Shaving off a few seconds

I was in a rush this evening as I'd decided to go for a hair cut on the way home, and I was off to a pub afterwards to meet up with some friends. Fortunately, I was only running a short route this evening (...you've guessed it - Oakwood), so it wasn't too much of an issue.

I'd been in an Ultimate tournament yesterday, so my legs were feeling tired - four hours of tournament Ultimate really takes it out of you, even if it's not too high a level. Also, with the rush, I decided to start my warmup on the course. I'm never very good at the best of times, so I did about a half minute stretch (without even warming up first!) and then set out.

Needless to say things went badly. A 16 minute outward leg didn't bode well, although a good twenty seconds of that was me waiting for cars to get out of my way. I was horrified and had to take a second look at my watch to make sure. Yep - 16+ minutes. My only thought of redemption was to make sure that I got back in less time, and didn't break the 32 minutes barrier.

Things seemed to clear up a bit on the way home, and I got back in around about 15 minutes. Not as good as last Saturday, but acceptable - more importantly, it avoided any embarassment.

Rushed straight out afterwards and didn't warm down fully since it wasn't a very serious run. I may pay for that on Wednesday, when I'm due to be doing my long run - not sure if that will happen now - with my legs feeling quite painful. Watch this space.