Hello fellow runneroos! How are you all today?
Had a mixed run / hill training session today ie. a mixture of success and failure. I awoke with a trapped nerve in my right shoulder - I suppose I must have slept awkwardly. Anyway, I had planned to run up my big hill a few times so I made a juice and kissed Mrs Dan goodbye. "Are you sure you should go out with that shoulder pain?" she said. "I'll be fine!" I replied. "I've taken 2 neurofen!" - and off I went.
As well as my hill torture today, I had also made a plan to see if I could run a single K in the fastest time possible, so once I'd warmed up and reached my starting Lamp Post I started jogging. I reached Richmond Lock which was about half a K away and walked over the footbridge to the other side of the river. A family were going through the lock on their boat and a little girl was sitting on the roof of the cabin looking totally chilled out! As I descended the steps on the other side, a man was carrying his bike down in front of me. I waited for him to sort himself out and once he'd set off, I got my phone out to start Endomondo which would measure my progress over this single K. I pressed "GO" and I was off!
I started at full speed - at least, as fast as I could run! I was tonking along quite nicely, passing mums with buggies, senior citizens out for a stroll and kids playing. Ahead of me the man on the bike was slowing down to pass a family of walkers. They parted for him to ride by and imagine his surprise when yours truly came hurtling along at full speed OVERTAKING HIM! I think the family were surprised too, cos I wasn't slowing down. The bike started to pick up speed, but I was going so fast he couldn't (or rather, didn't!) overtake me and eventually turned off the path towards Richmond. I'd run about half a kilometre and was tiring quickly. I remembered I was 51, not 31 and the fuel in the tank was running out fast. Sheer stubborness made me carry on for the second half of the distance and I reached Richmond Bridge with only about 50 metres to go past there, to make up the full K. Eventually I stopped running and got out my phone - 1K in 4 minutes 33 seconds : MY FASTEST K ever! I was massively pleased with that, but my shoulder pain was increasing and causing me jip. "Blast!" I thought. "Better get on over to the hill then."
I ran the next Kilometre to where Torture Hill was in a more leisurely fashion and once there, I set my watch off to see howlong it would take me to "run" up this mighty elevation. It took 2 mins and 2 secs and at the top I was knackered. Far more knackered than I thought I would be. Perhaps that fast run had used up all my gumption? It was time to go back down.....
Reached the bottom, had a rest then decided to try and beat my previous time going back up again. The second time took 1 min 58 secs, so a whole 4 sec improvement! WOW! Well by this time my shoulder was singing an opera of pain and I was feeling a bit tight chested with exhaustion, so sat down on one of the many benches that grace Richmond Hill. Once I'd got my breath back, I jogged back down to the bottom and made the decision that TWICE up and down was enough today. Sod it, I wasn't gonna kill myself, so I set off for home.
"You're back earlier than I thought you'd be?" said Mrs Dan. "Is it your shoulder?"
"Yes" I replied sheepishly. She had been right earlier and I'd been my usual wazzuck self.
"Told you!" she laughed. "I'll massage it later for you"
So a mixed session today, but very pleased with the fast kilometre. It just goes to show how great it is to be able to run though. You can do what you like, when you like without anyone saying anything negative or disparaging. At least I burned some calories today, got my lungs working and made my fitness levels a tiny knotch better than they were yesterday!!
Have a wonderful weekend fellow runners. Take it easy out there!
