Day 49 - World record attempt begins

For some reason, my friends have talked me into trying to beat the 5km world record, by doing it in downhill 100m increments! Thursdays are my busy days though, in terms of online classes, so I wouldn’t get to try it until later in the day.

As usual, my day started at 10am with a live Zoom lecture. I was a bit worried about today’s lecture, as I didn’t get to prepare for it as much as I would have liked due to the sales of my biology book kicking off yesterday! However, both lectures today went fine, and the students were their usual optimistic, enthusiastic selves, which always gives me a bit of a lift. In general, they don’t seem to worry as intensely as older people, even during this global pandemic, so it’s good to be around that sort of attitude every so often these days. In my individual meetings, I was chatting with one girl in Kuwait. She was very overwhelmed last week, as she is electronically tagged due to covid-19, and the police monitor her whereabouts every day as she has recently returned home from Ireland. She seemed much more motivated this week though, and my weekly video chat with her seems to have contributed to that, which is good. I enjoy catching up with her every week!

After all my classes had finished for the day, at about 4pm, I headed out to complete my Crusaders one mile time trial. We’ve a fun, virtual competition happening, where the winner is the person who gets a mile time that is closest to their predicted time. I predicted 6:55 and finished in 7:11. Fiona headed out at the same time as me an finished in a fantastic 5:55! It’s tough racing these sort of speedy, short distances at the moment, especially on your own.

When I got home from the time trial, I then decided to make a start on my 5km world record attempt, by running five downhill 100m segments. It was a lovely, sunny evening, and I completed the 500m in 80 seconds, which is five seconds ahead of the pace I need. My legs were a bit sore from it afterwards though, so I’m not sure when I’ll get out to do my next 500m segment! In fact, with five reps done and forty five to go, my motivation is waning somewhat already. At least I have my segment marked out, and it’s on the road just across from our house, so it won’t be too much effort to pop out and do a few if I feel like it later in the week. Although, I’m now wondering if it’s a bit of a mad plan!Læs mere