Small victories keenly fought

[andreh]

First post here. Started C25K in May after dancing at Clun May day and graduated in late June with my first park run of 28:33. Now building up to do our town's 10k next year. BTW I have been an active Morris Dancer for 40+ years which has kept me at a reasonable level of fitness up until now at the age of 61. Started my running week with a long run to build up my stamina for the 10K. A sort of method in which I increase my long run by 5 minutes each week so this week I ran for 45minutes over a distance of 7K. My aim is first to get to 10k and then do sub 60mins.

My exercise day would have been dancing out in Clun with SB but I was at a wedding instead. Happy and tragic..I won't elaborate.

Next run was a 5K when I hoped to use my put together running list of 170bpm tunes to crank up the speed but the technology mix of Spotify and Runkeeper choked sometime after Foo Fighters Monkey Wrench so I settled back into my cadence of 166bpm. I ran 5K in 30mins which seems to be my usual pre-park run. Now today was park run. My 3rd one since C25K graduation though I did skip last week because of a summer lurgy laying me low. So the park run..why do I feel nervous..potential PB or a crash and burn! Well thankfully it was park run number 3 and a another PB of 26.47. I like park runs for the element of competition and challenges you set yourself. Yes it really is a covert competition. Anyone running past me of a similar age or is someone who obviously hasn't paced themselves for a 5K run will have a target on their back. One of the young women from our companion women's team MRTD went past me early on with her new bloke. I had to forego the sight of her comely form at around 3K..the gauntlet had been thrown down though it did mean I had to maintain a cracking pace for the remaining 2K! So that's it..A current PB of 26:47 for 5K but I can't help thinking that it will be standing for a while to come. I have given myself a challenge of coming close to the times that SS of GW clocks of around 25 mins so here's hoping GWMMs exertions at Sidmouth FF might slow him down on his next park run. Finally..No running this coming week as I'm off to Istanbul and Ankara for my job though i might do a bit of running machine 5K in the hotel gym. Cheers for now

[Irishprincess Graduate10]

That's a brilliant PB! A huge well done. Your age grading must be pretty impressive!

Your 10K plan sounds great and, as you say, you're already fairly fit from the dancing. You sound sensible and you have loads of time before your race so you're going about this the right way. Just don't go too fast too often as it's a high injury risk.

Oh, and welcome 🙂

[Wizziewood Graduate10]

Wow! well done you ... I'm out of breath just reading your post!

Good luck and keep up the good work! Happy running!

[Equi-geek Graduate10]

Phew! That’s a stunning achievement - even though you had a base level of fitness. Good luck with your plans! 💪

[misswobble Graduate10]

I imagined you Morris dancing to Foo Fighters 😃. ☺️

I love the word “comely”. My old uncle (a RM Commando and my hero) used it quite often 😃. You never hear it these days

You might well run in Turkey if it’s not too scorchio