It's funny how running with someone else can break you out of the fug of a few duff runs, isn't it? I usually run with the Sweatshop Running Community on a Wednesday evening and tonight's run was the normal hilly one. I ended up running with someone who I ran with on Sunday's struggle-a-thon and chatted with her the whole way round.
Bingo! Relaxed pace... run that felt easy. And I got to go from 'I can't run at all' to 'oh yeah... that's how it happens'. When you run on your own regularly and end up doing the same / similar routes all the time, you can really get stuck in a rut. You don't run at a conversational pace because there's no-one to have a conversation with. There's no-one to distract you if you're struggling a bit... or encourage you if that's what you need. And runs just feel, well, different when you're running with someone else.
All of which helps when you're running up a jolly big hill and you appreciate being distracted from its big scariness!
I also appreciated talking about normal stuff. I'd had a bit of a rough day of it after lots of horrible nightmares and a bad night's sleep. Running with someone else, chatting about things like kids and work and school... and generally getting to feel like a human being again... well, that was definitely a result. Plus, since she's also doing the Liverpool marathon... fingers crossed I have a scarily-long-run-buddy sorted too!
Not bad for a dark and cold Wednesday evening in October. Especially considering I didn't even fancy going for a run at all!
Geeky stats stuff
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