So my running successes and celebrations are a bit like buses! Nothing for some time and then everything happens at once. There was the longest run of the year last weekend and since then it just keeps on coming. Yesterday I shared the news about being a #Run1000Miles ambassador – the excitement of that is not wearing off.

What I didn’t tell you yesterday is that I was supposed to run 45 minutes but just couldn’t be bothered. I was tired and my feet were still really sore from the 20 miles. Not blisters sort of sore but impact, pounding too much road sort of sore. So I went out today instead. I wasn’t massively looking forward to going out, it was soooo cold (not really it just felt like it). I got changed and set off. I had my phone in my back pocket and it seemed to be pulling my pants down so I faffed with that and moved it to me jacket pocket. My pants were still falling down though so I spent more time faffing with trying to tie them tighter – I kept running though.

I got the first mile beep and took a sneaky peek at the time – under 12 minute mile pace which surprised me a little because I didn’t feel like I was going fast. I just kept running , dropped down onto the canal towpath and got lost in just running. I don’t remember thinking about anything. Then my watch suddenly beeped for mile 2 and I glanced. ‘Oh good’ I thought and then ‘what’ and then I looked again. ‘oh’. Mile 2 was 10.38 pace. I was confused. I kept running thinking that maybe I should just slow down a little. By about 2.5 miles it was actually beginning to feel quite hard. But somehow I couldn’t slow down and just kept running. I hit 5k just before I was turning off to go back up the hill so it was sort of perfect. Mile 3 was 10.33 minute/mile pace. I walked up the hill. I covered 3.65 miles. I was confused. I had just run 5k faster, 2 minutes faster, than my previous fastest. 

I got home and popped the mileage into my spreadsheet. I have cracked 750 miles. So in one day I ran fast and cracked the target I set for 2018. I have had a celebratory cup of tea and  piece of chocolate. 

Happy Running