Joy of joys, I'm running again!!
With a weeks enforced rest after overdoing it at parkrun last Saturday, I have just completed my most enjoyable run, since W9R2. From the first step I started smiling as all the niggles seemed to have settled down. I found a pace well below my average pace so as not to exacerbate the recovering injuries and decided to do a couple of 1.5k loops around the top of the hill near home, to check that all was well, before heading out on the rest of my course. I was a bit later starting today and so there were a lot more dog walkers around, which was great.
My leisurely pace meant that I could exchange a few words with all of them, especially when they saw me on my second lap. One woman, who I vaguely know, said,"You must be mad." to which I replied " I've never felt better in my life" and she said "Well done. Good for you". A seed planted,perhaps? I got smiles from all of them, even Mr Grumpy.
Runkeeper is not living up to its name. I start the workout at the end of warmup, but when it came up with my first 10 minute notification, I discovered that I had not run any distance at all but with the bonus of returning a 1k PB of 00.00, which will take some beating.
I enjoyed my music today. Funky, jazzy Afro grooves from Fela Kuti and Rikki Ililonga, matched my mood and I burst into a huge grin when Jack White let rip in Seventh Son. I think I tuned out most of the music during C25k, except Julie, of course.
The sun shone over the mist in the valleys, I said hello to Dartmoor (twice) and all was well with my world. There was no digging deep, no fighting demons, no threatening joints, just easy, gentle running. (Maybe I've found my panther?) With plenty in reserve, I jogged up the hill at the end of my route and could have gone on for ages, I am sure, had I not arrived at my "5 Minutes walk to home" waypoint.
Just before this, the satellites had deigned to acknowledge my presence and so recorded my run as 0.28k in 44.22, which gave me a PW (Personal Worst) average 1k pace of 159 minutes, which I will strive to beat some day. My estimate is that I ran about 7.5k, which is probably my longest run to date, but the important thing was to get running again and enjoy it
Joy of joys, I'm running again!!