Slow Down!

Maybe it would have been all different if I had read Mike’s advice before Friday’s long run. Run as slowly as you want, he said, and reward yourself with a few relaxed miles. Unfortunately, I didn’t read those wise words until after I had already completed my 20 miles. My 5-mile splits were (roughly) 40-41-40-45. If you got the impression that I had a hard time on the last loop, you’d be absolutely correct. On the positive side, the temperatures were very moderate and well suited to running. On the negative side, it was raining for all of the 20 miles, just slightly at the beginning, heavily in the middle, and easing up but never stopping towards the end. I was tempted to change socks and shoes half way through, but decided there was no point to it. Within 10 minutes I would have been just as soaked again. After 16 miles, a little devil appeared on my shoulder and whispered into my ear “you’re just 1 mile away from home, if you turn around now, you’ve still got 17 miles, and that’s a lot, isn’t it?” Luckily, a little angel sat on the other shoulder and said “you got up at 4:40 in the morning. If you cut your run short, you have sacrificed an extra 25 minutes of sleep for nothing” That was the clinching argument, and I continued on, as weary as I felt. Was I glad when I finally made it home!

Saturday was rest day, and normally I spend my rest days working in the garden, which usually ends up with me collapsing into bed in the evening due to exhaustion. Luckily it was a rainy day (hurray for rainy weekends!), which meant I spent all day reading and watching telly, as well as having a nap in the afternoon. As a result, I was well rested for today’s tempo run. 2.5 miles warm-up, 5 miles at tempo pace, and 2.5 miles cool-down went all very well, considering the mileage I did during the week. 5 miles of tempo is quite long and I was hanging on towards the end, but managed to finish in decent shape. I also saw another runner on the road, always a welcome sign, but all too rare. I don’t think it was a local though, most likely a tourist on vacation (he certainly chose a nice spot for his run). I wore my pair of Nimbus runners again, and I think we’re slowly getting used to each other.

The kids have been reasonably well behaved recently, so it was only a matter of time until the next …. incident. The boys were having a “tea-party”, which, for some reason, seemed to require a huge amount of water being poured all over their bedroom floor. Thank goodness Lola snitched on them before they could cause any lasting damage, but we still weren’t too pleased. Shea ended up on the naughty spot, but I suspect the ringleader was a certain 2-year old.

Weekly mileage: 68 miles.

28 Jul: 20 miles, 2:46, 8:18 pace
30 Jul: 10 miles, 1:17, 7:42 pace with 5 miles at 7:07 pace