I haven’t been timing my runs for a while now. Lacking GPS means I have to plot the route manually in Runkeeper anyway, so I’ve been throwing in a vaguely conservative guess of my average pace (around a 10:30 min. mile) along with it. But yesterday, when I had a 2-miler planned, I decided to time it – partly out of curiosity, partly out of really wanting to get the 100 Fitocracy points for finishing the quest to do a sub-10 minute mile. Not that I was desperate to do it in that run, necessarily, but at least if I tried to up the pace in a way that was sustainable for two miles, I’d have some idea of how close I was.

It was a good run. Big uphill chunk in the first mile that left me out of breath, but a nice gentle downhill slope afterwards to make up for it, and when I glanced at my time after that I was hitting 12 minutes – even after having to dodge around people walking small dogs on leads along the canal, where the small dog universally wants to be on the opposite towpath side to its owner. Upping the pace, even by not just a little amount, felt pretty good and it was a nice break to not be thinking ‘slow down or you’ll burn out before the end’ the entire way. The last half-mile was tough, but doable – and when I hit stop on my timer it read 19.06. Two miles (well, fractionally over) at a 9.21 pace! And I got my quest points, to boot.

Today was a 3-miler, and although I’d planned to take it slowly and time that to see what my normal pace looked like these days, I started off faster than usual and just kept going. Which was ill-advised, really – if I’d been properly planning it, I’d have started off slow and sped up after the first half-mile – but my legs were all ‘wheeeee!’ and I didn’t want to upset them. Mile 2 was tougher; it’s mostly uphill, for one thing, and for another my legs and lungs were already starting to regret going out too fast, so I decided to dial back the pace and go slow and steady until I’d got my breath back. By mile 3, I was feeling better enough to speed up a little again, and started thinking…

It was a 3.17-mile route. I’ve done it loads of times before, and used that for working out my best 5K time, which is 31:34. So… if I could do the whole thing in under 32 minutes, I’d almost definitely be beating my own record – and I knew I’d cut a good few minutes off in the first mile and a half, since the traffic lights I usually hit at 13.30 I’d got to at 11.08. Pushed it for the last half mile, although my calf muscles felt like heavy and brittle cast iron, and coasted onto the downhill slope that ends the route. When I looked at my timer halfway down at the 3.1 mark, it was just coming up to 29 minutes – I sprinted like crazy to the end, and hit stop at 29.36. So that was actually even faster than the last run, a 9.20 pace averaged out over the whole run!

When I first set up a Runkeeper account, my goal was to do a sub-30 5K. Modest, but achievable, and tough enough when you haven’t even run that far ever. My 5K record is now 28:56. I am very, very pleased!

And not dead! Although I felt close to it at a couple of points along the way.

This week was interrupted by a nasty cold (at this rate it’s going to take me two years to finish this 12-week plan…), so I’m going to repeat it next week anyway, but the one midweek run I did manage was fine – a 3-mile run that became 3.6 miles after the first stretch went so well. So I thought I’d go for the 4-mile weekend run anyway, because I was feeling mostly better by then and I’ve been really looking forward to making my long runs a little more, well, long.

While warming up I noticed that my throat still felt a bit sore, and that my limbs were a little achier than they probably should be – they felt like I’d run three days in a row, rather than stayed at home playing Sims 3 and feeling sorry for myself.

Decided to go out anyway and take it slowly, though, and the first mile was fine, if a little hard going due to the weather being warmer than I expected and that road having no shelter from the sun whatsoever. At about 1.5 miles, I crossed a road I usually turn up and kept on going, for a slow but steady climb up. Turned onto the canal at 2 miles, then followed it along for another half-mile or so, before a coughing fit hit me and I had to stop.

I was thinking of giving up at that point. I was exhausted, my legs hurt, my lungs were trying to turn themselves inside out, and to start with I just wanted to curl up in the bulrushes and go to sleep for a long, long time, but after about sixty seconds I’d got the coughing under control and felt a lot better. I’m still surprised by how little time it takes now for my heartbeat and breathing to get back to normal, even when I’m not feeling great. And since I had to be over halfway by that point… I set off again, feeling a whole lot better.

It wasn’t an easy run. The fourth mile felt as if I was running through treacle, and every little up and down and up and down of that twisty little path made its mark. The last half-mile, I was making promises  to myself with every step – only another five minutes of running, then we can rest! Only another four-and-a-half to go! – but I still had a bit of energy left for the last stretch, so I sped up and hit the finish line* feeling victorious.

Plus, the route I thought was just about exactly 4 miles turned out to be 4.21. Victory exceeded!

* okay, it’s not actually a finish line as such. But there’s a line marking a newer bit of tarmac right by the footbridge where I finish that route, so that’s the line I sprint for when I turn the corner and see it ahead!

Another week off, this time because I felt like death with some virus thing. At this rate it’s going to take me six grumpy months to get through the 12-week programme.

While the length of these runs aren’t particularly tough yet (the longest was a 3.5m run, with a 4m run coming up next weekend), getting used to back-to-back runs is taking some adjustment. The plan has three back-to-back runs midweek, then a single run at the weekend which gets longer and longer until it’s 6m in the final week. For the first two-thirds or so of the plan, the midweek runs are one medium-length run (3m the whole way through) bracketed with two shorter runs (starting at 1.5m).

This week was a stepback week, which was handy after a week off. 1.5-3-1.5, then another 3 at the weekend.

The 1.5 was fine, and I ended it with a steep uphill which was satisfying. It was pouring with rain, but I don’t mind running in the summer rain so much; it’s cooling, and there’s some satisfaction in being the crazy person out running in the rain.

3 – also went well, and the rain eased off after the first half-mile that day. The hills along the first two miles of that route are definitely getting easier, too. There are two fair-sized hills in the first mile, without anything on the level; the second mile is one long uphill with occasional flat intervals, and it’s nice to be able to cope with it fine when it seemed so intimidating at the beginning. Also glorious views in the post-rain sunshine as soon as I got onto the canal. That whole run felt great.

The final 1.5 I turned into a 2, just to change the route up a little, and ack. The first mile was also two hills, one quite a bit steeper than the usual route, but given that the second mile was nowhere near so bad I can’t understand why it was that much of a struggle. Tough, though. It felt like I never quite recovered from the second steep uphill, and even though I’d got my breath back while running down the other side, the last half-mile of lower hills and level ground was really, surprisingly hard. Weird.

Two rest days, then a 3m run this weekend. At the moment, though, I’m dreading that 4m to come next week!