I set off tonight knowing that 25mins is doable & within my range since I have done it twice before already & after my last outing I decided to try and do an extended warmup walk, 3mins of music then started the podcast.
Then into my new route - (having decided from now on that I am done with running in the shadows of tall warehouses) so I dropped down onto the canal towpath and set off - deliberately keeping holding the pace back.
It's a lovely stretch - nicely tarmaced towpath with wide flat grass verges & goes out for about 10k until the next town - so should provide be a 20k loop!!!! - so this was always going to be my target to get running next to the canal.
Since I now know that it is usual and okay for me to adjust and re-adjust my pace and style during the first few mins so I wasn't too worried about the aches and pains - they are just something I need to get used to when I set off. And sure enough when I get to the 5 mins time check things had eased and settled down.
I began to wonder where the half way turn around point would be & neatly this was right next to a lock gate so a nice little landmark for next time. Then its back from where I came, so I roughly know where I could expect to finish.
But then it must have been around 20 mins or so & this was the first time I really felt my heart rate & it really felt achy - not painful, but noticeably difficult.
I'm afraid that I gave in at that point, and fell back to walking pace for about 2 mins - I just needed to recover for a few minutes - plus I wanted to make sure that nothing was too serious (first time this has happened) anyway as soon as I was round my next bend and heading back into town I picked it back up and was running.
"Finish Strong" said Laura - first up I swore at her - then I swore at myself - and finally out came my inner child - just how fast can I really go in the last 1 minute.
Turns out that I can do 3:45 mins/km .... whoda thought!?!?
Happy Running!!