bad race

This morning was a shambles.

The original plan was to run for an hour but include a local 5k race.  But with the slight recurrence of ankle pain a couple of days ago I decided to only run for 50 minutes but still include the 5k race.

But ... for reasons totally beyond my control [traffic problems and Fay being ill] I arrived late and missed the start by at least 20 minutes.  Never mind, I thought, I can still run a quicker than usual 5k which will be good training if nothing else.

And then, after about 1.8k I took a wrong turn.  Unbelievable.  Today was just getting worse.  I continued and eventually got back on the correct route.  Back at home, looking at a map, I can see that I probably ran about 60m short.

And so to the times.  I knew that my official time would be of no use whatsoever but I had set myself a tentative target of running the 5k in about 22:30.  Using my stopwatch I ran the first kilometre in a quick 4:11 - slightly downhill and chasing people.  I didn't time the next three kilometres (the wrong turn would have made the second and third km wrong anyway) but the final one was timed at 4:35.

I stopped my watch at 22:11 but have adjusted that to 22:27 which is my slowest ever timed 5k.

Officially my time was 45:17 which is my slowest ever time in a 10k race.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Anyway ... a fun exercise in fairly bad weather.  The time was OK too.  And the ankle held up better than expected so I've decided my next training runs should be:

Monday 11 March ... 50 minutes
Wednesday 13 March ...50 minutes
Friday 15 March ... 60 minutes
Sunday 17 March ... 60 minutes

and then, on 19 March, back to alternating running and walking (10 minutes at first) but on two consecutive days before a recovery day.  This is six days later than planned but I don't want to rush things - a proper, long term, recovery is needed.