Just kidding!
Pace-wise, today's run ended up being identical (to within a second a mile) to last week's nightmare. But the experience could not have been more different.
At no stage this week did I feel like I was running particularly slowly, or labouring just to put one foot in front of the other. Last week, I never felt I was running particularly quickly and every step was an effort. This week, my pace and the effort I felt I was putting in felt very steady and consistent throughout ( the numbers back up this impression). Last week, I could barely move for about the last 3 miles and knew I was slowing down, despite never having felt I was pushing that hard.
I'm not going to claim to have enjoyed it, but it's definitely a step (or several thousand) in the right direction! I actually managed to notice people I knew this week, and raise a smile and a wave, rather than being locked in an isolation tank of pain and misery.
And, oh my god, what a beautiful day it is out there! It brought out the hordes onto the seafront, which did create some issues. Especially towards the end, when both my steering and breaking capabilities were rapidly running out and I almost stepped on THE SMALLEST DOG ON THE PLANET. But, this gave me the practice I usually get doing a competitive half marathon, which is actually quite important. When you're sharing a course with 15 thousand other runners (35 thousand if you're running London), you cannot ever, no matter how much you want to, run the shortest distance or anything approaching a direct course. You're hoppity-skippy-jumping constantly to avoid people, thrown bottles, etc. And negotiating the seafront today was the perfect rehearsal for all that.
All in all, much less horrible than it could have been and, if not quite convincing me a PB is on the cards this year, at least I now feel I won't humiliate myself. Beyond being out in public in lycra, obviously. And I passed another milestone this week at some point - training runs so far have totalled over a full day's worth of running!!! 24 hours plus!!! And the long Sunday runs are almost burning 2000 calories each. Just in time for Easter. Hurrah.
Updated Training Plan
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