Strength & Honour

10km, 43:36

Beautiful weather ~18 degrees, 9pm at night - no wind - great to be alive.

I've gone back to thai training (3 times a week)  (did the old Dyke Rd route from 2011 again before training last friday night (on my own - no show from Toby), a bit of nostalga... in 19:12, so that was a bit of a run I suppose) so that's helped my fitness it seems... been really gassed at the sessions towards the last few rounds on the pads so I thought my fitness had taken a hit... with a time like I put in earlier tonight, not necessarily it seems.

dunno how it ended up being "fast" tonight as my TC1 was 3:07 & felt awful sluggish... but somehow I managed it... I was 11:20 & was 14:58 @ the 2nd gas station & 17:18 @ the turn, then 20:20 at the turn onto ballymoneen Rd & 22:30 at the highest point on that hilly road. missed the time check at the turn onto western distributor  as Conor, a friend from college, greeted me on the bend which threw me, but I was 27:03 at the turn then, 29:48 & 31:03 at the turn, & 35:40 at the top of threadneedle...

At no stage in the run tonight did I ever feel I was travelling even remotely fast. Normally I feel like I've a bit of an edge when I run sub 44. Not tonight. The entire run felt very slow, not really all that laboured but I could tell I hadn't this done in a while as my chest took a while to adjust to the exertion - always a good sign!

I can do sub 40 on this route easily if I put my mind to it.

slight twinge on the right inside knee on occasion (particularly on the downhill section on western distributor (you'd think it'd be coming down threadneedle, especially as I run that road twice as part of the route...) just letting me know the famous discomfort is there & reminding me that each run is a bit of a luxury really....

I've been so tired the last week or so, so I'm happy with this outing  - it's encouraging. I guess the weather is a possible cause for this & my contrasting fast time too. It's easiest to hit these PBs this time of year I reckon.

great to hear the great Manchester run is still going ahead as planned on sunday. Thankfully the organisers havn't been phased by this weeks terror attacks. Let's hope they don't decide to do another Boston bombing. 30 thousand plus people running - I just hope it's gonna be OK, as it's unfortunately extremely likely that there'll be another attack - I really hope I'm completely wrong.

gonna go for a long slow bike ride 2moro, then thai run & train on friday night. Might end up moving to Holland for a job, who knows. Best to do these things when you're young & malleable - no family no kids. At 22, I've no excuse really - do I?!? at 35, a big move is less likely - kids morgage, etc... Regardless, things are looking good overall & keeping fit is all part of it.