so last friday morning was a dsgusting run. i was tired, hadnt slept great, really couldve skipped it, wasnt in the form and it showed... 

even the weather was that horrible humidy evaporating rain sticky mild feeling that makes you feel like sweating even if its a bit cold.

it put me off, and i wasnt in good form after it. 

 

but after a weekend off i. got ip this morning and went. 

notice anything?? i was approaching the end location of my 5k route, and i was still feeling good, so said sod it, if i run this way, and carry it home, id say itll be near 6k. i had to do 2,laps of our cul de sac to close out the last 150m, but i felt really really happy, shagged tired, but happy! first time running 6k, and to do it nearly sub 30mins was a massive bonus

 

 

gonna do it again tomorrow morning, see if i can crack the 30 min barrier

 

632am - beep beep... alarm, off. 

634am - sitting on bed turning off house alarm via app.

636am - "mamamamamamam" from next room.. spud jr is awake 🤦‍♂️

so, i change him, feed him, he doesnt want back asleep, so i give up at 745, accept im not running. swmbo arrives into kitchen and says " shur go now its grand, ill get Spud sr ready for school"

 

so, 755am - 

 

6km in 30m 3secs! i wouldve cracked 30mins if i hadnt need to almost stop 3 times to cross the road due to traffic m, dont have that issue at 650am!

I find recording rides and runs (on Strava for example) has it's upsides and downsides.

 

It's great to keep track of your overall distance, and get an idea of speeds. I like to grab photos to look back on, and also look back for inspiration on routes I've not done for a while. Bit of fun competition with friends on certain segments. Gives me lots of geeky stats to pore over too.

 

However I find the downside is that you can become too obsessed by times, and it can take away the enjoyment of actually just being out.

Until earlier this year I'd always had a Garmin (Edge 520) mounted on the bars of my bike - so it was directly in field of view all of the time (with all the live stats - speed, distance, elevation etc).

I then got myself a watch (Forerunner 945) which I can record all my riding, running, walking activities with, complete with heartrate etc (and it tells the time, bonus!).

So I stopped using the bar-mounted Edge.

Straight away, with the watch face being a little more out of view on a bike (requiring a conscious arm movement to see it), I found myself thinking less about whether I was going "fast enough" or beating times, and taking in more of the surroundings - and essentially enjoying the ride more.

 

Everyone has good days and bad days.

Some days you just feel like your legs are made of wood and you've just got no energy.

Other days you feel on fire!

 

Enjoy the good days, but don't beat yourself up "for going slow" on the other days - remember you've still been out, and lapping those sitting on the sofa 

 

I notice a couple of posts up, on your Friday run which you didn't think was quick, you were still doing low-8min miles (sorry I have to convert units!!) which is pretty speedy for majority of people!

Edited 24 November, 20205 yr by muddyboots

so, yesterday thank god was a day off any way, the lack of sleep would made any running an act of torture.as a reault i slept well last night, though the body needed another 4hrs sleep this morning when the alarm went off at 635am..

i was tempted to stay put in the cozy, warmth. but i got up and went.

 

this morning was ruddy freezing, the irish freezing where its about 5deg, but 99% humidity so it feels like its -22deg. itwhen youre passing the early morning walkers with 2 jumpers, hats gloves scarves etc on and all youre wearing is a base layer and a teeshirt, doubt they think im insane

 

 

i took the first km a bit handy as i was feeling the tired, total time +1min on my best effort for 6km but i dont care, i made myself do it when i didnt really want to, so im happy

 

Edited 26 November, 20205 yr by mac11irl

Friday morning, was a nice run, really damp though, freezing fog...

i also managed to get out 10mins earlier than usual

 

 

 

today was a nice mild run, little cool and very dark, sun still down when i got home..

 

 

im really liking the making it longer, esp as im not stopping and walking a ***** to get home im probably back at the house quicker than i was on my more recent 5km route as the 6k brings me all the way home. 

downside... no cool down period so i get back into the warm house and flop sweat for 20mins getting spud sr's lunch and breakfast ready 

this morning...

i had a sort of impromptu running partner for about 500m... another runners route overlapped mine for a bit and we were about 5m apart she was leading, and holding a decent pace, i was doing well to keep up. calves and shoulders say shes been running longer than me.. and her much springier gait.

 

i also tagged on an extra 400m going around the block instead of up the steps by a bridge so 6. 4km today, every little helps!

i think the weather warning level of cold and rain got to me this morning...

 

 

7km this morning in 35m 14...

ive never run that far ever, and to have held my target pace 5min/km for it to... that was nice

 

 

7.5km this morning..

 

oooooooèeeeeeeee look at me go

 

 

still fairly well on nominal pace too.

it was bloody freezing!!!

oh man freezing fog is cold running, but the alpkit gear makes it a lot more tolerable. 

tolerable enough to ag an extra 500m...

 

8000meters.. in under 41mins. 

 

so ive added 3.2km to my original route and only an extra 5mins to cover it. 

i think thats solid progress. no where near award winning, i had a look at the leader board for those segment times... lets just say id be lapped (twice) by the entire top 10 if we all did my route together and they kept going until i finished...

 

Kudos for running in freezing fog - keep it up Mac! 

