Thursday 6/09

Type: Steady/Speeds
Time: 50mins
Distance: 5.9miles
Rating: 7

10mins50 - 1.23miles - 8.48m/m warm up
9mins - 1.2miles - 8.10m/m (plus a few short bursts)
8.36mins - 1mile - 8.36m/m (then 5 min stretch)
17mins - 2miles - 8.54m/m (hilly)
2mins30 - 0.28miles - 8.55m/m

This was pretty much a run including everything, I'm not sure what made me do that...maybe the fact that I like to decide what kind of run I'm going to do before I leave the house, and today I hadn't done that. The first part was largely downhill, hence the speed. Mind you, part of that speed was racing to make the pedestrian crossings - always a good excuse for some long strides. The stretch in the middle was good too - I stopped on the main road by a wee path leading into my sister's friend's house (or mansion, should I say?) and did some quad stretches there. My achilles tendon has been very tense so when I stop I lift myself up and down onto my tiptoes for a few minutes. I'm not sure if that's a good thing to do, but it does seem to loosen things up. Having said that, I remember about 6 months ago I went to the waterworks (a completely flat route) and , after warming up, ran on my tiptoes for a while...and consequently did my ankle in.
It's always good when you learn from your mistakes....

The last part of this run was recorded for no purpose other than to see what my average pace is on going up the dreaded final hill of my runs. And, as shown, it's pretty much the same as my pace before that. Rock on. Maybe a good session would be speeding up the hill and then walking back down it over and over again? We'll see.
I plan to leave a rest day tomorrow so I can have a wee long lie in the morning. I might do an easy run in the west end before the gym closes, I don't know. This weekend I'll most likely be out of Glasgow, so I'm going to get up early on Saturday morning and find a flat place - either the school's running track or the waterworks - and I'm going to do laps. I think the waterworks is about a mile around, but you can cut parts out of that, or do figure of 8's. Anyway, we'll see.

On another note (and one completely unrelated), I bought some shoes yesterday which were reduced to £10. When I took them to the till I chanced my arm asking if I could get a student discount on top of that....and the cashier said yes! Wooo hoo! Okay, so the discount was £1, but still! Shoes for £9...there isn't much sweeter in this overpriced universe. So there, head down to Topshop for great savings, that's my advice for the day. My second piece of advice is go to Uni and get a student discount on EVERYTHING. I get money off apples man, it's absolutely insane. Of course, the downside is that it is then tempting to buy things just so you can get a student discount, kinda counterproductive I know, but it's like a disease...some kind of awesome, poverty inducing yet oh-so-feel-good disease which makes life just that bit more interesting.