And here we are, Monday morning, pay day, my last pay day, I've properly retired at last. It's different than I expected, but it's ok. Sorry to all the English teachers starting with an and .
Yesterday my legs wanted to run, silly things, I just told them it was Sunday and to wait.
I decided I wanted to run 5k and if I walked a bit it wouldn't matter.
Music on, 5k head starts ready to start as I walk down the road. Today I headed north and kept going, where I haven't run before, past the nursery where my grandchildren went, past the school where my children went, past the house where my mum used to live, and oh! I'll go over the A27 I've not done that before. Decided the slopes not the steps, just as a young thing with a pony tail passed me and nipped up the steps.
Along the path to the traffic lights, back south heading towards home. It is slightly upwards to the A27 all the way but coming back I'd expected slightly downwards but it's up and down up and down until I turned off along the flat and home, not quite 5k so nipped into the park ran very slowly to the other end and sprinted back across the grass where a lady with a dog said she wished she could do that and we grinned
The sun shone.
Last week I read of a lady who started running last August and went to park run, last week she broke the one hour barrier and I felt so proud of her. Garmin and Strava gave me 55 minutes, NRC gave me 54 because it paused when I stopped to take the photo and waited at the traffic lights. Our pavements are shocking bumpy, I might return to the park paths for my next run shorter and faster.
I'm loving that I can get out and run, and will as long as I can.
I'm meeting a friend for a walk at lunch time and then walking with my neighbour late afternoon, she's lost a pound less than 5st and wanting to get fitter, I've already suggested she start Active 10,
Run happy or rest well.
The photo of the bridge, I will cross it and get back to 10k 😀
Written by
SueAppleRun
Graduate10
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Congratulations on your retirement Sola, sounds like a good run.
As for starting your sentence with 'and', my son is an English teacher and habitually writes 'should of' instead of 'should have' so they aren't the oracles you think!!!
Thanks Ian, it feels a bit weird but I realised I haven't worked for a month, so getting used to it already. 5k used to be my happy distance I'm sure it will be again. It's a bit if a mission doing any sort of pace on our bumpy paths um thinking of returning to our original park and smoother paths for the shorter runs
I went through a stage of wishing I'd retired last year so we could have had more time together, but if I had i wouldn't have been able to afford to do the things we wanted, it's a shame it's only me now but Willow didn't work for about the last 7 years and he enjoyed being at home making music and relaxing, seeing his friends and family, if I hadn't already got my retirement date set I would have resigned and then taken the 3 months notice as sick, but you may be well enough to go back, you just don't know yet, we are all rooting for you
Well done Sola! Congrats on your retirement! I will be joining you in October, although the nature of my work means, I won’t have to work much after mid-June. So pleased you are back out there!!
congratulations on retirement. This English teacher commends you for starting with an ‘and’. Great way to show emphasis!
Using conjunctions like ‘and’ and ‘but’ at the start of sentences has often been frowned upon, but has never been wrong. We discourage school kids from doing it in case it just leads to a long list of independent clauses. But the truth is writers of English have been doing it since the 9th century (according to Merriam-Webster, many translations of the Bible are filled with them).
Well done on your retirement and your 5k, I know what you mean about wonky pavements, I went out last Friday and took a tumble on one so do take care. 🏃♀️
That’s such a heart warming post, Sola. Congratulations on your well earned retirement and for that lovely 5k run. That 10k bridge is waiting for you when you are ready. Go for it 👍
Thanks Brian, I'm sure I could do 10k but a lot of walking would be involved, I'll wait til I've built my stamp na up a bit, I've been skipping but it's not as easy as I remember it
In your own time Sola, and only if it feels like something you’d like to do. A quick paced walk is a good way of getting the stamina you look for. There’s a method called MAF (after its founder, Phil Maffetone), that you may have heard of l, that actually has you in the sort of zone you’d need to improve stamina. Walking briskly will get you there. Good luck
I have heard of MAF I'll look it up again , well I've had one run and 2 walks today, I'll sleep well tonight, the longer runs will improve my stamina and the shorter faster ones will help too.
I would definitely reccomend Runbunnyrun 's suggestion of MAF. I have been trying it since I the start of the year. It is strange at first as you may be running a lot more slower than your normal and it does take a lot of patience and time. But you have that now...
