Real Happenings : for context –
When not driving around the country for events, I have set work out session and goals to do when back home, using the same portion of trail near my home. Now it has been well over a year of doing this so we “trail regulars” know each other, in passing pretty well by now. This includes walkers, runners and the cyclist and a few I know better than others.
I’m home briefly to attend a friends wedding but want to get a monthly running goal done that is hard for me to do when I’m out on the road due to the recovery process I need to put myself through afterward. I normally use a headset to hear my interval data but left it at home, so had to just let my watch call it out to me every 5km.
So I got to it.. 😉… NOW…
I head out and get to the turnaround point and begin to head back. I’m into my return distance when one of the regular trail users comes towards me. We pass each other and as usual we waive, say hi, and keep on going. About 15 minutes later a cyclist pulls up along me and slows down. I will add here that she is very pretty, so ignoring her is not really an option 😏. She is married, so no it’s not an relationship opportunity, but it is same regular trail user that passed me earlier.
“I like the beard” she comments as I keep running so she just stays a long side me
“Thanks I have been getting that a lot.” I reply but maintain a steady pace to keep my session going.
She hadn’t seen me on the trail for a bit so we talk about what I do and my recent travels. She is sharing some life stuff of her own and it’s a good friendly conversation. We get interrupted at my 20k, when my watch calls out my data , which is distance, time and heart rate.
“20k!” She says surprised and stops as I also stop to end the session on the watch.
“How in holy hell are carrying on a conversation with me, I’d be dead?” She adds with a are you crazy look on your face.
“It’s the beard!” I reply but make an effort to keep keeping a straight face or try to anyways. She begins laughing so hard, it had me chuckling the rest of the way back to my car.
A fun morning with a fellow trail user and I enjoyed the company through the painful part of my run. The 18k plus part always seems to be the toughest to push through but it’s getting easier.
This 20k is my fourth session The first one was done June 17th 2021 up in Maryland. I made it a monthly goal after I began using Strava a few months ago. Here is a link to that data JT’s 20k back in June 2021
Monthly 20k Session Data: Location Orlando, Florida 20.02km / 1:53:07, Avg Pace 5:38 Max Pace 3:36 Temp 18c Humidity 90%. @hokaoneone (Carbon x2) @jtnortoncom It was a beautiful cool day so at 3km I knew I was going after my monthly 20k
Session 6k portion results but for the record a normal run workout session for me is 30 minutes running with no set distance to achieve but this usually always exceeds 6km.
(Goal # 1 30 minutes minimum) thirty and then some.
(Goal # 2 at 6k each km split should be 4:59 or less) three of six km-splits were 4:54 or less, but I had to slow the pace down to do the 20k. I am still a happy camper because the times were still decent, Km split four was 5:07 and five and six would both come in at 5:20
(Goal # 3 6k under 30) 6k mission accomplished 00:29:42 cutting it pretty close.
(Goal # 4 six minute mile ) I have not ran in a while because of my traveling and was not pushing for it today but had my 1-mile come in at 7:02. The first three were also in the 7’s because I have to slow down the pacing because I can not maintain a seven minute a mile pacing for a session this long.
This is my 4th 20k and got the typical legs pains at 18k but my the whole session felt really good. My breathing was spot on and if not for my legs complaining I could have gone further. The cycling visitor that was with me for the last few kilometers helped distract me in a good way.
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