A Challenge: Beat The Husband

My husband started running in January, just a mile or so at first, and now he's running 5 km. I'm very pleased he's enjoying running, but he's annoying the hell out of me because he's so damn fast. He won't take any advice about varying his runs and doing a longer slower paced run, and he won't wear my Garmin so he can accurately see what pace he's running. He's just irritating!

Tonight he was home late from work (so I missed run club). He went straight out for his "fast long loop" run, as he calls it, 3 miles in 22 minutes tonight. I'm impressed he has the energy to run straight away after a day working in (and commuting to and from) London, but he finds it best. Anyway, he got back from his run and challenged me to run the same distance in the same time after my Pilates class. Well, I do like a challenge.

I decided to break in my new Adidas Supernovas, since it's about time I started using them. I was feeling a bit sick at the end of Pilates, lots of getting up and down in the class had made me feel dizzy, plus I'd eaten before I went. But I set off on my first mile anyway. The shoes are so light, I was stumbling at first because I wasn't used to how they landed (they feel narrower than my old pairs), and I was able to lift my knees much higher to run, which unbalanced me too.

First mile completed in 7:54, not bad. The second mile started down Hitchin Road, which is downhill. I was flying at this point, despite not really being able to see properly. My jacket was flapping around and I had sweat dripping down my face. Lovely. But I hit Valerian Way at pace, and raced past some chap with his headphones in, who made a startled "hmmmph" noise as I passed him. Second mile in 7:18, which is my fastest mile for about a year! I was running out of steam and road at this point, so only managed another half mile (7:15 pace).

2.5 miles in 18:49 is pretty good for me. Extrapolate it to 3 miles and I'm only 30 seconds behind my husband. HR averaged around the high 150s (although it was at 165+ for the last 1.5 miles), which shows I might have been able to give more, but nausea, dizziness, and sweat-blindness didn't really help. Love the shoes though, I reckon it's down to them!

(PS, no knee pain!)