Week 7 complete - all done outdoors ! - Couch to 5K

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Week 7 complete - all done outdoors !

sfb350 profile image
sfb350Graduate
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Yesterday I went back for a visit to Taunton to meet up with some friends from school (a long time ago - I'll give you a clue, next year we'll be celebrating 30 years since leaving school!). Had a jolly good time in the pub(s), quaffed a bottle of red wine then got all "sensible" and went on to soft drinks (I must be growing up, at last). I got back to my hotel room at about one in the morning so it was a bit of a late night. I set my alarm with good intentions of going for a run in the morning. Strangely, I was awake at about 5.45 and couldn't get back to sleep. This was actually a Good Thing as it turned out I had set my alarm for the wrong day......

Anyway, having done two runs on holiday in Northumberland, I now wanted to run in Taunton, where I lived until about 12 years ago. I took some painkillers for my slightly sore head, treated myself to some sinus spray and Airways gum and set off at 6.45am. I got a bit confused to start with because there were roads where I didn't remember roads but I managed to find one of the parks in town, which I knew had a riverside footpath to another park so I planned to include both parks in my run. Thump, thump, thump over the wooden bridge crossing the River Tone then I followed the path to the next park. A pleasant surprise was that this park now led to a new nature reserve, and the route through the nature reserve took me past my old school. Last night we had been reminiscing about a couple of my friends and I being in the little group at the back who always walked most of the cross country runs. Now I was happy to note that my run was far longer than those little runs around the school playing fields :-)

It still felt like a hell of a long time between Laura telling me I'd run five minutes and then telling me I was halfway through and then another long time before she told me I had another five minutes left to go. I couldn't summon up the energy to speed up for the last minute but I did manage to not slow down and I was happy with that a is there was an upwards incline for part of that time.

I covered 2.96 miles in the 35 minutes (5 walking, 25 running, five walking). I don't know if that is good or bad ? It's quicker than my woodland run the other day, but I would expect that as there were proper tracks rather than muddy, rocky trails.

This is the route: mapmyrun.com/routes/view/83...

A bonus of my heroically early hangover run was that I was first in line for the hotel breakfast so I enjoyed a mushroom and bacon omelette and a leisurely pot of tea before loading up the car and heading for home. It put me in a good mood and I felt nicely relaxed for all of the 2 1/2 hour drive home :-)

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sfb350
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Trixitrin profile image
TrixitrinGraduate

Well done and glad you had a great time last night and still managed a run today. Nice post to read and must have been nostalgic for you visiting old familiar places. Sounds like you did it in good time. I have just downloaded mapmyrun on my phone and not 100% sure how to use it but going to try on Tuesdays 25 min run( week 6, run3) to see how far I will run. Good luck for your next run.

AmandaW profile image
AmandaWGraduate

That sounds like a really lovely run :-) I'd say that distance in that time is pretty darned good considering there's walking in there too!! You're well on track to do the 5k :-)

Lunebucket profile image
LunebucketGraduate

That's brilliant and I love that you ran down Longrun Lane past Longrun House :-)

sfb350 profile image
sfb350Graduate

Ooh, I didn't notice Longrun Lane - that's a nice touch ! It was a beautiful morning for it and put me in a good mood for the day. Now I just need to plan some nice routes near home :-)

I think its brilliant you still got out there running after a late night and being away, you could of made so many excuses for not going but you didnt, great dedication.

coolrunning.com works out 2.96miles in 35 minutes as average pace of 11.5mins per mile. Its a handy website for working things out and converting things.

sfb350 profile image
sfb350Graduate

That's an interesting link, thank you.

I covered 4.76km in 35 minutes today, so using that calculator I reckon that if I was to maintain that pace (which includes the 2 x 5 minute walks) I should be able to run 5km in 36mins 40 seconds. In theory, of course - that assumes I can survive 36 minutes & 40 seconds of running :-0

I'm quite excited by that :-)

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