Broke the rules slightly twice but it worked out well :-)

[orchards]

First, I broke the Rest Day rule - I had a lot of driving to do and then a meeting that I knew would be a bit tricky so what better way to get in a good frame of mind for it than go for a run in between? Snag - I'd been out with the running club the evening before. I compromised by doing a very short run on easy ground, just over 1km excluding warm-up/cool-down and felt so much better for it.

Second, I broke the 10% rule. It was beautiful weather here Saturday morning, just right for enjoying all the autumn colours, so I went out for a long (for me) run. I've done 8.8km before, including some walk, and this time I did 10.3km so a bit more than a 10% increase. I reckoned it was all right though because of doing a bit of walk and I felt fine after and really pleased I could manage that distance. I just ran or walked or stopped to take photos without thinking what speed I was doing but took me just under 1 1/2 hours which I was pleased with, especially as there were some hills and quite a bit of mud. I went through orchards, Christmas trees, past fishing lakes and through the pretty bit of woodland in the photo

[Irish-John Graduate]

Fellow Desperadoes then!! I broke the 10% rule this morning too!

Envy you your running locale - that photo stirs a lot of memories of similar surroundings in long ago days

[orchards Graduate in reply to Irish-John]

Disgraceful, all this rule breaking but it was fun

[Irish-John Graduate in reply to orchards]

It was

[orchards Graduate]

I was going to post a photo of the hill that is one of the reasons I walked some but can't see how to post pictures in a reply. Is it possible?

[McFitty Graduate in reply to orchards]

I've always wondered if it were possible to post a picture mid-post as it were. Would love to see your hill, the woodland pic looks ace!

[Pc59 Graduate]

Good for you😊it looks a lovely route too! Rules were made to be broken😀that's the fun part! 😊🏃🏃😊

[Millsie-J Graduate]

Brilliant run, it looks terrific too! I think the 10% rule is against your weekly total, if so you may not be such a rule breaker 😉

[Curlygurly2 Graduate]

Carpe diem and all that! Sometimes you just have to! Your run looks gorgeous, I do this too, just run at my own pace and stop to take pics, it's all part of the fun for me! Congrats on getting to 10K, that's a good feeling isn't it?

[Ullyrunner Graduate]

Lovely place to run. Sounds like you've got away with breaking the rules - just don't do it too often! (Wags finger)

[orchards Graduate in reply to Ullyrunner]

Lol! I'm pretty careful usually, and I did have a proper rest day between the sneaky mini-run and the mega-run

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

You little rebel you Looks beautiful.. and if it feels okay.. then do it

[Sandraj39 Graduate]

Great distance and beautiful photo! Looks like one of my runs - how could you not run a little extra somewhere like that!😉

[Theziggy Graduate]

I have always wondered, is the rest day rule still applicable after graduation? I know runners who do runs for charity which involve doing 5K every day for a month.

[orchards Graduate in reply to Theziggy]

I don't know at what stage people stop always having a rest day - I'm still careful about it because I don't want to overtire muscles and risk injury, and I think it's probably specially important after a longer, more difficult run but then, the more you run the more shorter runs become something you can do without so much effort so probably don't need rest afterwards in the same way. I know one of the reasons for rest is that the body needs to replenish glycogen stores.