Running Diary Boxing Day 2011

I now know that running on a stomach full of Christmas goodies is not the best thing to do, but it certainly helps to keep trim. On Christmas Eve, I did a 10km run. I had learnt from the run before to wait until a little later and when I went out it was pretty warm, but nowhere near as hot as in the middle of the afternoon. I was able to run my 10km (actually I did just over 7km, stopped for a drink and then finished the final 3km) at a reasonable pace of less than an hour, and didn't fade towards the end. I also started very conservatively and then speeded up a bit after 2km to run at a pace I felt pretty comfortable at.

A hazy, warm evening overlooking the bay at my 7.5km drinking stop.

Although it was hot, I paced myself and managed to run the distance comfortably. I now want to run the distance a little quicker. I have set myself a target of 55 minutes for 10km, and I also have decided that I should try to run further so I am going to try to move up to 15km. This, however, will not be an overnight thing, and if it takes me 6 months to get to 15km, then so be it.

Today, I was feeling rather stuffed after overindulging in the Christmas spirit yesterday. A combination of too much rich food, and beer and spirits made me feel pretty yuck today. But it didn't stop me from going out to run, though I was careful to listen to what my body suggested. In fact, almost as soon as I left my house, I just felt like opening up and going quite quickly, so it was soon decided that I was going for a short, sharp ride. The conditions weren't bad at about 18C, though it was quite windy. I got into a rhythm at a faster pace than I'm used to and ran about 5.5km. My slowest kilometre was 5.36, which is pretty good for me and my overall time for the 5km was 25 minutes, 56 seconds. I have a target of 25 minutes for 5km which I'm not really training towards at the moment as I'm going for longer distance stuff, but runs like this are quite encouraging. If nothing else, it shows that the longer distance workouts are helping me keep a decent pace for longer times now.