Juneathon 18 - The 4-stage plan

Blimey. This feels odd. It's just gone 2pm and not only have I done my running for the day, I have a chance to sit down and blog while it's actually daylight. This is very strange indeed.

Today was a 'long run day', but I decided it would be more fun, and less stress, to split it down into three shorter ones. It seemed like a good idea, and meant I could do all those important sport-y things like warming up, cooling down etc.


Stage 1: For once, I actually got up when my alarm went off (instead of hitting the snooze button repeatedly) so I was up and about and more-or-less functional (okay, I'd had a coffee at least) by 7:30. I set off slowly, jog-walking around the back of Beckett's Park and through the trails, tracks and backstreets down to Hyde Park, taking about an hour for what tracked out to be 5.6km - 10 min km's is respectable enough when you're bimbling warming up.

Stage 2:  Hyde Park parkrun, though I didn't have a barcode with me (can't find it and don't have a printer!). A fast(ish) 5km, two-and-a-half laps of Hyde Park, sub 27mins but I can't be much more precise than that - it's about right, I should in theory be beating my PB, but would do better if I had a couple of days of rest beforehand!

Stage 3: After a coffee and a bite to eat at one of the cafés near the uni, I jogged steadily down to Meanwood road and onto the Valley Trail for a jog back up towards home. Not as fast as parkrun, but not as slow as my warm-up, it was a fairly nice morning, a little grey but cool and not too windy, and the trail and park were pretty quiet. A quick push up the edge of the ring road and through the Hollies, trying to up the pace a touch for a few ks, and I was soon back home, looking at my tracker, working out my distances and realising I was about 2km off a half marathon, so...

Stage 4: I went for a slow, steady jog/walk/skip/high-knee/dance loop just around the local streets to make up the distance. A final trot to end a fine morning, and a fine haul of distance to go with it!

Then I sat down, made a cup of tea and some salmon and cream cheese muffins, and began to write. And it all went downhill from there...

Comments

Ross said…
Have a day off, would you? I really don't think I could do a 10min/km. My slow is 6min/km. I should probably learn to go slower.
June 18, 2011 at 9:03 AM
Anonymous said…
Excellent parkrun incorporation there if you don't mind my saying so.
June 18, 2011 at 9:59 AM
Carrick 'Pyro' Armer said…
Ross - come running with me. I'll show you slow...
June 18, 2011 at 10:09 AM
Anonymous said…
Sounds like a lovely morning - very chillaxed!
June 18, 2011 at 1:08 PM
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