Having drunk an entire bottle of a rather good chardonnay last night whilst watching our glorious football team get mullered by Uraguay, I awoke this morning determined to go out for a run. It'd been 12 days since my 10K fun run (58'59 if you please!) and now that the lurgy inside my body felt like it was on it's way out I thought I was fit and healthy enough to hit the road.
Sporting a brand new pair of black running tights and black running top and a new hair style to boot, I hollered farewell to Mrs Dan and off I went. I decided to run 5K thinking that it wouldn't be too much and it would be interesting to see if 12 days away had made any difference to my fitness. I set off at a fair old pace knowing that I could easily switch to a low gear should it get too hard going for me. The first two were easy and my chest wasn't heaving much at all, however at the start of the 3rd, my legs started to feel heavy - "Uh oh! Time to engage low gear Danno. Slowwww down baby!" I slowed right down and lollopped across Old Deer Park feeling tired already. I put this down to my cold rather than my fitness dropping off so I didn't get too down in the dumps. I reached the A316, a busy dual carriageway with a brilliant bit of pavement which looks like a running track. I'd tonked up and down here loads over the past year and off I set up the long, long slope towards Twickenham Bridge. It was halfway up this slope that I had to stop for a walk. My legs and demeanour were exhausted and there was still 2K to go. I gave myself a lovely full 60 seconds of delicious walking before setting off again and didn't stop until I'd reached "favourite lamp post Number Two." Quick look at Endomondo and 28'52 secs was my time which took me by surprise as I'd been expecting something over 30 mins. Must've been those fastish early K's that did it.
Still not 100%, but I'm glad to have got this one under my belt. Because it had been almost two weeks since my last run, I was beginning to find it easy not bothering to go out, using my cold as an excuse, but in fact I now feel that the next one will be better.
Mrs Dan and I are off on hols next week and I shall be taking my trainers with me for a run along the seafront in Cyprus. It'll have to be an evening "pre dinner run time" as it's hotter than Ghandi's slipper out there this time of year!!
To all you parkrunners tomorrow - GOODLUCK!
To all you C25K'ers working through the program - KEEP AT IT!
To all graduates doing the weekend run thang - GO GET 'EM!
I shall see you all again soon,
Tally ho!
Dan