Rob's Running Blog

5k Tempo Run – 29:18

Bit of a weird run, as on my last 5k outing I was trying to slow down and ran quicker than on this run, where when I felt comfortable I was trying to speed up!

Think the first KM was a bit long, set off with a purpose and ran hard all the way, with the intention of getting sub 29, so felt a bit cheated when I was almost 20 seconds over instead. Ran the first 3 kms all slower than the last 5k, the saving grace was a 5:35 last KM where I was able to put on a consistent burst of faster pace.

Thought I might actually do it when the Garmin said 4.92 with 15 seconds to go, but almost 30 seconds later the Garmin finally bleeped and so did I! Felt good to feel like I was running at a faster pace even if I wasn’t actually going any quicker for most of the run.

Will need to try to fit in another couple of runs this week if possible.

Saw some nice Christmas lights, one had a whole 3D Santa’s Sleigh lit up outside the front of their house.

7k in the cold and rain – let’s see if exercise can stop a cold!

I’ve got some really bad colds the last few winters, and notice this seemed to correlate with a period of injury where I had not been able to exercise. This winter I have been faring better and my running has been going well, but alas, recently I had a meeting with a colleague for an hour and a half of him sneezing and coughing in close proximity to me, and 2 days later I woke up with a mildly sore throat, the odd sniffle, and a few sneezes here and there, but thankfully so far no drained, tired, horrible feeling (despite some insomnia).

So, today looked to be pretty cold, about 3-4C, I had to put the heating on a little higher. When I went out for my run I could feel why – the outside doorhandle felt icy, and my breath was pluming around me. Even but the hood on my top up while the Garmin found its signal, then off I went on a planned 7k in the cold dark evening along puddled pavements.

I felt a little puffed out at first, despite the slow pace (6:30 per km) but got into my stride and took a long loping loop that had some inclines and declines included. At about 5k it started to rain pretty heavily, which was quite nice as I was pretty warmed up by then, and although the last km was a bit slower than the others, mainly due to having to navigate a lot of crossings and corners, I felt good and relaxed to a stop in 45:21, averaging 6:30 per km and while my body had worked hard, I felt pretty happy to have done a “long” run and even felt a mild endorphin buzz in the latter stages.

Now it remains to be seen whether running will help with this cold, it doesn’t feel too bad – I am hoping like a few other colds that have tried to get going, and failed after a run, that the effect will be the same this time, and I can prove the immune boosting power of running, if only to myself!

5k in 29 dead – big improvement!

Not run since my 4 miler on Sunday, and had a quiet slot this afternoon, so went out for first daytime run in a while.

Seemed pretty cold as I set off, having had to fiddle with Garmin as had somehow got it set on bike/kmph mode without having touched the settings!

Felt I was going a bit quick and the first k ticket over in 6:01 – not far off my fastest pace of late, and I tried to slow it down but ended up putting in consistently under 6 minutes for the next 4k, including a couple of 5:36 kms which is pretty fast for me at this stage so it can be called a tempo run I think! Slowed in the final km as this pace took its tool and it took me a while to recover, but I do seem to be picking up with every run, and hopefully th 2 month layoff won’t have taken off too much fitness, and I definitely feel I am running more comfortably than I was over the summer!

A speedy 4 miles in the dark – making 11 miles for the week!

Technically my long run, of 6.4k, which is about my limit at the moment. Thought about doing 7k but decided I had already done enough in reaching 11 miles for the week and need to be careful about injuries.

Did this 4 miler a couple of minutes quicker than the last without consciously feeling I was going any faster, did need to slow down a bit at the end but could probably have kept going and felt mainly comfortable.

Not sure what my real goal is at the moment apart from the build base fitness back up. I guess I could try a one mile time trial sometimes, and there is the looming 10k with Liz to think about, I need to earn the feast she will feed me afterwards!!!!!

An Up and Downhill 5k with further speed improvement

Am not really going out to try to run faster, but just run how I feel, but seem to be getting a bit quicker on each run. This run was a bit of a different route than of late, taking in a gentle incline and a big downhill before some gradual uphill and downhill running and more uphill with flat to finish. The downhill probably wiped out the uphills, so may have not had much impact on overall time, but ran a little quicker than last 5k and felt fine.

Even overtook one bloke who I caught up with from some distance, mind you he was running with a backpack and was probably running 20 miles but it was a change from being overtaken and felt like there was a bit of speed back in my legs.

A long way to go till I am pushing sub 25 for 5k, but am at least running again and seem to be doing so fairly comfortably at the moment!

A Starlit Four Miles in just under 43 minutes

Evening running seems to be my thing at the moment and running in the dark has its charms – though one of these days I will go flying when looking up to admire the stars or a passing aeroplane flashing in the sky!

Ran this at a slow and steady pace, averaging just over 6 mins 30 per km, trying not to feel any pressure to try to run fast, but at least finding that kind of pace very easy and was hardly out of breath all the way. May try to up the pace once I can comfortably run 10k, but there’s no rush – can build base miles in over the winter and then look for speedier stuff as spring and race season approaches, then think about potential races or time trials in addition to the Great Manchester Run 2012.

5k in 31:50 – broken the 32 min barrier!

