It’s been a busy week and I haven’t run since a Sunday. My feet were decidedly itchy this morning. The plan was to get to the leisure centre early, take advantage of the decommissioned runway out the back (!!) and do some intervals on the flat before yoga. I’d shower and change there, then head out to do a whole load of life admin about town.
All was going well until I realised halfway to the leisure centre that I hadn’t included underwear with my change of clothes. 🤦♀️There wasn’t really time to go back or nip home between jobs (and I wasn’t going round the supermarket with no pants on) so running would have to wait until later. Yoga was great-a proper chilled and stretchy one. Just what was needed and would have been the perfect cool down after a run. Hey ho! I got home with no charge left on my phone, my headphones or myself so all got plugged in and I had a power nap.
430pm is a weird time to start a run and a chilled one seemed best. I almost didn’t make it out but I wanted to get my 3 mile tick on the plan. As I started, I just didn’t fancy an easy run. I looked at what was saved on my phone and “Next Speed Run” was there from an earlier week on the plan. That would do! I’ve definitely done it before and thought it wouldn’t get me the full distance but I wasn’t too worried.
NRC speed runs never have enough warm up for my liking. I went for a power walk up the steep path and added five minutes easy run before starting. I was pleased that the lane where I was planning to run was in the shade. A few stretches and it was time to go.
This is a nice speed run because it’s a real mix of efforts and durations. The recovery periods are all one minute which I swear gets shorter as time goes on! The first minute at 5k pace followed by rest then two minutes at 10k pace felt tough-especially as I’d accidentally added some uphill running. It was satisfying to be able to hold on and the forty five seconds at mile pace felt much shorter. It was hot despite the shade big nothing like it has been. That made all the difference.
There was an awkward moment when on of my intervals finished just behind a dog walker and I had to carry on in case it looked like I’d stopped to talk to him!
It was hard work but really fun and if felt great to really feel like I was flying along. There were some bonus new faster numbers on the watch too-my VO2 max has finally ticked up to the next number which I’m thrilled about. Garmin is fussy and I expect will knock it back down next time but I’m celebrating today! There were pretty clear differences between the paces I was aiming for which is definitely progress over time! Most of all, I’ve got a massive smile. Speed runs are the absolute best for that (for me anyway!). Plus I almost covered three miles so I extended the cool down a little to properly earn my tick after all!
Happy running everyone!
week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?