Setting: The date is Sunday August 8th, 2021. I’m at the Lady Chancellor pines running my regular route. The weather was cloudy and windy. It was definitely a “rain breeze” so I knew a shower was coming.
Reflection
I made a conscious effort to push extra hard today. This was mostly motivated by me wanting to make the most of the cool and windy conditions. But I was also trying to rush up and down before the rain came down. Spoiler! …I didn’t.
Anyway, the run started off quite smooth- good pace. But of course, I’m not strong enough as yet to maintain that “ good pace” so I had to sacrifice pace in order to keep going. My calves were the first to struggle as always. Notably though, my ankles seemed to have become better conditioned to the uneven terrain.
On the mental side, for some reason I found myself thinking about stopping wayyy more than normal. I don’t know if it was just because of the rain or if I was just feeling like a quitter today. Despite this, I persevered and dragged myself over the “finish line”.
I got completely soaked in the rain on the way down the hill, but it was super refreshing.
Stats
Distance: 1.37km
Elevation Gain: 255m
Time: 18m 7s
(stats taken from Strava)
This time was 63 seconds faster than my previous attempt but I pushed myself way harder than I normally would… Plus the weather gave me a bit of a boost.