The Run I Did Not Want To Do

Sunday 15th February
Run #46
10miler Riverside to (almost) Putney & Back

In the spirit of 'what goes up must come down' I suppose after everything came together for yesterday's run I should have expected that today's might not be as good. But this was the run I Did. Not. Want. To. Do. Not just a bit of reticence or low motivation but a whole flaming gut full of angry resentment. From the second I woke up I couldn't muster even a whisper of wanting to run. A skinful of wine with Valentines dinner doubtless didn't help.

I think the crux of the issue was that I set my Jantastic February long run of the week goal at 10miles /16k. It wasn't some much that I had to drag myself out: I've kind of got used to that over that last 6 weeks. It was that I'd backed myself into a corner on the distance and I REALLY wasn't feeling a 10mile slog.

Having woken at 7:30 I was still faffing around at 11am getting more and more irritated with myself. So deciding to let myself off the distance, provided I just got running, I just got running.

Once moving I headed out along the riverside towards Kew. My form was all over the place and I was acutely aware of the tightness in my Achilles and shins. But I managed to find a comfortable, if a little stompy, rhythm and a pace that was enough to feel I was getting it done but slow enough to free my thoughts to wander off.

True to my mental agreement with myself I planned to get as far as Kew, around 5k, then turn around. 10k seemed a lot more manageable and I could just about reconcile double figures into the 'long run' box.

But me, myself and I are also pretty competitive and pretty good at tricking each other into running further. So at 5k I managed to convince myself to tack on another k before turning round, then another. And another. And knowing that the first k had been down the hill, I added another half before turning, to ensure I ended up near somewhere I'd be able buy a drink, and avoid the hill!

On the return leg I found myself running alongside the Putney Town a Rowing Club, out in the river doing intervals. Without even realising I'd upped my pace a tad to pull ahead while they rowed their recovery, then watched them pull away as they hit their sprints. 3k disappeared without me even checking my watch.

Running harder on tired legs is something I've been trying to fit in to each run and, sufficiently warmed up and motivated to be finished I pushed to up the pace. The last few k were hard but the bottle of Evian I downed and the hot chocolate I savoured in the sun after were all the sweeter for knowing this run was done.