We’re away for a few days in Cheshire and after doing Congleton’s parkrun on Saturday, I was keen to fit in another run before heading home. Usually there’s a day where I wake up full of energy and head out at 730am. Not so this time. We had a full on hotel breakfast, including fried egg and hash browns. There was a window three quarters of an hour later…it was a risk that breakfast would not sit well but it was a chance I was willing to take. Run kit on, out the door.
Garmin was suggesting a tempo run with a pace target for two mile long repeats with a recovery five minutes in between. Since I was throwing caution to the wind with my pre run “nutrition” (!!!), I thought I might as well go all in.
The great thing about staying in a large hotel is that it takes ages to actually exit the building so I’d done my five minute warm up walk when I got to the gates. One mile easy pace along a county lane and I felt good. Really good in fact. Stroppy garmin even agreed giving me a super positive rating for my performance. It’s nice when it’s happy with me. The first mile push came just as I hit a hill. Surprisingly, it felt fine and garmin started shouting at me to slow down. I was happy to oblige. It was tricky to keep to the desired pace. The bill turned out to be a long one and the last quarter of a mile was hard work to maintain the same pace. I was glad of the recovery.
Five minutes seemed to pass quite quickly and it was go time again. I don’t know how, but I was at the bottom of a hill again! This time was harder to pick up and garmin thought I was too slow. Rude. I don’t think he knows about hills. I managed to push enough to get to the pace window and it took a lot of willpower to hold it. The hill levelled out. Surely some downhill was due but I think the hills must have been alive and shifting around to make it harder. The interval ended just at a lovely bridge with a nice view over the river (pictured). Finally, five minutes gentle jog back to the hotel and I was close enough to four miles to just carry on and hit that round number.
Really pleased with this run. Parkrun felt really hard all the way round and I was mainly relieved when it was over. This was absolutely an effortful run but I loved it and it felt like a really fun effort to give (mostly). It’s great to be back at over 6km feeling like a nothing special distance rather than a long run. There was even fast 5km in the middle despite the recovery interval. Less than 40 minutes for the whole thing and I was glad I’d done it. Sometimes the ones that on paper look like they’ll have you throwing up in a bush are the best ones!!
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To be honest, I had a moment or two where I was unsure about my digestion but I got away with it! MrU was on emergency collection duty so I had an escape plan if needed!!
Thank you! It was nice to have such a good one after a bit of a dodgy parkrun on the weekend. It’s amazing how one good run can suddenly change your perspective on your running. It wasn’t even that it was faster-it just felt better!
That breakfast fueled your run and gave you the energy to enjoy it. Don't think I could have run so soon after but sometimes you just have to don't you? And what a great run you had 😁
Sounds fantastic! Great run report too, I love reading stuff like this, it makes me want to get out there, the hills must have been alive and shifting around, sounds familiar! So, my window of opportunity for running today is now, I've not long ago had breakfast either but best go out there and see what the hills are up to round here. Thank you for the inspiration!
I hope your hills were kind to you and your breakfast sat happily!!
I love reading other people’s run reports too. They keep me going when I’m having a mojo fail. Glad my load of waffle was interesting! It’s nice to be amongst friends who enjoy the detail…I first found this forum when I thought I might be boring my husband to death with the minutiae of my runs. 🤣🤣
It's weird to think I could actually do 6km on almost any day if I had to (as long as it wasn't on consecutive days). It still seems like a "thing" and a long way!
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