101 miles and still counting

Distance: 9km
Time: 52m01s
Km 1 - 7m37s
Mile 1 - 8m46s
Mile 2 - 8m49s
Mile 3 - 8m57s
Mile 4 - 8m58s
Mile 5 - 8m54s

Having won a week's free pass to the Faringdon Leisure Centre, I was keen to hit the gym this evening to get my hard 50 minute run in. I wanted to let the treadmill set the pace for me to make sure I could keep up a sub-9-minute-mile pace. I decided that 5 miles in 50 minutes was too short, but 6 miles was a little too long, so I compromised with a 1km warm up, followed by 8km at a slightly faster pace.

It felt really weird driving home from work, as I haven't run since Monday, and I've got to the stage now where I hate taking two days in a row off running. Given the chance I'd run at least every other day. What have I turned into?

Anyway, back to the gym. I set off at a way-too-leisurely 6kph so upped it straight away to 8kph with the incline set up at 4.5 (I'd accidentally set it higher still but felt like I'd fall off the back!). After 1km, I sped up to 11kph, and reduced the incline to 2.5 and hoped I could keep that up for 5 miles.

It was hard work this evening. A complete contrast to the 7 miles I ran on the treadmill exactly a month ago, where after a 2 mile warm up I'd run 5 miles in 40 minutes. Well a contrast in the fact that I managed an 8-minute-mile pace then more easily than today's ~9-minute-mile pace. What was exactly the same, however, was the boredom. Give me outdoor running anytime!

And worst of all this evening was the music. Ok, I'm 37 so this new modern chart stuff just sounds like noise to me. Ha ha. No, apart from the fact that I didn't like it (I'm into guitar-based rock), its time signature was all wrong for my running. The beat was out of sync with my pounding on the treadmill, which made me want to slow down to get my strides back into step with it. Which of course I didn't want to do.

Anyway, I made it to the end in one piece, warmed down and then stretched. And afterwards I was soaked. My t-shirt was sodden. More perils of indoor running. But this is the last fast run before the marathon now. I have a couple of shorter brisk runs lined up, and the rest are all steady or slow.

And guess what? I've run 101 miles this month. That's gotta be worth a quid of sponsorship, hasn't it? It's the equivalent of running from my house to Wolverhampton!