The National? Grand.

Day:        44

Distance: 6.92km

Time:       40:23 secs

Calories:  550

I wasn't able to get out for my Monday night run as I was working late, so that meant an early morning wake up call was the order of the day today. Like last week I planned to get up and out by 6am. I distinctly remember peering out from under the covers to see the electronic display on my alarm clock at 05:54. The next thing I knew was at 6:30am when the alarm on my phone went off and I realised I'd been dozing whilst listening to the music on XFM which was supposed to wake me up. So, for this run I was out the door by 6:40 - not as early as last week, but still pretty good.

In previous posts when I've talked about going out for 'easy' tempo runs I've bemoaned the lack of slower songs on my running playlist. I've even floated the idea of creating a playlist specifically for these runs to help me run at a slower pace. I never have got round to that, but I now wonder whether I even need to because inspiration struck last night.

My great musical discovery of 2010 - courtesy of my mate Dan - was the National and, in particular, their "High Violet" album which was released last year. The album is damn near perfect, from the opening shimmer of "Terrible Love" on there really isn't a moment in which they falter. It also happens to be fairly slow and, perhaps more importantly, steady. There are no 200mph riffs on this album, and that was why I thought it would make it a suitable soundtrack for a 40 minute run at an easy tempo.

I was right. The aforementioned opener got me started at a nice easy pace of 6:20 secs per kilometre. The analysis provided by the Run Keeper app shows that "High Violet" helped me to maintain a remarkably steady pace for the entire 40 minutes. Overall I averaged 6:15 secs per kilometre, with the fastest km taking 6:04 secs and the slowest taking just 17 seconds more. That all seems pretty consistent to me and, so, I must conclude that as well as producing the stand out album of 2010 the National have also produced a priceless running aid for these slower runs. 

Despite this great discovery this wasn't a great run. My legs didn't ache after Sunday's run (which was good), but there was a definite heaviness this morning that I was unable to shake (which was not good). If the scheduled run had been longer than 40 mins I think I would have struggled to manage it all. Hopefully, this run will have helped to loosen my legs up in time for the next run which will be 60 mins long and should include "8 x 1 min hill climbs".

Before I go I'd like to leave you with a video of the National performing a completely acoustic version of "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks" from their gig at the Brixton Academy last year. When I say 'acoustic' I should explain that I don't just mean they put down their electric guitars, the amps were all turned off, no microphones were used, the band came to the front of the stage and a reverent hush fell over the crowd for the duration of the song. I had the great pleasure of being there and in a show that enthralled from beginning to end and this spine-tingling encore was the moment that made you feel privileged to be in the crowd. Unfortunately, because this is the last song on an album with a running time closer to 48 minutes I didn't experience the joy of running to this heartbreakingly beautiful song.