Another 1am run today! Not by choice, I assure you! My partner and I had a date today -- an outing in London. So we left home this morning to spend a day in the Natural History Museum, followed by dinner and Cirque du Soleil's "Kooza" at the Royal Albert Hall.
A rather nice day... but it meant that I didn't get back home to Oxford until the stroke of midnight -- just barely missed turning back into a pumpkin! By the time the kitties were fed and the evening chores were done, it was -- you guessed it -- one o'clock in the morning. So on went the running shoes and the jogging bottoms, and out the door I went into the cold night.
Back in the days when I ran with Laura, she would remind me that some runs are better than others, and there's no rhyme or reason for it. She would also remind me that a bad run is better than no run at all. Sound familiar? Samantha offers no such advice, so I was relying on memories of Laura tonight, because this was not a good run.
Not really sure why -- remember, no rhyme or reason. I certainly don't blame the lateness of the hour, as I have been running at this time all too often lately. Maybe it's the cold?? Who knows? In any case, I was noticeably slower than in other recent runs. In 45 minutes of running, I covered 7.12 km -- that's about 7% slower than the first two Week 2 runs, in which I ran 7.65 km in the same 45 minutes.
This slowdown was pretty consistent through the run, too; my distance covered in the three 15 minute running segments was 2.38 km, 2.39 km, and 2.35 km, respectively. Taken together, I averaged 9.5 km/hour today (or, if you prefer, 5.9 mph... or 10:07 per mile... or 6:19 per kilometer). First time I've dropped below the magic 10km/hour in quite some time!
Anyway, those are the figures for posterity's sake... and to prove I'm an honest runner, posting the bad along with the good. It would be cheating to only post stats when they're good, but I don't want to dwell on it being bad -- Monday will bring another run, which will presumably be better. Onwards and upwards! 10K awaits!
In the meantime, I can be proud of the fact that I have now finished Week 2 of the Bridge-to-10K programme! Huzzah! Two weeks down, four weeks to go! Wow, but this thing flies by! I only started on New Year's Day, and I'm a third done already! Monday's run will be the start of Week 3, adding an extra six minutes onto the total running time! After subtracting out the two 1 minute walking breaks, I may find that I've passed 8km for the first time ever! Fingers crossed!
Lots of cheers for all my fellow "Class of 2013" 10K trainees! I'm really having a great time reading about your own runs and sharing this experience virtually with y'all! Happy running!!
I HAVE ti get out there rthis week and get started as I have booked up for the Town and Gown 10k !! I'll follow your posts carefully Matt 
Week 8 Run 2
