Wow what an absolutely amazing run. Brilliant. Fantastic. Loads of things to talk about today that I don’t know where to start. Contain yourself readers for a journey far beyond your wildest dreams. Sit back and enjoy the show…

On today’s run I couldn’t find any suitable running socks (of the x-socks variety) so ended up putting some other running socks on. Well I didn’t realise till I was about to leave the front door that both of my socks had the letter ‘L’ on them. Yes today I was going to be a learner runner! Or as is more likely today, much like with life I was embarking on my run with
two left feet…

Well ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed that story about my run, it was a good one. I mean during the two mile recovery session in preparation for tomorrows race it was warm (when is it not at the moment) and
ultimately how much is going to happen in two miles right?

Till tomorrow

Same route as Tuesdays run and even hotter this time! I ran today with a different colleague, Alana. The pace was slightly slower than with Guy but still a respectable speed. It was the perfect pace to be in weight loss heart rate zone, which is what I need occasionally. Heart rate when I looked was in the 140′s  so all hunky dory.  I sadly don’t really have much more to write about, but with Juneathon I have to write these posts! Hopefully Sunday’s post will be more exciting as I suspect tomorrows won’t be!

Today’s run was through Epping Forest, at 4.32miles its a relatively short one but very enjoyable. I have only started doing this type of route for a couple of weeks having got a bit bored of all the local road routes I have done over the past few years. It has made a pleasant change, its a bit different on the legs and it’s actually pretty enjoyable.

At under half a mile from my flat I can enter the boundaries of the forest and if I wanted it is possible to run in the forest for hours and hours and when the weather is like as it was today it is quite frankly GLORIOUS! To be honest, I didn’t need Juneathon as a reason to get out tonight I would have gone anyway! The one problem with trail running is the fact that the paths aren’t flat so its important not to twist ankles etc and fortunately I didn’t! Legs still a little tender from Tuesdays track session but not too bad. Think I ended up running about 8:30 pace although foolishly for some reason didn’t start my run until about 1.5miles in, when I looked down and realised it wasn’t working – doh!

Good stuff to all those who have been out running/swimming/cycling etcetc for day 2 of Juneathon!

 

N

 

 

For #Juneathon posts see the navigation bar at the top or here and they will be in there.

In January I sat and watched the #janathon tweets fill my timeline, due to Marathon Training I didnt feel I could commit to 7 days training with no rest day. However, as the experience went on I realised that people weren’t just running and other “excercise” qualified, roll on June and the challenge starts all over again. This time I’m entered with only one concern – that being Saturday rest days. Its now Wednesday, I’ll worry about that in a few days, by which point a large number of Juneathon people will already be out…:-)

The run itself – ‘el clasico’ 4.7 mile lunchtime jog. I ran with guy at an 8:45 average pace, all good. It was a recovery run following last nights track session. Legs were a little bit sore but fortunately the run was at a comfortable pace so nothing to grumble about. However, the weather was fantabulous, I think the warmest I have been out in this year, wooo

As is typical recently this post is really late! I did the race a few weeks ago now and have no real excuse for why I have been so slow.

At the crack of dawn we set off to Manchester to stay with Sam (one of Lauras old uni friends) and her husband Matt. This isn’t the first time we have been put up for a race (see Stockport 10m) and as Sam is a keen runner she would be taking part in the 10k.

I would say on the build up to this race my training, if you can call it that, had been pretty minimal. I haven’t covered too many miles since the London Mara and the miles I did run were SLOW. In fact I think I only did one fast(ish) run pre race. Therefore my expectations weren’t too great and I’m not going to lie I was verbal about this. I knew for a fact that no PBs were going to be hit on race day, it just wasn’t realistic.

Having collected my number on the Saturday (see  post) I was ready to run. I have never run this event before but I can honestly say it’s massive! 38000 people doing a 10km race, that’s more people than what turn up for the London Marathon. They had several waves to start people off and I assume in my wisdom when I signed up I said I would target my PB. Therefore I was put in the first pen with sub 50min runners.

The starting pace was brisk, I had hoped to keep up with Sam and maybe out pace her like at Stockport but it wasn’t going to happen and less than 1k in she was gone – to quick for me today. Now it was about hanging on, a challenge in itself as I had barely covered the distance in weeks. Head down, dig in.

Somehow I managed to hold on and finish the race in 44:40, quite how im not entirely sure. I’m not going to lie I didn’t think much of the scenery on what is commonly regarded as one of the “best 10km” races, most of it seemed to be a dual carriage way!

It was heaving, I’d like to use the busyness as an excuse but baring a couple of points I dont think it had much impact. Maybe could have squeezed 5-10seconds back without congestion but on the flip side the slowing may have helped!

This is the third “great run” event I have done, I do wonder whether by being so big they create problems for themselves which is a shame. That said, the logistics of getting 38k round a 10k course must be pretty tricky. I always think back to the marathon and know that it takes to about 14+ miles before the roads clear out and aren’t quite so congested!

Would I do this run again? Probably not, it wasn’t cheap and had very few really amazing points. It gave the excuse to go visit friends which maybe the biggest reason to do it again!

Next race is the Bluewater 10k. Completely different course which is very hilly. 3rd time back, should be interesting