Training: Gateshead College 6K
Another random spinner-inspired lunchtime run from the office; south-eastward today, which took me towards Gateshead College. And looking at the map for the area, I spotted an interesting-looking, almost circular loop that I could use, the loop itself being a little over 2km. A little bit of onthegomap.com and I figured I'd better only do 1½ laps before the run was going longer than I wanted. So that was it planned and off I went.
Over the Millennium Bridge today, there was no high-five-guy (booo!) and I was soon onto the start of the loop, just past the Baltic art gallery. (Too long since I've been in there. Must get back one lunchtime when I'm not running.) And that meant it was straight into a climb. Well, straight into a climb after the mile or so of mostly downhill warm-up, but still... I was instantly finding it hard. I'd known that this part of the loop would be a steady and moderately long (about 600m?) climb, but I felt like I'd been transported back to Weetslade, slowly wheezing my way past people who were merely walking.
Regardless, once at the top, it was nice to have some flat bits before a steady drop back down to the quayside level, along roads I've never followed before. The run today never really got easy, but at least it wasn't all pushing me to the brink. Before long though, I was back at the start of the climb up past Gateshead College and the cringeworthy plodding started again. At least I was able to maintain my rhythm, not having to wait for traffic at crossing points.
Once back at the top, the downhill started quickly again, as I cut through the middle of the loop for the half-loop before returning to work. And that's where I paused the run — and Google Fit — to take the photo at the start of the post. Disappointingly, Fit seems incapable of not registering a major blip in your pace, even though you've told it to stop recording. Look at this nonsense:
It's a pity too, as I really picked up the pace on that downhill, as you can see in the splits: 4:46 for the 5th kilometre. And when Google announced my time for that 5th kilometre, even my oxygen-starved brain realised I'd dipped under 5 minutes. It was pleasing, but I knew it had been downhill, so it's hard to tell whether I'm really improving. I mean, this was a 26:35 on a moderately hilly (but net downhill) course. Perhaps the best way to judge it will be to do a flat-ish parkrun, to compare to last year's flat-ish runs. Maybe I'll even get to a parkrun this weekend, but given it's been 5 Saturdays on the trot that I've not made it, I'm not massively hopeful. 😔
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