Hannah's 10Km challenge

Since we didn't manage a mid-week run, I wanted to do a long-ish run today to make up for it. Hannah suggested a route from her village that she'd been wanting to try. It was a 10Km loop that was all road. It's a road I know, and drive on regularly. It feels fairly smooth, with a few little ups and downs, when you're in a car or van.

However, one thing I learnt very quickly it that what a road feels like in a vehicle bears no resemblance to running on it. Hills are easy, and pot holes a problem. The opposite is true when running. So I was expecting today to be tricky. And on top of that, I've never actually run for 10Km!!

Hannah had been panicking a bit before we set out as I had left my inhaler at home, and not even used it before I headed out either. Since there's little or no phone signal out in the sticks round here, she was worried about me dying on her! Thankfully, it turned out to be no problem at all. Which I was a bit surprised at to be honest, but can only mean my asthma is better than I thought.

We set off in lovely weather, with some great views over the hills. It was a touch chilly in the shade though, and in some of the dips but nothing that getting going wouldn't cure. As this was endurance training, the idea was to maintain a steady 6:15mins/Km or 10mins/mile pace. This is something I find tricky, as it feels almost too slow. Or it does to start with anyway! At this pace you should be able to hold something resembling a conversation. I am getting to the point where I can almost do this start to finish.

The loop started in the middle of Helmdon and Hannah described it as finishing at the pub. I assumed this meant the pub in Helmdon, as we had the incentive of a pint to keep me going. Given the pace, everything was going well, and we were keeping up the target steady pace despite the hills. Having to switch from one side of the road to the other for the bends was a slight annoyance, but nothing major. Everything was going well, but at the 7.25 Km mark I had to stop to adjust one of my shoes. I had been getting a hot spot on my right foot and a Km or so of trying to shift my foot as I ran had done nothing, so it meant stop to see if anything could be done. Annoyingly, I couldn't fix it and bending down to do it meant I had to go for a wee. This made that Km a long one as the timers keep running even if we stop.

From here on in, it was just a case of putting up with my foot aching a little. This is something I have had a problem with since day one, but it's been getting better as my feet have toughened up. I used to get 50p sized blisters, but at worse I now get 5p sized ones. Having road running shoes and some more time should see them go altogether.

It was as we got into the village of Weston that Hannah said we had two options. One was to stop at the village pub at the 10Km mark for a half and then jog the 3Km back to the start. The second was to keep going back to Helmdon and have a full pint. Since 10Km is the farthest I have ever run, I decided to keep going and try for 13Km. This is me not stopping at the pub. Sorry for the blurry pics, but iPhones don't seem to like hot pockets on cold days.

And since this was the expected end of the run, Hannah managed to get a screen grab of her running app too:

For my first ever 10Km run, I am really pleased with this time. It's actually slightly under the pace we're aiming for, so all the high effort work I'm doing with Ant on cross country work is clearly paying off! Without aching feet, I think I could do this a little quicker next time.

From here the pressure was off, but we still wanted to keep the pace up if we could. One Km in I stopped for a quick drink, but I wish I hadn't bothered as it made my calves tighten up quite a lot. It took me a few hundred metres to get going again, and I had still to drop to a walk for a bit on the last hill. But I did recover and beat Hannah to the top though! As we crested the hill, there was still a bit of downhill road to finish on.

This was a welcome end to the running, but steep downhill bits make my lower back ache from the jarring. Hannah thinks this will reduce once I have some proper road shoes. Trail shoes aren't great for road use as they're too firm. This may have contributed to the hotspots too.

Finally, we came to the end of the loop. I was quite tired, my feet ached but I was chuffed to bits to have made it so far with only one stop to adjust my shoe and another for a drink. The final time was 1 hour 24 mins, giving a run pace of 6mins 34secs/Km. Given the distance, this is a great result! As the elevation graph shows, there was hardly any flat either. So despite this being a road run, it was a good bit of hill training too. This is all good, as the London marathon is pretty flat so if I can manage hilly roads at pace, London should be less difficult than it would otherwise be.

As promised, we did go to the pub too! A pint tastes soooo much better after a great big chunk of exercise. We even did all our stretching there too, no doubt giving the locals a good eye-full of lycra glad arse!!

As my phone thinks I've burnt over 1200 calories today, I have also decided on another celebratory beer. One of my all time favourites, even if it is hard to find: