Actually managed a half decent run this morning, despite it being at 6am before work, and after a poor night's sleep. It was a good morning, clear and much cooler but it didn't get light until about 5.30am so the days are a lot shorter now. Gone are the days of it being light by 4am (I am remembering the early start for London to Brighton!).
Wore a tee-shirt instead of a vest for the first time since April (except for the Olympic Park Run, where the shirt they gave you was obligatory) and it was a nice change. Bit of a bad start though as I filled my hydration backpack with water and somehow it managed to overfill suddenly and get water everywhere! The backpack stayed wet the whole time - at least it cooled me down.
The 8 mile run went fairly well for once - i.e. most of the run was well under 12 min miles. There was even a mile at 10.59!! Ok so back in March I was doing 8 miles in under 10 min miles so this was nowhere near a PB, but at least it's a start. 10.30 seems to be my fastest pace at the moment but I can only sustain that for about a 5k.
Think the "ping" moment came this morning when I realised that nearly all of this year I had managed to get back into a "lazy" gait of running - striking with my heels, head down and not using my arms. So this morning I tried concentrating on striking with the mid-foot, head up more and using the arms. Looks like it made a bit of a difference as the pace did improve other course of the run, even in the later miles!
Bit knackered by the time I got to work though, my legs felt really stiff all day. Went for a short walk at lunch to stretch my legs as the weather has been quite nice this afternoon. I've got swimming tonight too, an hour's session and first session back since holiday - not sure if I'll survive it!
On another note, looks like it's the end of the cycling time trial season now as the nights are drawing in. PB for the 10 mile course was 35.24. Last night's was a bit slower, 37.53 (I blame having come back from holiday!).
I also entered a few races for next year - the Blenheim Palace triathlon and the St Albans half marathon.
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