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!
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 
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!
With the last 2 runs not being quite what I expected, I tried to lay their ghosts to rest and start with a clean slate. Was up early, having not really slept much. Last race I took some Nytol the night before to ensure sleep, but wondered if it had interfered with performance, so this time settled for a restless 6 hours with the saturday night wailers penetrating the ear plugs at times… Had breakfast of porridge then went to get the bus, then hopped on the Metrolink to Harbour City in Salford Quays, seeing some of the Manchester Frontrunners on the tram and a couple of others too, so I knew I was heading in the right direction (last time I got a taxi but the tram is rather cheaper at £2.20!)
My friend Chris had texted me that she was there already, so looked out for her but couldn’t see her, headed to the loos in the Lowry Outlet Mall, and when I came out saw Neil and Dawn in the distance so was nice to catch up with them a little. Wasn’t long to go at that point, so we went and lined up, and there was a bit of a delay as a big boat had gone through one of the adjustable bridges, and as we were running over it we had to wait for it to be lowered again!
So we set off and I kept to a sedate pace at first, running how I felt and feeling OK, wondering if this would be the race where the training actually paid off. Was quite cool and cloudy which was a help. Anyway, we went through MediaCityUk and out into the industrial part of Salford Quays approaching Trafford. My Garmin bleeped and I couldn’t resist a peak at the KM time – it read 4:40 for the 2nd km, so far so good I thought, I felt I wasn’t going hard and could maintain that pace. However, a good while after that the official 2k marker came up and it wasn’t long before I realised that the Garmin had gone a bit crazy and was short counting for some reason (when I looked back, they were all out after that one, including one that I did in 3:30 – yeah right!). So good job I wasn’t really relying on it!
At about 4k the great Ron Hill overtook me and as I know Ron runs about 50-52 pace these days, and he went past me quite quickly, I got a bit dispirited, but resolved to keep keeping on. Got past the 5k mark and someone shouted out 28 something, it was some way past the 5k mark but I kind of thought that was pretty slow considering my perceived effort at that point. Got a bottle of water at the drinks station and then really started to struggle as I saw the runners coming back the other way. Stopped and walked a few times to take a drink. Made it down the long stretch to 7k then turned around the little roundabout, and kind of jog-shuffle-walked for the next 2k.
Got to the last bridge and could see the end in sight but had no pace left at all, just forced myself to keep going up over the bridge, knowing this course has a cruel little trick whereby you run straight at the finish line, then turn and there’s actually another km to go in a loop before you actually get to it, along a tree line boulevard. Saw Neil as I turned the corner and he shouted some encouragement. I sped up past a veteran lady, and then realised I could only hold that gear for about 20 seconds and there was a long way to go, so I slowed and she caught me again, and we duelled a little until the last stretch, when I was able to put on a finishing burst that was pretty fast and powerful, and won the duel, but had my heart hammering and I felt sick for a few minutes on finishing. Was nice to have my name read out as I crossed the line. Was so off the pace I didn’t even bother to stop the haywire Garmin (which was probably caused by a lot of winding in between tall buildings early on) but the official time eventually came out as 57:39. Which wasn’t awful, but 4 minutes slower than last time I did this race, and well off the pace of the City of Manchester 10k. Wasn’t really an improvement on last week’s race, as am sure I would have been over an hour if there had been a few hills! But it was flat as a pancake really!
Had a chat with Neil then went to get my goody bag, and then saw Chris lining up for hers so Neil went off to find Dawn who was doing some shopping, and I caught up with Chris while we had a coffee. Caught a few of the presentations and then it was time to go home and I went off feeling rather tired and deflated, without a good time to finish my 10k season, but at least no nasty injury!
I know have to figure out what went wrong over the last month. Possibly my half marathon training run took more out of me than I thought, although I did rest very sensibly afterwards, and I tapered somewhat down tot he final 2 10ks of the season, to no avail. I’m also aware that I’ve not done many all out 5k time trials this season (in fact none!) and this may have taken off some of my edge and mental toughness – I do wonder if it was partly to try to protect myself from another injury that I’ve unconsciously been trying to take it easier than I have in the past!
