My running has been going really well lately. PBs have been tumbling (the bonus of changing your watch after an injury!) and I’ve felt like I’m flying. Every run has been a good one. At some point it was going to come to an end. Maybe it was because it was Monday. Maybe it was because I’m out of routine and wouldn’t normally run first thing. I think I can reliably blame lack of coffee!
I have a tendency to only post about good runs so for some balance and self indulgent moaning, here’s what happened this morning!
Firstly, garMin was suggesting a hill run. So was Nike Run Club. That seemed like fate. The only problem? Where I’d usually run before yoga is pancake flat. I thought I’d try the local deer park which is definitely hilly enough and drive to the leisure centre afterwards. I faffed around being annoyed there was no coffee (instead of just going to buy coffee like a grown up) so I left too late to make the yoga class. Oh well, there’s always Adriene at home. As I was driving, it started raining, and I wasn’t mentally prepared for that. I had my highly technical phone protector (also know as a sandwich bag) ready so at least that meant I could carry on without needing to go home. After the “warm up” walk, I was still freezing and pretty damp. I did a few dynamic stretches to the amusement of some dog walkers and started the easy mile warm up. That seemed to pass uneventfully and too quickly so I was surprised by the first interval…0.25miles up followed by 0.25 miles back down the hill. I’d chosen my hilly section quite poorly and didn’t realise there was a downhill bit in the middle. It was too late to change so I felt like a cheat hitting that when I was supposed to be climbing. Turning round and running straight down again was really hard! Nike Run Club always has you jogging lightly or walking down the hot. My garmin made me run. I’ve run down a lot of hills as part of my usual routes but it felt tough straight after a sprinting up a hill interval!
My chilled drum and bass wasn’t doing the business so I tried to pause the run to change it. That was a mistake because it immediately skipped through the recovery and on to the next interval up the hill. I wasn’t up for that so tried a different button which skipped me to running downhill! I was having proper words with my watch at this point, to the amusement of the same dog walkers. Eventually I got it sorted but couldn’t figure out how to go back to the j eyeball I’d lost. Ah well. Not a disaster. For the next hill spring. I tried another nearby path which was definitely all up hill, until it wasn’t and I was going down again. This was rockier underfoot ao I took it steadier. Again, the downhill felt harder and took loads of concentration not to fall over. Not the ideal path. For myast interval, which I was sure would be the best, there was one more option near enough for me to be at the start without needing to risk pausing my watch. The only downside? Those dog walkers were standing right on the start line. I decided to do it anyway. Horrific. This one was uphill all the way and even had speed bumps. There was no need to try and slow me down…I felt like I was going backwards. Still, this was the last one and the downhill finally felt nice to take the brakes off. All that was left was to finish the run with another gentle mile. I diverted onto a cycle path and had a very grumpy end to the run ruminating on how it had been months since I’d last felt that awful during a run (not true!) and cursing my garmin for making me do such a stupid workout (which was entirely my choice). I was quite close to 5 miles so I decided to keep going a little while longer and finish nearer the car.
I was expecting plaudits from my Garmin for my efforts. Instead, I have gained two years in ages, had all my predicted finish times made slower and told I had “room to grow”. Totally demoralising. I know exactly what I’d say to someone on here in the same position-ignore the watch, stick it in a drawer for being rude etc but today it just got to me a bit more than usual. Now I’ve had a few hours to grumble, I can see that if someone offered me “Monday morning 8km run with three hard hill efforts in the middle completed” I’d have definitely accepted that as a good run. I’m still finding it hard not to be disappointed. I’m sure it’ll pass next time I have a good one. Whatever my head thought, it was still work for my legs and I’ll definitely benefit from it. So that’s a massive moan with a happy ending. There is now coffee in the MissU household so all is well.
Happy (or grumpy!) running everyone. Every time you’re out there it’s a win, whatever you think about it.
7k... kinda!
And we thought that was the top of the hill 
Triple 7’s - NRC
A Kind of “Jeffing” 8k
