Music, agony and negative splits

Woke up early and headed out for my first Sunday morning run after skipping last weeks. Although I was only heading out for a nice 'little' four miler today, Sunday is going to be my long run day, so it is important I get my legs into the habit of heading out first thing on a Sunday, whilst still aching from my Hockey playing antics the day before.

I thought I'd try out something a bit different and run whilst listening to music this morning. Not sure of what to pick, I stuck on Paloma Faith and headed out.

I've never tried running with music before, and I've never really seen the appeal, always preferring to keep an ear out on my surroundings, for enjoyment, but primarily for my own safety. After a few strides, my left headphone dropped out and no matter what I tried, it just wouldn't stick. Maybe I have funny shaped ears.

So, one ear on Paloma, one ear on the road, and four miles to cover.

The weather was damp, but a lovely fine drizzly misty sort of rain, almost perfect for running to keep you cool.

Have to say the music helped immensely, the first two miles flew by, and the final two felt easy too. Even took a detour to go a bit further, and run up over a railway bridge, about the closest thing we have to a hill in Portsmouth.

At this point, Paloma was repeatedly singing away as I was running tired into the wind, uphill "...this is agony, this could end in tragedy, pour yourself a Rum and Coke...". Cheers for that. Really helped.

Anyway. Got home and analysed my times on Endomondo. 4.29 miles in 36:35 was a more than reasonable time and I was very happy with that.

Better than that though, I had, for the first time in my life ever, negative splits! For the running uninitiated, this is mile times which get progressively quicker as you go.

I'm no expert, but I like to think of this as some sort of holy grail, personally I was just happy they were all reasonably consistent. My mile times have been all over the place recently, with the exception of the treadmill run of course, and I suspect the steady beat of the music helped, so I will definitely be trying it out again.

Interestingly, Endomondo also displayed average paces against each of the songs I listened to. I'll be keeping a record of all of the songs that made me run quickest, and compiling them into one awesome running playlist. I'll be running like Mo Farah with that!

Next week I'm off to Scotland for work, so I'll be packing my trainers and a headlamp, as I intend to be heading out into the elements for at least a couple of three milers. Just have to go easy on the expenses or it could get tricky.