I set Runkeeper as, on CR1, I’d deviated to take a photo and ran on the spot. So some new stats, I figured, could offer a baseline. ‘Twas not to be.
My notes on Runkeeper say: ‘overcast; counterclockwise; pre-lunch; knew we were going faster and pushing’. That’s shows how brief this post could be.
The stats for 30 minutes record 3.9km, average pace 7.33. The breakdown of pace for each km: 7.34. 7.46, 7.28, 7.24.
I can’t square these figures with the results for CR1 (also 30 minutes and distance of 3.9km; overall pace average 7.55; 7.55, 7.32, 8.02, 8.10). I imagine it’s all down to the time taken to fumble with the phone at beginning and end, and the aforementioned running on the spot digression which confused the GPS? I need one of the stat-experts of this forum to help here.
The interesting thing is that - assuming these figures are remotely reliable - we already knew we were going faster, and spent much of the run discussing this fact, it’s symptoms and bodily manifestations, whether we should switch down a gear (we did, but it looks like we sped up again).... We could tell that our conversation was more strained (and not down to marital factors), and that there was something a little less comfortable, a little less enjoyable, but, on the whole, it was not too bad. By the time we’d chewed this mouthful of cud, the run was over. There was still fuel in the tank. Time had flown by. M wanted to carry on; I said we should stick to consolidation plan. It ended in a compromise comprising roughy 7 seconds of extra running for M while I fought with terminating the app.
A few digressions of attention also took place:
I paid special attention to the feel of the ground, and especially to the slight sponginess of the ‘(not) orchard’ section; the deep leaf lakes on the embankment; the relative firmness of the compressed mud tracks through the grass of previous runners; the sections of shortcut (or social distancing) where I take to the grass proper (going wild); the short stretches of harder tarmac paths.
Birds: the sound of a great tit; a stalking crow; two perching parakeets shouting their support, or so I like to think.
The uneven profiles of plane trees, presumably trimmed more on their path-facing sides, but with long extended, heavy low branches on their grass-facing aspects.
Things caught in branches: The shocking-pink shiny thing across the tracks isn’t fully deflated, but looks to be a ‘2’ or even a ‘5’; something unidentifiable near the parakeets favourite spot.
The railway embankment has been pruned. The view of the trains is evermore clear and now really present from the right across the park.
Park keepers: doing their important work.
Discussion also veered into what I’d been reading about meditative and mindful running; step-counting and breath attention; the difference between ‘switching off’ and ‘switching on’; inner and outer attention. M mentally calculated the approximate time it would take us for a 5k run. We pondered the principles of consolidation phase, future options (distance, speed), how all these fit into daily life, and even entertained the distant possibility of taking part in the annual Hackney run.
Pic is from the other day (hence the sunshine).
Stats
Consolidation run 3 ✅ 
Consolidation Run 2
Week 9 run 3 done!
