Didnt blog I. Thursday (which felt wrong, still feel I have to blog to truly complete a run), but we did the canal in the opposite direction from Monday. We took it a bit slower and I avoided the horrible stitch. I had the mapmyrun lady in my ear and waited till we'd gone a little past 2k before turning round, figuring if we had done 4.5 with a walk in the middle, we should be able to do just over 4k straight running. Kept going after she said 4k but ended up going a but fast for last bit. Stopped when felt like it and had done 4.3 k in 35 mins.
That inspired me to suggest we try for 4.5 today. Didnt want to go straight from the 4k of graduation to 5k as it seemed to big a jump. Used mapmyrun to measure a course but didnt use the course direct on run as had heard some people on here having issues, just remembered a good point to turn. It's basically around the golf course plus an extra bit rerun out and back (a slightly shorter version of the local parkrun). Of course this meant "the hill" - I'm sure not that steep to many runners but quite enough for us. We still go round the opposite direction to the park run. Our way means a steady climb, but it lasts from the 1k to 2k mark on the run. If we went the other way it would be one very short sharp climb, a levelling out and then another slightly longer steadier climb. As I go up our way I think "next time we're trying the other way, this is awful" but as I come down the steep bit I think, "maybe not, this is very steep!" Anyway, we made it round, stopped where I hoped 4.5 l was (I thought I'd set the lady up to tell me every 1/2 km , but she still came in every km. fortunately I'd guessed right and we'd done it in 35.7 mins! So more or less the same time as the flat canal 4.3k! Feel so chuffed, even though I know loads of people out there are doing further/faster. 3 months ago couldn't run at all!