Having not been out all week due to work pressure, up early this morning and on with the running gear to "get back in the horse" as my late father used to say. I have done a couple of 30 minute runs and a couple of 5k ones since graduating, but only one 40 minute run. This morning therefore I made the decision to go for 40 minutes again. Turned off Ms Strava, set the timer on my activity tracker watch, off to Watermead Park and away we go.
Quite fresh this morning, rain overnight so it was pleasantly cool but sunny. The enforced rest must have done me good, the Toxic 10 was more like a Toxic 5 today and I actually felt as though I settled into a steady pace pretty quickly.
Looks like one of the local running clubs has started to meet up again as I encountered about a dozen runners going the other way at various paces... after being overtaken last week by an old boy who must have been well into his 60s, I felt a bit better today when I passed a young couple who can't have been much over 30. The things that boost the ego of the middle aged man π€£
Quite surprised when the 40 minute alarm went off, I kept going for a few seconds to compensate for having to negotiate a couple of kissing gates on the path, stopped Strava and was pleasantly surprised to have done a PB for 5k, sub 32 minutes (ok, only by a couple of seconds!). Looks like my pace was pretty consistent too, which I'm chuffed about.
2 weeks off work now, taking my running gear on holiday so if anyone is in Brussels next week and sees a fat middle aged English bloke huffing and puffing round the streets, please say hello (or the Flemish equivalent!)