Mr Consistency


Back to the track for what felt like the first time in ages tonight, with two goals in mind: testing out the new running jelly, and trying to maintain a consistent pace throughout the session. Regular readers will be aware of my tendency to storm out on the first lap, and then fall apart, my willpower and lungs in tatters, long before the end of the session. Going into tonight with a rather stiff shoulder and a grumbling foot, I wanted to make sure I could at least get round. To finish first, first you have to finish.

Tonight we did 6×1000 m, in 6 minutes each time. While not my favourite workout (as it’s not a multiple of 400m, every other set you do you end up on the opposite side of the track to where your water is stashed) it was preferable to my previous hell, five minutes at threshold pace then a minute off, looped for eternity.

I planned to run 4:10 km pace, because that’s easy to remember, even if not always easy to maintain. You just have to run every 100 metres in exactly 25 seconds, which is easy arithmetic for the first lap and a bit of a pain thereafter, although you know if you’ve done two laps in more than 3:20, it must be time to get a wriggle on.

My first kilometre was a surprising and quite unnecessary 3:55; after that it was 4:01, 4:00, 4:02, 4:03, 4:03, which was nicely consistent, after going out much too quickly the first time round. Blame youthful exuberance for that.

I was pleased: not only had I done quicker than intended, I’d kept pretty much in the same range throughout (if you ignore that freakish outlier of the first kilometre). I would have liked to have done it all a bit quicker, and now I feel I should have been aiming for 4:00 throughout, not 4:10, but that is a harder one to break into 100 metre segments. Well, as hard as multiplying 24 seconds together is, anyway.

Afterwards, I was pretty broken. My shorts were dripping wet with sweat, my top was soaked (and I’d discarded it after the first 2k) and I’d drunk all my ginger beer without appreciable impact on my state of mind. But that made me feel I’d had a proper session, and wasn’t just swinging the lead in order to get a consistent lap time. So that was one goal ticked off.

The other thing I wanted to do was try out the jellies. Scoffing them between laps at the track probably isn’t quite what they’re intended for, but when I’m running MacRitchie I average one per kilometre, so it seemed somehow reasonable to test them out at the same frequency. I didn’t end up boking agar jelly everywhere, so that was a success in itself.

In terms of consistency, they were remarkably soft. I gave one to another runner, and her verdict was they were like jam; slightly more dense because of the agar, but with a surprisingly similar taste and feel in the mouth. They tastes much, much better than any of the commercial stuff I’ve ever had, but against that I am used to a denser, chewier block than these supply. I’m also not sure at this point if they provide quite as much sugar as the commercial alternatives. But, we still have some agar left, and a fridge full of more than a hundred blocks. And a jug of maple syrup. Plenty of time to experiment and find the ideal consistency, or get used to eating something that tastes like it was made in a kitchen, not a factory.

So, the jury is still out a bit on these, but a favourable verdict seems likely. The harsher test is Saturday, when hopefully I run MacRitchie for the first time this month.

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