It was good to get out finally, late this evening, to do 7.34 miles in a reasonable time. I got round the two circuits of my usual 3.67 mile run in 01:13:51, or an average of 10:03 a mile. This isn’t the fastest I’ve run but I suspect it’s among the fastest times over this kind of distance, and that’s the crucial point. It’s easy enough to run fast (relatively speaking) for a mile or two, but sustaining it for longer distances is the constant challenge. When I first started running, last year, it was hard to run fast for more than a hundred metres, so it’s pleasing to run at around 10 minutes a mile for over 7 miles. And I hope that, a few weeks or months from now, I can re-read that and feel embarrassed that I once considered 10 minute miles to be fast…
I made a startling discovery this evening. That warming up, and stretching before a run, makes it easier. Despite it having a prominent position in the runner’s Ten Commandments, I’ve just never done it seriouisly before. It’s an inconvenience, a waste of time, something for cissies. But no, it really is a good investment. So I jogged for a mile or so, then spent 10 minutes stretching, and felt much better for it.
It was a great evening. The first circuit had me running west, into a violent sunset. Main wildlife this evening were the silhouetted flocks of ducks, dozens of rabbits darting around the hedgerows in the lanes, and, er, that rotting sheep’s carcass that I’ve been watching gracelessly decompose over the past two or three weeks. The only other fly in the ointment was the kamikaze one that ended up crashing into my tonsils as I panted along the second circuit, mouth agape.
The weight has continued to fall off in small chunks. I’ve lost 4.6 pounds since Tuesday. This is way ahead of schedule, but is to be expected. The more you have to lose, the easier it is. It will be much harder a week or two from now.
