Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
5k At The Gallop
by Russell Turner - 19:38 on 26 January 2018
More bad weather’s on the way so today I proved my flexibility yet again by bringing forward Day 2 of Week 5’s training. Tomorrow’s forecast is rain and the return of huge winds; today was sunny and calm. The decision wasn’t difficult.
The schedule called for 30 easy minutes. As it’s the last 30-minute run before one in the final week, when I’ll have other things to think about, I couldn’t resist the temptation to speed it up and attempt to break the 5k half-hour barrier. After all, I’ll have a full two days to recover before an easy Week 5 final run and then it’s a week before the next long run – 100 minutes, at least eight miles.
After a brisk warm-up I set off too fast (because I knew I’d need my best pace so far) but calmed down after a minute or so and thereafter managed to keep to a steady gallop. Much effort was involved before I reached the gentle descent of the last half mile and after 28 minutes and 49 seconds crossed the invisible 5,000 metres finish line a whole 90 seconds ahead of my previous best and nine minutes faster than my first fully run 5k in mid-November. I was rather pleased.
Matchgirl was impressed by the time but not that I’d done it. “It’s an easy week for a reason,” she chastised. “You’re supposed to be recovering before the next big run.”
My only excuse is that there’s an optional fourth Week 5 run, incorporating two 10-minutes gallops, which I don’t plan to do. And, having run at a gallop for almost 30 minutes, future trots and canters should feel much easier. Time will tell.
Add your comment
© Russell Turner 2008-2024
I thought trots, canters and gallops were something to do with horses???