Yesterday evening I decided to go out for an easy paced run. Still a bit concerned about my knee, I planned not to be too far from home in case walking (hobbling!) back was needed. MrU came for the warm up walk. Longer than usual-a full mile. It was such a perfect evening for it. Bright and edging towards cool. As we walked, some of the junior cows in the field next to us decided to come and say hello. They must have thought we had food or were celebrities or something because they literally came running across the field. I was glad there was a fence between us but it was lovely to see them so chipper! MrU turned for home and I loaded up the tech to start my run.
Sometimes you want to run easy and sometimes you don’t. I felt a bit “itchy” for want of a better description and when the time came to start, despite having chosen “Easy Run” on the NRC, I really wanted to go faster. My physio has suggested trying shorter, pacier runs so that was what it evolved into. I managed five minutes of gentle warm up jogging before the legs just wanted to go, so I did! It felt great. All of a sudden I felt really fast. It must be the strength work because I’m only running a fraction of the usual distance I’d be out for. Flying along the lane, I looked at my watch and was super pleased to see my pace was great, despite still being firmly in the comfortably hard territory. Concentrating on breathing and holding that speed was such a nice distraction from the knee which behaved itself admirably.
The commentary was amusing wrong for the run-today wasn’t a day to run easy but it was still nice to hear Coach B talking about the benefits of that sort of run. This evolved into a short tempo run in the end. Just under fourteen minutes and I reached the steep downhill lane home which was the right place to stop. Five minutes walk and a decent stretch with a massive grin. MrU commented “that was quick” and I agreed! This felt like a big step forward. It’s not often I feel speedy (I know I’m not really-it’s just relative to my usual numbers) but it’s a great place to be. Great motivation for keeping up the gym sessions!
