The road to running nirvana, part I

Mingko saved me from two slices of lousy leftover pizza.

So there I was sniffling away and my thoughts wandered to said pizza (nasty C*n*d*a* 2-for-1 variety) sitting in the fridge when M IMed me about going running. She must have sensed that I was thinking about doing something self destructive! I need someone to save me from myself. Sad but true.

We had this six weeks to running nirvana plan and being the boffins we were, one of the things we thought about was establishing baseline data. In this case, our 2.4km timing if we "ran the fastest we could" - scary! So far, I've been quite happy plodding along at a constant time of 2 min 50 s per 400 metres. Her strategy was to sprint but she would invariably lose speed round the 1.6-2km mark so we always ended up around the same time which was 18 min - that's like a stinking F if we were to take our Physical Fitness test!

I'm not very keen on the running very fast and timing ourselves bit but I guess that was the sensible thing to do. It did take alot of psyching on my part because I am usually quite averse to pain and I was sure that it'll be out of my comfort zone. But it had to be done.

Despite an itchy throat and a clogged up nose, I turned away from the evil pizza and hauled myself out on the track.

The result? Well.. its not too shabby! 14 min 56 sec for me and 15 min 02 sec for her! I reckon we would have the same time if she ran on the first lane like I did (She picked out the 3rd lane, I was trying to channel my JC PE self). First lap time was (in M's words) a blistering 2 mins!!!! WOW. 2. Minutes leh! I know I know.. regular runners out there will prolly pooh-pooh our time, but it really is a big deal for us, considering we were lumbering along at 2min 50 sec just last week. :D

By the fourth round, I was already dying though. My nose was running too (haha) and I took to breathing through my mouth which itched my throat even more. Practically grunting and ran the last two laps with my eyes closed because it was utter sheer agony. But finished we did in record time.

14:56! Wow. I've never hit below 15 min before, not even back in JC days when I used to train with the team every week with a mix of runs and sprints. Well.. that's the 'baseline data' collected. Its still a 'C' by NAPFA standards, but hey, we're not 19 anymore! Now we know what we're capable of and will take times every other week or so. Can't do this every week! Well. Not me at least. I'm quite happy to plod along still; Belle and Sebastian is pretty soothing for plods. The loneliness of a middle distance runner anyone?