Midweek runs: Ouseburn and Longbenton

Two runs for the price of one in this blog post. That probably means I'm getting lazy with the write-ups. 😉

Yesterday saw me force myself out for a run to Ouseburn and back. Well, to the Free Trade Inn (highly recommended) and then back over the Byker Bridge. I never really got down into Ouseburn itself.

The run nearly didn't happen, what with the old thing of feeling the pressure of work deadlines, over-preparing for meetings out of nerves, and ending up skipping lunch. Had one of my colleagues not asked whether I was going out for a run, I might've quietly skipped it altogether. And then hated myself for not keeping up with the twice-between-parkruns schedule.

Anyway, I got out. I'd hoped I would have time to do a longer, slower run (as recommended by Mark Lewis as a way of making 5k easier and faster), but I'd prevaricated so much before finally getting out of my chair at work that around 5k was the most I could really afford. In the end, it was just 4.5k before I started my cool-down. I ran completely without timing — not even a watch — so I just had to go on my gut for when was right to turn back. And, of course, that means I've no idea what my pace was, but I didn't really care.

As for how it felt, it was another of those days when I started out feeling really pretty good for the first half mile before the old laboured breathing and tired legs and lungs set in again. I wish that initial feeling could last for a whole run. Maybe someday it will. We'll see. By the time I stopped, I felt ready to stop. And while the distance was better than my recent quayside runs, I think the main thing here was that I ran at all.

So, onto today. This time, I was working from home and, looking at my calendar, saw I had just an hour free between meetings at lunch. So this time I made a conscious choice to skip lunch in favour of a slightly longer run. Leaving the house at 13 minutes past the hour, I had both my phone (with Google Fit announcing every 5 minutes) and my watch with me. I figured I'd aim for a 40-minute run, which is roughly 50% longer than my usual 27-minute-ish 5k time.

Running past the Gosforth Nature Reserve and along Killingworth Road, I had it in mind to maybe head all the way down to the Haddrick's Mill double roundabout before cutting back up to Four Lane Ends and then home past the Quorum business park. In the end, I chickened out, as it felt like there was too much of a chance that I'd have further to run back than I thought and miss the start of my next meeting.

That's probably a good thing too. As headed back towards Quorum, I felt a pain at the top of my left leg, near my hip and just under my backside. It didn't stop me running, but it got gradually worse and spread more the closer I got to home. I chose to call it a day with exactly 35 minutes on the Google Fit timer, and 6.45km on the distance tracker. Even with the vagaries of GPS, that probably counts as my longest ever — like, in my life — non-stop run, both in terms of distance and time. The pace was a mere 5:25/km (or 27:05/parkrun), but the goal wasn't to be fast today. Distance was key. And, if I can avoid getting problems like my hip today, this gives me confidence that I can get that 10k ticked off the list before too long.

Next, a rest day. Or possibly a good few rest days; there's a chance I won't make it to parkrun this Saturday. Even if I don't, I'm pretty happy with how this week turned out in the end. Bring on the next.