Congratulations on getting back to 5k and on your retirement. It will be different from how you planned it, but it sounds as though you have plenty of things you want to do. I hate to break it to you though - when you’re retired you don’t get annual leave any more 😂
Well Done WillowandSola, It’s nice to discover new routes and great to get back to 5k again. My advice, which you can ignore, is get to the point where you are happy running 5k regularly again, take running rest days, and then start crossing that bridge. I love JuJu’s magic plan and still use that formula for extending beyond 10k.
Congratulations on your retirement. I know it will be very different to how you planned it but I also know that you will be very busy achieving some new targets.
Thanks Dexy, I like the structure of running before I do anything else, and there's a strange pleasure in pleasing myself. I'm also doing more with friends which is nice.I did Ju ju's plan a couple of times when extending before, at the moment I'm trying to do one 5k one speed intervals and the rest how I feel on the day, I'm struggling to follow a plan on my own, we used to discuss it beforehand,
It is very different and I miss him so much but learning to live on my own which I've never done before and not work which I've also never done before
Yes , it’s still early days , and not having that other special person around is so difficult, especially when you did lots of things together. It’s good to do things with friends and your family. To break up the days. The nice warm weather is on the way and you will find nice things to do.
Not having your roster must be strange too, but I am sure if you want to visit your care home , they will welcome you with open arms.
I have a feeling that you’ll soon be like the rest of us and wonder how you found the time to work!
I'm popping in on the 5th to say goodbye to the people who live there, I am signed up to go as relief senior but actually I don't want to keep working, I'm loving being at home and going out when I want and not rushing things, it's a real sad thing that we didn't get to spend all our time together but he had been home for years, and did the things he wanted to
Huge congratulations to you on your retirement, and I wish you a long, happy and healthy retirement too. Congratulations as well on your 5K run. Here’s for many many more.
I'm just hoping to get a bit less slow but enjoying running. I also walked with 2 different friends today and had time for the garden, so far I'm enjoying not working, there is a lot less stress
If you try to up the speed you will. I waited until I could run 10k before starting intervals, so it took me 12 months from finishing C25k to hit 5k in 30 minutes. It didn’t matter. Intervals are good.
I doubt I'll get that fast but I ran with Willows son last week and he went on ahead, we met up at the end and did a sprint finish, he couldn't keep up, we were both surprised, I've run a few 10k so feel like some faster intervals to see what I can do, COVID thought has slowed me down.
Congratulations on your retirement and getting to 5k Sola. Hope you had some lovely walks with your friends too. It sounds like you're planning lots of lovely things 🥰 oh look at my English too.... to much use of lovely 😬 oh well!
Ha ha and good morning, I have to live so I might as well do the best I can 😀 it's hard isn't it? If we say the same word to often it's gone but once we write it, it's there forever 😀
Well.. so it should be .. , sunshine for your first days as a non working person It is sunny here but very frosty!. The cars are iced up but I think the sun will make short work of that later
The difference in temperature always surprises me, I was in the Isle of Lewis once in the snow speaking on the phone to my family in Sussex who were outside enjoying a BBQ in shorts
Welcome to your new life - sounds better than 'Retirement'. It's not necessarily about stopping, but starting again. Especially after bereavement - you are about to learn a new way of living as many of us have. Grief isn't easy to overcome, but once a way to go on is found, you may find life can still be an adventure. Best wishes to you. 😊
That's so perfect, thank you, I'm feeling slightly optimistic, then a little guilty that I'm able to look forward, going for a run is a time I neither look forward or back, just live in the moment
I've run about for people all my life, this is where it stops, I'm limiting how many people I see at the moment because I'd have a house full every day and that's not what I want
Congratulations to you Sola on running your first 5K for a while and being properly retired at last, you will now have more times to run and walk with your friends.
Enjoy that last pay day Sola - I found mine quite liberating! You’re retired at last - congratulations, you’ve earned it! I loved your positive post, particularly your ‘bridge scene’! Well done on your 5k, 10k here you come!
This seems a really positive post which is lovely to read. I’m with you that I feel grateful to be able to run and will run as long as I can and it’s always good to have a goal. ❤️
So good to see that you’ve done a longer run and are feeling so positive about it, brilliant! I always find your posts so inspiring that I’ll get out and do a slow plod 5k today, ready for the park run on Saturday.
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It is sunny here but very frosty!. The cars are iced up but I think the sun will make short work of that later
A 'proper 5K' for the first time on Saturday!
First 5K at benchmark pace since return to running
A lovely surprise for a lovely morning. My first 5k 😊😊