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.
The Benefits Of Sleeplessness
by Russell Turner - 14:16 on 03 January 2018
After two 3am bedtimes (the band was at Foxes on Monday), last night was supposed to be the one in which I caught up with sleep. My slumber began well but a mystery awakening at 12.30 was followed by several insomniac hours, not helped by Willow who insisted on curling up with me and adjusting her position every time I began to drop off.
So the prospects for the first training run of the year were not good, although the weather was: another still, frosty day around 0ºC – my favourite. The schedule called for 10mins run and 10mins walk x 2 but thanks to my couch to 5k and follow-up runs I’m well past such a piffling effort. Instead, I set out on another 5k. (The schedule will overtake my current level soon.)
As an experiment, I doubled my usual brisk warm-up walk to a full mile then set off towards Jemimaville at what I thought was my regular modest trot, blaming tiredness for the extra effort needed. However, all was explained when I checked my pace for the first mile run and discovered I was at least a minute faster than normal.
The second was covered at roughly the same pace, and 0.1 mile after that my Garmin informed me that, including the walked mile, I’d knocked a few seconds off my 5k record. The temptation to rest on my laurels was huge but I ran the third mile, just to prove that I could keep going when stopping was the easier option. The reward was another new record (although I know I shouldn’t be bothered about such things) of 32:05 for the 3.1 miles run – I’d accidentally knocked three minutes off the best time set last week.
After that I walked long enough to complete five miles – another record – in less than an hour. (57:41 to be precise, but who’s counting?)
My running pace today was unsustainable (at my current fitness, anyway) but a great indication of progress. Matchgirl reckons I should treat it as my tempo speed – the fastest of the three training speeds. Friday’s session will be run at my regular pace (if I can control it) and should feel much easier than in the past, she says, thanks to experiencing today’s accelerated activity. We’ll see. Maybe I just need to sleep less.
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