 

I reckon I might be able to pace you, on my mobility scooter   But having said that I was going out, but just noticed it's now raining, so I've suddenly come over all bantamweight and put the kettle on 

 

Gaz

thanks @Gaz_

 

im enjoying the running now

which is a sentence i never in all my days thought i would write down

 

im building toward a 50min 10k by new year. if i hit that ill be utterly thrilled

 

 

so....  ive 82seconds to find in 3werjs

today was an odd one... 

i woke a bit late after a bad night sleep; had a load of things to do before dropping spud sr to school and then hoof it 2hrs sth west for a meeting and be back for pick up time.

so i wasnt aiming for 10k, was gonba do 7, but decided id do the west loop first to see how long that is.

but.... about 1k in and i got an ache in my left knee.... first one ever! quite annoying and i didnt want to do damage, so i culled it after the west loop and as it turns out.. that is a 5k loop. 

 

have to blame my school buddy for it though, he started running in November on a couch to 5k as gyms are closed. like me he never ran before, likes his cycling though. and he asked me on Monday after i updated him on my 8k acheivement "do you have much problems with your knees or hamstrings?" as his are aching from it. "nope, nothing yet, its all good" i replied.

so he f'ing jynxed me, the ball-cox!

okay, so i headed out on the East bound loop this morning, wasnt sure about the knee, but said id take it handy and gauge how it went. 

thank god with doing nothing other than stretching it out a bit yesterday it was grand this morning, so when i got around the eastbound 5/6k loop i was happy to head onto the west bound loop planning to make another decision at the turnoff for the 8km route. 

it was still alright so i kept going...

onto the 10k route.

at about the 8-9k bit theres a moderately steep climb on which i got a couple of twinges but it was okay. the last km is a constant climb too, but i got on okay. 

so i successfully completed my second ever 10k run! given the knee it was bit slower than Tuesday, it was also the same route but run the opposite direction so all the climbs and drops are t'other way round.

 

im confident the knee thing is just a minor muscle twinge so fingers crossed its not going to feck up the future plans...

fell asleep after the alarm went off, the joy of a bad night's sleep. 

woke uo 15mins later and headed off. 

had to chop it at 8k route though to be home again for school prep etc.

still nice run, was happy i got out between rain showers too!

 

also, i have 62km of 100 done for the 100km dec challenge:)

 

 

so spud jr wokeat 4am Tuesday and didnt go back to sleep until 7am.. so no run was had. got ti bed and sleep at about 2330.. god i was tired.

ge woke at 3am!!! i got back to bed again at 415am and alarm went off at 625. i felt sick...

but i dragged myself out and despute the promise of heavy rain and yellow wind alert i did an 8k in a leisurely 42mins. couldve pushed to 10, but the weather was horrible and i was knackered. still am. 

but at least i got up and out, skipping 2 in a row wouldve been worse.

hopefully tonight/morning will be better and ill get a 10 done, same friday before my procedure Friday afternoon.. 

hopefully be runable again on monday to complete next weeks stint of 4x4 dec strava challenge 

 

ahhh a decent night sleep.

 

alarm went off i didnt want to get up but i did.

 

legs were heavy heavy heavy so the time wasnt great but...

 

10km. 

 

the last km climb is tough :(

 

i awoke on Friday to the sound of lashing rain and driving wind 5 mins before my alarm goes off... i reset it and rolled over.

 

obviously i couldnt run over the weekend while on RnR.... yeah right...

 

so today i took it handy with an 8.4km sub 43min tester run. everything still intact, no untoward damage or pain so i think im good to go 10 tomorrow

 

im starting to think i should just give up on the idea of an uninterrupted nights sleep for about 10yrs...

 

anyway, dragged myself out at 745 and went. it was baltic damp icy cold. did an 41m36 8k then straight in the shower to warm up and desweat...

what a week...

Wed - alarm went off and sound of torrential rain made me stay put..

Thur - i got 90mins sleep courtesy of junior , no way could i run.

fri - christmas??? as if.

sat - i needed the sleep

sun - horrible weather and a broken nights sleep again!

 

today... late start at 705, havnt been out since Tuesday, gonna be horrible...

did a 10k. 

10010m in 52m 1sec.

 

i surprised myself! esp as i had to change my route a bit when i discovered the river walkway i use for 1 section was flooded from the rain the last few days. 

 

i also completed the strava Dec 100km running challenge on route - total for dec (so far) 106.5km

not bad considering the weather breaks and post vasectomy break too. 

i missed the dec 4x4 challenge though (4weeks of 4 sessions min 30mins long) courtesy of too many storm condition breaks. 

 

ive signed on to the 7hrs in 14days challenge for January though. at my current pace it means running 8 10k's in a 14 day window to complete. ie 10kon every run.. i sense a hurricane jog in my near future 🤣

 

first time doing back to back 10k...

 

cold and wet and miserable this morning, and deffo tired legs. by the 7.5k point my quads were really starting to burn.

 

but i may get used to that if im going to complete the supersapiens challenge in january and get into the draw for some free gear!

 

actually, @olduns may be interwated in the strava challenge too - cycling counts too.

Edited 29 December, 20205 yr by mac11irl

I can manage that.... I think. 🤔

duly signed up....for anyone who wants to follow ( or be followed...oooeerrr missus) PM me and i'll steer you in the right direction

nice one. theres loads of monthly challenges too.

im on for the 100 and 200km total run in january challenges... the 200 means i have to do 10k every run, 4 times a week for the month..  😳

 

its just a nice little pusher to keep the momentum going.

10k this morning... -2degrees, heavy frost, full moon, pre dawn clear sky. 

 

slightly slippy paths, but overall not bad. random bag of rubbish in a badly lit section of footpath nearly put me on my face... 

 

 

 

 

51m 25sec. 

 

not a bad last run of the year.

 

 

2021 Jan challenges start in the morning!!!