Hey hey hey...

I was back to running by the river at lunch break today. Today was cold - temperature was below freezing when I left the house - and when I started running it was "only" 9C (50F). It felt alright, though - last year (and years before) I would have scoffed at running below 12C, but I'm gradually getting used to it now, thanks to my friends across the Atlantic who continually assure me that running in that sort of weather is actually no big deal. I'm beginning to see the light.

Today my run was an experiment of sorts - I mainly wanted to see what sort of effect the stepping (interspersed with weights) I had done would have on my running. There's this 1.25km strip of road near the river, so I ran along it for a warm up, then did 4 laps to get a 5K.

1st lap: 4:40 (what the?)
2nd lap: 5:30 (paying for it now)
3rd lap: 5:24
4th lap: 5:20 (hard. hard. hard.)

I'm so happy I want to shout it out: 5K - 20:54! Damn, 6:43 mins per mile feels good! It certainly didn't feel that way when I was running it though. I didn't measure my heart rate after I'd finished, but ten minutes after that my heart rate was still at 110bpm. I still can't honestly say I like speedwork. It tastes like vomit.

Does stepping have any impact on running? I'd like to think so, seeing as stepping (for me on my lousy stepper anyway) is fast and I'd like to think of it as some derivative form of interval work. And I took a minute and a half off my previous 5K best. Then again, 5K is really such a short distance, that if I stopped to sneeze I'd probably lose a significant amount of time.

I'll have to be back at work. You be the judge.