traveltweets

If you ever want to truly discover a city, run round it at night. During the day, you’ll be too busy fighting the throngs of tourists and trying to catch a glimpse of this palace or that church. But at night, when all the pavement hoggers are safely in their rip-off restaurant, the city is yours for the taking.

Tonight, I had to do the long run that got squeezed out of Sunday in favour of lounging on a boat on the Thames in the sunshine. I decided that I wasn’t going to feel guilty about this – after all, it’s probably the last bit of sun we’ll see in six months. But instead, I would do the nine miles on Monday or Tuesday instead. It’s all about compromise…

So Monday came. And went. And so it fell to Tuesday to get this run in. I prepared well during the day with a peanut butter and jam toasty for brunch and then a pasta lunch.

We decided to do a run past all the sights. So around Regents Park, past Marylebone, over Edgware Road and into Hyde Park. As it was dark, we skirted the east side of the park and then headed down to Buck Palace and St James’ Park. Running past the palace with no-one around was quite surreal but we did see that the queen was home. Which was nice. Then it was down towards Westminster and we managed to arrive on the stroke on 8pm – so the chimes told us anyhow. We turned east and headed along the river until we reached Waterloo bridge before turning north and heading home via a bustling Covent Garden, the lit-up British Museum and then to top it all off, Euston Station. You don’t get all that with the London Bus Tourist company.

Nine miles, done. And a lovely evening it was too. Here’s the route. (map now made public…)

Quite a solid week in terms of training this week. I think my downfall was that I was doing all the speed sessions and then missing out on the middle distance threshold runs. So as well as my Tuesday track session of 400m splits, I went out tonight and ran as fast as I could for three out of 4.5 miles. Apart from sweating like a pack horse, it felt good.

There are a few reasons why I’m doing this training. Because…

1. I never come back from a run wishing I hadn’t gone out
2. as tempting as watching TV every night is, it’s never as much fun in reality
3. I want to become a faster runner
4.  it’s the easiest way to lose weight
5.  it does actually make me a better person.

So, I think that whilst my sub 2:05 HM goal isn’t necessarily realistic (especially given the route along the muddy Grand Union Canal), it is a good stepping stone in reaching that PB at some time in the next year.

In other thoughts, I had a crazy thought this morning on the train. Maybe a spring Marathon?????

For many reasons, I’ve been putting off writing this post. Last week’s training gave me an unpleasant reality check. It seems I’m not progressing as well ad I’d hoped and the doubts as to whether I can actually manage to run a sub-2:05 HM have set in.

Last Thursday’s session was fun though. After a hectic day at work, I really didn’t want to run but my star of a husband said he’d come out with me. Normally I’d be eating his dust on runs but he’s coming back from injury so was content with my snail-like pace. And I had a fartlek session scheduled. Never having done one before, I duly consulted Runner’s World on the subject and running between lampposts seemed easy enough. We took it in turns to call the next landmark and I sprinted and tried to win whilst he did a little funny shuffle and got there lots quicker. We only managed 3.5 miles but it was surprisingly knackering.

Next up was a 10k race on Wimbledon Common on Saturday. Now, I know I wasn’t supposed to drink the night before but it was a good friend’s bday, we were in an awesome restaurant and I have no willpower. I did however, manage to be home by midnight and woke feeling surprisingly sprightly. Arriving at the Harlequin’s rugby training ground in Wimbledon, I quickly saw that this was a race aimed more at the honed athletic types than my bumbling running style. And the race wasn’t around Wimbledon Common but laps around the sports fields with a woodland section thrown in. But everyone seemed nice so I was determined to enjoy it. The race started and we ran once round the fields, with me managing to keep my pace nicely on target (9:47) for the first mile. As we took the final straight and headed off into the woods, it all went a bit Pete Tong. Turns out I’d started too fast and as the vague uphill turned into a long climb on uneven woodland ground with tree roots, I started to panic. This was the hardest race I’d ever done and there was no way I could finish it. I was too hungover, unfit and was going to pass out. It’s amazing the tricks your mind and body can play on you. I honestly thought there was no way I could do this. So a combination of lactic acid, some seriously negative thoughts and the fact that I was back of the pack made me very nearly just drop out. I didn’t know these people. Who cares what they think if I just stop and walk off to my car.

But that would be missing the point. And so after a little bit of walking and feeling like a fool, I turned the race into a jog up to the top of the hill. Stumbling over a tree root as I turned to go back down was the turning point. The down slope helped, as did the music I plugged in, as did overtaking a few people. And then suddenly I started to enjoy the race. I cruised back down to the bottom and was ready for the next lap, knowing this time, where to conserve energy and where to stretch out. The lap round the field was a strong point as I managed to overtake even more people. The second time up the hill made me realise that, despite appearances, it was actually a horribly long lung-busting slope rather than my failings as a runner. My target time was 59 minutes and my time ended up being 1:02 which is still slow for my 10K PB but I guess to be expected given the terrain, fitness levels and morning-after-feeling.

So all, in all, last week’s training made me question whether I’m setting myself up to fail. Whether trying to fit all this training in is just a recipe for guilt-inducing missed sessions. It’s almost winter. Do I really want to spend evenings and mornings pounding the streets in search of running Nirvana?

Back to plan then, with a four mile run. Being that I’m still on holiday, this was along the stunning Cornish coastal path. Despite having some great scenery, it’s quite exposed and so we were treated to wind that blew us off our feet, sideways hale and blustery shows. But what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger and so we ran faster to keep warm and felt alive.

This was our route as mapped out by the lovely Hester.