Did my first run of the week on Tuesday. Legs felt heavy and hungover like they still had the 5km in them from the previous Friday. Managed 3.2km in about 23 minutes and called it a day.
On Thursday I had a breakthrough. For the first time I managed to pace myself to start slower and finish stronger. Before now I always thought I was going slow at the start but wasn't going slow enough and was paying for it dearly by the 20 minute mark. Finished the 30 minutes having done 4.2km in a new record pace of 7:08 minutes per km. Was really, really chuffed.
Went out this afternoon and the first 15 minutes of running were not good. Extremely slow and not helped by the fact that Runkeeper didn't register the first 5 minutes or so. However, by the (registered) 15 minute mark I felt good and was able to pick up the pace and even managed a slight incline at the end! Absolutely loved running down the other side, helped bring the average down to 7:28 minutes per km after a very, very slow beginning. Ran a registered 3.81km but can add another 0.6km to that and a total running time of about 33 minutes (28:23 minutes registered on Runkeeper).
So, what have I learned this week?
1. Run in the morning. I need to get out and do it before lunch if at all possible or forget it and wait till the next day.
2. Always take a tissue. Was very cold doing my warm up walk and thought I may have to blow my nose on my top at one point. Didn't warm up until about 10 minutes into the running.
3. Always make sure Runkeeper is registering your activity before you get too far into it as it can course confusion and delay otherwise and is really quite demoralising.
4. Always have "Come With Me" by Puff Daddy and Jimmy Page on your playlist at about the 15-20 minute mark. Never fails to give me the impetus I need to carry on.
5. Pacing. Not sure I've completely cracked it but have done ok over the last couple of runs and will be hoping to carry that on now I've had the epiphany.
Altogether it's been a good week, constantly learning about this running malarkey and looking forward to my next run on Tuesday. Aiming for 5km again next Friday if possible - see what the weather's like and how I'm feeling - so am hoping that a 30 minute run on Tuesday will give me the boost I need. Fingers crossed.
x
Well done for starting more slowly - 7.08/km looks pretty darn good to me! Have a great week 
Week 8 run 1 done! 😃
Week 7 Run 3
Week 9 Run 3 - Course completed 😀
