I’m sitting on my towel on the bed, just before heading into the shower and having done all my post-run stretches, drunk my two glasses of water, and now scrolling through pictures and maps and reports of everyone’s Parkrun this morning.
Such enticing routes!
That there is a Parkrun on the Severn bridge intrigued me, and look at the profile of this Parkrun on Guernsey: blog.parkrun.com/uk/2018/03...
I’m getting a severe case of runner’s envy!!
My run this morning was shorter and more solitary. Just a little recovery run using NRC, the one next on my 5k NRC plan. It was the “End of day run with headspace” recovery. It was not the end of the day, but it was lovely nevertheless!
Several things struck me about this run:
1) I put my old 9mm drop NewBalance Hierro shoes on, as I do once in a while. I usually have now 0-drop Altras, which have made a big difference to my metatarsal issues, I think. But I do once in a while switch shoes, and it makes it so obvious how they “shape” your running style. Whilst still fore-foot striking, my heel kisses the ground ever-so-gently. And I know when I don’t watch my technique or when I get tired, it’s easier to fall into a heel strike gate.
2) I used a 155 BPM Spotify playlist. I had set this up last year to encourage me to increase my leg turnover. But it doesn’t quite work for recovery run. I cannot get out of my comfy 145-150 BPM pace. So be it. There will be other runs where I can train myself to have a faster turnover, but maybe not on this program.
3) I was hoping for rain, my weather app had promised rain, but it was a dry run. And I was disappointed! It was a surprise in itself that I WANTED a wet run!
4) And the hill! Having done a few speed runs, fartleks and interval runs, where I chose rather the flat part of my usual route, the one avoiding the hill, I was aware that I hadn’t run my hill for more than two weeks! 😳 So I wasn’t sure how my legs would feel about tackling the hill again. But as they say, two weeks is not long enough for your stamina to reduce, so it was with the hill. It was no problem at all!
Great stuff! A shorter run than many of you Parkrun runners completed, but a run is a run.
Even if my legs had the deliciously slow 145BPM turnover.
Even if Coach, and former Buddhist monk, Puddicombe made me feel like being a yogi rather than a runner.
Even if it was a dry run, in all sorts of ways.
Now… off to get wet in the shower!
Have a great runner’s weekend, everyone!
(pic: not my path, but rather a view from my path)
A morning run...a happy place!🏃🏽♀️🌈
