Good afternoon fellow runners! Aussie here with a quick update on my attempt at 10 miles this morning...
Set off a bit later than I wanted this morning, I left the house around 8am this morning (although thankful for the extra hour sleep). I fuelled up on an energy bar, a double espresso and 500ml of water with one of those fancy electrolyte tablets in it... The belt was loaded up with 600ml of the energy drink and a gel... keys safely stowed away in the pocket and we're off for the 5 minute warm up! The sun is up, the air is crisp... today is a good day!
5 minutes up and we're into the run - nice and easy. I've got about 3km to run before I hit Richmond Park (as I have 16.1km to do today) so it's pounding the pavement and a slight uphill into Richmond Park. I feel strong by the 2km mark and I'm pushing my heart rate a bit higher than normal and still feeling good.. my breathing is good and any dull aches and twinges in the legs have settled down...
Now we're into the park proper and it's a clockwise loop again around the Tamsin Trail... The same route I ran last week so I know what to expect... the first 5km click by effortlessly with a slight uphill after Ham Gate to the road which I quickly recover from... onwards from Pembroke Lodge and it's downhill (reverse of the Parkrun) and I feel really good - legs are moving as expected, breathing is okay... I'm one third of the way there!
Breaking this into chunks helps me mentally... I'm still being overtaken by plenty of lovely young things but I figure they must only be doing 5km today... (that's what I tell myself anyway)... I'm loving my music as I make my way around the north eastern edge of the park... and it's about now I meet some of the people I saw back at Kingston Gate... they're doing the loop the other way so we're about half way now (quick nods of acknowledgment - "yep - we're doing the whole loop today aren't we.. we rock!")... Now we're about 8K and it's a slight downhill and then flat to Roehampton Gate... Sun is shining, heart rate is up but I feel good and sense my pace is good (for me anyway)... push on!
About 10K I hit a bit of a wall... I feel a bit tired now... time for a gel, some water and to change the tunes on the playlist... hit the "running to rock" playlist and a blast of 80s metal fixes me right up... singing along to a bit of Poison in the park... that'll show this trail who's boss! On we go... towards my foe... that hill! That killer hill... Amazing what a change of music did... recognising I was flagging a bit and then responding to it was a learning experience... it's a mental thing by now... I'm fit enough to keep going so I trick my mind a bit to convince it I can... then it forgets about being tired... Ha!
A load of people are walking down the killer hill as I hit the bottom of it (some walking group I suppose)... "You're not going to run up that are you?" says one of them... "Of course I am" I say foolishly... damn it - now I need to run up it as they're watching! Okay, speed up the steps, shorten the stride, deep breaths... keep it going! I hit the top, arms in the air, cheer from the group below... awesome! 
I'm about 13K into my run now and within minutes have recovered from the hill climb... downhill now towards Kingston Gate (again my fastest km) and then out of the park and onto the pavement again... 15K comes along and I feel a pain in my lower left leg... it's annoying me but it's not too bad... feels like a cramp... I can't stop now.. I've got less than a km to go... right - let's just slow down ever so slightly and push on...
Fortunately the pain goes within the next 500m (I'm convinced it was due to being pounded on concrete pavement after 90 minutes on trail)... and I hit the 16km mark... 100m to go... this was a tough ask... the Garmin buzzed at 16km and I wanted to stop... I REALLY wanted to stop... 100m is not that far is it? It is quite far when you've just run 16 THOUSAND metres...
DONE! Just under 1:44... I kept a higher pace (6:27m/km) and heart rate for the entire distance today which is a testament to the training to date and my increasing fitness. It was still a "comfortable" run... I'm convinced pace comes as you get fitter and by putting in the miles - NOT by pushing every time you head out....
Oh - and just as a bonus, a 10K PB today (1:02)... wow! A couple of splits are under 6 minutes too... I can't believe it when I upload the data... what a great run... over 1200 calories burned too! Have it!
To recover from this I THEN went out with Mrs Aussie for W1R3... my 6 year old girl did it with her and I plodded along with our 4 year old girl..... So, that's Week 1 DONE for Mrs Aussie... onto Week 2 next week... proud of her!
Now time to rest! After chocolate milkshake for protein and pasta for lunch to get the carbs back in..
16100 metres... In only TWENTY FOUR weeks I've gone from W1R1 and struggling with 8 intervals of 1 minute to running almost a half marathon on a Sunday as ONE of my runs of the week...
This week I've done a 6K recovery run on Tuesday, W1R1 with Mrs A on Wednesday, 5K of interval work on Thursday, W1R2 with Mrs A on Friday... rested on Saturday and done 16.1K and W1R3 today... and I've never felt better...
Can't thank you all enough for your support (and to be honest, Sweatshop for sorting out my trainers after my injury) and I can't wait until October and my races... and Feb for that half marathon... I feel I could run one next week (and I now know I could!)...
Have a great Sunday y'all.... Runday was awesome today!
x
Halfway to a half... 