A dark, cold, rainy 5k, which was quite enjoyable. Ran around the local estate, had a few stops to tie pants and for traffic, but still broke the 32 minute barrier, with a more consistent split, was pretty pooped by the end!

A Street Lamped 5k in 32:08

Another late run after an afternoon spent lunching and looking a Mummies in the Manchester Museum (not talking yummy mummies of course!) with a dear friend.

So wanted to get a run in so got he kit on and headed out into the cold dark November evening. Garmin took a while to find a signal, then I set off, scaring a youth eating his chips and gravy by flying past him. Realised I might be going a tad too quick so slowed to an easier pace and kept going, as 3k came up felt good and upped the pace, until an uphill stretch slowed me somewhat but managed a final km in 5:59 which is not a bad pace at this stage!

All in all felt good and almost 2 minutes off Sunday’s 5k outing – hard to believe this is only my 4th run back! The swimming must have helped keep up my base fitness

A Moonlit 5k in 33:54

Seem to be running about once a week at the moment, with some swimming thrown in. Don’t generally run in the dark but today had some stuff on and it got to evening, but wanted to squeeze a run in. Was quite cold. Set off slowly and cautiously but after 2-3k was feeling OK and managed to speed up in the last km.

Running at night was an interesting experience, especially through the local estates. Of particular interest was waiting for the oases of street lamps so I could see the Garmin readout without trying to fiddle to put the light on.

First run I have managed since starting again without having to stop for walk breaks, and managed 5k as a bonus, am definitely on the comeback trail and the first 2 short comeback runs have paid off, and the swimming has been helping too!

Am planning a 10k run in Tatton Park week before Christmas with a very good friend, looks like I could be on schedule to make it!

East Manchester 10k – A 1hr plus personal worst!

Given my training this year, with long runs, and a sub 54 in my last race, and feeling good in the week, I had some hopes of a reasonable time in this race, possibly sub 52. But it was really not meant to be!

It was quite a chilly morning, I had to stand in the sunlight at the bus stop just to stop shivering, and was glad to get on the warm bus! Got to the venue in plenty of time and did the usual stuff of milling around and finding the toilets, before doing a gentle jogging warmup and joining in with the mass warmup a little bit.

They lined us up in 3 waves, fast at the front, medium, and walkers etc – though I wasn’t really sure what fast or medium meant so just put myself a few rows back. We had a countdown, then the horn didn’t go off, then it did, and off we all went! I started the Garmin but just had it set to show the time, and set off running how I felt, trying not to go too fast early on.

There was a bit of an incline then a descent, where I gathered speed, and then another descent. Then, as I thought, the payoff was some hills going the other way. I took these slowly, determined to conserve a bit of energy for the second half of the race, and tried to go back to a more normal pace when coming off the top of them.

At around 3k I tucked in behind another runner, and had a mini race with her, sharing the work, and it felt like we were doing a pretty decent pace, I was starting to breathe hard, but kept going, then we came to some more hills. When we got to 5k I glanced at the Garmin and to my chagrin in was showing 10.30 as the time. The race had started bang on 10, so it looked like my pace was actually horrendously slow… A little further on there was water station, I stopped to get a quick drink, at which point my companion seemed to speed off into the distance, I could see her for a while after that, and set myself a challenge of trying to catch her again, but it wasn’t happening. At about 7k there was a squall of torrential rain, which I would normally relish, but just found it irritating as it washed suncream into my eyes. By that point I had given up on the race, really, and decided to just use it as preparation for next weekend’s season finale – there was no point trying to push the pace and risk an injury. My Garmin felt much the same as when I glanced at the time for a prediction of just how bad my time would be, I saw that it had died in protest!! I got overtaken by people who had been a long way behind me, tried to stay with them, but couldn’t. By 9k I just wanted to see the finish line and stop, I walked a bit, a lady from the Steel City Striders gave me some encouragement, which helped me to actually run the last half km of the race.

As I approached the finish arch I saw the clock, I was surprised in fact that it was only just over the hour, as in my head I had got the time to 1hr 15 minutes!!! I smiled to myself as the PA man said “Stop being so casual about it number 46″ as I guess I had just gone into a nonchalant jogging mode and to be honest had nothing left!

Felt really shattered after getting my t-shirt, and after cheering in some more runners, went and got a coffee in the cafe tent and sat mulling things over. I really had felt I was doing a half decent pace, and have run close to 50 minutes on courses with worse hills, and even my most unpleasant race ever which included the Vernon park mega hill 3 times on a monstrously humid evening, had not resulted in a time over one hour (in fact 55 mins I think). So I have no idea what happened apart from the fact it was just an off day. My last race was sub 54 in blistering heat, and I have done quite a bit of training since then, so didn’t really expect to run my SLOWEST EVER 10k race!

At this stage there is not much to be done before the City of Salford 10k next weekend, but once that’s done maybe I need to look at the drawing board again. I have complained of feeling slower in my intervals this year compared to last, maybe I am just getting slower. One thing I have not done this year is much in the way of 5k time trials, or tempo runs, so maybe that has been my achilles’ heel, or maybe I just had a bad day.

Will see how Salford goes. At least it will be very much flatter!