Thursday night and I went home for Chicken Katsu… a lovely home made dish of breaded chicken with rice and chinese curry sauce on top. Yummy!

I made sure I visited the loo, before going out for my run at 18:15. When I walked home at 17:00 it was a beautiful night, the sun was shining and I was considering whether I should wear my sunglasses on my run or not. There were some rather grey clouds above, but I tried not to think about them too much.

Then when I was having my dinner, the heavens opened… I had to reconsider what I was going to wear and left the sunglasses at home, opting for my new windproof and shower proof Scott jacket I got the other day. It did the job ok, kept the wind off me, and the rain for most of the run. I also wore a buff for my ears that I took off after 2 miles.

I ran the 2 miles to Bellahouston, then met Paul. Paul is a good guy who runs effortlessly at any speed. He is rather fast, but is comfortable running at my pace and below. I met him at Bella and we continued on our route. I had planned to do about 7.6 miles following the Great Scottish Run route, but I turned right instead of left at the Gorbals so it added an extra 2 miles on sort of by mistake. I felt good running at a comfortable pace, and my knee was fine so I thought I’d be good to continue. I was also enjoying the chat and knew Paul could run on forever!

We got to Shields Road underground and I decided it was time for me (us) to pick up the pace. I thought we had about half a mile to go to get to my flat so I told Paul I’d pick it up a bit. He followed suit and we finished with a strong 6:42 minute mile (for half a mile – 8.7mph, where our average speed had been 7.6mph). Looking at the pace, we managed a good negative split – and I didn’t look at my Garmin once! (because of the rain I had it covered).

I felt good about the run. It was nice to run with Paul, and chat. I think company is what make runs really good and really worth while. There is a time and a place for solitary runs (I think shorter and sometimes faster runs), but sometimes it’s nice to chat and run at the same time – especially on longer runs.

I really think the 3 weeks off has done me great: rest, time out from running and the pressures of a training plan, cross training and focussing on something else for a while. I’m definitely going to keep up the spinning / indoor cycling as an alternative to running. And the circuits and Insanity make a nice wee change too.

9.5 mile run 21 July 2011

When I’m running now, I’ve noticed that my heart rate is away down compared to this time last year. Last year I ran the Great Scottish Half Marathon at a similar pace to what I ran today, and my heart rate was 91% on average.

Today it was 80%! Sure it was over a shorter distance, but I’ve really noticed a difference. It may be to do with me weighing less than this time last year (-12lbs), but anyway, I’m feeling good and hope it continues!! Maybe I’ll be able to push more to get even faster?!?

Run: 9.52 miles, 1:16:36, Pace: 7:56, 7.6mph, Calories: 956.
Ave HR: 153 (80%), Max HR: 177 (93%)

After the run, I went to Tollcross to play basketball. I might not do it every week, but it seemed to fit in tonight. I did feel myself more tired than normal, and perhaps I need to take on energy before I play if I do a long run before hand. A nice bit of caffeine or carbs might do. 😉

There were 13 of us tonight, very busy. So much so we played 5 v 5 and subs were off and on. I was glad of the rest. We ended up winning 15-13 I think… but no thanks to my shocking misses and passing. I don’t think I even scored a basket come to think of it!! Shocking. Maybe one??! I can’t remember. 😉

Basketball: 1 hours, approx 500 calories.

PS: Mars bar milkshake for afters.  Yum! 😀