New route = new challenges

[angrboda]

Well, I adjusted the route from last time to exclude all those muddy bits, and actually ended up with one that has a better length. Should have thought of that from the beginning really.

I'm finding this new route harder than the old one though. Not because I'm running for a longer time, but because it has different up and down bits of a different length and different slopes. This new one actually has down bits where I can feel that I'm running downhill. Turns out downhill is almost as difficult as uphill.

Today was rather a mixed bag. I started out quite well, but by the time I hit the halfway mark, I was getting really tired. By the time I was nearly done I was done! I blame the new route and new up and down bits. I don't feel like I set off with a quicker pace than usual, so I don't think that was it. I can take the rest of the weekend to relax now.

Outdoors!

[liv]

Today, happily coinciding with the rare occasion of having the whole day free, has been one of those lovely autumn warm spells. So instead of having to drag myself to the gym I got to run outside in the sunshine with a gentle breeze and all the lovely autumn colours.

It was a pretty good run, too. I managed nearly all of it at a pace of under 8'/km, meaning that I beat my PR over 30 minutes by running 3.9 km in the first half hour. I slowed down a bit for the final km or so, giving me a total time of 40'17'', but still my second best time. Since I had plenty of time and didn't mind walking home, I took the downhill route along the disused railway.

I was working hard the whole time to maintain that pace, but I was running pretty steadily for at least three quarters of the run, rather than starting out too fast. So I feel pretty good about myself. Sometimes the winter season has upsides, when the chance to run outside gets to be a special treat like this.

(no subject)

[faesdeynia]

Today was supposed to be my third day this week of running, but I did the AHA Heart Walk with my workplace today. So instead of running, I walked 5k. I had planned on being awesome and running either before or after the HW, but that didn't happen. I'll do the podcast run tomorrow.

I've still been pretty good with the 2 minute jogs - I almost feel as though I'm not working hard enough. But, I'm supposed to run slow enough to make it to the end of the interval, even if it feels as though I'm holding back. I'm so frightfully slow that it hardly feels as though I'm making progress.