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.
Smashing The One-hour Barrier
by Russell Turner - 21:37 on 21 July 2019
It’s only two weeks since the Leamington Half; it feels like months. Training began again this week, for the Great North Run in seven weeks and the Yorkshire Marathon six weeks after that.
Week 3 (which I’ve begun with because there’s not time for the full 16-week programme) should have ended today with an 80-minute easy run. Easy was fine by me: last night’s gig in Aviemore meant I got barely more than four hours’ sleep until 6am, then two hours of doze increasingly disturbed by cats (one in particular) who feared I’d forgotten breakfast. Percy from next door had also come round to remind me that I was in sole charge of catering for him and the kittens while his family was away at a wedding and Matchgirl in Shetland. Such responsibilities.
It was tempting to delay the run until the afternoon but being responsible meant I also had to complete the brochure I’m producing (at very short notice) for a local bird-watching business so it can go to the printer early this week. So a morning run it was.
Eighty easy minutes means (for me) around 7.5 miles. To ensure I didn’t get carried away, my cunning plan was to run my regular clockwise route in the other direction, meaning a quarter-mile warm-up then 2.5 miles rising from 7m to 74m; not a mad gradient but enough to keep me at a sensible pace.
That worked for the first mile, covered in 10:30. The second, despite the gradient, took 9:40; the third a ridiculous 9:04. I’d been fooled into thinking my effort was down to the climb, rather than the pace. I took a brief walk during the fourth mile, on the flat at the top of the hill, which explains the 9:57 time despite going downhill for part of it.
By now I’d abandoned my 80-minute target (I can be flexible) and set my sights on a 10k in under an hour because it had accidentally become achievable. Mile 5, flat but also including a very brief walk, took 9:26; Mile 6, mostly downhill back to my starting point, sped by in 8:24. The final 0.2 miles were covered in 1:41.
It wasn’t an elegant run – Mo never stopped for a breather when he was competing in 10,000 metre races – but I’d done it: 10k in 58:42 – my first time under an hour. Shame there’s no medal.
Fortunately I don’t seem to have suffered for my over-enthusiasm. However, in future I’ll try to pace myself properly and stick to the programme.
Wildlife Update: I forgot to deploy the Bushnell, and put out food, before last night’s gig so I don’t know who visited. Hopefully they’ll be along tonight to make sure that snacks are still being offered.
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