Solo Run? - Nah!

Hello bog lovers.

As promised to myself, stilling the quiet voice in my head, I went out for a run today.  I was planning on running solo, but as I was going to  church this morning I saw Naggy Neighbour over the green. "Morning!" she said.
"Morning" I replied, "I'm going running later, after church, do you fancy it"
"Yes sure, what time?"
"Oh about 1:30"
"Yup sure, I'll be ready" she said.  What have I done!  I think it's my subconscious is  kicking my ass, because running, just me and Naggy, is tough going.  Because she knows what I need! It's scary! I do need telling that's for sure.

So after church I went over to Naggys to see if she was ready, I was a tad early!  So I sat down and told her about two possible routes, Normans Park, the parkrun route, or through the woods.  She hasn't really run through the woods before, and it is a slower run, what with looking out for routes, low branches and those hills of course.  The parkrun route will be for speed.  Getting my speed up and completing the route quicker than I did yesterday!  Of course, Naggy likes that idea. "You know you didn't ask me for anything else" she said.  Damn my subconscious!

We piled into her car with Chocs, maybe her having a pee or 'big jobs' well maybe just slow the pace slightly, but still keep it faster that yesterday! Flip, I don't know what I want!  I just know that I have a lot of work to do, get my weight down, mojo up, black moods buried and fitness flourishing! Trying everything possible, and Naggy is the perfect coach for me!

Of course we didn't walk all the way down to where we usually start, we started our Garmins from Hook Farm end, but we were still going to follow the same route, the big 'B' shape around the park.  As soon as we were on the grass we started running, both starting our Garmins to keep an eye on the pace.  Our pace goal was 11;30 mi/m.  That will get us in about 36 mins, two minutes faster that yesterdays parkrun.  Well that's the aim!

The first bit of course is brilliant, perfectly on pace, if I stayed with Naggy all the way round at this time then I will deffo smash that parkrun time! Now I just got to engage brain, get the positive thoughts embedded in there, "I can do this!"  I do feel stronger in the beginning, I guess everyone does.  What I find difficult is staying strong, or is it all just in the mind!  Naggy says it's all in the mind, she says to me 'You can do this, you've done a couple of marathons for goodness, this is piss easy!"

All the way round the first mile the pace was pretty steady.  See I can do it! In fact at times I was running faster that what I needed to be doing, just check out my geeky stats, and my heart rate!  I think that is what I got to learn to control. I need to relax more, keep the heart rate at a nice steady pace too!  But I am sure that losing weight will go a long way to help sorting that out!  But then I think my brain starts to think too much.  I start thinking "That was a pretty fast mile" (well it was for this year it think!) and then I start thinking I might 'burn out!' And there it is!  The self doubt!  My legs turn to lead, and then Naggy comes into her own!

Now that is why my subconscious called out to Naggy this morning! I need some more ass kicking!  From the finish of that first mile she kept me going, she was always a couple of paces in front of me from that point, urging me to keep the pace going.  I must admit, I did struggle, I walked some, as it shows on my geeky stats, I think I forgot to relax while running again, and just thought about how bloody hard it was!  Even after all these years running, I find it difficult, the only difference is, its difficult over longer distances than when I first started.

The second mile was finished at the other end of the park it was a lot slower than the first mile!  I know it,  the third mile  I was even slower!  I tried not walk as much, not that Naggy was allowing that! "Come on don't stop, I don't do stopping!" she says, "slow the pace down but no stopping!" I tried I really did, Chocs was looking at me all sympathetically, well that hows I enterpreted her look, it could quite easily be "blimey, Old Girl, you call that running!"  Chocolate just seemed to literally stroll besides Naggy, occasionally saying hello to other canines!

We were just at the woods, the last few hundred meters, and I really had to stop, I did one of those burps, you know where a bit of yuck pop up into you mouth!  But even then Naggy says "No time for being sick, you can be sick at the end!"  She's a hard task master! I really thought we would stop where we started our run, but of course that wouldn't be parkrun distance, so I just kept going.  I kept an eye on my Garmin, looking for that 3.11 mile to come on my watch, I wasn't even looking at the time now, I just wanted to make sure that I finished this running and not walking.  Just a few more yards to do and that will be it.  Naggy was in front of me, I knew I wouldn't be beside her when we finished, but I was determined to finish strong!  I looked at my watch, 3:08 miles, just a few more steps and I am done, I pushed a little harder, looked at again "I'm done!" That was it. 3:12 miles, finished, and under 38 minutes.  Ok so I didn't manage to get a 36, next time!  Thanks Naggy, hope the daggers didn't hurt too much!

Geeky stats