W5R1 - Morning aches & 🧭Route Dilemmas

[sHAYM4N]

Here arrives the dreaded week 5! 😊

Really was a bit worried about this run this morning. Not because of the schedule or anything, but I was aching pretty badly when I got up.

Despite not running since Friday - I had done a 7 mile walk yesterday with the 🐶and a 5 miler on Saturday and I was feeling it. Strava tells me I've tallied up 40 miles in a week walking and running, so probably should have taken a proper rest day yesterday 😩

Anyway I got on with it, and felt better by the time of the first run.

strava.com/activities/18916...

I have a bit of a problem with my route at the moment in that it's not going to be long enough for the eventual 5K (or even fridays 20 minuter), and have been looking for ways to extend it, so took a detour today down to the roundabout, and a longer return trip. Fell very lucky with all the runs in that apart from the first 5 minuter, they were all flat or downhill, all the uphills fell on my walking sections.

The route has a decent sized hill in the middle of it which has made me a bit more weary of Friday, I know I could avoid it and take a more gradual route back up the main road, but not sure which I will pick yet. If I want to be a runner I'm going to have to face the route at some point, but should I just make Friday as easy as possible for myself? I'm very 50/50 at the moment I feel I could manage it, just would really need to slow the pace down for the duration, and I think the gains may outweigh the negatives if I can tackle it head on. For 5k it still wouldn't be long enough, but would have to extend it past my start point which is mostly downhill should I ever get there.

May see if I can adjust my route slightly so that the runs land more on the hills for wednesday, and take it from there. For now just happy I managed this one without too much of a problem. 🤞

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Good run. Personally I’d avoid the hill for run 3... if you want to test yourself on it you get 4 identical runs starting the end of next week, so you could run it flat a couple of times and then add the hill in.

For a 5k run, do you have a local parkrun? You can get that route on Strava and go have a look at it, maybe walk it once. The other option is to stick to your route and go for a second lap.

[sHAYM4N Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

Great points, yeah we do have a park run, but I'm not really a fan of doing circuits, I think its a mental block. I like my routes to have a beginning a middle and an end for some reason! 🤣

I'm probably overplaying the hill it's not really that steep at all - just seems it on my first 20 minuter, and both before and after it are some decent downhill sections where I could hopefully prepare & recover. prntscr.com/l3jedy

It would be over within a couple of minutes. I'm yet to redo a run yet, so if I do attempt it & fail I may just try the easier route. I may just decide when I get to the roundabout on the day, as I should be able to judge how I'm feeling by that point.

[UnfitNoMore Graduate in reply to sHAYM4N]

Sounds like a good plan. It’s a fair incline, sort of thing I’ve avoided thus far 😂

[sHAYM4N Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

It's very hard to avoid them around here, why its so hard to find a 5k route thats not a circuit! 🤣

[UnfitNoMore Graduate in reply to sHAYM4N]

Same here... I’m doing lots of circuits and wondering what made me move to the high peak... there was a clue in the council name 😂

[sHAYM4N Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

🤣 ah well, it's all got to be good for us right?! Only just realized actually that wednesdays run is 2x8 minute run blocks, so that should give me a good opportunity to test a couple of them for size. Will see where I am then, thanks for the advice!

[Oldlady57]

Any chance you could start at a different point so you could go down the hill instead of up? It’s what l did👍🏻

[sHAYM4N Graduate in reply to Oldlady57]

Great point! One I hadnt thought of actually, I could reverse the entire route, then the hills would be longer and less steep, but if I plod along for too long I'd worry I might lose motivation (& less enjoyable) , so not sure if getting them done & dusted may work better at the moment.

[Oldlady57 in reply to sHAYM4N]

Get your point, longer but less steep. Think that would drain my enthusiasm too. I’m surrounded by hills so can’t avoid them lol. Hope you find a flatter route 👍🏻