Finding My Inner Runner

So, April... The month of lock-down and Zoom. The month of social distancing and solitary running. The month (for me) where I set a whole pile of personal records. I came into April with the following PBs: 5k - 28:38 10k - 1:03:49 10 miles - 1:49:29 HM - 2:30:23 Monthly Distance - 123.41 Km I ended the month having bettered them all. The first to fall was my 5k time. I set out to do some speed intervals  and, by the time I finished, I'd brought my time down to 28:01. My 10 mile and HM records fell on the same run . My goal for this year had been to get my 10 mile time below one hour 45. as the distance ticked along, I realised there was a possibility that it might just be on, so I went for it, plotting out my route in my head as I went, trying to avoid having to run up hills as much as was possible. As my watch ticked past 16.1k, I scraped by with seconds to spare: 1:44:56; but I wasn't quite finished. At that point, even if I'd slowed to my usual walking pa...

I know I've been pushing towards it lately, and having reduced my 10k PB down to 1:02:07 l ast time out , and having not had the best couple of days, the last thing I expected was to go out and better that time tonight. If truth be told, I wasn't even sure I was going to run that far tonight but, once again, my legs seemed to have a will of there own and as the kilometres clicked by, I realised something was going to happen, and when I reached 6k in a shade over 36 minutes, I knew it was potentially on. The final 4k flashed by in just under 23 minutes and I "broke the tape" at 58 minutes 58 seconds. The result of this means that my PBs are now: 5k - 28:04 10k - 58:58 10 miles - 1:44:54 HM - 2:21:21 I'm not quite sure where this new burst of pace has suddenly come from, but needless to say I'm absolutely delighted with it. I need to set myself some new year end goals, but that's a nice "problem" to have, I guess...

Well, it may not be under one hour, but at long last, my PB of 1:03:49, set back in November when I ran the Edinburgh Men's 10k , has finally fallen. I didn't go out with any goal in mind, other than to do the 10k circuit that I'd planned, but I finished in a time of 1:02:07, so I'm definitely happy with that and it means that in the past 12 days, I've now completed the set of PBs for 5k, 10. 10 miles and Half Marathon; which wasn't something I'd anticipated doing. To put the above into context (if it needs any), this time last year I was running the 20 minute Week 5 Run 3 of Couch to 5k, where I managed just over 2.5k. One year, 170 runs and 1,100k later, and this is where I am now. I am definitely fortunate that I live in a part of the country where I have access to paths and trails pretty much right on my doorstep. I'm not sure I'd have managed those early runs if I hadn't somewhere out of the way and (almost) out of sight to struggle...

I am aware that "slow" is a relative term. Running 5k in a time of 33:06 isn't even particularly slow for me, even if it is almost five minutes off my current PB; and for some people it would be a pace they aspire to achieve. The point was, after the exertions of my half marathon effort on Saturday, followed by a 20 mile cycle on Sunday, today was always going to be about easing myself out at a steady pace and running well within my limits. There were a few aches and niggling complaints, but on the whole I got round my chosen route without too much strain.  The fact that it was a pleasantly mild evening with the early evening sunshine streaming through the branches as I wound my way through the woods certainly played a part in my general sense of well-being. Birds were calling overhead, squirrels scampered through the branches, even the local cattle seemed to be enjoying a quiet evening. Nature, it seems, is completely indifferent to the struggles we humans are curre...

It's been that kind of week. At the start of the year I set myself the following goals for 2020: See how much lower I could take my 5k PB below 28:38 Get my 10k PB below one hour from 1:03:49 Get my 10 mile PB below 1:45:00 from 1:49:29 Get my Half Marathon PB below 2:30:00 from 2:30:23 I haven't really been doing anything specific towards reducing them, although on Monday , I did a sprint interval session and brought my 5k time down to 28:04. I was meant to be running the Edinburgh Kilomathon tomorrow, which is a 13.1k run through the city, stating at Ocean Terminal and ending in Murrayfield Stadium. Alas, due to CORVID-19, this event, like so many others is currently on hold. Since I wasn't going to be able to do that run, I decided to do my own thing today. Rather than run 13.1k, I decided to push on and go for 13.1 miles. The result; two more of my goals achieved. My 10 mile PB now stands at 1:44:54, and my Half Marathon PB is down to 2:21:21. My 10k PB...

Following on from setting a new 5k PB of 28:04 on Monday evening , my intention tonight had been a fairly leisurely recovery run, just to shake off the working-day cobwebs. My legs, it seemed, had other ideas. The first kilometre is frequently an extension of my warm-up and is often a fairly sedate affair. Tonight, I was aware that I was moving at a slightly faster pace but was taken by surprise when the kilometre mark was passed with only only 5:57 on the clock. The second kilometre passed in 5:50, and the third in 5:22. The fourth kilometre on this route is quite tough as it starts with a short but very steep climb before undulating up and down for most of the rest of its length. Surprisingly, despite this, I completed it in 5:56. The final kilometre is fairly flat. I kept telling myself that I could slow down, but my legs were having none of it. My watch buzzed; the time for that final 1,000m was 5:33, and Strava informed me that it was my third fastest 5k in a time of 28:38...