Diary Of A Road Runner

5K Easy Run – 32mins – little niggle in right calf

This wouldn’t be a running blog without a catalogue of injuries – or it sometimes feels that way. Late last evening, I started to get a bit of intermittent pain in my right calf – sometimes when I was walking, sometimes at rest, and that persisted this morning. It was kind of weird as it just kept cropping up without warning.

So I opted for a 5k easy run, and ran at slower than 6mins/k all the way, finding that the running didn’t really make the calf twinge, except maybe when I tried to speed up and forefoot strike… Could well be something to do with running faster with the interval training session yesterday, so I will take it easy for now, with a few rest days and some jogs, rather than do any out and out speedwork – think I will leave that until next week, but hope to fit in a long slow run on Saturday – possibly keep it to 6 or 7 miles if the calf is still playing up.

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.

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!

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.

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

5k of rain and pain – 28:49

My first 5k since the fateful Dec 28th run when my shins exploded in the cold weather!

This time, have built up gradually to this epic distance, and the legs seem to be responding.

It was an oddly tough run, the first k felt very hard, and the Garmin ticked over in 6:16 – way off my normal pace of late. Not sure if it was having one of its haywire moments as I finished overall with an average pace of 5:45/k, but the main thing was I was suffering a lot in the early stages, but ran through the pain barrier – partly because I had a bit of a personal issue to work through, and was feeling in a stubborn mood and thought I might as well take it out on my CV system. So managed to keep going, and at times felt quite good, and was pleased to complete 5k. Now I just need to keep building things gradually, and my 5k times are usually a good indicator of where my running fitness is, so hope to get back to around 25 minutes, then can start thinking about speedwork and 10k’s and one mile PB’s

Easy Recovery Run – 5k approx – 28 mins

Easy recovery run after 2 harder longer runs. Ran at a fairly decent medium pace.

Garmin went totally screwball on me at 4k though – started reading 3.22k, then 4.49 and kept jumping all over the place, don’t know if it’s knackered or the satellites were just jumping around?  Got to 4.99k then it jumped back to 4.8 but given the time and pace I think I did about 5.5!

5k Easy Run – death by humidity!

This was supposed to be an easy 5k I went off at an easy pace and by the end I was dying! It hadn’t felt warm when I went out, but pretty overcast, and seemed to be extremely humid which made an easy run feel a bit of a struggle. Legs felt heavy, think I’m still recovering from last week’s increased mileage – and will soon need to taper a bit for the Birchwood 10k in 2 weeks.

I checked the weather and humidity was at 95%. Explains it – my body is a useful humidity detector!!!