And so my running rehabilitation continues.
After a decent run on my own on Wednesday, my first since Race Over The Glens on New Year’s Day, which helped restore my confidence and morale, the next hurdle I had to overcome was running with someone else.
I hadn’t run one-on-one with anyone for a while. Race situations are different, there are places to hide if you’re struggling and everyone is mainly interested in running their own race but when it’s just you and one other person you’re a lot more exposed, you don’t want to let them down or hinder them in any way. You dig deeper, and you try harder to push through when the going gets tough.
So, for me, after the battering my running (or my confidence in it) has taken lately, it was a big step to go out with Iverene tonight. Not that she was putting any pressure on me at all, absolutely none whatsoever, the pressure was entirely self-inflicted … but I knew I needed to get back out with someone at some point so it was a case of no time like the present.
We’d gone out with a group back in October so we decided just to follow that same route (four miles), although I added a couple of little detours into it at the beginning to bring it up to five miles.
But it was true to the original route for the majority of the time. With it being my normal route I was obviously quite familiar with it so knew it could be challenging enough in places whilst still having recovery sections.
I’m pleased to say that, pacewise, I coped quite well. In fact, it was my fastest mph run for almost two months and whilst not as quick as I would ultimately like it was an encouraging sign that I’m beginning to get back to what I know I’m capable of.
We finished by going up the Antrim Road, a road I have run so so many times, and whilst it’s not overly steep it is long and rises steadily, and it was only here that my legs gave out on me a little, albeit for only a few seconds. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t but it was a tiny bit frustrating for it to happen briefly tonight.
I guess this why I use this road so much, I also use it for intervals and for hill training as well as ending the majority of my solo runs on it. If I found it easy all the time then I wouldn’t benefit from it. On another night I would zipped up it without any difficulty.
Anyway, it was a good run, restored some more confidence and I enjoyed the company, thanks Iv.
I ran back home again after saying my goodbyes, it was only an extra kilometre but they all add up in my quest to get to 100k for the month … every little helps after all.
Virtual Runner 100km January Challenge (22.31km)
1st January – 8.28km
3rd January – 5.01km
5th January – 9.02km
HUFF, PUFF AND SHUFFLE 