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!
Started off at decent pace, was going to do 5 or 6k. At 1.5k I felt my left lower leg started twingeing, so I slowed down and aborted the run at 2k – better to be safe than sorry, will see how it goes maybe need a couple of rest days or some swimming. I think my heroics lately may have caught up with me slightly 
It was pouring with rain, always good weather for running, so I set off and felt a bit dodgy at first but a downhill bit got me relaxed again and into a bit of a rhythm. Felt good at 4k and pushed the pace a little, and ended up doing 7k almost 4 minutes quicker than on Saturday without feeling particularly drained by it. Did the last 3 in 5:35, 5:34 and 5:07 so am definitely getting a little bit of pace endurance back and just need to keep building on my stamina and speed.
Very slow run, but fulfilled the purpose of longest run again so far, and in general was nice to be on my feet and jogging along for over 40 mins, slowly getting my legs used to doing more work for longer, and allowing my CV system to just tick over. I recovered very quickly, and find I enjoy these slower runs, so will keep doing them, build the distance slowly, and keep doing faster bursts in between, until I feel ready for some intervals and speed work and time trials 
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.
Seeing as swimming now forms part of my training schedule, I thought I would start to include details here. This was a lunchtime session, so it was mainly pensioners in the pool, and was reasonably OK.
Going to the afternoon/evening sessions can be a nightmare with young kids floating about all over the place, dads throwing their sons half way across the pool, and games of water volleyball that keep moving around and getting in one’s way – freestyle doesn’t have the best forward visibility and it can a royal pain bumping into people.
If it happens again I will post funny anecdotes about it.
But anyway, did about 2/3 of this breastroke and the rest freestyle, the freestyle does get tough still but feels like a good workout.
My longest run for quite some time, and my slowest paced! Decided I needed a slow run, with just a little bit of extra difference, to get my legs used to ticking over for a bit longer.
Ran a steady pace of around 6:22 a k and always felt comfortable, not breathing hard, and could have kept going – but still need to be careful with the legs. But signs are good, that I could jog round a 10k at least, and could start thinking about doing the Woodbank Parkrun and getting some decent 5k times under my belt, and would be good to do some runs with other people to get back into the swing and spirit of things as spring, thank god, approaches.
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!
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
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
