35m 'relaxed'

Woke up feeling a bit scratchy. Would normally think I was fighting a cold off, but I suspect a bit of an overload on brownies last night was paying a dividend of a headache and a little bit of congestion. Didn't feel fantastic through the day, either, but given a hard 12k race, five hours in the car and no sleep in on Sunday I was probably always going to be tired.

SW had helpfully put 35m relaxed 15km on the program - that didn't sound relaxed to me. That sounded more like world record pace to me. I had a fiddle in Excel based on last week's 50m relaxed run, came up with something in the mid to high 7s, and rounded it up to 8.

Got home just before 6 and could have quite easily given it a miss. Half the battle is making it a habit, though, and I think I was kind of kitted up in my running gear before the conscious side of the brain had a chance to contribute. Of course, once you're dressed, you're obliged to run, so out the door it was.

Was a bit of a grindy effort. I followed last Monday's route through to the park next to Hunter's Hill Hospital and back. Felt a bit better on the way back, but where I would normally pound out the last kilometre I just seemed to lope along. Still, it was 8km in 36:36 for 4:34 pace, so I shouldn't complain, I guess. Actually do feel a bit better for heading out, seems to have cleared the head a bit.