Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

Some Lessons Learned

by Russell Turner - 16:58 on 14 March 2018

Today should have been my medium run (now tempo runs have been abandoned for fear of damaging my healed calf muscle) but as the weather forecast for Friday includes strong winds I swapped it with the long run. This was a wise decision. Conditions for athletic endeavour were still and mild.

Less wise was my experiment with fewer walk breaks. Combined with what turned out to be a 10:30ish min/mile running pace and not enough energy gels, by the time my planned 12-mile run was near its end, so was I.

This was a shame. The first six miles took me all the way to Cromarty (another milestone) with little trouble. The next three took slightly more effort but nothing to worry about. The final three miles were much more laboured, yet the Garmin reveals that the running pace remained consistent throughout.

I didn’t attempt a final 1.1 miles, to hit half marathon distance, partly because Matchgirl had raised an eyebrow last night when I floated the idea, mainly because I was uncertain that I could run another mile – the first time I’ve not been sure at the end of a run that I had more left. A cheering crowd would have kept me moving but the roads close to The Rural Retreat were empty.

Despite that, the run was memorable: decent weather, mostly respectful traffic, and a new record distance covered. Next week’s long run is 2.5 hours/14-16 miles; I suspect I’ll be closer to 14. With what I learned today, weather permitting it should be a smoother run to my first half marathon and beyond. Time will tell.

Motoring Update: Grandson of Seat returned home today fully serviced but with the mystery of the metallic scraping sound unsolved. The noise disappeared shortly after setting out for Arnold Clark, where highly trained mechanics could find no reason for it. Maybe taking the wheels off for the inspection dislodged something. The sound didn’t return (as I fully expected) on the way home so with luck GoS is now healthy again. I hope so – City Limits plays in Banff on Saturday, from where I’ll get home around 3am. A squealing car will not be fun.

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