Diary Of A Road Runner

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

Road-Runner-Rob — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:50:15 +0000

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.

Intervals – some progress!

Road-Runner-Rob — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:54:57 +0000

First intervals session since last summer. Felt tough but good to push things hard. Set off with a 2k warmup, then set the Garmin for 5×800m with 3 minute walking recoveries. Wasn’t sure how to pace it so went pretty much flat out then adjusted as I felt the pain! The interval splits were:

3:35
3:49
3:24
3:47
3:12

The slower legs were with the incline at the end. In any case, my two fastest splits would make a 6:36 mile, and the last split was very encouraging, as sooner or later I will need to run sub 3 for 800 if I am going to run a sub 6 mile. But it’s promising to be more or less where I peaked last summer, right at the beginning of the running season as spring starts to wake up the world

Long Run – 8 miles in 1:15

Road-Runner-Rob — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:48:00 +0000

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.

One Mile Time Trial – 7:16

Road-Runner-Rob — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:50:40 +0000

Not done a one mile time trial since June 2009, and am supposed to be on course for a sub 6 minute mile challenge – if only I hadn’t been injured for several months etc!

Anyway, did a one mile warm up going pretty easy, walked and stretched, then set off for my mile trial. Went off hard and just tried to maintain it, glanced at garmin and I was doing close to 4:00/k. Was hard to judge the pacing since I have not done it for so long – and by the end I was really breathing hard and was going all out. Managed it in 7:16, which at this stage, being only 16 seconds off a PB I gained last year with a lot more running in my legs, is pretty good going.

Will keep it up and have another time trial in a few weeks and see if there’s any improvement.

Gentle 5 Mile Regular Run – 45:20

Road-Runner-Rob — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:41:01 +0000

Put in a lot of running miles last week so on this occasion just took it easy and did a very gentle 5 miles as a kind of recovery run after Sunday’s hard 5k time trial. Felt good.

5k Time Trial – 25:02

Road-Runner-Rob — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 15:54:35 +0000

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

Road-Runner-Rob — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:49:46 +0000

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.

My First 10k in ages – 57m 11s

Road-Runner-Rob — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:48:10 +0000

This was the first 10k either racing or training I’ve run in months – ran it very even paced at about 5:40ish per k all the way, and just struggled a bit in the last k, as I was running out of stamina and there was a hill. Managed it though, and recovered well, it will only a matter of time before I’m knocking the minutes off and getting close to 50 mins once the races start coming up in April.

5 miler – 43:49

Road-Runner-Rob — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:45:45 +0000

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

7k Tempo Run – back on form in 39 dead

Road-Runner-Rob — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:43:30 +0000

This run started off as a see how I feel kind of run after yesterday’s hard going – after 2k I felt good so turned it into a tempo run and ran around 5:30 average for the next 5k, which is the hardest I’ve run for the longest so far since my comeback last month, and felt good to keep the pace up and keep pushing when it was hurting bad! Knocked 1:11 off my last 7k effort, and that was with a slightly slower last half a k to wind down as I was starting to feel it by then!