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Showing posts from April, 2020

What a month

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

Stunned...

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...

Edging closer

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

Slow and steady

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

One run, two more PBs

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

A mind of their own

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