I’ve been out for a run this evening which was totally the opposite of what I’d planned. With hindsight, it was entirely predictable that after a week without running, I wouldn’t want a gentle plod. It was probably also predictable that the non-conformist in me would actively enjoy rebelling against the watch. And then there was the effect of watching the athletics world championships earlier. All that made for a really fun outing.
Since my week away last week, I’ve been struggling with getting out for a run. It was playing on my mind that I hadn’t been for a while so I persuaded MrU that we should go for an early evening walk and I’d put my run kit on just in case. Good decision. Our walk was a longer version of my standard warm up before running so after about fifteen minutes and a chat with some ponies (pictured), I decided a run was on. I had my shiny new Garmin (not yet used for running) so it seemed like a good time to try it out. It suggested a 30 minute “base run” at what seemed like a slow, comfortable pace. Why not? Slow is sensible. I wasn’t planning on going that long but I could always cut short.
I had totally forgotten that every time I’ve had an enforced break from running due to life (not illness or injury), all I want to do is run fast. I really should have remembered since this identical situation literally happened last week. It wouldn’t have been too much of a problem except my garmin set to “base run” pace decided that I was going TOO FAST and it was not afraid to tell me. Regularly. Perhaps if I’d been committed to a “base run” and not tempted into a “push it, let your legs go, pretend you’re at the world championships run” maybe I’d have listened. The trouble was, every time it told me to slow down, that felt like a challenge to speed up. That’s not how it’s supposed to work, is it?! Up the hill, down the hill, along the road, through the estate, back past the ponies all with the watch unhappily yelling at me.
It was unfortunate that I’d been watching the athletics earlier and had been mulling over whether I could push myself harder than I had been on my recent speedy runs. Inspired by Katerina Johnson-Thompson’s gold medal 800m run in the heptathlon, I decided to really go for it for the last 800m of my run. So tough but it felt absolutely amazing. The watch tried one final TOO FAST but it was in vain. The flying feet finally touched down to complete the 30 minute run.
So this ended up being a super enjoyable run and a great way to break the non-running streak. Next time I’ll remember that if I’ve had a break, selecting a slow run isn’t going to happen and it’s best to just embrace the pace! I’ll also think much more carefully about what run to select from the garmin options or just track what I’m doing instead of trying to keep to a target pace. Saying that, it really was fun ignoring it and getting told off. Maybe, bizarrely, that’s the best way to motivate myself to keep up the speed when that’s the sort of run I’m doing!
week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
week 2 begins! 
