W9 R1 Way too fast.

[Alan996]

Oh my days! I won't be doing that again!

The weather was perfect. Blue sky with sunshine and a lovely autumn chill. I decided to finish work and fall into my running gear to get week 9 underway.

As I tend to do I set myself little challenges to help me get through each run. Today's challenge was to increase my cadence whilst still running in a comfortable controlled manner.

At the 1km buzzer a quick glance at my watch informed me I was going way, way too fast which probably explained why I was puffing quite hard.

By the end of the second km uphill I was starting to feel a bit drained but consoled myself that I could recover down the glorious sweeping downhill.

Right, sort yourself out Alan. Short strides, feet low to the ground, stand up, chin forward, swing your arms.

Back onto the flat and at the 3km marker I knew I had overcooked it but any form of sanity at this point had vanished. I knew where the 4km marker was .... I just needed to get there. Sheer bloody mindedness powered me forwards to 4km and at last the 4km buzzer went off. I glanced at my watch and confirmed 4km had been reached. Yessss. But only 28 minutes. Nooooo.

I can't stop. Just can't stop......

The last two minutes were torturous. Any semblence of form had disappeared. I was like a wobbly jelly. I didn't care what the dog walkers thought of me. I was going to get that 30 minutes.

Key lessons for me:

1. Pace management is absolutely key to getting through the programme.

2. In future don't be such a banana.

I did manage to increase my cadence by 7 to 172 spm but clearly failed to control my run as i ended up going 35 seconds per km faster than comfortable which was very silly.

Two more to go. Wahaay.

Happy running everyone.

[SueAppleRun Graduate]

That was a fast pace, well done getting through it, 😁

[Alan996 Graduate in reply to SueAppleRun]

It was very silly of me. I have learned my lesson 😇. Looking forward to the aches tomorrow 🤣🤣

[SueAppleRun Graduate in reply to Alan996]

Hot bath will sort the aches 😃

[Sax64 Graduate]

Well done for getting to the end of the run BUT...personally I find it much better to ignore the stats and just run by feel. If it feels right, it is right. If you've listened to any of the NRC guided runs yet, you'll know it's about starting off easy, really easy, a 3 out of 10 effort. Don't think about speeding up until you've got 10 minutes under your belt, and even then only up the effort a notch or 2. Your running body will thank you and reward you in due course. Enjoy your graduation, nearly there now 🏃‍♀️

[Alan996 Graduate in reply to Sax64]

Wise words indeed. I really should know better and I certainly will be going back to running by feel for the last two runs 👍

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate]

'Nuff said... you know what you did and you took a lesson from it ... use some serious stretches tomorrow and maybe ease off for a day extra!

Well done on the run though and well done on learning from it... we all make mistakes and hopefully, we learn from them too xxx

[Alan996 Graduate]

This happened the last time I went through the programme if I recall correctly. Maybe it was a timely reminder to take it steady and enjoy.

I certainly won't be doing it again in the near future. I am quite sure of that.

Sometimes I just get carried away I guess and need to re teach myself why I shouldn't do these things 😊

[RiceAndPeas]

Well done for completing the run despite the discomfort of setting off too fast. I'll wager that that your fitness will have improved a lot as a result of pushing yourself so hard this time.Only 2 runs to go for you now. 👍

[sTrongFuse Graduate]

It's one of those ones where you can look back and say 'I was mad, but I did it'. Sometimes the legs and the brain have their own ideas about things, and we end up just being along for the ride. Sounds like this was one of those.

Still, it's in the bag and just 2 more to do. Good luck

[Alan996 Graduate in reply to sTrongFuse]

That made me laugh out loud 🤣

My brain was saying go slowly but my legs just ignored it. Towards the end my jelly legs were screaming stop whilst my brain forced them to continue - presumably in revenge 🙃

[sTrongFuse Graduate in reply to Alan996]

That sounds about right 😂