Friday lunch

I have been trying to push the mileage lately and now that I feel that I'm getting back into shape, I decided to take me kit into work and to do a Friday lunchtime session again.

The weather had cooled from the previous day following a huge thunderstorm Thursday night. The thunder and lightning was so bad in several places that houses had caught fire and trees had been brought down in the winds, destroying property. I was happy to be out in cooler circumstances and looking forward to an easy run.

I set off from the pool and down the steep little hill, which is a great start to the lunchtime run. The only problem with this is the thought of having to climb back up the hill at the end. I put these thoughts out of my mind for the moment and just appreciated the blue sky and the pleasant conditions.

Normally, despite all my good intentions to enjoy rest runs, I tend to speed up gradually as the run continues before I'm at my cruising pace of around 4:35 per km. Not today. I oscillated between 4:33 and 5:00, only managing to push the pace to 4:28 on the last flat kilometre before that last hill back. This was a real rest run and my legs were feeling the effort from the previous days running.

The worst problem of all was my back though. Thursday night I had felt small twinges in the base of my spine, similar to the start of a lumbago. Today, these twinges were ten times worse and caused me to wince when my feet hit the ground unevenly. I wondered if this was down to my running shoes which probably need to be changed now having covered at least 1000 km.

Glad to get back and go for a swim in the pool.

10.6 km all up in 50:43 or an average of 4:45.