Rob's Running Blog

9km in 55:47 – longest fastest run so far this winter!

So, after a couple of rest days it was time to attempt another slow 5 miler in Britain’s arctic weather; fortunately, for the time being, this area has escaped the snow despite being rather bitterly cold.

Set off very slowly to get warmed up, and with the intention of my head of completing 5 miles, never mind the speed. As usual took a while for my CV system to get into it, I ran down St Anne’s Road, then up Windmill Lane, and through Dane Bank to Reddish. At about 3-4k I was feeling pretty good and thought I might actually be able to run a little further than 5 miles without too much trouble. Due to traffic I went down the lane that leads back to Hyde Road eventually and goes past Cedar Mount, etc and I was feeling good. As 7k ticked over, I was on 43 minutes on the Garmin – I could easily do a sub 50 five miler, which would be a milestone! I managed to inject a little speed, and indeed this last km of the 5 miles was my quickest, though not very quick by pre-injury standards. In any case, 5 miles ticked over in 49:00 and that was quite a delightful feeling – it was still a ways to Hyde Road though, so I ran another km, at a slower pace, as a kind of cool down, and ended up finishing on the Showcase Cinema car park,whereupon I fished my trusty student annual bus pass from my pocket, and after cooling down with a walk, got the bus back home, having done 9.05km, my longest and fastest run since the April injury – and I felt quite comfortable in places and enjoyed it.

A slow 5 miles in the cold – 52:20

In my previous post I talked about my struggle with life and running lately. So I’ve made a kind of resolution to get out there at least twice a week, and more if possible – the running was becoming intermittent, and a stop start approach is never really good for something where you probably have to keep up a consistent habit to maintain motivation. I hear so many people say “It’s hard to get back into the habit” etc – it feels like I’ve been trying to get back into the habit on every run lately, and not really getting there.

However I am pleased to say I enjoyed today’s run, although it was hard work as usual. Rather than go for a definite circular route leading back to the house, I decided to give myself flexibility by taking my bus pass with me so I could just keep going, and always have to option of making it back on the bus if I wandered too far off the beaten track! When I reached 3k, I knew I could run another 5k, and I just kept myself going with the thought of being able to stop at any time and get the bus back, but not wanting to stop. I went through Gorton and then past the Belle Vue stadium and St Peters school, before connecting with Hyde Road again, and finally coming to a stop at 8.75k – my Garmin freaked out at around 4.3k and clicked over to 5k with a 1k lap time of 2.47 which is obviously an errror – so I added the .7k on to the final distance to make sure I had covered five miles, and rand for about 52 mins which is par for a five miler for me at the moment.

When I had finished I jumped on the bus and the contrast between the cool air and warm inside was amazing, I sweated a lot for a bit, probably to the annoyance of the other passengers. But the other day a woman sat next to me eating a pizza and fries FFS – so each to their own on the bus! And fresh sweat is an aphrodisiac – not so sure about the 3 day old kind, he he…

Anyway, I kind of zoned out on the bus, and when I got off to walk to my house, realised just how cold it was – certainly I was glad to get back into the house for some food and fluids.

Hopefully I can get a few more 5 milers in and make it my regular run – it certainly feels that setting out to run quite slowly for as long/far as possible is what’s suiting me at the moment, as the speed/endurance just isn’t there.

4 miles in 40 mins 30

Looked like a cold day outside and had the heating on. Nodded off once after my coffee, and felt lethargic. A little voice in my head wanted to put off any idea of a run until tomorrow, but I had planned to hit 4 miles today, so I did my usual bargaining of putting on my kit, and leaving the house, and stating OK if things are still feeling bad after a couple of k’s I can always loop back to the house!

Of course after a few K’s I was fully awake and determined to finish the run. Kept to a slow steady pace – went up Windmill lane, which means a hill early on, and from there on it was just a matter of keeping going. I had a few bursts of pace, but was generally running at 10 minute miles, which is pretty slow for me – but one step at a time. Today the goal was to reach 4 miles, not to reach it fast! The motorway hill and the hill at the side of Sainsbury’s were a bit painful. Last k was very slow due to hills, but put on a burst of speed for last 100 and then walked home.

Guess this counts as a long run, certainly my longest for a while!

6k barrier broken in 37:17

A really lethargic sunday and had to force myself to get out. Decided to run out to the old fireplace shop than back round via windmill Lane.

