Bouncing back

I’ll not tell a lie, I quite enjoyed that.

This was my run held over from Saturday in order to make up my miles for the 401 Challenge Virtual Marathon. I had aimed for 3.9 miles although ended up doing 3.7 but that’s ok because I’ll make up the deficit later in the week.

Why 3.7? Because it equated to 6km and when I got the buzz on my wrist from my watch that signifies the end of each kilometre I automatically reached down to stop it. I was nearly home anyway and stood at the side of a road waiting to cross so no biggie.

Today was a little out of my normal routine and coming after last night’s run I was a little concerned about how my legs would react but, to be honest, they were fine.

I set out without any real pace or intervals in mind, although I decided to settle into a 3/1 split which I maintained more or less for the entire run. I actually felt like a runner.

I deliberately didn’t do the Ballymena Runners plan because I’m leaving that for later in the week, today’s run really was a ‘make up the distance’ affair, a ‘free’ one if you like, I wouldn’t have been disappointed if it hadn’t gone well. A different mindset makes a huge difference.

My legs actually felt quite strong and, apart from the last one which was interrupted by traffic, I did each kilometre in eight minutes-something which pleased me, it’s my ‘aim for’ time. Not hugely fast but the longer I can maintain it the closer to my targets I’ll get.

So that brings me up to 12.8 miles for the challenge, I’m happy enough with that with four days to go. All being well the rest of the week will go like this:-

Friday 7th October – 2.3 miles
Saturday 8th October – 3.1 miles
Sunday 9th October – 8 miles

401 Challenge update – 12.8 miles done, 13.4 miles left

Sunday 2nd October – 7 miles
Tuesday 4th October – 2.1 miles
Wednesday 5th October – 3.7 miles