At the weekend I ran 10 miles! In one session! Me! I did that!
I am training for a half marathon in March and so I need to up my distance and have been trying to make sure my runs are either over 5k or over 10k so I am not stuck on those distances.
I’ve said it a million times before but I don’t find running easy and if I am honest it is a means to an end for me to lose weight and get fit.
I seem to always have the same average pace of 9-9.5 minute miles so I’ve been listening to advice from people to slow it down in order to up the distance and so I’ve now had a few 7 and 8 mile runs where I slow to 10 to 10.5 minute miles and it feels so much more comfortable. I can hold a conversation and I don’t totally sound like a panting dog (as a dear friend of mine said on a recent run – thanks for that, you know who you are).
So last week my husband and I decided that on Saturday I would run 10 miles and even just speaking about it was making me feel nervous. It wasn’t an event, just me and him out on the streets (not like a two man gang or anything like I made that just sound). There would be no water stations or toilets if I needed them. I tend to mouth breathe when I run so a water stop would have been nice and I have the bladder of a 90 year old so a toilet stop would have been good too. But actually I managed without either, which is good as usually the need to pee intensifies by a million after a run starts.
My husband acted as my pacer and although I wore my Garmin watch I didn’t look at it – I wasn’t allowed. I’m better not knowing the distance. For example he told me at one point ‘look we’re already 2.25 miles in and you wouldn’t guess it’ as it was feeling comfortable, but I would rather not know because instead of thinking yes almost a quarter done already I think oh sh*t I have to do that three more times!
I speed up when I see people or we are on a busy street. Not intentionally but noticed with trying to maintain a steady pace this is something I did over and over. Every time I sped up he would put his arm out to slow me slightly. I still feel like when I run people are probably looking thinking ah bless her, overweight and bright red giving it a go.
I must admit although it was much more comfortable and manageable than maintaining that slightly quicker pace I still couldn’t get my head around the slowing down bit – at times it felt harder to be going slower than was natural but I know I would have probably blown out if I had tried to do the whole thing at my normal pace.
I managed the first 12k without needing a walking break and so that is also the first time I have conquered a 10k without having to stop for a short walk or breather. Towards the home straight I had a couple of times where I needed to catch my breath but only for a matter of seconds.
I finished 10 miles in 1 hour and 45 minutes giving me an average of 10.32 minute miles and that included a couple of walks but for a total of 1 minute only over the whole thing. If anyone needs a pacer I may rent out my husband – he’s really very good at it!
Although on the event day I will have to do an additional 3.1 miles on top of that I am so pleased I actually completed 10 miles, managed the pace I set out to do and wasn’t a complete miserable whiny b*tch.
Now I won’t lie about 1k from home I had a little wobble and a teeny weeny cry (almost). I am not even sure why I think it was just as we were almost done (which is always nice) and I was going to finish it. I also got home and was starving! It hit me almost instantly – the need for food!
And i didn’t have an ‘I will wet myself moment’! It comes to something when at 35 you are feeling pretty epic that you completed a long run and didn’t wet yourself!
I didn’t lose any weight this week – I can’t lie I am getting a tad bit fed up with this weight loss plateau. I lost the 2lb I put on over christmas but this plateau is a stubborn old cow! Though I will remember that even if I cannot see the numbers on the scales changing that I will not get discouraged as I can see the results elsewhere!
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