10km

On Sunday Hon ran a 10km race. When I talked to her on Saturday she had set herself a target of one hour and ten minutes. Although she hardly trained for it she ended up completing the course in one hour and one minute exactly. Whilst I was impressed with her performance, I would not say that I was entirely surprised. One of Hon's most admirable qualities is that she is an athlete. She was a county standard squash player and having played a couple of games of badminton with her last year, I can tell that she is adept at any racket sport. I would say that she is one of the only girls I know who can beat me at a sport.

On Monday evening I decided that I would try to run 10km myself on the treadmill at work. Pri was also training that evening and I told her to come in twenty minutes after me to help break up my run. I set off at my usual eight-minute mile pace and at the half way point I still felt quite strong. Only a blister forming on the sole of my right foot bothered me. Pri actually entered the gym after I had been running for twenty-seven minutes. I reached the five mile point in forty minutes (just like I had the Thursday before) and felt better than I had done the previous week as I passed this distance. However, the last mile and a quarter was new territory for me and I was glad that I had Pri running alongside me to inject some energy as I embarked on the unknown. I still felt good after forty-five minutes and therefore I increased the pace of my run for the final five minutes. I ended up completing the 10km in forty-nine minutes and forty seconds. This pleased me, although I admit that I felt the affects of the run in my legs at my jiu jitsu lesson last night. Both legs felt slightly leaden and I am sure that this had an impact on my energy levels. After all, it is important to note that long runs, whilst good for developing aerobic fitness, are ultimately ineffective for developing the kind of anaerobic fitness required for combat sports.

Hon has invited me to run a 10km in Windsor on May 8th. I have decided that I will commit to doing this with an aim of hopefully posting a time under fifty minutes. I will need to start doing some road running closer to the date.