Checking the weather forecast last night it predicted that this morning would be overcast and around 10C. Perfect for a run. Announced to my husband that The Plan was that we'd run 8km, very slowly.
I overslept a little as the alarm didn't go off so didn't wake up until 8.30. The plus was that I'd had a good long sleep and my Garmin Body Battery was at 100. Woo hoo, no excuses. Mr Yes wasn't looking very enthusiastic so I said not to worry, I'd go on my own. Five minutes later he was all kitted up and we set off.
He's got an inbuilt feeling for distances so I let him set the route, adding a couple of detours. As predicted it was pleasantly cool with the odd ray of sunshine. The mud was firm and not messy and unusually there was no fresh horse poo to avoid.
As always I set NRC for a distance, 8km today. We set off very nice and easy, over 9 mins/km. The app started playing up. OK, I wasn't going fast but I certainly wasn't stopped yet the app kept telling me 'workout paused', then a couple of moments later 'workout resumed'. I stopped the app and reset it for 7 km as I'd done about a km by now. Same thing. After another km I just couldn't stand it any longer and turned the wretched thing off. I still had my Garmin to tell me how I was doing. The path was so overgrown I didn't need any other distractions.
We got to 4km, feeling much happier. Reaching a straight concrete road branching off from where we were going I decided I was going to try and run fast for a hundred or two metres. I visualised myself as the evil Terminator from the second movie, no, not by collapsing in a puddle of mercury but by pumping arms and legs back and forth in a straight line very quickly. Reached a dizzying (for me) pace of 5.33min/km for about 30 seconds. If I could do that for 5 kms I'd get a sub 30 minute 5k. I'd probably die before I got there 😂
We decided to run a circular route rather than going back the way we came. At 8km we were still a way from home so decided to carry on. At 8.5km I was going to stop but husband said 'No, let's do 9!' This is the man who didn't fancy running this morning.
We carried on, past our house and up the road where we normally start our run. By now I was starting to feel a little tired, maybe this is where I'd be eating jelly babies if I was carrying on further? At 9km I jokingly said 'We could do 10?' but luckily this was taken as a joke.
All in all this was a great start to the week. Running slowly fills me with energy and I feel like I could take on the world. Maybe there's something in this Body Battery business!!
NRC 10k Plan: 555 second run
