Posted on May 13, 2012 under Misc, Musings, Uncategorized |
I have a number of direct debits for charities, and give a lot of my time freely to help others, therefore I only do one event for charity, The Great Manchester Run.
This year I have managed to get one donation so far, I do have some pledges, but so far I am dreading the phone call from Marie Curie to thank me for my fundraising efforts, as I haven’t raised enough to pay for the top they sent me to run in so far, never mind cash to pay for the nurses like the ones who looked after my mum when she was dying.
So if anyone runs across this and could spare a few quid, it would be much appreciated.
thanks!
Posted on Jul 16, 2011 under Intervals, Uncategorized |
It was a very gloomy day today, with some torrential downpours early on. Looked nice and cool, an ideal day for my first intervals session to start putting an edge on to my fitness to hopefully run a sub 50 10k by the end of the summer, as it was intervals that helped me to my sub 50 last year – mind you I think it was trying to do my intervals at too fast a pace (together with trying to run too many one mile time trials) that also led to my injury.
I got my kit on, Garmin at the ready, and headed out without baseball cap, or shades, so dark was it, and just a dash of sun cream on my ears, nose and top of head – as I know I can burn on the cloudiest of days, but figured a dash would be enough for my intervals session.
My legs ached a little on the 2k warmup I did, just did a very easy pace then took a breather. My plan was to try to run just under sub 50 10k pace for 5*800m intervals, so roughly just under 4 minutes per 800m, nothing too ambitious or crazy like the 3:30 800s I was aiming for last year when I ended up injured (a good pace to aim for, but no need to go totally flat out on intervals, it can lead to injury!)
I programmed the Garmin for 3 minute rests, took a few deep breaths, and set off. Probably went a bit quick at first, but not having done intervals lately I had nothing really within recent memory to compare my pace to, I ended up doing the first 800 in 4:05, so not far off my target, but now I was locked into my Garmin intervals, of course the cloud broke and the sun came out, and there was me without my baseball cap, shades, and only a little sun cream! eek!
Did the next 800 quicker, and started to remember just how hard intervals can be. Started to long for the rest periods and by intervals four and five I was fairly shattered and my legs felt a bit rubbery – decided to run the last interval as a bit of a cool down, but ended up doing it in 4:05 despite feeling like I was running through treacle and my lungs had been removed by that point.
So my first 800m intervals session in a very long time looks like this:
4:05
3:53
4:03
4:14
4:05
Average pace 5:04 per km. That is something I will need to improve on to run a sub 50 10k or even a sub 25 5k, but running consistently under 4 minute pace for each interval is an achievable goal I can set myself in the short term.
Posted on May 04, 2011 under Uncategorized |
Had 4 days off over the weekend to give my legs and body chance to recover from the longer, sapping run on Friday. Decided to christen the new pair of Adidas Supernova Glides that had been hiding under my bed for the last year.
Felt sluggish at first, and had a burning sensation in my shin, but that soon went and then had to tip toe down the big Mill Lane Hill which felt hard going on my knees, but after that the discomforts disappeared and I was able to start going faster, even up the inclines, and although I was gasping and hurting I decided to try to maintain the pace and try to get a sub 30 in spite of the slow start and sapping effect of the hills.
It was a close run thing in the end, but I did the last k in 5:24 to edge a sub 30 in 29:50 and it felt good to be able to get that kind of speed up, if I could maintain that for 10k…. lol. Definitely feels like I am making progress, but think sub 57 is probably a more realistic target for the Great Manchester Run than sub 55 – but who knows!
Knee feeling fine so far. 😀
Posted on Feb 23, 2010 under Uncategorized |
This was my first five miler in quite some time and despite it being the longest distance since my comeback, I held the fastest average pace of any of my recent runs at sub 55 10k pace. Felt really good to cover the distance at that pace, and even managed a 1k cool down jog back home – now want to start getting closer to the 40 minute mark for 5 miles, work on my speed, and add some longer runs bit by bit so I can start chipping away at my running challenges 😀
Posted on Jun 23, 2009 under 5k, Easy Runs, Jogs, Recovery Runs, Uncategorized |
Upping the pace last week and Sunday’s long 10 miler seem to have hit me!
Felt tired all day yesterday so planned an easy 3 miler – was very hard work and shin/lower legs on left leg was complaining a bit, so a few days rest are in order – no major problems but I was glad to come to a stop and just need to take it easy before next week’s races so plan not to do anything too hard in the meantime as it will not do any good now, just need to keep things ticking over!
Posted on May 29, 2009 under 5-10k, Fartlek, Uncategorized |
Failed Fartlek session – felt Ok to start with but first fast k did me in completely, never really got going and cut it short, felt far too hot by the end – was a very hot day and it was hottest part of the day, though I did pass a guy in a woolly hat so either he’s mad or I am!
Posted on Mar 08, 2009 under Easy Runs, Jogs, Uncategorized |
An easy run but felt really puffed out by the end – been feeling chesty though so lungs evidently not at full capacity 🙁 Got caught in violent hailstone squall!)
Splits
5:37
5:51
6:02
5:53
Posted on Mar 03, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Felt a sore throat coming on so took the running lightly.
Posted on Feb 28, 2009 under 5k, Time Trials, Uncategorized |
Felt the pinch on this one and a minute slower than the last one 🙁
Posted on Feb 23, 2009 under 10-15k, Long Runs, Regular Runs, Uncategorized |
Longest run since I hit the comeback trail – ended up in a graveyard, ran out through Gorton/Reddish and back via Hyde Road – totally done in by the end! 😛