A long run on a sunny Sunday

over 3 years ago

I just finished a 10.143km running that lasted about 1hh:2mm:14ss !

I mentioned I was going to slowly build up to the 10k distance. That was evidently a lie as I promptly went out and did that this morning. The pace was slow, but it was an enjoyable run nonetheless.

We had the remnants of Storm Bella overnight, with strong winds and heavy rain. When I woke up this morning there were massive puddles everywhere but the rain had thankfully stopped, and the sun was shining brightly, it was a lovely morning weather-wise.

My running has progressed well recently and I am slowly getting back into the groove after many, many months of neglecting it. December has been particularly productive and I have made a substantial increase to my weekly distance covered.

I had joined the December Distance running challenge over on strava. I didn't expect to complete it, but I was curious to see how close I could get, it turns out that so far I have managed 64km, and with 3 days of December to go I don't expect to make it lol. The challenge is reset for each month, so If I keep progressing and staying consistent, I have a good chance of completing the January challenge.

I did manage to complete the 10k challenge though (todays run) and although the pace wasn't brilliant, the aim was to be slow and steady and complete the distance. Slightly depressingly, it has been a couple of years since I have run this far, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

And if I am honest I have thoroughly missed the sport. Lots of people run in order to lose weight, and while I certainly have weight to lose, its not the reason I run. I run because I enjoy it. It almost becomes a type of 'moving meditation' and on these longer runs, my mind wanders to think about other subjects (jobs to do at home, plans for next week, thinking over some issues at work).

Anyway, I am pleased to finally get back to a 10k run, but I really do need to slow down and consolidate my running at this distance. In the space of 5 weeks I have gone from 0 km per week to 22.5km this week, any further increases will surely lead to injury, and I daren't risk that happening.

Check out some detailed info at my EXHAUST page
Join me in testing out EXHAUST!

exhaust running fitnation sport sportstalk health teamuk exercise

0.000

11 comments

@teamuksupport 59

over 3 years ago

Hi @dannewton,
Thank you for participating in the #teamuk curated tag. We have upvoted your quality content.
For more information visit our discord https://discord.gg/8CVx2Am

0.000

@runningproject 58

over 3 years ago

*When someone tells you that what you want to do is impossible, change the word in your head to hard. What you want to do is hard. Hard is doable – it just requires dedicated work and effort and you can make it happen.
@trevor.george

Enjoy a !BEER in the meantime...

*Resteemed by @runningproject

0.000

@stav 67

over 3 years ago

That's more than a respectable pace! I'm not sure I ever managed a 5k in under 40 minutes. Technically I think my "going out for a run" is a walk with intent.

0.000

@dannewton 71

over 3 years ago

haha thanks! I guess pace is relative?

I compare myself to more experienced athletes (and even to myself 12 years ago) and I say my pace is slow. And you may think you are slow in comparison to me, but I know for a fact that you are faster than all those people sat on their arse watching TV all day.

0.000

@steevc 79

over 3 years ago

Well done! Most people could not run 10km. I started running in my late 40s and took a while to get to that distance. Now I can do it fairly easily. Just keep running and you are bound to see improvement. I do some of the Strava challenges, but I am not too worried about getting the badges. There are some I would struggle to get. I have not managed much over 100km in a month.

Here's to a better year in 2021.

0.000

@dannewton 71

over 3 years ago

Cheers! I have always been reasonably active (even though carrying extra weight) and work is always busy, apart from a 15min break to wolf down a sandwich I am on my feet for the whole 8-9hour shift. I have done 10k's over a decade ago so I know what I can do, just got try to be sensible and not increase the workload to quickly.

The same goes with those badges I guess... a nice little 'extra motivation' but sensible training (with rest days) is better than trying to complete the challenge for the sake of it.