Mileage: 13.5 miles
AM: 3.75miles, PM 9.75 miles
I woke tired and stiff after Kinross and for once my run to work was not that enjoyable and it was all about getting there rather than running. I was quite slow too. It did loosen off my muscles though, which was good. I often find that if I am not feeling great on a slow training run that if I think about good races, future races or day dream about running well then it certainly keeps me going. At the moment I like to fantasise about winning the Loch Leven Half on 15th May or beating James Cracknell's overall 12th position in this year's MDS.It may be a little daft, but it does help and I usually notice my mile times dropping when I do this!
I am going to a friend's wedding this weekend, near Salisbury, so I only had time for a short evening run after my run home from work. Club mate, Steve Manian, had put out a call on Facebook to see if anyone was up for a run post work. He was looking to do 10miles at sub 7minute miles. I replied that I could do 6 miles at that pace and we agreed to meet at my house to do a 6 mile loop. I made this offer at work before I set off on my run home. On my run home I did feel better than I had in the morning, but was I only just managing to do sub 7 minute miles and it is downhill, so I was slightly worried that I would let Steve down on pacing.
I got home just in time to dump my bag and dash down the stairs to meet Steve at the traffic lights at Goldenacre. From there we set off along Ferry Road toward the Western General. We were chatting but running quite fast so I was pleasantly surprised at the 6 minutes and 51 seconds clocked for the first mile. We carried on chatting and even upped the pace. My legs were tired and a little heavy, but generally I felt good and with the warm spring air it was a perfect early evening run. I think Steve and I were deliberately pushing each other but neither us would admit it and even though we continued to chat we clocked some pretty good mile times for our 6 miles: 6.25, 6.40, 6.41, 6.05, 5.59. The only time we stopped chatting was for the last mile where we pushed quite hard and were both a little tired.
We finished where we started at the Goldenacre traffic lights and we were both pretty pleased with ourselves. I was really happy, especially after feeling so tired and stiff in the morning. Strangely, I also felt a lot more confident about my running again, having felt unsure about it over the last few days in the run up to Kinross.
I motivated myself further by reading this month's Runner's World on the plane to Bristol.
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