5k personal best, yay!

[SunnyMummy]

Today wasn't panning out to be a very good run day this morning but nonetheless, out I went, on a completely unfamiliar route. With hills. As in, running on the lower part of Downs & in & out of the housing areas leading up to them.

First few minutes was a killer with a ridiculously steep 'entrance' to the wooded path I was heading for. It slowed me right down to a walk, which believe me was the better option than expelling any more energy trying to keep up a running motion! But then something weird happened: maybe it was gratitude to find the path levelled out & even went slightly downwards, but I found myself running faster. Comfortably. Enjoyably. By halfway through my planned 30 minute run I realised I was keeping up a faster pace & was SMILING. Wait, what? Anyway, I made a decision. I was not going to stick to the 30 minutes. Instead, I was going to do a full 5k - so far my average 30 min runs have covered about 4.5k at best. So I kept watching my phone (with Strava running) & diverting off to extend my route a bit. And I even managed to increase my pace a bit more here & there, especially near the end. And, I did it, I ran the 5k, fairly comfortably, in... 30:55! Whoop whoop! Nearly my target 30 mins & I feel confident I'll hit that next time.

So, the moral of the story? Throwing in some killer hilly bits seems to make me run faster! 😂

[Theziggy Graduate]

30.55 with a killer hill thrown in - pretty awesome

[SunnyMummy Graduate in reply to Theziggy]

Thanks! To be fair, the killer bit of the hill was only short but it was right at the beginning so I hadn't got any momentum going to get me up it. On the return part I managed to run its equivalent but REALLY slowly. Thankfully the downhill bits were gentler so nice & easy to run ☺