Woke up a bit late and frankly didn't feel like doing anything let alone running, but that's the joy of having a partner who can jolly me along on days like this. He suggested a new route, about 6km, around the back streets, over the railway bridge, past the butcher and industrial estate then over the fields, to the river and home. (This description sounds like we live in urban squalor, all these places are surrounded by open fields and involve pretty industries!)
We set off. When we were indoors it was cloudy but just as we were about to start running the sun came out, full strength, really hot. We revised our plans and turned back to do our usual 3k route.
Of course, I'd got mentally geared up for a bigger challenge than that. I decided to try out GTFC 's recommendation of Splits.
I ran for just over a km until I reached the concrete farm road then had 30 seconds fast. It felt fantastic, tingles all over just letting it go after being so sedate for a week or so. Once the time was up I slowed down and carried on, letting my HR drop a little. That was fun. Turned round and did another 30 seconds. Whoopee! Calmed down, ran another half a km, nice flat bit of path...oh yes, let's go for it. Another 30, which took me nicely to the blackberry bush for a quick snack.
For the rest of the run I found I was going a lot quicker than the first half, even when I tried to slow down. In the end I just went with it. The run may have started on the wrong foot (pardon the pun) but it definitely finished on the right one!
Oh, and NRC tells me I've run 6 weeks on the trot so I feel pretty good 
Confessions of a slow runner
The 12 Runs of Christmas part 3
New route
