13.5k Long Run in the evening sun – 1:23:56

Posted on Jun 17, 2012 under 10-15k, Long Runs, Trail Running | No Comment

Saw the Dalai Lama today at Manchester Arena, was a wonderful event, so wanted to get in a nice long mindful run as the evening was nice and sunny for a change, and chose to run a long loop through the trails of the local woods, without a care about time.

Set off nice and slowly and the first km ticked over in just over 6 minutes, then I entered the woods which seemed to play havoc with the Garmin as it seemed to keep insisting I was running at 5:30 pace and indeed the next km ticked over in that, but I think it was just measuring the straight lines when it could get a signal (it kept bleeping weak gps signals at me!). But no matter, I felt relaxed and wasn’t concerned about the time, so just carried on, mindful of the dogs I kept bumping into, and a few times I stopped to stroke them!

Had a nice jog past the river and saw a running couple who didn’t say hello back but never mind, then I took a bit of a break walking up the steps cut in the hillside near the waterfall (they really are steep!). By that point I was getting towards 6k and so knew I would easily do 5 miles but wanted to get a longer run in, so continued, aware of the irony of killing half a million flies after having been to a talk by the Dalai Lama earlier in the day! Still it couldn’t be helped and I expect it was the flies’ karma to end up going down my throat…

I got to 5 miles in about 50 minutes, and then ran out of trails so opted to continue on one of the local urban routes, slowing my pace a little (having done some 5:30 kilometres according to the garmin I had also done some 7 or 8 minute ones, but once I got out of the woods it settled back into a 6 minutes-ish pace which was fine. I was feeling a bit tired but opted to loop through the Haughton green estate, going past some kind of police incident on the way. As I got to 11k I started to feel a bit of a stiffness around my left knee, and was starting to get a bit more heavy legged, but continued plodding on and decided rather than go for 13.1km (which I could have maybe done under 1 hr 20 even though I think the garmin was short) I could add a bit more and make it the longest run of the season so far, which would be good prep for my race next Sunday, so getting ever tireder, I plodded around until I reached the 13.5km mark just outside my house, and was thankful to come to a rest and get home for some water.

All in all a really enjoyable run and now I plan an easy week running wise, maybe just a few easy runs, before the city of Manchester 10k on Sunday. Hopefully on this form I can go sub 55 and anything else will be a bonus. We shall see!

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