I decided to vary my route this morning, as variety is the
spice of life and it can become very boring just panting past the same old
scenes all the time. I also decided that, since it is Sunday and therefore nice
and quiet and relatively traffic-free, I would run a route that involves
running alongside some major roads – not something I would enjoy during the
week with all the nose-to-tail commuters in their smelly, choking fumes
alongside as companions on the journey.
The weather is cool, but not cold, and there is a light
breeze, thankfully much lighter than yesterday’s strong, fence-flattening
winds! I don’t mind much weather, but strong, gusting winds can knock you this
way and that and sap your energy, making a run into a battle with the elements.
Some people find that invigorating, but not I! The first mile or so is my usual
run through the park. This is the section when I start to get warmed up, my
heart and lungs up to speed and my muscles working. Even after nearly 30 years
and countless runs I still find the very start of a run difficult. There’s a
short, moderately uphill stretch right at the start, and this where I have to
get everything woken up and working – a downhill section just wouldn’t do it,
so my house is well-positioned in that respect!
Hills are at the forefront of my mind this morning, as I
know what lies ahead. This is a route I have run many times in the past, but
not for some time now – possibly since early last summer. I spend the first
mile through the deserted park mentally preparing for what lies ahead – the
relentless climb from the park to the Common, a large area of woodland and
parkland just outside the centre of the city. As I leave the park I note the
details on my GPS: 1.03 miles covered. I will note them again when I reach the
summit. I don’t mind running up hills at all, as much of my early running was
in a very hilly city that bordered on even hillier countryside – hills were
unavoidable so I learned to love them. There’s no point in hating hills if you
can’t avoid them, and I always think to myself that they involve different
muscles, so the ‘flat’ muscles get a bit of a rest on the way up. You can
probably tell that I’m not medically-trained!
Up then, then up again, a slightly flatter stretch then up
and up until I can see the crossroads right at the top and they draw closer
until I am upon them. I glance down at my Garmin – 2.79 miles, so a climb of
1.76 miles accomplished in just short of 16 minutes. Not bad at all! And now
I’m at the Common, away from the roads and through the woods, lovely and
peaceful and surprisingly free of spaniels. Well, it is still relatively early
for a Sunday, although later than I would run during the week. Actually, to be
able to see clearly where I am heading is still a bit of a novelty, as I’m used
to the half-light of pre-dawn in recent runs.
It’s pretty much all downhill from here, or flat. There are
quite a few runners around, of varying abilities. One young man streaks past me
and shrinks into the distance, and I think to myself that he is probably thirty
years my junior, has never broken his femur in a race, and probably doesn’t
have diabetes to contend with – this helps me justify the disparity in our
relative speeds. Oh, and he probably hasn’t just run uphill for nearly two
miles. I try hard, but can’t think of any more excuses why he has become an ever-decreasing dot in the distance!
Being familiar with the route, I know that it is going to
take me much further than my recent training runs, and I am starting to tire as
I glance down and see that I am now 4.5 miles into the run. I’m still quite a
way from home, but I’m leaving the Common now and on my way back – a different
route, more direct, and either flat or downhill all the way. Happily, my legs
are not too jarred by the impact of running downhill, so I manage to get back
in one piece and fit to run another day (probably a Tuesday, and probably this
week!). In all I have covered 6.24 miles in around 63 minutes, which in metric
equates to 10 kilometres! Not bad, given that I was finding 3.5 miles so
challenging around ten days ago! I’m also interested to see that, for the first
time since starting this blog, my blood glucose levels are actually lower than
when I set off. This confirms previous findings that I can run for around 5
miles before needing any extra carbohydrate. This is something I will need to
bear in mind and monitor as my training runs get longer.
On the fundraising front, things are a little slower,
although I have many pledges of donations before the month is out, so it will
be nice when they come in – I may even approach my revised target of £500!
Time 1hr
3 mins 24 secs
Distance 6.24
miles
Pace 10:10
per mile
BG before 8.4
mmol/l
BG after 6.3
mmol/l
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