It's a wonderful day; it's wonderful to run in it!

[swanscot]

I had a lovely run this morning. I did nothing spectacular, no records broken, but it was simply wonderful to be out there running. It should have been my speed intervals session this morning, but the weather is too nice to hurry! We have a gorgeous blue sky with not a cloud in sight, patches of sparkly fairy dust scattered about - or maybe it's frost - and it was a balmy -3°C when I set off. As I said, it was too good to rush. Plus my legs were still a wee bit heavy from the 2,600ft hill I climbed on Sunday, so I opted for an easier run.

I chose to do a 35 mins tempo run using a podrunner intervals podcast with music at 160/165/170 beats per minute. The timing of this worked out well, in that the first increase in pace came at the first slight incline, so I shortened my stride and increased my pace. The second increase (after a 3 minute recovery) came on the long level bit, and I felt I was running along effortlessly. When the fastest speed interval started I was tiring, but by now I was back on the slight hill, but going down, so I felt good. I didn't complete the whole last fast session, as I wanted to keep to my 35 mins programmed run and not push myself too much. I felt I still had some energy left, so am looking forward to continuing to 40 minutes next time.

Just a nice, simple good run on a lovely day, in a lovely corner of the world!

The photo is my view from the road about 200m from home.

[gdeann Graduate]

Just lovely swan! I can almost imagine myself there, the way you described it! We don't have pretty fairy dust here. The bad fairy's decided to bless us with 16"+ plus of the white stuff and a blizzard to boot! Gayle

[PamJK Graduate]

What a fabulous view! How lucky. Pam

[Jeddahpm Graduate]

Stunning! I enjoyed it along with you it looks so peaceful

[greenlegs Graduate]

Thank you for that lovely report and photo. Really enjoyed it as a contrast to the greyness down here.

[SBG356 Graduate]

Beautiful!! I saw the weather this morning and Scotland was definitely more sunny than down south - nothing but grey clouds here.... You sum up here for me what running is all about!

[Poppy2010 Graduate]

Your run sounds wonderful, I so wish I lived some lovely - it was grey and dank in Essex/London this afternoon, and not even my usual woodpecker or the noisy flock of parakeets made an appearance for me!

[thinnerandfitter Graduate]

Hi Swanscot,

Sounds lovely apart from the -3 degrees part (have I said I don't react well to cold) - and with that rare thing called sunshine as well!

In case you haven't seen elsewhere, I'm trying the 155/160/165 podcast tomorrow, weather etc willing. Not expecting to do the whole thing - if I get up to 165 (which will be about 30 mins) that will be great

Will report back later.

Ann

[swanscot Graduate in reply to thinnerandfitter]

Good to hear you're going to try it. It's strange in that I don't particularly enjoy the music, but I run with it just loud enough to provide a background beat that I lock on to when I try, but which isn't too relentlessly pounding. (This is a contrast to the Audiofuel speed intervals music that DRIVES me forward at a great rate). It worked to help me keep to a fairly consistent pace, and I was particularly pleased with my negative splits and especially that I had some more 'run' left in me.

[shelleymcb Graduate]

sounds idealic. wish I was there

[DeliaItaly Graduate]

You live (had originally mistakenly typed in the word 'love' :-p) in such a beautiful part of he world. Green with the nicest possible kind of envy, Delia xxxx