However with half a day's holiday booked The Plan said run, so run I did. Into our delightfully posh changing rooms then into the car via the shop for a bottle of banana milk. I drove up to Silsden as per usual, having toyed with the idea of doing my run the opposite way round to give me the wind behind on the second half. In the end the thought of battling Saltaire roundabout at rush hour made me "man up" and do my usual.
I'd decided to take this first proper long one very easy, and that in the conditions yesterday that proved to be around 7:50 pace with the wind behind. My HR was staying nicely low at about 128, and all was feelijg good. The only problem really was the mental one of seeing the long run stretching out in front of me, but after a while the miles started to flow. Past work with five on the clock, then quickly through seven as gravity helped me down 5 and 3 Rise locks.
It got very puddly through Shipley which was distracting and irritating, but with under 1:20 on the watch it was time to turn for home. The pace slowed fairly significantly for a couple of miles as the wind pushed me back towards Leeds, but in the end I got into a rhythm and before I knew it I was looking at 5 Rise again and what I always think of as "the beginning of the end". In previous runs I've put the hammer down once I cross the Micklethwaite road, but this was going to be steady all the way.
My legs coped pretty well, and I got back to the car feeling reasonably fresh with the watch on 2:39, so a gnat's under 8 min pace and a commendably low HR of 131 average.
Today Lily decided she wanted to go to the Parkrun by way of practice for the N Yorks XC finals in March, so I was glad to get out for a slow steady recovery acting as Lily's personal drinks and clothes carrier. We ran about 27:44, so 5k at an average pace of about 8:55 - just the job.
No comments:
Post a Comment