Tales of my attempts to run in the heat and humidity of Saigon, and other reasons to get off the couch.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

A good week for running

After getting to green last week, I've been a bit more motivated to push myself a little harder (although, to be honest, not much harder!) in my last few runs. Well, the last two runs, the one before that was horrendous, pathetic pathetic pathetic, and my head phones broke.

Anyway, back to the aren't-I-great bit. I went out on Tuesday (with the boyfriend's headphones) with the intention of getting to 5k without stopping, but not really thinking I would do it. It's ridiculously hot now, and I'm feeling a bit lazy. At the start it was fairly grim, especially the bit where I have to go up and down some stairs to get around a blocked-off car park (no idea why it's blocked off though, you can access it the other way, it's not keeping anyone out of anywhere, and serves no purpose I can see except inconveniencing me!), but I managed to keep going through being tired and a horrible stitch to finish at 5.1km, average pace 6:01/k, and it was ALL running. Whoo! So we celebrated with Domino's 2 for 1 pizza, not the healthiest of choices...

Today was even better - I've been reading John Galloway's ideas about run/walking, and decided to try shorter run bits with shorter breaks between them, ending up with around 4 minutes 30 running followed by about a minute walking. My legs felt like lead, my knees were screaming (but I think mostly from wearing my work sandals too many days in a row) and it was even hotter than Tuesday, but there was still a bit of enjoyment there. And I didn't get angry at all the people on motorbikes trying to kill me. Except one, but he was running a red light, so he deserved it. It was a bit of a plod, but I got back eventually at 10.12k in 65:42. Oh, and I have new headphones. Cheap £2 'Sony' ones from a backpacker shop in town, sound a bit weird, but they'll do.

I'm really rather chuffed with myself, as it's the first time I've managed either of these workouts since before I started running again in January, and the first time in about a year if treadmills aren't counted (and I think they're cheating a bit, so no, they don't count). I'm going to reward myself by watching sci-fi and trying not to get too used to all the milestones!

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