Almost a 10K

A Wat in Hua Hin

I'm feeling pretty damn good today. I got up at 6:40am and put on my new Nike running outfit I purchased when in Phuket. As Nike and Adidas are made here they are cheaper than in the States. Which means that they are way cheaper than in the UK. So I admit, I spent a bit of money at the outlet stores on running stuff. And some none running Adidas tops too, totaling er..7 tops and one pair of capri's. I was thrilled, one of the best shopping days in a long time, including before traveling.

I rarely buy workout 'outfits' just grabbing what's on sale or the like. But with my new out look on fitness, I have a new desire for sports wear. I don't need to match labels or anything, in fact I think I'd rather not, but having a matching top and bottom was quite nice. Short grey capris with a modern floral flash of pinky-tangerine at the hem and a top, in same pinky-tangerine, that compresses the girls more than my sports bras but not uncomfortably so. I felt good.

Ah, our trusty 7 eleven, and the sun rising.

I felt I had a good lay of the land here in Chiang Rai, we have plodded these streets for two days and it's not that big of a place. I headed south on a familar street and took it to what I consider the edge of town. Then headed east in to the morning sun. It was a hazy morning and looked very pretty but my photos don't do it justice.

The stunning clock tower (is a round-about). This is gold as gold can be.  Last night we walked past and they were lighting it up in changing colours from blue to purple to red and yellow and green. It was spectacular.

There are plenty of stray dogs in Thailand and I was nervous running past them at first ,but they completely ignore you, lazying away the hours in the sun. So i was shocked and a little scared this morning when running past a german shepard and another little thing that they started following and barkng at me. And you know what? They werent strays. These had owners, owners I was pissed at. I'm not a dog lover, nore am I scared of them, but chasing and barking at me is not freaking cool!!

After that incident my run was calm, I ran past the monument we hadn't seen yet so I stopped for a couple of minutes, took off my shoes and photographed the temple and monument. This was at mile 2.65 and i paused Sally.

The temple in the middle of the road.

All that glistens is not gold.  Or is it?

Onward on my loop, I ran now with the sun on my back. I use the sun a lot to determine if I'm going the right direction. Thank goodness it always does the same thing, though mid day help me not one bit.

My loop took me 3.7miles but that wasn't enough. The temperature was lovely at 77f/25c with a nice breeze so I did a pit stop and drank the bottle of water I had placed at the front door, stashed my camera under my shoes (no shoes allowed in the house) and decided that I was going to do the 6 miles I had in mind as I started. My first ever 6 mile run. New territory for me.

An out and back would mean that I had no choice and I wouldn't have to battle my brain to complete the whole thing. As it turned out, I felt really good and probably didn't need that mileage insurance of the there-and-back. I almost took a wrong turn but in the end I ran 6.15 miles in 1:02:57

My splits:
9:52
10:05
10:14
10:38
10:25
10:03
1:40
Average pace 10:13 Score!!

I'm pleased with these splits. Though no, they are not negative, they are quite consistent.  I focused on pushing my last mile to make it negative, but i hit some traffic along the way so only managed a slight negative direction.

Shopping at the market was fun and confusing.  This is just around the corner from where we are staying, and we have cooking facilities so have cooked for the first time since starting our trip. 

I'm really quite thrilled with my run. I really enjoyed it. I felt the same at mile 6 as I did at mile 3. I have been slacking with my core and strength training in general but hope that I can change that.

I'm really looking forward to doing longer runs, not necessarily here in Asia but when I'm home in the easy temperatures of the UK. I still can't get my head around that I will soon be living back in the UK. It's strange to have been away so long and I feel like I have changed a lot in my time away. I certainly see a lot of things differently. It's an exciting time.

After my successful run on thusday I decided to go out again on Friday morning too. My aim was to do four miles again but I also wanted to push myself a little harder. I donned Sally and hit the streets at 6:35am. I really tried not to look at my pace or time and just run. When I got to the end of the road I decided to run on the beach, I new it would be harder and I was interested to see what my heart rate would be like. I pushed it to the end of the sand and turned back. I ran on sand for about 3/4 mile between mile 2 and 3. At 3.5 I was really tired, hungry and thirsty. So I decided to walk the last half mile home. I don't like to give up on a mileage goal but it was so hot and I was so thirsty. I knew I had done well but I couldn't do the math, my brain was a noodle still.

So I was thrilled when I hooked Sally up to find not only I had a fantastic pace, faster than I thought I could maintain in the heat, but I had negative splits as well! I always have positive ones as I start off too fast but today was different. I want more of these days.
My awesome splits
10:06
9:56
9:49
4:48 (keeping that pace would have been 9:36)
7:56 walking last 1/2 mile.


Two thumbs up.

We are heading way up north to Chiang Rai tomorrow, we were expecting it to get cooler as we moved north but I looked and it's going to be even hotter, in the 100's. Not too happy about that. Still may try to do more Thai boxing though, taking more than 1/2 litre of water this time.