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.
Personal Best But Not Impressed
by Russell Turner - 17:02 on 21 March 2020
It seems I’m definitely a runner: today I hit a new PB but was not at all impressed by my run. Times have changed.
This morning I should have been at Arley Hall near Warrington to take part in the Cheshire 10k. Coronavirus put paid to that, but the organisers turned it into a virtual run, partly, I guess, because otherwise they’d have been stuck with a stack of useless medals and race shirts.
My plan was to run one of my regular local circuits at race pace and challenge my 57:36 finish time at the River Ness 10k. The weather was cool and almost windless; what could possibly go wrong?
Running the first mile at almost 5k pace was probably not a good idea, confirmed when, in the second mile, a hill I’ve run up many times proved too much of a challenge. A third of the way from the top I retraced my steps and kept up the pace but after three sub-9min miles admitted defeat and walked for a minute before resuming with a more measured effort. Finishing in under an hour would now be satisfactory.
However, my measured effort was still reasonably brisk – so brisk that after six miles I chose to walk up another slight incline for a minute before realising I was close to my PB. A final flat out minute in the other direction saw me hit 6.2 miles at 57:33 – a whole 3secs faster than the Ness 10k (although that was for 6.24 miles, which means it’s really still my best 10k).
So all in all it was a bit frustrating. If I’d controlled my pace better at the start, or had the boost of being among a crowd of runners in a race, I could have made the top of the first hill then enjoyed a flat(ish) mile and two miles of gentle downhill. My PB improvement could have been in minutes rather than seconds.
Five weeks to my first virtual half marathon: I’ll learn from my virtual mistakes.
Coronavirus Update: The Rural Retreat remains healthy, despite an influx of outsiders in campervans, and car drivers come to occupy their Highland holiday homes away from disease-ridden cities. Let’s hope they don’t bring the illness with them, and that they’ve their own supply of toilet roll because there’s none to be found around here.
Also not to be found are gigs, of which City Limits has none for the foreseeable future since rules on public gatherings were further tightened. Which means my income is almost gone. But Universal Credit is not an option because between us Matchgirl and I (but mostly her) have too much in the bank. If I was an employee I’d by OK, but because I’m self-employed I’ll have to get by as well as I can. At least we’re not yet banned from running outside.
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