Five Ten Kilometre Runs Later

Recently I ran with the goal of getting above the fog and I succeeded. The result was a 16km run. Since then I have run ten kilometre runs four more times. In the process I have shifted from not seeing myself to seeing myself as more of a runner than before.

Last year I couldn’t run five hundred to eight hundred meters without my knees hurting. Instead of trying to run far I just tried to run as far as I could before I felt pain, and then stopped. With time and persistence I was able to run further and further.

The 5K plateau

For a while I reached a plateau at 5km. I didn’t run to run further out of fear that I would overdo it. Through this thought process and logic I gave my body time to adapt to running. I gave muscles, ligaments time to get used to the sport. Now I am seeing the reward.

Seasonal

Over the summer months I was really enjoying group bike rides but as the relaxed groups stopped for the winter season, so I had to ride with harder groups. It’s not that I can’t keep up, but that keeping up exhausts me. When I rode with the Saturday group two weekends in a row I ended up exhausted and I didn’t enjoy it.

I like to cycle, but I don’t like to race. I want to ride comfortably, and when I start to fade, it would be nice if the group slowed down a little.

As I write this, the relaxed groups are not relaxed either. They also enjoy riding hard, but at least there is a break during which to recover, in theory.

The Running Advantage

Although I run solo at the moment, now that I can run 5k consistently it is worth considering joining running groups. In effect I have opened a new sporting door.

An Example of Running Freedom

Yesterday people were meeting at the Nyon Skating rink and I had the opportunity to run there, rather than walk. I was thinking of running via the Port de Crans and then back towards Nyon but chose instead to go via the route that took me towards the Aérodrome de Prangins and then back towards Nyon via the lake.

I ran 12km and arrived to the skating rink before some of the others. There was one slight error in judgement. As the group that I had run to meet were not all there at once I spent time in the cold.

I was dressed for running, not standing. I got so cold that my fingers were tingling. If I ran this again I would take a thicker jacket with me, to wear once I stopped, as well as a thicker hat.

I had planned to run, say hello, and then walk home, but as the group arrived later than anticipated I got cold.

The irony is that when I was running it was warm enough to open up the layers in places. It’s when I got to the giant block of ice, and with the lake of ice, that I cooled down.

Hot chocolate didn’t help as much as I had hoped.

And Finally

Now that I can run 10km at a time I can run the routes I used to walk. Instead of devoting two hours to a day’s walk I can devote an hour, and by spending an hour on a walk I gain 40 minutes to do something else. It also gives me the freedom to run from Nyon to Gland instead of catching the train, or other towns and villages.

It’s because I feel no pain or ill effects that I now feel comfortable running 10km, rather than five. We will see how far I run by the end of summer.