I got to play with the Garmin today. At lunchtime I went out for a run with a group of girls from the gym. We were going to run for around 7km and my goal pace was an easy six minutes per kilometre. I obviously haven't been running much since the ankle injury in November, and it's only really been the last month that I've been running once or twice a week. My plan for today was to simply take it easy. My body had other ideas!
I met with personal trainer Emma at the Terrace gym and we jogged down to Ferg's Kayaks to meet up with the first of our other runners. The Garmin wasn't too happy trying to find satellites on the Terrace, surrounded by skyscrapers, but I turned it on again at Ferg's and it seemed to be able to hook up a connection quite easily there.
We stuck to our planned six minute pace to Freyberg, where Emma eased off and joined up with the last of our runners. Rachel and I ran ahead on a hunt for the marker signaling we'd run 3.5km from Ferg's. We stuck to that pace for a while but then both of us started to up the pace as we warmed up. On the way back we were running between five and a half and 5.45 minute pace. I didn't even know I could comfortably hold a 5.30 pace! I'm sure I wasn't running that fast when I was training for the Rimutaka Incline last year.
All up I ran around 8km and I was thrilled with my effort. As I've noted in earlier posts, it seems that the cycling has had a very positive impact on my running. I'm now starting to wonder whether I should be aiming for the Harbour Capital half marathon in June, rather than the 10km I had planned. Almost as encouraging as the pace was my ankle. I felt no pain whatsoever. Woohoo!
The Grape Ride photos are up. Bib number 4319. The photos really do show what a great time I was having. I may even shell out for the digital photo package. And in other news, Leonie has said that I might be able to borrow her EMC2 bike, which is sitting unused in a storage locker in Kilbirnie. I feel like I'm being unfaithful to Lola, but Leonie's bike is a lot lighter, newer and really nice. Using it will enable me to tell whether a better bike will really help me much with my speed. If I think it's worth it I'll get a new one when Gearshifters starts up again in a couple of months.
Exciting times!
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2 comments:
Wow! Always a smile! You DO look like you were having fun out there!
Yeah, although I was posing a bit ... and I may even have called out to the odd photographer or two to get their attention!
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