Solo Run? Not Today!

Hi blogees!

Well, guess what? Go on, guess. Guess who was my running partner today? Not Naggy Neighbour or Nagging sister, and not Smarty pants (she still has about 6 weeks to go before baby is here) and not Happy Neighbour either, Have you guessed? Well it was the Old Boy!

Yesterday we did say that we would take the bikes out for a gentle 5 flat mile spin, but today I was working a tad later than usual, so the Old boy said "How about a short jog then Old Girl?" Well, why not, its only two miles, I know I should have a rest day from the whole impact thing, but I see it as a long jog just spread over two days. "Yeah, you're on" I tell him.

As the evening draws on, I am getting more and more cosy in my chair, one of the little darlings I look after went home fairly early, it was the older one that was staying a bit later, of course she doesn't need running after! So my armchair was becoming more and more snug.

Eventually her mum arrived, after chatting for a bit while the child got her things together, I said goodbye and looked at the Old Boy and he was still keen to go. "Are you coming then?" he said to me. I was quite tired by now, and looking forward to my dinner. "No, you go, I shall cook" The old Boy went upstairs to get changed, and I thought to myself, "Get up them you lazy old mare and go jogging, ITS ONLY 2 MILES!So of course I did!.

"Go gentle on me" said the Old boy, but I know that he is a lot fitter than what he thinks he is. I think he just needs to pace himself while things take shape with the old body, and I know that I run at a very gentle pace! Probably a very good pace for an old boy who hasn't 'run' since his twenties!

As it turned out though, I was the one who was slowing the Old Boy down! Our route took us to my favourtie lamppost of all time, turn around lamppost, but because it is turn around lamppost, it has a hold on me, sico...phsycho.......or where is the spell checker? It has a psychological hold on me, it wants me to stop, hold on to it, rest a while. But the Old Boy wasn't having that. "To the church and then stop" he says. Who is training who here?! So from there the Old Boy took the lead.

He did let me stop at the church and walk awhile, and then he gave me another focus point to get to before he let me stop again. All the way to the training centre. We both decided it was going to be a short run so we were cutting through the park. "Ok Old Girl" he says to me "You call it, where you want to run too?" I could quite easily have said to the next lamppost but that is not the idea really, "Ok, to the fence at the end of the park" And so we headed on home.

The Old boy was on form, I was struggling behind and even had a sneaky walk, but I picked up the pace again, "its not that far now, just keep running you lazy mare," were the thoughts going through my mind. I was quite pleased the fence came quite quickly as I picked up the pace a bit to get it all over and done with, and the caught up with the Old Boy. We walked for a few more seconds, till the end of the short road, and then the next stop was home, with the sprint finish up our road.

Running up the road now, the Old Boy on the pavement, me on the road, saving precious energy by not going up and down on those darn driveways. I can see that the Old Boy is looking good, and I should out to him "The first one in cooks dinner and makes tea" I knew that wouldn't slow him down, and I get out of cooking, again, at least this way the food will be edible! On and on now, turning left, and now sprint, I can see the Old Boy like a bloomin rocket, a shadow in the darkness going up our path. I am struggling with the whole sprinting, and I stop just before our path "NO, NO, NO Old Girl!" I said to my self, "Get your ass back to running" and I ran up the path to where the Old boy was just cooling down, Stopped my Garmin and joined him in the walk around the green for a warm down.

So the stats for the short jog are

Time 29.05
Distance 2.24 miles
Avg pace, 13 min miles

After we got in, the Old boy said "Thanks babe, that is just the right pace for me at the moment" And there was me thinking I was running faster than usual!