I managed to dodge the rain most days this week, but on Friday it was a choice of more rain or less rain. Well, why not? I've done snow and ice, mist, wind, sunburn and really quite pleasant, let's get rain into the training mix as well.
Oadby is a small town on the boundary of Leicester. The suffix -by on a place name indicates it was settled or taken over by the Vikings during one of their forays from the Norse countries. Just looked up "Viking" and discovered it's Old English for "pirate".
The weather looked like this for most of last week and is set for most of next week. Troublesome, as I haven't cut the grass and it will be a hay meadow by the time I get back from holiday. Anyway, Friday was mild and gently wet, rather than blindingly, chillingly, torrential and made for a refreshing outing. The roads were busy with Friday afternoon traffic, but the Botanic Garden was enchantingly empty.
This week, Week 10, has been tough. I've missed several Sunday morning runs due to different things and lost that reflective rhythm that I enjoyed in the early weeks of the programme. The distances are stretching me much more, they've extended beyond the usual distances that I was able to do easily anyway, and I'm moving as fast as I can while I'm out. The rain hasn't helped, but the really big disruption this week was changing the day I went to work in London. The pattern is usually Thursday and maybe Tuesday, but this week it was Wednesday.
It may seem that it shouldn't make much difference, it's just one day, but actually it threw the whole pattern out and required extra thinking to re-schedule runs and rest days. Friday's outing was okay, one of the best times in terms of average pace, but not much fun, and not entirely due to the rain. Today was hard work, although I'm pleased that I did it.
Sliding between stages 3 and 4 this week ... or moving on to stage 5?
More valuable learning this week about how disruptive to routine apparently small or inconsequential changes are. It helps the argument for keeping things the same (and simple). I've tended to be accommodating at work about changes to my schedule, but this is the first time the consequences have been quite so clear. I need to set firmer boundaries.
On the plus side, I achieved three walk runs at the target distance of 4.5km and clipped a minute off the average pace I achieved over 4km last week. I agree with @lil-mich about not setting too much store by numbers and enjoying the experience but at the same time, I want to know that, over time and without going crazy, I am improving.
Really pleased to see some interest from other potential new runners this week over on @steevc's blog; @steevc suggested a handy way to find the 5k Training Programme posts (google "steemit running project 5k") and also that it might be good if the 5k programme had its own tag.
I'm back to the osteopath for a check-up tomorrow. I'm feeling much better and I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say (which will probably be a variation of "work harder"). On Saturday, I fly out to see my sister in Cyprus, so the last week of the training programme will be in a very different environment.
Edit Monday 30 April: checked in with the osteopath who said "a little tightness around your right hip, but movement and strength has improved, you're being very prudent, keep on doing what you're doing and get in some clams when you can."
Gratuitous picture of 120+ year old Ash tree in the Botanic Garden, part of an old hedgerow.