Oh well! Time will tell. Will now get in some base miles and enjoy it a little bit (after a rest of course) and maybe start doing some 1 mile and 5k time trials once recovered, to see if I improve over the next few months! And then maybe enter the Stockport 10 mile and possibly even the Wilmslow half next year…
Not sure what has happened to my form, but the race last week didn’t go according to plan, and I thought I’d just put in a very easy loosener to shake any bits of rust off my legs. Lower legs felt a bit niggly, not sure if it’s the older trainers I was running in, but in any case although I felt OK to begin with at 2k I walked for a bit and then jogged very very slowly to make up another km and still felt very hot and puffed out….
I think targeting anything quicker than sub 55 at the City of Salford 10k is going to lead to potential disappointment, so I’ll set myself the goal of getting around in 55 and anything else will be a bonus!
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! 
Enjoyed a week away that involved some pleasant hill walking which was good for my CV system without punishing my legs too much. Also enjoyed a swim in the sea, covering quite a bit of water and swimming against the tide – this ended up giving me sore groin muscles the next day, as breaststroking always does if I haven’t done it for some time, but it was again a nice CV workout without busting my lungs too much
Anyway, 8 days since my last run, and with only 3 days till race day, I knew I’d need to turn my legs over again so went out for a tentative 5k, hoping the niggle of last week was just a niggle, and that the rest would leave me feeling OK. I expected to feel quite rusty as I usually do after a few days break, so started off quite slowly, and did a 6 minute km, then still felt fresh so upped the pace in bits and bursts, and did 2 at 5:42, then pushed the boat out at 5:24 before running a very comfortable last km at 5:45. Not lightning pace by any means but the good news is I didn’t feel rusty at all, but rather felt fresh, and my next run back is usually much better so gives me hope. No niggles on the knee, which is very good news!
I think the week off running has allowed my body to recover from all the hard running of the past few months, and soak up the benefits. I plan a very easy run on Friday, and then it will be time to roll up to the East Manchester Legacy 10k on Sunday. Will be pleased with around 52 anything quicker, well, I will just run how I feel and see how it goes on the day!
Just a really easy evening run. Took it really easy at first, went up to 55 min 10k pace for a km, wound down with a nice slow pace.
Should really have done this on Friday’s run – think the long run last week is taking some recovery from, so will just run easy for a while, as not much more to do with my next race in 2 weeks – will just maintain fitness and maybe thrown in some speedwork, and keep my conditioning up, and then see how I fare!
Felt nice and fresh after 5 days off running since my half marathon effort last weekend, so wanted to get out again and thought a nice 5 miler with some pace thrown in, during the latter stages, would be quite nice…
Felt OK at 1k, and increased the pace, by 2k I was starting to heat up and sweat but the sweat wasn’t going anywhere. Had to stop at 3k and realised there was no way I would be running 5 miles today – it was humid and I couldn’t breathe comfortably…
Walking across a road in the last KM, a friendl chap said I would need to quicken up to miss the coming rain, and I said I needed it to cool down – he laughed and said he was sweating just watching me, and as I ran off he shouted “See ya kiddo…” I really love being called kiddo at my age, lol
Anyway I did put a burst of speed on but then felt totally trashed and took a long time to recover, my left foot was soaked in blood from a toenail digging in too…
Will see about a run on Sunday, guess I will still be tired after the long long run last week!
Just a 5k run at a nice leisurely pace, sort of a recovery run as well after Monday’s long run, my legs felt a bit stiff at first but soon got into it and felt ok through the run, just keeping to a nice pace and although I slowed at the end ran the last km in 5:30 quite comfortably, which is sub 55 10k pace, at a jog, so I think the legs are starting to move quicker with less effort thanks to the recent training
Some more intervals on Sunday I think!
