Oops, missed a day

[Maddee_6333]

My son brought his girlfriend down to meet me for the first time, so we went out for a family dinner with my daughter, her OH and my youngest grandsprocket. Afterwards son and girlfriend headed off to have a couple of drinks with his friends and I fully intended to run up and down stairs several times while they were out.

Instead?

I fell asleep on the sofa.

Sitting upright with one dog on my lap and the other one snuggled up beside me.

I woke up when they got home.

There was no way I could run up and down stairs after they had gone to bed, and I wasn’t just about to head off into the world at close to midnight, so I had to admit defeat.

This morning, being another day, we all headed off to the river so that Merlin and I could participate in the local clubs’ first Time Trial event of the new season - it’s all very informal, but a another useful tool for me as I do find it hard to push myself when I’m out on my own.

I’d already decided that Today was going to be the day that I let Merlin run the whole 5k, instead of making him take walk breaks, and it turned out to be an excellent day for it. Glorious sunshine and though it was really cold in the shade that was a bit of a blessing as he set off at a pretty fast clip.

5.53k in 30.56minutes \o/

#RunEveryDay - unless you’re still working your way through C25K or have recently finished

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

That’s it... you’ll have to start again in November 😂

[Maddee_6333 Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

😂😂😂

Restart tomorrow, if my Achilles will let me 👌

[UnfitNoMore Graduate in reply to Maddee_6333]

You’ve done amazingly... I was just pulling your leg

[Maddee_6333 Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

I know 🙃

[SaskAlliecat Graduate]

Merlin had his mind set! He was running, wasn't he! Great job. Don't be hard on yourself about missed days; sometimes we have to stop and listen to our bodies. Yours was saying sleep and you nailed a fast clip today with Merlin!

[Maddee_6333 Graduate in reply to SaskAlliecat]

There was a post on a Canicross page the other day asking how many minutes running with a dog takes off people’s 5k times. People were saying a minute or maybe a couple of minutes. I didn’t dare reply that running with Merlin takes at least a minute per KM off my times 😁

Really am going to have work on my speed.

[SaskAlliecat Graduate in reply to Maddee_6333]

Keep letting Merlin set the pace and you’ll be flying in no time 😅

[Maddee_6333 Graduate in reply to SaskAlliecat]

😜

[ArthurJG Graduate]

Run every day is not good advice for most of us, to be fair. Even elite athletes take rest days, they just need fewer than most of us because of the high level of conditioning and fitness but rest days are not an invention of the C25k programme and don't only apply to particular programmes.

[Maddee_6333 Graduate in reply to ArthurJG]

Oh I know, but I thought I’d give the challenge a good ‘go’. My own criteria for what qualifies as a ‘run’ were set very low.

[ArthurJG Graduate in reply to Maddee_6333]

Well yes it does depend on whether you're actually running (though it doesn't depend on speed). But from my reading it appears running causes microtears in muscles: the muscles get stronger as they repair on rest days so rest days are a key part of how the training works. If you run every day the tears just get bigger and your muscles don't get a chance to grow stronger - hence the much greater risk of injury, even if you don't feel tired. As I understand it, missing a run causes less harm than missing a rest day, at least in the first year or so.

[Maddee_6333 Graduate in reply to ArthurJG]

That sounds about right 👍