Big Up to Jigglemooce who gave me the brilliant tip of "double bagging" my giblets in a secondary pair of boxer shorts! My initial thought was - "That's gonna be pretty uncomfortable" but it wasn't!
So clad in more lycra than George Michael wears when he goes clubbing, I set out on this mornings run at 6.29am. I was glad to have worn my long sleeved Karrimor top over my T shirt cos it was brass monkeys out there. The London temperature has dropped dramatically from being unbearably humid to bloomin' chilly round the hips. It's no wonder us Brits always talk about the weather.
Decided on a different route today, just to mix it up a bit and keep interest. Warm up walk done, I jogged gently through the first K and into the 2nd. Cruising like lycra panther, my running shoes gobbled up the kilometres with ease......until the 3rd K. Suddenly my legs felt tired and heavy. "Oh nooo!" I thought. "I'll have to slow down a bit and try and conserve energy. Perhaps it was the extra weight I was carrying with the secondary sack holders? No, it couldn't be that. I was just tired! Working pretty intensely has definitely made me feel that THIS run wasn't going to be anything to write home about OR indeed to write HERE about!
Pushed on through the 3rd K and into the 4th using my arms as driving pistons, and telling my legs to not let me down. There are some mornings I just know will be slow and I was mentally preparing myself for a 5K in about 32-33 minutes. I've gauged my speed and effort to roughly guess what my finish time will be.......at least I think I have! So eventually I came to a point on my route where I "guessed" the 5K mark was. I kept running and fished my phonoe out of my pocket to see the distance covered. ONLY BLOODY 4K! "Oh, damn and blast!" I said to myself. "Shall I just stop and walk home from here? Or carry on for another K?". I decided on the latter even though it was killing me. I could hardly drag one leg in front of the other, but I told myself that when LAURA cooed in my ear during the training, she used to say keep pushing to the end and you'll feel good about it. I wasn't feeling that good about anything at this stage but kept going, looking at my phone - 4.4K........4.7K......."God this is taking FOREVER!" I said. 4.8K........4.99......5K!!!! AND STOP!
My groin has started to niggle me a bit, though through all that tight lycra I'm surprised it knew it was running at all! I stopped and had a stretch and that seemed to get any discomfort sorted out. I walked home puffing and blowing and didn't even bother about looking at my time. I was pleased to have just completed the 5K distance, and I wondered how on Earth fellow runners like, Juicyju, Aftabs, Malcy, ianoddatruffe etc all seem to go waaaaaaay past 5K with ease! You guys who do that, have my total respect!
Got home and made sure to keep quiet as Mrs Dan was still asleep. I stretched for a good ten minutes, making sure my legs were all ok, I peeled off my layers of lycra and threw them in the washing machine, then popped up for my shower.
Whilst drinking my smoothie of rasberries, strawberries and blueberries mixed with raw oats and fat free yoghurt (and cranberry juice for the liquid!) I lazily looked at my phone. "May as well check my time for the laugh" I said.
Imagine my complete and utter surprise when I saw the figures - 5K in 29'10 secs!
What??????? How????? Bloomin' 'eck?????
Must've been the lycra eh?.............
Priceless blog! You are amazing, well done. Cheers, Linda
Wow well done Dan, what a lovely surprise...
🏃Virtual 5K Run 2 -- A Tale Of Two Hills🏃
A cautionary tale...
W8R1 - A tale of two runs and my first 5k!!!!!
A cautionary tale!
