Sunday – 6:30am. I decide to get out of bed and drive 20 or so miles to go out country running with Team GB. 8am start, at least 5 miles.
Wow…Hills.
Lovely sunny, breezy morning around the quaint, picturesque setting of Dedham (where my 10km race takes place in 7 weeks so we ran that route) turned out to be much hillier than expected.
I’ve never really trained on hill running. My local parkrun laps a Castle 3 times with a bitch of a hill (not massive) but it’s definitely not flat.
These were some crazy hills.
Only 2 mind, but it’s not just the gradient – it’s the slog and distance. It feels like it won’t end. I felt like being sick at the top of each one (but didn’t) and continued along at a nice 6:15min/km pace (yay negative split!)
Even still – pretty lovely place to run around…
Not bad hey?
So anyway, onto the stats which I’m happy with! Halfway round as I looked at my watch for the hundredth time as per usual and running up the hill, I thought to myself “10km race in under an hour? No chance with these hills. Flat? Maybe. Dedham? No”.
I crossed our little finish marker and had a nice lie down and ended my tracking:
11.45km | 1:10:38
My 10km split was 1:01:16. Considering this was the first trek around Dedham and my first real attempt at hill running, I’m rather pleased. And I’m sure 1m16 is achievable to take off this time!
I’ve been considering treating myself to a new pair of running shoes also. Something garish as white or black is boring. And more than likely, Adidas as I’m just a massive fan of their products at the moment. Hmmn, bright blue/red AdiZero anyone?! 😉
Considering I haven’t run farther than 8km about a month ago, I’m really happy with this, and our coach was even pretty happy with my running…and he’s a bit of a badass!
Back to work tomorrow and some nice achey legs I’m sure…but it’s all worth it!
Happy running!
Lego x
Run Lego, Run 