It's a bank holiday over here in Germany and loads of people also take the Friday off - including me. So all week I have been planning my long weekend exercise-wise, all excited especially as, for once, the weather is brilliant. One thing was certain, today is the day for a longer run. 7 k was the aim and as that is quite long and I tend to overdo it I used my HRM to ensure I kept the pace down. Maybe pushing myself over 5k is acceptable, but not over longer distances - yet. So when hubby set off to work this afternoon (chefs don't get bank holidays) I set off out of the door with him. It was really nippy, despite the sunshine. An icy east wind made me shiver on my warm up - but I really appreciated it later on. There were more people around than usual - surprise, surprise - but nobody looks pityingly at me. They look at me as if I'm a runner, I nod at other runners coming towards me, I overtake walkers and only get overtaken by cyclists. Cars slow down and let me cross roads so I don't have to stop (or are they worried I'll not get going again?). Dog walkers give me a cheery hallo. All this makes me feel like a real runner - but yesterday walking back home through the Olympiapark I was just aghast at all the people out and about running. They were ALL slim, lithe, speedy, young, tremendously fit, bombing along at twice the pace I can go, chatting away, not even breathing heavily. Even the not so young ones were light on their feet, nimble, eating up the miles with such ease, legs up high, no tiredness. I'm not going running there. There aren't so many people around in my fields and woods, so that's where I go with my plodding slowness. It wasn't an easy run today, the first 5 k were reasonable but the end was a bit of a struggle and I walked a bit towards the end. Part of me still doesn't accept walking as part of my run, but you lovely lot have taught me it's OK. I had a few gremlins doing a running commentary on how far I still had to run, on how I couldn't possibly run all that way, on how slow I was, on how hot I was, on how I wasn't picking my feet up enough and would be sure to trip on the rough ground etc. Funny how sometimes they shut up really quickly and other times whisper in your ear ALL THE WAY!
I did 7.7 km (in an hour - sigh), but that's fine, the last 700m I threw caution to the wind and ran outside the range I allowed on my HRM. Otherwise I kept down to 140 bpm and under (maybe even fat-burning range).
Tomorrow I may break all the rules about running on consecutive days and do the podcast Speed. We're going hiking in the mountains on Saturday so I can't run. And experience tells me that I will be sore on Sunday and probably need a rest day.
So lots of exercise this weekend - and I love it!
Another Longer Slow Run 🙂
The Return of the Running Tomato (or, another w2 run..)
Another run bites the dust :)
Another practice run, with a twist!
Wk8 D3 another practice run
