This week I have been trying to sort myself out. What am I doing I asked myself!! A few weeks back I was planning to do loads of 30/20/10 runs when I got some comments suggesting I should consider mixing things up a bit.
The 30/20/10 is a great run as I have described before and are a bit like intervals. After these comments and a discussion in my local running shop I decided that the feedback was overwhelmingly against running these on every run. But then that needed a new plan.
I settled on trying to do a mix of easy/interval/??? – not sure what to call the ???.
So Monday morning was my easy run. Didn’t feel like it! Lesson 1 – slow down on your easy runs!!
Tuesday and Thursday saw me getting up early and going for a 5k walk. It felt good to be going out on my rest days and getting some exercise for a change. Pre C25K (for about a month) I was walking every day and that’s what started me on this journey. Taking it much slower allowed me time to take in my surroundings much more which was welcome.
Thursday was Interval day. I must admit with the weather and lack of sleep because of it I was not looking forward to it. If I had not set myself a plan I probably would not have done it and would have been slow instead!!
My first “proper” interval run was last week. It was meant to be 10 lots of 400m with rests of 90s between. I only managed 7!! This week I did all 10 and whilst exhausted I was “well pleased”.
Come Friday it was ??? day! I decided that at the moment ??? meant trying to run 5k just as a fast run. Just to see how my interval work was helping. Maybe too early but hey!!!
So I set off Friday morning on my 5k route that I had not run since May. It starts uphill into town for about 1k before levelling out and dropping down to the Fire Station. Turning into the park to run past the council gym. Then after a bit on the flat another drop. Definitely a chance to make up some time after the hill climb. Then the long run home.
I set off from home thinking about running a PB on this route. I wanted to improve on my previous time of 6:59/km and would have loved to do 6/km but knew that was impractical at the moment so set my target at between 6:30 and 6:45. A gradual increase!
At around 3k I was on target and feeling surprisingly OK. Come 4k I was on target but feeling drained. I started to count my paces 1 step step 2 step step .. it helped to focus my mind away from wanting to slow down and stop. When you get to within 1k of your goal you just don't want to give up. When the 5k marker buzzed on my watch I slowed to a halt and saw the results.
Pleased with the final results I was amazed that my last 3k were bang on my target times. I think there might be something in these interval runs. Going to try and keep them up and stick to short runs until September then hopefully back to longer distances.
Happy running everyone.
A toughed-out 5k: An investment in my future
Magic Plan Week 5 Run 1 - a (not) 4K Interval Run
Training Decisions and Knee Niggles
