carried on .
I was tiring at this point and it became both mentally and physically hard to continue with still another 2.5K to go !
But I kept it slow and steady and plodded on .
My calves were tightening up a bit at this point and I was not sure if I would complete the run but just kept it at a nice easy pace .
I knew where 10k would end and I must admit I was happy to see the finish line !
So 10K done , I think my slowest ever !
But I don't care !
Strava 5K and 10K April challenge completed !
Back home , stretches done and flop on the couch for a few minutes π€£
Then a nice relaxing shower π
So I will stick with mixing the runs up but may do 1 or 2 more 10K's before pushing on with the distance !
Happy Running! π