Diary Of A Road Runner

5k Time Trial – 25:02

Did a ten minute mile to warm up, and felt as if my body might not have another 3 miles in it! But I grabbed the bull by the horns and set off, setting a good pace; actually it may have been too good, as I did the first k in 4:36 and the first mile in about 7:30ish, and suffered for that later, with the last km taking 5:24 so I was losing steam by the end.

However, I managed 3 sub 5 minute k’s, and it’s so long since I ran like that, it will take time to learn how to pace it again – I do feel that I am coming back to fitness in leaps and bounds now, and won’t belong before I am challenging my 5k PB.

This run did hurt quite a bit though! But also felt good too, and was nice to run at pace again.

5k Recovery Run – 27:27

This was supposed to be a nice gentle easy run, and felt easy enough but first k ticked over in 5:06! After that settled into a slower pace, before slightly quicker last 2. Felt yesterday’s 10k in all sorts of places, but didn’t struggle too much, feel ready to do a full blast 5k at some point now and see where I’m at time wise. Not long ago, today’s time was my flat out 5k best, but was running easy today.

My First 10k in ages – 57m 11s

This was the first 10k either racing or training I’ve run in months – ran it very even paced at about 5:40ish per k all the way, and just struggled a bit in the last k, as I was running out of stamina and there was a hill. Managed it though, and recovered well, it will only a matter of time before I’m knocking the minutes off and getting close to 50 mins once the races start coming up in April.

7k Tempo Run – back on form in 39 dead

This run started off as a see how I feel kind of run after yesterday’s hard going – after 2k I felt good so turned it into a tempo run and ran around 5:30 average for the next 5k, which is the hardest I’ve run for the longest so far since my comeback last month, and felt good to keep the pace up and keep pushing when it was hurting bad! Knocked 1:11 off my last 7k effort, and that was with a slightly slower last half a k to wind down as I was starting to feel it by then!

Tough, tough run, and slow – 5k in over 31 mins

This was a bit of a tough run. This time my lower leg held up with no twinges, but it was very cold. Felt a bit of a groin niggle. Plodded round 5k in over 31 minutes and didn’t feel all that comfortable. Just not such a good run, but felt pleased to have run without the leg playing up! But it was a bit of a struggle!

A faster 7k in the rain – 40m 11s

It was pouring with rain, always good weather for running, so I set off and felt a bit dodgy at first but a downhill bit got me relaxed again and into a bit of a rhythm. Felt good at 4k and pushed the pace a little, and ended up doing 7k almost 4 minutes quicker than on Saturday without feeling particularly drained by it. Did the last 3 in 5:35, 5:34 and 5:07 so am definitely getting a little bit of pace endurance back and just need to keep building on my stamina and speed.

Freaky 5k which may have been 5.3k

Garmin went haywire so not sure exactly how far I ran or what the real pace was. First k was about to tick over in about 5:30 when my Garmin flipped back to 700 metres and ended up clocking the first k in about 6:30 – felt I was running faster than that, in fact that is my dead, dead slow pace – and all the other k’s were evenly paced around 5:30 mark, so I added an extra 300 metres to the completed distance for this run. Overall time was about a minute slower than I would expect for 5k, so seems as if I did gain the 300 metres. Thankfully it wasn’t a serious time trial, but is funny how Garmin sometimes does that.

Did struggle a bit at times on this run, with heart hammering, but was good to complete.

6k Slow Run – 38 mins on feet.

My longest run for quite some time, and my slowest paced! Decided I needed a slow run, with just a little bit of extra difference, to get my legs used to ticking over for a bit longer.

Ran a steady pace of around 6:22 a k and always felt comfortable, not breathing hard, and could have kept going – but still need to be careful with the legs. But signs are good, that I could jog round a 10k at least, and could start thinking about doing the Woodbank Parkrun and getting some decent 5k times under my belt, and would be good to do some runs with other people to get back into the swing and spirit of things as spring, thank god, approaches.

A quicker 5k, 27:32

Was a lovely bright sunny day so I decided to complete my week’s running today and relax on Sunday. Did another 5k, set off at what I thought was a sedate pace and did it in 5:07! Then suffered a little bit later on for that. However, got through the last k in 5:22 and kept going through the pain barrier, and was pleased to finish in a quicker time again, with an average pace of 5:30/k, so am running at sub 55 10k pace with not much running in the legs yet. My CV system is responding well, heart didn’t feel too hammery, and I felt I recovered quickly today.

Will have a rest day or two as am aware I’ve been building up quite quickly – but then I am coming back from a previous base of decent fitness and leg strength, so can probably take a few liberties!

Faster 5k and Felt Easier – 28:08

Went out for another run, for the first time going on one of my old routes instead of sticking to the comfort zone of more or less going round the block in case part of me packed in First k ticked over in 5:31 then had a couple of slower ones before I consciously had a go at upping the pace at times in the last 2, and did them both sub 5:30/k. Felt really good though at times tough, but was nice to be getting up a bit of speed instead of trotting within myself because of legs or lost fitness.

For the first time since last year, I felt a rush at about 4.5k when I was going fast, and it felt really good, and set me up for the rest of the day