Run 11

Today was the first planned long(ish) run for the year, I have had several runs over 60mins but none that I would consider long run style. The plan was to meet up with the Ausrun guys from the Eastern Suburbs Running Group (free plug....) on the Warburton Trail, they were running from Mt Evelyn or Seville and finishing at Yarra Junction. My plan was to start at YJ then turn around when the group got to me.

At some point I had a brain fade and decided that I might push one of the boys in the pram, I know it was a brain fade because I even chose the heaviest boy..... Anyway, a slightly later than planned start actually did me a favour and reduced the overall run time. I started at a 'comfortable pace', but soon realised I should have started slower, but running slower with the pram just felt even more unco, running with one arm and an altered stride makes the whole process very different. I quickly felt very 'rough' and was beginning to think it was a really bad idea. With the plan to run for 40mins and turn, I got as far as 30mins and I had to stop. I let the boy out of his pram, we both grabbed a drink, I did some stretches (calves mostly - they were in bad shape), and I had a little man copying my stretches - very nice of him to join in. As the group had not found me yet I figured I would keep going and see how it went, from here on I felt so much better, and basically didn't think about the calves again.
At about the 50min mark I saw the group ahead, so did the U turn and joined them.

Running with the group was much better, they set the pace, they provided some distracting (from running) discussion and the time flew from there. By the time we got back to YJ, I had been on the trail for about 1hr 45min, roughly 15min of breaks etc so it was a good run for me.
Very humid conditions led to me being absolutely soaked from head to toe.

Happy with todays run, a good starter to my long run plans, which is basically to increase my time on the road by 10min each week, in the hope that I might have a long race in me sometime this year.

This was my first 4 run week, only 1 behind schedule now.