Today's run: 12 miles / 19.31 km in 2:18:22.
Injury check: Bit of pain in both knees.
Support crew: Rob (cycling) and Robert (running).
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Today was much better than last week, for two main reasons:
- No uphills
- Awesome support crew
I carefully planned this route to avoid awful hills. There were a few bits of uphill but they weren't as bad as last week and they were much earlier in the run, meaning that when I was struggling at the end I didn't also have to cope with a literal uphill battle...
Consequently the route was a little boring - out and back along the footpath to Harpenden - but my support crew kept me in a much better mood than I managed last week! The difference it makes having people with me is immense. The conversation and the company from my guys kept the smile on my face most of the way around.
The weather was cold but not as cold as I'd been fearing, although the wind was pretty bitter along the more exposed sections of the path. I had a good moment when we overtook a pair of runners - who were also training for the marathon, as it turned out. It's quite nice to have people in your sights and chase them down...!
Even though the footpath is tarmac, and therefore slightly lower impact than concrete pavement, my knees were complaining towards the end and over the last couple of miles I was definitely slowing down. My thighs were aching too, so after stretching out and eating some hot, tasty food, I actually tried the cold water bath again. I cheated a little bit again, running hot water around my feet to stave off aching toe bones, but I stayed in the cold for a full 3 minutes. If that makes a shred of difference to my recovery speed, I shall report it here.
When I signed up to the Reading Half Marathon (17th March) as part of my training I put down an estimated time of 2hours45. Judging by today, I'm now hoping to be able to beat that, and maybe even scrape in under 2hours30.
Watch this space.
Today's run: 1.87 km (1.16 miles) in 12:41 + 1.99 km (1.24 miles) in 14:45.
Injury check: All clear.
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Not that I am actually claiming to be a Proper Runner yet, but I looked it today. As in: proper-crazy runner, out slogging through the streets on a blazing sunny day, with my sunglasses on, headphones in, and a rucksack on my back.
I ran to the Post Office, to pick up a package - hence the rucksack, to carry it back. I checked the distance first and, as you can see, it's less than 2k to the Post Office. However, I live on a hill, and the Post Office is the other side of town, back up another hill.
So the first 60% of this run was fine - downhill at a good pace (knee support on), through town and then uphill for the last 30%. And then I got a ten minute break while I stood in the queue and then fiddled with my Runkeeper app (it crashed when I paused it for my queueing time).
And then it was time to run back again, which - as you may have guessed - was a bit harder. Not only did I now have two bottles of contact lens solution in my rucksack (not exactly heavy but not as light as an empty bag), but more of the return journey is uphill.
However, I made it. The final rise was pretty slow but it was still just about a jog and not a walk. And I enjoyed actually running to somewhere, as opposed to the nowhere of the treadmill or the circular route I run around the training fields out behind the gym. I shall have to try more purposeful runs in the future.
