October 20th 2010

Because life got in the way yesterday, I moved the slow 2 miler to today. However I had to be careful. There was a freezing northerly wind outside and no clouds in sight on what was a lovely evening, making the temperature very cold, and cold air is a major trigger for my asthma. However, exerting myself was not the plan. Jog 2 miles in around 22 minutes. It's time to learn to control the speed. For far too many sessions I've gone off fast and ended up knackered. Time to pace myself.

To try and get things right, I decided to concentrate on the variety of music from my mp3. Don't Stand So Close to Me (The Police) and Cruel to be Kind (Nick Lowe) started my run in an early 80s retro fashion. These were followed by the randomly selected but appropriate Moonlight Serenade (Glenn Miller) and Vienna by Ultravox (" We walked in the cold air.."). No heavy breathing required, which meant I could concentrate on breathing in through the nose, which warms the air before it hits the lungs. I concentrated on my form too, trying to keep as upright as possible. The only problem I did encounter was a silly sod who walked out of his house and stood in the middle of the pavement, oblivious to me approaching. I squeezed past him, and secretly hoped I made him jump. The Garmin beeped for the second time to mark the end of mile 2, and I stopped, but I felt I could have gone on for further. Sure I'd been slow, but steady.



Garmin stats: 2 miles in 21minutes 25.1 seconds. Average speed a lowly 5.6mph. Almost exactly as planned. I felt so refreshed afterwards, I think I can still do the scheduled run for tomorrow as planned. Tomorrow I have to maintain a quicker 6mph pace to get as close to 20minutes as I can.