Rob's Running Blog

Two very contrasting runs!

Had a week or so off running due to a trip to Wales (the trip I managed to double book over the Great Manchester Run so ended up not doing it for the first time in 5 years!). Indulged in about 40 miles of mountain and other walking, took my running shoes but by the day I had planned a run over the Orme, my legs were shot and my feet were burning up with blisters…

So waited till I got back and head out to Sweatshop Hyde community run on Wednesday, was a bit quietish with Tony absent and not a few people doing the Dovestone diamond, or recovering from the Bupa 10k. Set off at the front and had to reign myself in to stop myself getting too far ahead, pace felt very easy, so kept backmarking then catching the front then going back to backmark. In the end the front pack went way ahead and there were two ladies way behind so I looked after them while we were on the canals and then when we got to the big long hill at the back of Market Street they said I could charge off if i liked, so I did, and managed to make up the ground on the leading pack in the distance somehow, really flew up that hill, legs and body felt fantastic, grabbed by bottle and coat from the shop and decided to run home as well making up about 5 miles altogether.

Then a couple of days off, and a nice sunny Saturday late afternoon, so thought I would do a 10k and see if I could get under an hour. Had a route planned in my mind and off I went after the Garmin kept telling me the GPS signals were weak and taking ages to find a signal. First km was a bit slowish, then I picked up the pace and was just looking at the Garmin to see what km 2 clicked over in, when the blink of an eye it went from 1.98KM to 1.48km and so I ended up doing km2 in about 8 minutes but knew the Garmin had gone haywire as it occasionally does. Any thoughts of a real time trial sort of run with the Garmin playing tricks like that went out of the window, even still, I carried on and thought maybe just a tempo pace, but at 3 or 4k I really started to wilt, and when I got into Debdale Park I had to stop with my lungs really burning and revised my route to take me back home the quickest way. Had to stop a few times but once I got back to Hyde Road I pushed on and got to Victoria Park where I stopped the Garmin at 8k, with the .5 I had lost added on making up 8.5km so a tad over 5 miles which wasn’t bad and pleased I kept going though I did not enjoy the last few miles one bit, felt hot and weak and had to go pretty slowly just to make it home, but at least I didn’t walk it all or get the bus as much as I felt like it!