February has arrived

[marathondan]

One of my most successful running days in recent history, both in terms of experience and miles banked. I say experience rather than enjoyment – the day’s running wasn’t exactly pleasurable, but it certainly produced a more interesting slice of life than sitting in a car.

I left my meeting at 16:00, still fully clothed, as one tends to be in meetings, in order to get to the 16:41 train, four miles away. I was away from the office about 16:09, and set off at a steady clip. It wasn’t until about 10 minutes in that I realised I was going to really, really struggle to make the train. So really, really struggle I did. It was a pretty good foretaste of next weekend’s 10K, although I intend to prepare slightly better for that than doing a day’s work beforehand. Until I could actually see the station, I was pretty convinced that I was really going to miss the train. I arrived, relieved, with the station clock looking suspiciously like a race clock, showing 16:39.

Sixty seconds later, I had emptied my rucksack onto the forecourt and was desperately trying to find my ticket. I began to eye the queues for the ticket machines when the errant ticket appeared, and I made it down to the platform just as the train arrived. Time was 5 minutes quicker than in the morning.

As we all know, the ideal way to recover from a four mile tempo run is to sit immobile for half an hour. So when I alighted for my final 1.5 mile uphill stage, my legs and hips were creaking. I had somehow omitted to do any stretching all day. The first hundred yards or so were painful, but having got over the initial steep uphill I found a comfortable recovery pace and was able to open my stride and stretch my hamstrings a little.

So, 11 miles banked, very satisfying. Goring 10K is next Sunday, so I guess I ought to make the effort to get out maybe Sunday and Thursday, plus football on Tuesday, in some semblance of preparation. The race season is underway!