Tonight I did something that I had absolutely no intention of doing moments before doing it … and that was going with the club 60-minute session for the first time.
Granted it was step up week so it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise to progress from what has become my normal 45-minutes, I just never expected it to happen tonight! However, persuaded by my usual running buddies I decided to give it a go.
Remind me never to listen to them again!
Although, being serious, I must also thank them. I had wanted to progress to the 60s for some time and had it as one of my goals for this year but was always too scared to actually do it so it feels good to have actually done it.
I should say that my fears had nothing to do with my ability to actually run for 60 minutes. That’s not an issue at all. I just had big, big concerns that I couldn’t stick the pace. I looked at the people going out each week and knew I couldn’t match them. That’s nothing to do with self belief, or a lack thereof, just cold hard facts … but, tonight, I had my normal running mates alongside me so I took a gulp, pulled up my big boy pants and went for it.
So, what about the run itself?
Awful.
I’m sorry, that’s terribly negative but it’s true. It was awful.
It’s not that I wasn’t capable. Pace wise it was well within my comfort zone, and my legs felt ok, no issues there.
So why was it awful? Because I ached everywhere. From my shoulders, down my back, my arms, my arse cheeks (!) …. everywhere really apart from my legs.
Go figure.
I think I would have benefited from getting someone to sit on me to sort out the kinks in my body, it was that sort of pain, like I was all out of kilter and needed to be twisted, bent and pummeled back into shape.
My body just refused to work. And when that happens my mind follows very quickly. Same old story.
The distance was ok, the route took us along roads I had run on many times, the time on feet wasn’t a problem. I was just so sore, and I wanted to give up.
But I’m not going to wind this up on a negative. Nope. This is a positive blog. I did the club 60 minutes, I achieved one of my targets for the year and, perhaps, overcame a mental hurdle in doing so. I also ran home instead of getting a lift, partly because I wanted to prove something to myself.
And will I do the 60s again next week? Of course I will. I’ve done it now, and it was bad. It can’t get any worse than that again. See? All positive stuff.
Oh, and I added another 5 miles (8k) to my Run Up To Christmas total … I’m ahead of schedule for the 50k medal, and just a little off the pace for the 100k. Maybe I’ll do this after all.
Run Up To Christmas progress (13k)
2nd December – 5k
4th December – 8k
HUFF, PUFF AND SHUFFLE 