Finding My Inner Runner

Final run for this month done. A fairly comfortable 10k in just under 68 minutes. What a month it has been... Started with a rotten cold and didn't run at all during the first week. By the time I sat down to type this, despite that set back, I'd managed 14 runs covering a total of 92k. In those 14 runs, I managed four 10k runs and a further five 5k runs. My 10k time fell from just under 74 minutes to 67 minutes, and my 5k time fell from 32:36 to 30:41. My year to date totals are now 104 runs covering 515k. Oh, and on top of all that, just before Christmas, having been pretty inactive for much of last year due to my oft-mentioned tendonitis, I topped the scales at 15st. Today, I am under 13st for the first time in about 15 years. I've been on quite a journey since I decided back in March to give this running thing another try. I turn 49 on Saturday. I'm fitter than I have been since my mid-30s. My modest aim is to get my 5k and 10k times below 30 and 60 min...

I'm sure we've all had them; those runs where the only positive that can be drawn from them is the fact that we did them. Tonight's run was one of those. No idea why it was so hard. It's a familiar route, my preparations were the same as always, I'd slept OK last night, I'd drunk my usual amount of water, even my pace (for their first 5k at least) was pretty average; but somehow I never quite found my stride. Sometimes you just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and just keep stubborning it out, and tonight that was me. Because it's a circular route, one of the few things that kept me on track was the fact that if I'd stopped to walk, it would have taken me even longer to get home than it did. Even with that "motivation" it was one of my slowest times since I started. Not exactly the way I thought I'd mark my 100th run of the year, but that's the way it goes. Even my usual spectators got bored and turned their a...

So, this this time last week, my PBs were: 5k - 31:55 10k - 73:53 I went out on Saturday and bought myself a new pair of Brooks Ghost 12s and three runs later, my PBs now stand at: 5k - 30:41 10k - 67:00 I am beginning to think theses shoes have some sort of special quality/magical power. I'm also beginning to believe that the sub 30 minute 5k might actually be a possibility. All in all, not bad for someone whose first 5k at the start of May was 39:22 and first 10k in July was 79:36. For anyone who doubts the life changing powers of Couch to 5k and Bridge to 10k plans, the proof is in this post. I still can't believe just how far I've come, and run, since I started back in March.

Well, I don't know if it was psychological, or if the stars somehow aligned, but my shiny new Brooks Ghosts, are shiny no more and set out their stall as the PBs tumbled. First up, my fastest mile. A whole second off taking me down to 9:42. There is some dispute here as Garmin gives me 9:42 and Strava says it's 9:44, but I'm taking Garmin on this one. Next up, and Strava and Garmin both agree, 40 seconds off my 5k, taking me sub 32 minutes for the first time at 31:55. And to top it all, despite the first 2.5k being all uphill, I managed the "perfect" negative splits for each of those 5k. You'd think that would be enough, but no, there was still better to come. Again, Strava and Garmin concurred, and a whopping 6 minutes 53 seconds off my 10k time, at 67 minutes dead (and I pretty nearly was). I've no idea where those numbers came from. I'd have gladly taken any one of them on their own, so tonight has been something of a shock to the system. ...

So, after a week off with a cold, I returned with a 7.5k start on Monday evening and then  followed that up by knocking 30 seconds off my 10k PB tonight; bringing it down to 1:13:53. I wouldn't suggest catching a cold as a training method, but the break was clearly good for me.