Early Mornin' Rain

Day:         66

Distance: 7.93km
Time:       39:46 secs
Calories:  658

The alarm goes off at 6am. I can hear the rain pelting down on the street outside the bedroom window. Brilliant.

It's perhaps not that surprising that I cling onto the duvet for a good 30 minutes before finally willing myself to get up and get out for "40 mins 2 mins easy 8 mins fast x 4". There was a time when the prospect of this run alone would have been reason enough to stay in bed, but not any more. I'm finding this kind of run more manageable now, which hopefully is indicative of improvements in fitness levels rather than a sign that I've been taking it easy. I'm also finding these runs more enjoyable since compiling a "slow/fast" playlist to accompany me.

Speaking of the "slow/fast" playlist, I still haven't got round to replacing Bill Withers' repetitive "Ain't no sunshine" with another slow song around 2 minutes long. However, the song did seem to catch the mood of today's rain-soaked run so maybe it has earned a reprieve?

As ever, Run Keeper provides some fascinating (to me at least) and useful data from the run. The app shows each minute of the run as a graph and tracking the peaks and troughs of a run like this is really interesting. Unfortunately, I can't work out a way to show that information here so I've cobbled together the information in a less engaging format. The table below shows the average pace for each of the sections:

Section          Type          Pace (mins/km)

One                Slow           6:10

Two                Fast            4:15

Three              Slow           6:02

Four                Fast            4:50

Five                 Slow           6:00

Six                   Fast            4:58

Seven              Slow           6:25

Eight                Fast            4:51

I'm pleased with that. The stats show a real difference between each slow and fast section of the run. It's reassuring and encouraging, because the difference isn't always apparent during the run.