Captains Log. Star Date "Dry January DAY 18"....
Good afternoon, my fine young running chums. How are you all this fine weekend? Fighting fit I trust.
I thought I'd report on my running week which ended today with a glorious, monumental, fantabulous PB!
Cast your minds back to tuesday of this week...... It was a cold damp morning. The 6am alarm woke me from my slumber and I wearily got out of bed to clean my teeth and strain my greens. Pulled on my running gear and made my way downstairs...backwards. Our stairs are steep (old Victorian cottage) and going down backwards on your hands and knees is far more secure when you're completely knackered. I took a peep outside to see if it had stopped raining - it had! Hooray! I fed the kitty cats and drank a glass of cranberry juice and then popped back upstairs to get my phone. I was going to fire up both ENDOMONDO AND STRAVA and see how they both got on with each other during the run. Crept quietly to the front door and opened it....
OH MY GOOD GOD!! It was absolutely teaming rain!!! Part of me wanted to turn back and just not bother with this run, but the other half told me I'd regret it if I didn't go.
"Once more into the breach dear friends!" I said to myself and strode outside. In 9.3 seconds flat I was soaked from head to foot. Suffice to say I cut my warm up walk short because I was bloody freezing and wanted to start running to warm up properly! I was planning on 5K, but frankly, the rain made me feel heavy and leaden and I made the decision to do just 3K - but how things change when you're up and running (literally). By 1K the rain had stopped. This gave me great cheer so I decided to carry on with my original plan. To cut a long story short, I made it home having run 6K! Excellent. Went to work. Came home. Ate a delicious dinner Mrs Dan cooked. Still no booze though. Dry January and all that....
FRIDAY ; it was dry and cold. It was 6.30am and I was in a good frame of mind having given myself TWO DAYS off from running. I chose a new route for my morning run and ran past a deserted Twickenham Station, past York House where I was married 3.5 years ago and turned left through St Margarets and past Twickenham Film Studios where I had worked on many an occasion over the years on enormous box office flops!! Apart from nearly being run over by a dog the size of a wolf which came shooting out of an alleyway as it towed it's owner along, it was a beautiful run. The wolf's owner apologised and I shouted "NO problem" as I headed homeward bound. This run totalled 7K - so a wee bit longer than the wet run of tuesday.
TODAY. SUNDAY : One thing about this forum is that it encourages you to try and push yourself. Having read an incredible post by TurboTortoise recently about a 10K run through lakes of mud and up and down mountains which was followed last week by a JuicyJu post about her fastest 10K in 58 minutes, I was ready for a fight this run. It's two weeks until the London Winter Run and I wanted to push my body harder than I've ever pushed it.
I decided last night on a 10K and I went over the route in my head. I imagined myself doing it in 58 minutes (just like Panther Girl). I saw myself having enough energy to keep going and romp home in a glorious time. My fastest 10K to this point 56'59 back in August, but since then I've come nowhere near that pace and put it down to a freak run. Either that or Endomondo lied through her teeth about the time.
I started STRAVA and ENDOMONDO. I set my watch, ready to press "GO" when I started running. I'd warmed up.....I was ready to run....GO FOR IT DANNO!!
The first 4K I was like Superman. Running fast and forcefully, passing a couple of other runners along the Thames path and feeling good. I'd reached where I had to turn off from the river and head into Twickenham high street. Left down Cross Deep and past the beauty salon where Mrs Dan had had a few spray tans a few years ago. It had closed down! Blimey. It was at this stage that I was thinking about roughly guessing where the 5K mark was, because what I was planning to do was to turn round and run exactly the same route home as I had come. "I know, I'll look at my watch!" I thought. If it said 30 minutes I knew I would have done 5K by then, so I could turn round.
I'd forgotten to start my watch. What a wazuck! I kept running on and then decided to fish my phone out of my running tights. It said I'd already run 6K! Damn. That meant it was 6K home - further than I'd wanted to run. Ah well, can't be helped...
I turned round and started to retrace my route. I was getting a bit of muscle ache in my right thigh which came in waves. I would run a K fine, then it would flare up and be pretty sore. I kept running through it, but at around 8 or 9K I had to stop for a stretch. My 'time' would have to take 2nd priority over my body - if I lost valuable seconds then so be it. I walked for about 30 seconds after the stretch then set off running again. I felt a bit better and picked up the pace. I had no bloody idea where my 10K marker was so I just kept on running.....on and on.....past Richmond Lock.....onto the river path final section......"Owww! My thigh!" I had to slow right down again as the thigh pain went "kazzoinng" again. Eventually I guessed I MUST have run 10K by now.....and walked the rest of the way home.
WELL SHIVER ME TIMBERS, BLOW ME DOWN AND CALL ME MO FARAHS LOVE CHILD!! I checked my times and I'd only done it in 55'43!! A Personal Best by a long way for lil ol' me!! HOORAAAAAYYYYY!! In fact, I'd run a total of 12K having screwed up starting my watch earlier - so that was another little thing to feel pleased about too!
I immediately had a fried egg sandwich to celebrate. I'd burned well over a 1000 calories and I luxuriated in the way the soft yolk gently splooged over the bread. It was deeeeelicious! Put a few grains of sea salt on it too which made it even more dreamy....
The jacuzzi afterwards was also cosmic. Hot and relaxing. Boy, am I a happy dude!
Thanks for reading this ridiculously long post. If you got to the end and desire a fried egg sandwich then MAKE ONE NOW!!!
See you next week.
Yer pal
Dan.
New Park run PB - very happy 
