NOW I'VE GONE AND DONE IT...


Hmm. After much procrastinating I have finally put in for next year's FLM. Well of course I stand a cat in hell's chance of getting in via the ballot, but am upping my training and seriously considering a charity place. Haven't told the old man yet, oh dear.

Can't believe I can really be contemplating this. I ran six miles last week and thought ... ouch. That hurt more then I remembered. And my speed. Oh god, my speed is still pathetically slow.

So accordingly this week I set out to run circuits round the park across the road in order to work on my speed. My problem is that I just can't seem to do it - either mentally or physically. I think about speeding up and something just goes, Nope, I Don't Do Speed.

I wasn't helped first off by having a rather bad tempered encounter with a dog owner. Her pesky little pet came up to have a snuffle. I may have mentioned elsewhere to rather tedious length that dogs and me just don't get along. I find it particularly unnerving when they come up to me when I'm running, so always slow down. The owner paid no attention to her dog coming up to me and looked askance when I said I didn't like dogs. Well you've come to the wrong place then was her sarcy response. My rather more badtempered one (I am duly ashamed of it now, but forgive me, I was feeling hormonal) was to say Great, you're saying I shouldn't come to the park then? I was rather aggressive, but really, she got right up my nose.

My first minute of speed work was accordingly rather faster then I intended as the mood thing fired me right up. Consequently I ran out of steam before the minute was up and was puffing like an old steam train when it came to my walk. My two minutes was therefore a lot slower, and by the time I got to three minutes I was giving up totally on the idea of even attempting to run as fast as I could. I just ran the speed I can run, which was probably slower then normal. I was feeling totally pathetic about the whole thing frankly, so I decided for my four minute spurt I woudl try and do the second half faster then the first. When you go at snail's pace to start with, this is just about possible... However, never has four minutes seemed so long. How is it goes so fast on the walking bits?

I gave up at that point, as I really had had enough and I ran out of time, which was an even better excuse.

I was knackered, red in the face, and I had run probably slower then I do normally. I'm never going to get on with this speed thing.

However....

Woohoo!

A miracle happened.

Actually two have happened.

The swimming is coming together and I managed thirty lengths crawl in the pool last week. Yes I did say thirty. And I couldn't do two six months ago. Yay. And on Monday night I wasn't at the back of the pack for once. Double Yay. And I enjoyed it...


The second miracle was I went running on Tuesday morning with a friend who is a really fast runner.

We started off talking and running at a speed I didn't think I was capable of and still retain the ability to remain upright. The talking was a mistake. After less then a mile I was just about ready to drop and begged for a break, which she kindly gave me. Meanwhile, she wasn't even out of breath. The route we run bisects my road, and I was sooo tempted to cut off home, but decided that wasn't fair on my friend, who had generously slowed her pace a tad. By dint of not speaking much, I could just about keep up. I also practised breathing through my nose, a neat trick Friendly Instructor had taught me the previous night, which gets more oxygen into your lungs. It seems to work for running as well as swimming, so though we were running faster then I normally do I didn't quite feel as though I was going to keel over at any minute.

We got back and split up at the top of my road. Checking the time I realised we had been about thirty minutes. Wowee. I knew the run was about three miles. For once I had managed ten minute miles. Armed with such knowledge I raced back home, clocking 32 mins as my time as I came through the door.

I've just got an account with the Good Run Guide, which allows you to plot your routes and log times. To my amazement the run we did was 3.44 miles, which gave me a time of 9.5 minute miles.

Me run a nine and a half minute mile.

I don't believe it.

But it appears miraculously to be true...