I will hopefully try to keep this as brief as possible.
I am pleased to say that I completed the HU Spring 23 HM. However, it was not an easy on as almost everything from the start seemed to try to put a spanner in the works. Firstly I woke up at 4am this morning and my brain just did its usual of thinking it was time to wake up now and went into its usual hyper self, so that was it for the night. I’d set the alarm for 7:40 but was almost ready to sleep again by that time. I had 2 snoozes and just gave up on the 2nd one and got up.
Then my brain must have cunningly told my gut that I was going for a run. It always knows this and tries to stop me. Usually it tries and if it doesn’t succeed it makes sure I have to stop me somewhere and let me know who’s boss… Anyway, I start to make silly mistakes and sometimes need to take a break from work as a result of the lack of sleep. This unfortunately was one of those times where I was at a very low point and the last thing I needed to do was a marathon… Boy was I wrecked waiting there that morning at Stormont. But I’m a stubborn so and so and don’t give up. I have written a bit about the marathon but not posted it yet and not sure if I will. Its mostly to do with lack of sleep the reasons why, what I have tried and how running has helped.
Back to this morning, I changed into my gear and the trainers I chose for the run, went downstairs and started to mix my tailwind drink and pour it into my hydration bag. My gut said hello again and I had to dash off. Back to the bag, had a banana, got some jelly babies for the run and a couple of gels just in case. I was already running behind schedule at this stage so was in a bit of a calm panic (if that’s a thing), I got my glasses and hat, locked the front door and my back felt wet. I was in a bit of a dilemma, walked a few steps away and then saw sense and went back, changed the bag for my other one and quickly set off. I set the HU playlist earlier and paused it at the start of the first song. I had also set NRC up for the half marathon run and started that and started my watch. I must have pressed unguided run on NRC by mistake and had to stop again to reset everything and set off again running up that hill. I chose to run slowly up the steeper hill as its only about a km, the hill the other way is about 4km, not as steep but a bit draining for a long run sometimes. I got halfway up the hill and I felt wet again only this time it was much worse than before. The hell was I going to waste more time by going back so I carried on running whilst trying to work out what to do until I passed a work colleagues field transferred what I could from the bag to the pockets in my shorts (luckily I had purchased shorts that have a build in belt pocket band going all the way around waist, a bit like decathlon ones) dumped the bag and went off running again. My back and shorts were soaked and my hands were all sticky, they will dry. I carried on and apart from my heartrate was grand. I tried to control it by slowing a bit and in the end I decided to walk just before I hit 6k, it went down to green and I waited for it to go into the blue for a few seconds before starting off again.
The reason I concerned about my HR was that my intention was for this to be a nice slow run at a nice manageable pace. I was running at the pace I wanted but the heart was 10 – 15 beats faster than it should be and I didn’t want that to continue. I have been working very hard with low HR running over the last 4 months or so and didn’t want to mess it up. I only really started to settle down at this point and started to listen to the music. Proud Mary with Ike and Tina came on and I thought this was great and what I needed and I really found my running rhythm with it when it got so the faster beats. Then another song came on, I liked that, and another, and another and I liked them all. Yeah I had my suspicions at proud Mary but there was no way I was stopping again. I did stop to take a couple of pictures of a great view on the mountain, unfortunately photos never do it justice.
The rest of the run was quite normal. I did feel the fatigue from the marathon and lack of sleep quite heavily during this run and walked for another small bit going up a small steep hill where there happened to be a small dog in the garden and I didn’t want it hopping the wall and going for me. I have had that a couple of times recently and its quite scary especially when you feel them at your leg and start running like a deer…
I did think about running faster for the last 5k, I only barely managed it for ¾ of a km and then listen to the almighty Bennet and followed his sensible instructions. In fact I think his coaching throughout this run was what kept me going. He gives very good advice and I mostly tried to follow it.
Anyway, run done and report done. I have a 10k to do next. Looking back I should have had common sense and did the 10k today. It honestly didn’t register with me that I could do that. I had planned to run it on Wednesday and in all honesty, there is no way I am going to be foolish enough to do that. I have another HM organized next week (yes I know) and I will only be doing 2 small timed runs before then. So I will be doing what Kevin did today but will be extending the 10k to HM distance……
Goodnight.
HU HM run report 🏃♀️🎽
HU Spring 10K challenge
HU Spring 2021 HM race report 🏃♀️
Bath HM