Back In The Game – With A Tea Break

I think all long runs would benefit by being carved up by a cup of tea and a chat. 

Having been introduced to this most civilised of practises by John, my occasional running buddy, I’ve found the long run, especially the first long run in a few weeks, less daunting by making this addition. I think ultra runners already know the secret, as I found out during my fifty-kilometre trot last summer. The pit stops weren’t just a place to fill up your water bottles and hastily grab a few gels. You were also encouraged to have a sit down with a sandwich mid-way and chew the cud with fellow adventurers.

This morning, I had hoped for two breaks, as I was doing the Parkrun sandwich, but I was late, as per usual, so all I could do was take a couple of selfies with club mates at the back of the long snake of runners and reset my watch. It was a low turnout for Birkenhead, a mere 658 on the results sheet, but enough to require a slow shuffle start from this position, which was fine by me.

I clocked in at just over 30 minutes but pleasingly I was a bit faster with each mile, unlike in my Wednesday five-mile race, where I got progressively slower. Had I been fitter, that race would have been a perfect evening for a possible PB, but as I had just been on holiday for two weeks and had a drink or three, nearly every night, I cut myself some slack. 

It does mean that I am behind on my training for my next half in six weeks’ time, so I will have to do a bit of cramming. And a good way to do that, without giving myself an injury, is to break up the first long run. After Parkrun was complete, I had a cup of tea with John and Colin in the sunshine. Granted, I was a bit stiff in the first mile or so after heading out again, but I soon warmed up, and it meant that I wasn’t completely worn out by the end. A little over thirteen miles in total, and twenty-nine for the week, a decent return to the training. 

I’m not sure if I will reach my aim of getting 2:10 in the next half, because I have two more holidays between now and then. The first is a walking holiday so I won’t be idle, but the second is the Hay Book festival, so there will be a whole lot of sitting while we listen to people talk about their books. A choppy build up but some great treats to look forward to so I’ll get over it.