Tough as usual to get going, but along the road to Gorton, after the Sainsburys hill etc, I settled into a rhythm and sped up, and actually felt comfortable and as if I could go on all day! Of course that only lasted for about 2k and then I started to flag, and wheeze, and gasp! Near the end at Windmill Lane this little kid pulled his kid brother out of way of me and I gave them thumbs up “No problem” said the kid I must look really cool to the kids I’ve heard they shout abuse at some people

Anyway, longest run since comeback, and at times got up to some pace, and first run in quite some time that I actually felt comfortable on and enjoyed a bit of!

Long Run – 8 miles in 1:15

This was my longest run in 6 months. Set off slowly, for a planned 8 miles, and was struggling a bit at first as I went down Stockport Road and into Bredbury, having to tie my shoelace en route. Then I hit the uphill part of the course and just pushed myself to keep going. Then coasted off the hills on the flat and downhill bits and built up a real head of steam until the next hill, near the end. Slowed down a bit then and just jogged to the 8 mile point. Think I need a couple of rest days now to let my legs recover from the hard sessions lately.

A Rainy 12.1K along the comeback trail – 1hr 13 mins

It’s been a busy week since the race on Sunday, my uni course has now started, and I have been socialising a bit as well, together with work and what have you! Managed to swim 40 lengths on Tuesday, and aim to build in some swimming as cross training while my leg gets fully back to normal.

Wanted to do a bit of a long slow recovery run today, so warmed up indoors, then set off at a very gentle pace on the Bredbury and Hyde circuit route. Rain helped keep me cool, and at the gentle pace I was running at, I didn’t start to hurt until near the end of the run, and even managed the hilly parts quite well.

There is still something up with the leg, but it seems to be reacting well – will just have to avoid anything too intense in the way of speed work or harder paced long runs for the time being, until I am sure the leg is up to it.

But felt great to be back out running in the rain

EDIT November 22nd – This run turned out to be too much for the leg, which reacted quite badly over the next few days. That’ll teach me to go out doing 8 mile runs with shin splints

10 Mile Long Run – 01:31:49 – PB!

Nice long 10 mile run on a hot and sunny day. Wanted to run it at a decent pace instead of just jogging along easily as I have been lately, and managed a 10 mile PB by 2 minutes – and did it 10 minutes faster than my last effort and faster than recent long runs in general, and only stopped once to eat a gel. Felt like a drink in the later stages but resisted the temptation to have a shop stop but kept going, and tried to gradually speed up the harder things got, rather than petering out like I normally do. Still felt fresh at 12k though the last couple of k’s were hard and was overheating in the sun at times. Not a bad run at all though, ended up in central Manchester, went past the gay carnival thing, and got the bus home.

Splits for my k’s were:

5:39
5:48
6:05
5:56
5:52
5:54
5:40
5:41
5:39
6:09 (gel stop/slow)
5:38
5:24
5:24
5:25
5:43 (struggling with pedestrians!)
5:11 (clear road and a sprint!)

Tempo Run – Through Windmill Lane & Reddish – 01:03:33

For a while, building in more easy runs seemed to help my improvements, and slowing down the pace of long runs. But then the improvements stopped, and a good friend with a lot of running experience suggested running some longer runs at a harder pace. So I did a 12.1k effort today, with no reference to time, just ran how I felt – felt I was going at race pace at points, but refused to check out the time. Turns out I wasn’t going hugely fast, but I did go through the 10k split in 52:21 – so faster than Sunday’s race, and by that point I was at death’s door, but forced myself to go through another 2k at the best pace I could manage, and managed the 12.1k in 1:03:33, which is almost exactly the same time I did the same distance last time round – several months ago, and I found it easier back then… So something has gone wrong!

In actuality I think doing the easy runs has harmed my mental toughness. I can see that occasionally running a week where most of the running is easy will help – but I read an article that said 90% of your running should be at easy pace. Well I’ve tried that, and it seems to be load of tosh  Harder runs ahead then, the stopping feels nicer though

Easy 8 Miler – 1:19:22

Nice gentle paced 8 miler – got a bit puffy in the first place but first 2k were a bit quick. Kept the pace down to 6 mins+ per k, and mixed in a few faster bursts up hills then just coasted the last few miles with a few race pace strides in the last K. Bit slower than my last 8 miler but slightly different route anyway, but felt like a good aerobic workout and recovered nice and quickly.

10 Mile Long Run – 1:42:22

First 10 miler for a while, in the afternoon heat. Felt ok in bursts but also struggled after 10k, legs felt a bit heavy and heart was going bit fast so had a few walk breaks but carried on and managed to keep to 6+ per k to keep it at a nice steady slow pace. Ran a new route through Reddish and past Cedar Mount School then back through Gorton/windmill Lane.