| Time (mins) | Pace mins/mile | |
|---|---|---|
| Day 19 . | ||
| Day 20 | ||
| Day 21 | ||
| Day 22 | ||
| Day 23 |
I'm clearly getting slower as the minutes go up, but yesterday's run was the first one over 12 minute mile pace, and there was a specific reason for this. Middle Meadow Walk, in Edinburgh.
A long slow climb, the first real 'hill' I've incorporated into any of my training routes. I needed to push myself, because Day 22 was a mentally tough day, where I panicked a lot, my breathing went wheezy and out of control, and I freaked out at the prsopect of a small hill, changing my route and wheezing around the last 6 or 7 minutes. I'd still ran the whole way without walking, but it had felt kind of like a defeat. It was important for me to have a mentally stronger run on Day 23, and I certainly did that!! The added bonus was finishing at the statue of Greyfriar's Bobby, and using it for the background of my daily post-run photo of my Garmin screen. :-)
Day 20, as with each Saturday before in the challenge, was done as part of the Perth parkrun (flat) - this week, I was there without anyone else I knew, and just wanted to focus on my own run. It was so hot, though, with hardly any breeze, and in the second half especially I suffered. So even though I managed to run the whole 20 minutes, I was so completely done in after that that I took longer to finish the rest than I maybe should have done, and despite my continuous run being 7 more minutes than the week before, my overall 5km time was only about 15 seconds faster, at 37:42. Still, before this challenge 3 weeks ago, my 5km time was two full minutes slower, and had been since November, so I'm still pretty happy with that! I'll get faster, but I'm in no hurry for that just yet.
My Garmin 610 is annoying me, during the challenge though! I know that stats and computer records shouldn't matter a jot while I'm getting out there and achieving my challenge runs every day, but I have to say I'm getting somewhat disheartened by the speed charts that my watch thinls I've done on my daily run. Day 21, I ran continuously for 21 minutes - keeping a steady pace. Day 22, I ran continuously, struggling mentally in the second half and slowing a little, but still never stopping once. Garmin recorded my speed as:
What?!! I was close to throwing my Garmin watch out the window and smashing it to pieces that day!!! Thankfully, it was a little better yesterday, but even still, weird spikes here and there. I get that, i get that satellites might pick up the odd rogue reading, but really? THAT much variation? Madness. The 610 has the feature of allowing 'smart recording', or '1 second recording' - the latter supposedly being a more accurate reading, but a lot more data to upload. I've tried both, during this challenge, and both have given random spikes here and there. The two days in the picture were both on 1 second recording. Madness. Tonight's run will be back on smart recording, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope... I plan on checking for any available firmware updates when I get the chance, as well as trying a factory reset if it continues.
Anyway. Can't sit here procrastinating all night, I guess. It's run time!! Twentythreeplusone minutes to run - bring it on! You probably won't get another blogpost from me until after the weekend, when I'm crewing for David Meldrum at the Devil o' The Highlands ultra marathon! Can't wait, it's going to be such an exciting day - and after I've done helping David out, I'll be fitting in my Day 27 run in, potentially on the fire road on the West Highland Way into Fort William. We'll see!! x
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