She Likes To Move

Friday: The feet were not keen on running today, understandable as they were still aching and blistered from yesterday, but the trainers proved they were money well spent, protecting and cushioning them better than expected. Dry and cold weather today, cloudy and sunless, as I like it for running. I remembered my earphones, though forgot to apply the calf gel, which is something I need to get into the habit of. I began with the usual 10min warm-up walk, with light stretching/leg shaking, covered 4.22km in 29mins 28secs of running and ended with a 10min cool down walk. Today's run felt good, one of those days it felt less like a struggle and came to be more natural and easy. I stopped as my right calf started to play up (regretting not having applied calf gel) and I didn't want to add to the feet aches I have to contend with. Today was still enjoyable, and one of my fastest times to date. Thoughts often turn to speed, as the race is two weeks away, though I am conscious of keeping focused on endurance levels, as part of the bigger picture. Targets for the Salford 5km Run are a-30mins, b-34mins and c-38mins: (c) is easily achievable, my recent predictions have me hovering under 37mins on average; (b) is a real aim I am working towards and after all my training, I expect my body to try touching that; (a) is the dream target which is unreachable but I need that kind of aim to drive me forward. I have only done the race route once (not counting the attempt which I half walked) and fetch predicted 35mins 58secs for that. I am thinking of doing the race route again, to test myself on that punishing uphill section, to increase my race confidence and reduce potential nerves, although the route I am assuming is the race route, is being measured as 4.3 km by fetch. My last few runs have felt pretty good, it is great to be 'on a roll'. I tried out blueberry Ribena as a post-run drink, surprisngly quite nice, it's interesting trying out different drinks. I had pasta for lunch which tasted brilliant after a morning run. At the end of the day, I feel fine, the feet are sore and I feel tired, but overall, pretty pleased with my running at the moment. Definitely looking forward to my first race, it's a mixture of excitement and apprehension, which can be uneven from time to time. But the way I have been feeling during my running lately, and the way I am progressing, it's all good :o)