Lone Runner, Following A Plan

Thursday: The weather turned ugly, hailstones and very strong winds. But amazingly, I was still up for running, perhaps yesterday's rest had been useful after all. As I warmed up, I was still in deep thought about how much to run. The greattrainer.org plan, if I had had it before, showed me I should have run 10mins on Monday, followed by two rest days. The plan advised a 15min easy jog for today. I had been doing 4min runs on Monday and 8min runs on Tuesday. Feeling a bit behind, I decided to push myself, and I ended up doing 2 rounds of 15min runs, with a 2min walk between them. The first was okay, hard, but doable. The second 15min run was a killer, I was struggling, despite going slowly and with the winds against me. But I did it, and I'm so pleased. When I stopped after the 2nd 15min run, my whole body was throbbing, I was extremely hot and sweaty. I had earlier met a fellow parent who told me she was doing the Great Manchester Run too, which was very exciting for me, but she is a much more advanced runner, so I didn't suggest training together. At the time, my progress worried me, but doing the two 15min runs has boosted my confidence. Having a plan to follow is a great help, reassuring me I am following the right direction. At the end of the day, I can report no major aches, though the right calf has an ache that comes and goes. I had thought about how lovely it would be to train with someone, indeed that was part of my reasons for not doing the Run, the thought of being all by myself was a little scary. But I feel a bit more philosophical about it now. I think perhaps I would rather train alone, alone with my thoughts and doing things my way. Perhaps I am getting used to doing it alone and that is a good thing, because despite there being thousands of entrants in the Run, I am doing it by myself, noone else can do it for me. There are many runners in the park training on their own, and the few I see that are in pairs, are usually busy chatting away as they run. Interestingly, I don't envy that anymore, I appreciate the solitude of running more every day.