10K | Matt Gets Running

Another 10K

Definite rule of running: once you’ve done a distance once, it’s a lot easier, psychologically, to do it again. Today I was feeling pretty good, and I’d had a decent night’s sleep, and the weather looked okay, so I decided to do 10K again.

And here it is on RunKeeper.com. It was actually 10.42km, about the same as my previous long run, and in about the same time. In fact, due to a nice bit of synchronicity, the last every-5-minute reminder I heard from RunKeeper was “Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes. Distance: Ten point zero zero kilometres”. So now know I can do 10K in exactly an hour and a quarter, even starting with a big hill. Yay!

Also, that time includes a few seconds stopping to take a picture. Today’s pic is the rather lovely collection of trees in the middle of Durdham Down, it looks to me as if it’s three separate trees, and also one single tree, all at the same time. A kind of distributed tree 🙂

Where did that come from?

I don’t know when this week became the week to push and to prove myself. But apparently it did.

I should have got out running last night, but I was knackered after work, so I did what any brave and stout young fellow would have done: gave up on the idea and went to bed early.

This morning, though, feeling fresh as a daisy and clearly a bit guilty about not doing 5K last night, I trotted out onto the Portway for my usual weekend plod. But during the warmup, probably only a few minutes in to Dire Straits’ Telegraph Road — great music for pushing yourself up Bridge Valley Road to, by the way — I decided to make up for last night’s lost distance.

So, doing a bit of quick geographical planning in my head, I took the route that got me through 8K the other weekend, and added an extra loop of Durdham Down to it.

And here’s the result:

Yup. 10K. Or, as I heard it in my head when I finished — and you’ll have to pardon my French — “ten fucking kilometres”.

In fact, a little bit more than that, as I was so close to my normal finish point when I’d completed 10K exactly that I decided to push on and do the extra few hundred metres, just to get to the lamp post outside the Avon Gorge Hotel that I traditionally slap to mark the end of my long runs.

And I’m faster than I figured I would be, too, especially considering I started off with the usual big hill. Looking at it, I think I came in comfortably under an hour and a quarter for the 10K. Nice.

Anyway, I’m a bit hungry now, for some reason, so it’s time to demolish the baguette and fruity flapjack I just bought from Chandos Deli…

I think I should probably give myself another couple of days off now, so I’ll probably catch up with you again on Monday 🙂

That’s Another Fine Mess I’ve Gotten Me Into

Amazon.co.uk Widgets

Today I did Week 8, Run 2. Instead of my customary mixed-up playlist, I took the chance to listen to this year’s Mercury prizewinner, Speech Debelle’s Speech Therapy. Running seems to be a good time to get back to the rather old-fashioned pastime of listening to entire albums, as long as they’re suitable. Speech Therapy worked well, with its relatively gentle beat and melancholy feel keeping me at a moderate pace all the way through…

Today’s run did hurt a bit, though, because I had a really good massage yesterday. If anyone wants a fantastic Thai massage in Bristol, by the way, get yourself down to Absolute Thai Therapy, just off Whiteladies Road, near Richer Sounds.

Their massage left me extremely relaxed, and a little tender here and there, which probably slowed me down a bit. It also perhaps put me into a more suggestible and optimistic mood, because yesterday evening, a few hours afterwards, I signed up for the Bristol 10K!

I’d been chatting to Mike, of the Bristol Running Resource, over lunch yesterday. He mentioned the 10K after asking me what my running goals were, when I realised I didn’t really have any, beyond finishing the Couch to 5K.

The 10K takes place in May, giving me more than six months to get ready. This seems a comfortable distance away. It also gives me a goal to think about once I’m through the C25K. And another reason to keep on running, which can only be a good thing.

So, encouraged by Mike, and weakened by massage, I got home, headed for the website, put my name down and paid up. Once the Couch to 5K is completed, looks like I’ll be doing a 5K to 10K — somehow…