WALKING ON WATER!

[danzargo]

Well good morning dear reader. It's bright, crisp, cool and sunny in London town and I'm just out of the shower, had brekky and managed to cut myself shaving under my left nostril. I'm doing that "corner-of-a-piece-of-loo-roll thing which I've stuck to my face and I look like Alf Garnett's younger brother!

However, the reason for this blogette is to report on my mornings 7K run along the Thames between Isleworth and Twickenham (via Richmond). I realised last week that I ran every other day - which was 4 runs - and didn't have my usual 2 days off (which I usually do). I had intended to take this morning off from running but seeing as I have a days work tomorrow I thought it better to get it out of the way at the very reasonable hour of 9:45am rather than 6:30am tomorrow!

I clad myself in my lycra SuperDan outfit (leggings today as it was nippy!) and set off. I was bouncing around the house, prior to going out, with ease and aplomb and thought that today might be easier than last Sundays outing (which was HARD - same distance). However within 100 metres I felt heavy and tired. "Ohhhh bugger!" I said to myself. "What a pain in the arris". I didn't stop though and hoped that once I'd reached 1K I'd be warmed up enough to get into a rhythm. I have to say, it didn't really improve much from that point on and I felt I was dragging my legs along behind me, like two telephone poles!

I did not stop for a walk interval at any point, but DID slow down to just above walking pace by keeping a jogging action. I tried all sorts of things - picking my feet up more, using my arms to drive me forward, thinking of the "bicycle wheel motion" thing, keeping my head up...... but yet my glutes felt like they were buzzing (not in a comfortable way). My bum muscles were aching too which added to the heavy feeling.

"Oh damn and BLAST! How do folks do half marathons? I mean HOW DO THEY DO IT?" I asked myself - which I have to say didn't help, cos I imagined finishing my 7K and then someone saying to me "OK DAN me lad! Do that two more times, then we can finish up and go get a fried egg sarnie!"

Ugh! For some reason my mental state was in Negative Mode and it was all I could do to NOT give up. I did manage to finish my run with a bit of extra effort towards the end and looked down at my Timex IronMan Watch - 41'01 it said. So about my usual time then. How the hell did that happen?

With some further investigation on Endomondo, it appears I achieved 3 PB's! A fastest Cooper @ 2.46KM, a fastest 1K @ 3'54 (????) and a fastest 3K @ 14'40 (??)

But Endomondo had LIED! It has told us untruths. It has been less than accurate with it's reporting. It has told me a bunch of PORKIE PIES dear reader. How do I know this? Just look at the zig zag between 1&2K, where I apparently walked on water (or rather "ran" on water) by crossing the Thames and then dashing back to the other side to continue my run. This most Holy action accounts for the single K at 3'54!! No f'ing way - especially the way I felt this morning! But more encouraging were the stats on other parts of the run which I can confidently say looked more accurate - a fastest K of 5'07 and a couple of 5'33's in there too.

So again, I am amazed at how you can think one thing when running and then in reality the end results are quite different. The fact is though, I didn't enjoy this run cos it was so hard. Soooo bloody hard on my legs - but I kept at it and gritted my teeth and got to the end. So although not a happy run - a successful one.

And I got to walk on water. What next? Turning water into wine? Wouldn't THAT be a gas!!

God bless you my children.

[Hidden]

Heehee. Blimey I bet the Thames is a bit chilly today! Keep your toes well away from that I reckon!

Well done for overcoming the gremlins and on your PB's... x

[Runon Graduate]

Wow - cool post there. Will be sending you a few crates of water if you would be so kind!

Now here's a couple of points - looking at your miraculous water crossing - did you by any chance happen to step onto anything that looked liked a small ship - a ferry for example. As for strange perceptions of timings these can be put down to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity - in which he states that: 'When you travel very fast things go weird.'

Well done pushing through the pain barrier there and on the PB. Now if you wouldn't mind taking a quick look at that water...

[Tomas Graduate]

What can I say... you have God-like powers, Dan!

Let me guess, though. Do you use a smart phone for the track recording?

Sounds like you did really well for an "off day". Well done

[TurboTortoise Graduate]

Ha ha, to slightly misquote the amazing* Chris de Burgh I hope you didn't pay the ferryman...

I wonder if you set off too fast? You clocked some speedy kms there. I've found that struggling to push through that heavy-legged feeling at the start is a sure way to a difficult run, so I've just started going with the flow, which for me is to run really, really slowly (keeping the breathing under control) for around 1km, as a warm up, until everything clicks.

*JOKE

[danzargo Graduate in reply to TurboTortoise]

The sad thing is....that I went to see Chris De Burgh at the Royal Albert Hall in 1982! What can I say.....I was offered free tickets....I didn't know who he was....

Too fast is probably right. But like you, I do find it INCREDIBLY hard to go slow on my own. When I ran in Cornwall with my father in law, I went at 10 times less than snail pace and felt FAB! I tried to mimic that today, but can't remember the snail speed????!!!

Plus TT - todays endomondo readings were massively out. It said my first K was 8'20!!!! I haven't done an 8 minute K since April 2013 when I was doing the prog. So maybe my 5'07 et al were all wrongly reported?

[TurboTortoise Graduate in reply to danzargo]

I hope he sang in tune. Gawd it's brought back memories of slow dancing to Lady in Red in 1986 *shudder*...

I found endomondo pretty good, especially for a free program, but it does have its black spots. It was better than the Aldi gps watch I took back to the shop, which once claimed I ran across a motorway at 20mph and through Grangemouth oil refinery.

[Anniemurph Graduate]

I may have mentioned this before, but Mr. Endomondo and I have a rather complicated relationship. I ditched Mr. Runkeeper for Mr. E because Mr. R wouldn't focus on me enough and on several occasions took his attention off me during a run. I'm not used to this, to be honest, so I declared our relationship over and cosied up to Mr. E. However, although he is much better at paying attention to me, when I look at the record of where we have been afterwards, he quite often says we've taken a diversion into the bushes and the woods by the side of the trail, sometimes for quite a way into a secluded area. Now I'm not really that kind of gal, you know? So your river excursion doesn't surprise me at all, Dan, and I suggest that you're a bit careful when you're running through Richmond Park. Wouldn't want to upset Mrs. Dan, and it looks like Mr. E might have his eye on you as well

[tomlertoos Graduate]

Hi Dan! Have been out of the loop for about 4 weeks....your post is the first one I see! Thanks for making me smile....so glad I decided to get out the door once again today. Now that the weather is cooling down somewhat, I just feel I might be getting 'loopy' again!!