“Yeah, yeah, you came in like you were dying. You were literally gasping for breath.”
Out of the mouths of babes.
This was the feedback from Billie, youngest of our four sons in conversation a little after I had returned victorious from my third run.
I thought I was breathing heavily, gasping for breath is overdoing it.
At least he waited a short while to drop the news. Of course I defended my breathing as gasping felt like a tarnish on my victory!
*Mental note, get back to a point of ‘I’m chill’ outside, with my breathing, before coming back in the house!
Here’s the note I added to the activity in my Garmin watch:
Hmmm ok. So there’s every chance Billie is bang on, but look, at least it wasn’t nearly as bad as day 1. Kenyan bound!
Important to note, this was my first tech ‘almost meltdown on a run’ moment. I’m not sure which point it was, I think it was somewhere between kilometre 3 and 5 that I heard a loud beep from my watch. You know, kinda like someone was strangling it. This beep is never a normal one, it’s elongated and strained. I could be convinced they copied a 2am mournful cat wail for the sound effect. It perfectly matches how you feel when you hear it. There is about 1.37 seconds of sheer dread for the time it takes, amidst the internal chatter of legs and breathing, to register that was your watch and to lift it to see what has happened.
Black screen.
*#$&#%^ .
I’m going to miss this great data, it’s going to ruin my run and my whole training program.
I forget, have I shared how much I love a good bit of data?
You’ll be pleased to know that I keep running and quickly arrive at the fact that it’s all good, I’ll be able to manually enter the run.
It look liked this:
and let’s not forget the warm up:
About 30 years ago, I did 10km in 44 minutes. I have no clue if I’d be able to get back to that pace but it’s nice to wonder.
And now a hidden truth – easy to see that in run 2 my pace was actually quicker than in 3… it’s ok you don’t have to go check, it was. I mention this because in my wiring, getting quicker gets me going. Anyway, this faster run 2 is simply explained and there’s a more important reason to mention it. I was a little tricky in run 2 because I started recording from the top of the big down hill section from my place at the start and didn’t run that same section back up hill at the end = more down hill than up. Tricky hey, and a misleading pace.
On this run 3, I decided, what goes down, must come back up. I appreciate integrity in data.
Even if I feel like a turtle going up hills. A panting turtle. But I’ve heard they’re really good for you. No, not panting turtles.
That elephant seems to appear when I hit the hills. I feel like I’m towing him. I wonder how he got out of the room?
One, two, buckle my shoe, three will do, thank you.
3 down, ? to go …
Let’s keep going #whileistillcan
