I took Friday off. Both from work and running.The weather forecast looked good and I needed to bring a boat down the river from Staines to Teddington and this looked an ideal day to do it.
All went well and it was an interesting trip. In fact I got a river view of a route I have cycled and run many times as the Thames path features in both the Green Belt Relay and the River Relay. However not being used to the boat and having to go through four locks on route meant that the voyage took a fair while and by the time the boat was moored and we got a bus home it was six in the evening. The weather though had been sunny and warm all day and the evening was perfect, so I jumped on my road bike and cycled back to Perton Hook Marina to pick up my car which we had left that morning. It took the best part of an hour so a good workout and a bit of practice to the mini triathlon at Walton later this month.
This morning continued yesterdays weather and I cycled down the two miles to Ham for the Kingston parkrun. With tomorrow being the Ranelagh Richmond Half Marathon this was not going to be a quick effort. No sense in trying to run race pace the day before a serious distance event. So the plan was to run at around the HM pace. Being realistic if I can break 2 hours for the Half that will be a real result which equates to 9 minute miling. So the parkrun pace target was 9mm. Deliberately starting well back ensured that the starting pace was sedate, but when the average started getting nearer 09.30 it was time to push a bit and overtake slower runners ahead. At Teddington Lock the path widens considerably and it was easy to go through the bunches for a clear run over the rest of the way.
To be honest the first mile did seem a bit of a struggle and I had to push over the second to keep on target but by mile three I felt good and moved up to 8.30 to record around 8.55 overall. Hopefully tomorrow will follow a similar pattern. The key thing will be not to go out too fast. If there is going to be a problem it will be in the second half. Really could have done with more distance training. My longest run was a slow 10.5 miles last Sunday. An the forecast is hot!
Parkrun stats not that interesting as no notable milestones but for the record it was my 386th parkrun and 235th at Kingston. Should get to 400 by late summer.
This Running Life 