I finally managed to haul my ass out of bed and go for a run in the sun this morning. I struggled until I had a route planned in my head, then it was easy.
As I started out I thought 💭 ‘I’ll make this a fast 5km’. So I put some effort in to the first couple of km, then started to feel weary during km 3, before hitting ‘The Beast’ as this hill is known to local runners. It took me more than 5 mins to cover 0.3km. This hill just keeps on going, but I didn’t stop! When I popped out on top I expected to be able to pick up my pace like last time, but it took a wee while to recover. Then I tried to pull my posture back from knackered runner to tall fit runner.
It’s so much easier to take things slowly, I don’t think I was built to race.
My time? 6th best! Not great. So I think my next plan is to re-run this route every so often and check if I’m improving, and to go back to taking things slowly and distracting myself from the hard slog of running by remembering my earphones so I can listen to a Ted Talk.
One really interesting thing to note: the first time I met The Beast it defeated me; the 2nd time I was running with others and chatting and it seemed half the distance (so much so I wasn’t sure we’d done the same route) and I conquered it: the 3rd time (today) I knew I could conquer it because I did it last time, but it was hard because I was tired when I got to it, and it has never been such a huge long hill before!
I would say a lot of this running thing is working things out mentally, and if you’re enjoying it it does seem easier! Oh, and if it’s flat it also seems easier!
Happy running everyone 🤗