Nininini Nineteen 19

You have just gotta love those Saturday morning long runs, they really do set me up for the weekend knowing that I have achieved something good. I arrived at Emma G's just before 8am and gave Rowdy a quick stroke before we departed and hit the road ready for our long run. As ever we are very well matched for pace and soon slip into a nice steady rhythm as we gradually start to clock up the miles. Emma has been unwell and me too so we are hoping this long run goes without a hitch. As we reached just shy of 5 miles we hear a car slowing as it passed us and some rowdy local hollering 'alright darlin' at us, at first shocked we were then chuckling away as we realised it was only the very harmless Mike R from the club, presumably on his way to parkrun! At about 7 miles we decided for a quick gel break and I tried yet another brand, this one not so chewy and more fruity and manageable - I may have finally found one I can handle!

Onwards and very slightly upwards we continued in our steady trotting, chatting away and putting the world to rights as is the way of chatty runners. Around 13-14 miles in Emma started to struggle but only a little - we put this down to her recent illness but soldiered on, relentless in our mission to get through this long run. By the time we were back near Norman Park, the Parkrunners had long since departed so there was no chance to grab a bit of cake to keep us going, with only a couple more miles to go now we knew we wouldn't be far from out target mileage, we rounded the corner into Emma's road, then at 18.92 miles I continued past the house to take it up to a nice round 19.... why do we do it! The curse of a Garmin means always making your distance a prefect round number!

Speedmill

My icky sicky feeling had made me feel not quite right enough to attend track training last night so as my subsitute (which is becoming a bad habit - but at least I'm doing the workout) was to visit the gym this morning. I had checked out the track schedule on the PWR website and I really wasn't sure how  was going to manage, this was going to be a tought one. One the treadmill I did a leisurely mile to warm up and make sure I was well enough to run. This was following by 1km at a 7:15 min/mile pace, tough! Then 2km at 7:35 min/mile pace arghhhh at this point I thought that it must be enough and maybe I should stop now but I overcame the negativity abnd thought about how good I would feel afterwards and all the positive rewards I am already reapng from doing regaular hard track sessions. So I did the next two sets of 1km at the faster pace and began my cool down. It was an really tough workout but I was delighted with my pace and just hope it doens't have a negative impcat on my long run tomoroow morning.

More cake than run tonight

On my way home from work today, I was torn... I just wanted to go home and eat some of the yummy delicious biscuit cake I had made yesterday evening but I also wanted to get out for a run with the club.
It was so early though, I was not confident of being able to stay away from the cake for 2 hours whilst I awaited the club meeting time.... decision made, I would run straight away, albeit alone, but then I would be able to relax for a while before bed.
5 miles later, including 3 miles at a tempo pace sandwiched between a warm up/cool down mile I arrived back home ready for my cake. The air was fresh and cool, good for running at a faster pace as I didn't overheat which I am prone to do. 
I put the dinner on whilst I had a quick shower and got in my PJ's, after eating I was trapped beneath a very happy purring Guinness, quite perturbed as I didn't want to shift him from my lap when he was so comfortable but also wanted the cake I have been dreaming about all day. Soon enough he became distracted and I grabbed my moment, cuppa tea and a big slice of cake. Lovely! 

Ran Solo

I said, Ran Solo not Han Solo!

Sadly this mornings plan to run with Emma G was foiled by a nasty bug she has picked up. On receiving this news I had a few decisions to make, as I had not planned the route did I get to planning my own, did I lurk around for another hour and then meet up with the Sunday running groups... hmmm neither of those sounded much like something I wanted to do. So I got my kit and drinks sorted, filling 5 bottles in my trusty utility belt and hit the road for my long run with no real plan other than to run for about 18 miles give or take. 
Despite the constant drizzle that was to plague me for the best part of the next 3 hours, my rain jacket only lasted around 2 miles before I was too hot and bothered and needed to drop a layer. With my music on, blaring only in the left ear as the right headphone stopped working some time ago, I pounded the streets taking random turns down roads and paths on this unplanned route. I spotted lots of runners in groups and solo like me this morning and my thoughts drifted to my friend Jerry, who this weekend was running the Thames Path 100mile ultra marathon, I wondered if he was finished and how he was holding up... is that really something I want to do someday? An ultra, I'd like to say no but I said the same about marathons and in fact half marathons and probably even 10km's in my early days of running. 
The miles ticked by with my mind drifting between the thoughts working themselves out in my head, the words of the music and my surroundings. Although a shame not to have company the occasional long run by myself is more than tolerable as I trot along with only myself to worry about. 
This morning other runners were smiley, some days you barely get a grunt of acknowledgement but today all runners were happy and shouting good morning and were out in force, I can only assume that these people are like me in training, maybe for the Marathon but who knows, it was just nice to see friendly faces especially when running solo. 

Pacing Power

I sort of feel like a superhero tonight and if I were my name would be 'The Metronome' and my super power would be perfect pacing, I would also have a side kick and her name would be Karien and she would be by my side in all my pacing endeavours on the journey towards defeating our enemy at the ultimate race. 
We are always in training so that if the we are able to evade our most dangerous enemy. He is known to linger at the 20mile mark where we could come face to face with 'The Wall' the most evil of all nemesis as he drains you of all your powers and renders you so useless you could easily flop to the ground in a state of delirium!
Let our powers of pacing remain and let us leave our enemy in our wake as he delays lesser mortals without the powers we have honed at the Thursday night track sessions.