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.

Stepping Up The Pace

by Russell Turner - 19:36 on 17 April 2021

Today the marathon training programme called for a 30min fartlek, but the weather was too good to waste. I was torn between bringing forward my 18-mile long run by a day or having another go at the 5k PB which I missed by seconds two weeks ago. The 5k challenge won.

This time I eschewed the fancy warm-up, settling for a brisk walk with occasional short jogs to my chosen starting point, around a third of a mile from The Rural Retreat, where I attempted to set off at less than flat out so I wouldn’t blow up after a mile. Amazingly, I succeeded. The first mile was covered in 8:08 – slower than my previous two 5k bids but faster than my PB pace.

The sensible pace, or recent tempo runs in training (or both) meant there was no temptation to walk, and when I turned around after 1.3miles I was able to step up the pace, even through the brief uphill (a couple of minutes) not long after that. The second mile was run in 8:01; still no need to walk.

Now I was confident that the new PB was in the bag. Over the next, flat, half mile my pace rose from 7:46 to 7:25 until I hit the final downhill stretch, past the Retreat, where I topped out at 7:02 to complete the mile in 7:27. Forty-five seconds later I crossed the invisible finish line after 3.1 miles in 24:21. I’d hoped to knock some seconds off my PB but had bettered it by more than a minute. A good day – a bonus was hitting VO2 Max of 49 for the second time, which proved the first time wasn’t a fluke. My heart must have put on some real muscle over the past three years.

My recovery exercise was to bring the lawnmower out of hibernation and begin to tame the wilderness in front of the Retreat – a task brought to a premature halt after 90mins by an alarming rattle from the machine. We’ll call in a qualified mower technician next week.

So tomorrow will find me run/walking 18 miles with the help of my new hydration pack, which may not have been the best buy. I’ve a feeling that its weak point is the nozzle on the drinking hose. Oh well, I’ll never be more than three miles from home if it fails and Plan B is needed.

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