Another lovely morning today, the thermometer in the garden said 9C but when we set off it felt colder than that (Garmin tells me it was 6C so I wasn't imagining it 🥶). Luckily I'd decided to wear gloves and the sun soon came out and of course, as soon as you start running it gets warmer.
Our plan was a gentle 3k but I set off at slightly more than my easy pace as it was cold and I wanted to get the run over with (apologies 😂). Just before 1.5km my husband suggested 5k. I was fine with that but then he said, 'no, maybe not', but instead of turning round at the halfway point he carried on. OK, we're doing 5k, suits me, I wanted to do a longer run this week.
The third km was, as always, hard work. The recent rain and horse riders have turned stretches to a mass of muddy puddles. I had to jump right and left to avoid them. The rain and/or dew over night meant my feet were wet. I reminded myself I've been recommending merino socks to lots of newbie runners on C25K so this means I'm not allowed to complain. Then it felt like there was cold water sloshing around in one shoe. I was past the point of no return so carried on and told myself it'd soon warm up. I was right, very soon I'd forgotten all about it.
After this rough terrain it was onto the cement road followed by a good flat grassy surface most of the way home. I was enjoying this. My speed picked up but my effort stayed the same.
We neared the end of the 5k route. Too soon. I told Mr Y I was carrying on. He turned for home while I continued along the historic waterfront to the park and on towards the marina. 6k. Probably time to turn around and go home, I wanted to have enough energy to run as it was probably a bit chilly to be walking, judging by the scarves, hats etc everyone else was wearing. Even the horses we'd seen in the fields earlier were wearing their coats.
Back along the waterfront and I reached 7k about five minutes from home. Perfect! A full km more than last week and the run was only about 6 minutes longer in duration.
Despite my pace being 20 secs/km faster than last week's 6k run I felt absolutely fine at the end, no breathlessness, not tired, as if I could easily have done a km or two more. Best to stop while one is ahead though, next week I'll see if I can push it a bit further still.
Isn't running just the best?😁
Week 2 complete - 6k in the bag 😃
🔟 Magic Number - W1R1 - 5.5K
6.5 km was a step too far?
5K today and still no smoking!
