If anyone tells you that good preparation for a speed run is to eat a massive curry with a ton of spicy lime pickle, you can tell them from me that they’re bonkers. Maybe they’ll then say the best time to go and run hard when all the flies are out so you swallow them as you’re running along. At that point you can officially call them a wazzock.
Well, this wazzock had a great time! This evening’s outing was only going to be a quick, gentle walk to finish my step total for the day. That evolved into a quick, gentle run to keep the legs turning over. That evolved into belting along the lane just an hour and a half after a curry and feeling fantastic about it. Sometimes you get the urge and you just have to follow it. I had the internal debate about what was the worst that could happen (being sick in a bush) but figured I’d get some warning that dinner was sitting unhappily before that point so I’d try it.
My running is strange at the moment because of my IT band. I’ve had a lot of input from my physio so I’m happy that I’m doing the right thing by doing more short, pacier runs. My goodness it’s fun. This one was “first speed run” because I’m sort of working through the NRC HM plan. Warm up, 8 x 1 minute 5km pace and a final flourish. Coach Cory said this was to be a track workout, whatever your “track” looked like. I was just running along my usual country lane in the picture, but it was great to have the mindset that this was a different sort of run. He said to channel “strong” through the intervals and I focussed on finding a pace that would be sustainable through all of them. I tried to sneak a glance at my watch and was pleasantly surprised at how quick (just relative to myself!) and consistent they were. Tough, but I felt like I judged the effort better than usual-I ran hard but not absolutely all out which I’ve done in error before. Breathing hard meant taking in a fair few flies (yuck!) but the recovery minute was enough to get back to feeling comfortable. One final push brought me a couple of minutes gentle jog and a walk home to cool down. Full on stretching routing inclining massage balls, foam roller and a massive smile.
Perhaps I’ll categorise this run an “experiment with nutrition”! Late curry and flies as fuel during the run is certainly something! I’m not sure it’s a fuelling strategy I’d recommend trying but with some sunset intervals, it hit the spot here tonight!
x
Sunday Long Run 🌧️
Curry Madness- Bridge Week 4
Morning mizzle - lovely running weather
Some firsts 😱😄😉
First running injury!!! 