The pic is not of today's consolidation run, but my most favourite run ever. This was the day that I flew around London, just randomly running because I could. This is one of the runs that keeps me going now - the memory of a perfect run on a perfect day, in what I still like to think of as my perfect city.
Sunday's interval runs were tough and yes I missed a sprint and a normal run out of the intervals, but I still ran.
sheps had kindly shared what the stamina run looked like, so today I used Map My Run and my Country/Places playlist to keep me going, for a 40 minute run session. I wasn't going to risk Jo Cool going awol.
Not going to lie, my right leg felt a bit gippy, a bit achy but nothing serious enough not to run. And so we kicked off to 10cc and One Night In Paris, followed quickly by Bonnie Tyler being Lost in France - you couldn't make that sequence up.
I'd decided because it was a stamina run, being done after a day's rest on the sprint intervals, that I'd be kind and not run hills. Down the Slope of Hope onto the Bendy, Scary Road. No traffic, no people, just sun and a slightly sweaty tomato faced runner, trying to remember Jo Cool's tips about running head up, shoulders loose and not hunched, elbows at ninety degrees going back and forwards but not across. A runner's mantra like the children's song head, shoulders, knees and toes.
No Jo, just Mechanical Voice Lady acting as my pacemaker, terrible tens went, torturous teens too, then I hit the tremendous twenties and it wasn't just nice it was Marks and Spencer nice. I had running rhythm and I wasn't puffing hard, yes I was working but all of a sudden it seemed my head and bod had got something together. The gippy right leg was no longer gippy and I felt I could go just that little bit faster.
Somewhere in the thirties, Petula Clark was belting out Downtown and so was I and that song just gave me some oomph. I did wonder if I'd end up paying that debt back but I felt brilliant, not quite like all those years ago, but an echo of pleasure, with some pain and definitely some pride.
It got me thinking that the Beyond training runs have done something for me - yes I didn't quite do the sprint intervals runs, but having tried acceleration I was able to use it just a bit. Maybe the Beyond Runs are giving me a better running competence...
And then I check out my stats - usually I start fast and fade away
This time my final split was one full minute faster than normal, I'm still way away from where I used to be, but I'm sniffing some potential and possibility to get better. And Mechanical Voice Lady did give me a pace check at one stage which said I'd achieved better than a 7 minute km, now I haven't even dreamt of doing a 6 minute something km, five years absence reduces your capability, but I have a little twinkle of desire starting to grow.
I didn't like the interval splits training run, but it has done me some good for sure - I didn't have Jo Cool but Bryan Ferry gave me Tokyo Joe - and we are on our way to a better running place.
Something new to try out
Week 9 - The Pinnacle, Disappointment and a Discovery........!
5K and the time was...
Pah - there i was thinking I was doing well- its all ok really.....
I'm back, but have I been doing it wrong all this time?
