I almost never run on Mondays, but when I looked at the forecast last night, I noticed that this morning was going to be cold. Tomorrow, even colder! So I got up this morning and donned my running gear.
I was surprised to see another long run on my schedule this morning. I had done a 72 minute run on Saturday. But this one was a little different. After the warm up in Z1 and 35 minutes of Z2, I had 15 minutes of Z3. This Z3 part has been gradually increasing over the weeks. It’s not a run I do every week which is why it’s taking a long time! My Z3 is keeping the pace between 8:14 and 8:50. I felt fairly confident it was within my capability.
This morning I did a longer warm up, at least 10 minutes, with a slow jog thrown in. During these cold temperatures it takes me a long time to warm up. The first part of my run is 5 minutes in Z1, which is a warm up. So I had 15 minutes warming up!
I was looking forward to 35 minutes in Z2. My watch buzzed and I started to increase slowly. I carried on, looking around and enjoying the run. As I got close to the pond, I increased pace for Zone 3. Too much! I noticed 7:20 on my watch! I slowed down. I passed a woman pushing a pushchair, her toddler (about about 3) a little way behind, examining something in the grass. He looked up at me and just as I went past him, he started to run behind me. I was probably going at about 8:00 mins/km at that time. He shouted “I’m going to catch you!” I turned and said “Come on then!” And do you know what, he did. He couldn’t keep it up for long, but he left his Mum some distance behind!
A little further on I overtook a cocker spaniel. I caught his eye as I ran past and that seemed to give him a signal that it was OK to run with me. For about a minute, I thought I’d gained a new dog! The owner was calling it, but it didn’t want to go back. I actually started wondering what I was going to do! I didn’t want to have to stop as my coach wouldn’t be able to see how I’d coped with 15 minutes faster running at the end of a longer run. But fortunately he did go back.
The run came to an end. As usual, I couldn’t wait to see how I’d done. I synced and took a look! Kept to the zones in Z1 and Z2. Was slightly too fast in Z3, but my legs just wanted to go, M’lud!
Next run I think is a shorter one! 😊
