Pool running and real running

I met Sally at the pool this morning. It wasn't quite the struggle that Tuesday morning was. Thank goodness I'm meeting her though, as I think I could have easily rolled over and ignored the alarm today.

For the first time I really felt that I was making an effort while we were in the pool. I have been feeling the effects afterwards thank goodness or I'd be wondering why I was going. The first few times I wanted to curl up for a nap in the afternoon. I'm not that bad now, thank goodness. It might be a little hard to explain at work.

Today's session was a 5 min warm up, 7 reps of 2:30 hard followed by 30 easy, then a 5 min cool down. About half way through I was puffing and panting. I think that's a good sign that I'm doing the "hard" sessions properly.

Because I was dropping Art in at the bike shop this morning I packed my running gear for the trip home. I had everything except socks. Fortunately, as I was about to give up on getting changed and head off to catch the bus, I remembered that I had a pair stashed away in the cupboard.

I didn't turn the Garmin on until I left the building. It took a little while to locate the satellites but I headed off running anyway. I decided to go cross-country instead of down the road for the first part of the run. It was much more pleasant that running along the side of a busy road. I saw lots of rabbits, the odd kangaroo and quite a few lorikeets. I reached the cross road and headed up to the main road instead of continuing cross country, as I wasn't sure which way the path would take me and I had to be at the bike shop before it closed.

I realised about then that I hadn't changed my Garmin from Cycling to Running so I switched it over. I then forgot to turn it off in the bike shop, so I really have no idea how long the run took. I've tried to work it out, but I'm guessing. It looks as though I travelled about 4.25 km in 30 minutes, which is a little over 7 min/km. I stopped a few times to drink some water and I had to wait for traffic a couple of times. I took a few mini walking breaks too but I ran most of the way. At one stage in the middle of the run I thought I was done but I managed to run most of the way after that. Mind you, I'd already come over the big hill by then.

When I got to the bike shop to pick Art up (yes, it's sticking Celeste) the staff were all commenting on the fact that I'd been running. I'm sure my pink face and heaving breath was a dead give away. I hadn't realised, but will know for the future, that I should take a towel with me if I'm going to shop on the way when I'm running. While I was paying the bill I started to drip with sweat.

I had a rack put on the bike and bought some panniers. When I took the bike outside, I couldn't get my leg over it at first. I'd forgotten that the rack and panniers would take up space. Fortunately, I managed to get on the bike. It would have been too embarrassing for words to have to take the bike back to get them removed.

I'm thinking about going to the pool for a swim before personal training in the morning. I guess it will depend on how early I manage to get myself going. At least I'm thinking about it.