I actually managed to run parkrun the way I want to yesterday. First mile was my slowest, last one the fastest. I refused to start at anyone else’s pace, helped by starting too far back and behind some slower ones and walkers. I gauged my pace to a guy ahead and he was running at my easy gear, after a mile I was though the toxic 10 and so up went my pace all by itself, I was now closing on my pacemaker and feeling great. Spent that mile overtaking people slowly. Then came the last mile (and a bit) yesterday being the anniversary of my friends death, I told him this one was for him and opened the stride... passed quite a few more people on my way to the line. The end result was slightly slower than my last one, but the run was much better, and I’m happy to have finally got the running with a large group tactics right. Overall my parkrun PB is 3 minutes slower than my solo running one, which is perfect as they’re training runs on my plan so all marked as “recovery” so I’m not too much faster than I should be on them.
I’ve now done a few five mile runs and I can really feel the strength in the legs from them... 5k is now easy for the legs, and my almost a year stopped smoking lungs can keep up with a pace 5 minutes faster than my first runs at the distance.
So, I woke up this morning ready for a 5.5 mile run next week, and 10k the week after, but NRC had a different idea and adapted to give me a cutback week, my longest run will now be 2.5 miles! I’ll save that for Saturday as I’ll be able to extend that to parkrun and still be on a cutback. Looking forward now to an easy week of happy running.
Written by
UnfitNoMore
Graduate10
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I wasn’t sure I’d run too many parkruns as I love being out there by myself. I’ve been running before or after it and volunteering instead for a fair while, but now I’m hooked... red shirt in the next year if life permits!
I like running on my own too, it's good for the soul. Parkrun is a different experience altogether, I love doing both. Red shirt eh, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you 🤞😊
A little gutted to see the 10k go back a week on my plan, but heck, I’ve waited 46 years to run 10k, another week is nothing!
I was thinking about celebrating a year of not smoking... no cigar though I guess... think I’ll just ensure that my long run that week is on the right day. Couple of months to work that out.
Well done to you UNM on your parkrun yesterday, you seemed to have enjoyed it, you did the correct thing on starting slowly and gradually quickening up the pace
I have been doing your "100 push up a day for a month challenge", I ll tell you more about that later, so far, I have kept to the schedule. 😊
Pacing is certainly improving... the transition from solo to one of hundreds is a little strange, in a few weeks I’ll have to get further forwards at the start and go for time... but for now I’m happy improving the overall comfort of the run.
Great job on the 100 push up plan... I may have a crack at it in June.
One thing at a time for you UnfitNoMore, for me yesterday at exactly 9am I reran run 3 of week 5 of C25K, got back home, had a short rest and between 10.30 and 10.48am, I did the 100 push ups for Saturday
No fixed time to start them, however, as I exclamed to you earlier doing a hundred every two minutes with approximately a 90 second break takes exactly 18 minutes. Today, Sunday I did the 18 minutes from 09.02 until 09.20 then went for a 4K walk, this afternoon I will be watching the Snooker final between John Higgins and Judd Trump.
It took about 5years for my cravings to completely disappear but I didn't have any fitness plans so good luck to you in maintaining your better health habits! 😁
I’ve been quite lucky... but they do come occasionally. I can run for pizza, beer, wine, chocolate no worries... I can’t run for a smoke as it will affect my running, so I just think about my journey since that last smoke and the craving passes. Better still, if it’s a running day I just lace the shoes up and go.
Oh well done, it really isn’t easy to find your pace in a “race”, I’ve got it wring at pr most times but it’s interesting learning. Enjoy your relaxed run week!
I’ve stopped at 10k as the longer distances were leaving me drained for a couple of days. I’m concentrating on increasing my speed and strength now and when they improve I might think about going longer. As you know I’ve been doing NRC get more fit. Today I did a 3k tempo run - fastest I’ve ever run and included a fastest 1k and fastest mile. So I am really pleased.
That’s a great tempo run, well done there and congratulations on the PBs.
I’m making a couple of suggestions to them about the plans... putting a max distance cap on it would be good, especially at 5k level. And I think it would be great to have a plan where you could add events in as you book/decide to do them and have the plan adapt to have you at your best for each one... complicated, but they will have the knowledge to do this with their sub marathon runners.
I think a distance cap is a really good idea. My last week has a 12.5km which I don’t really want to do - I think I will keep it to 10k. But overall I am enjoying it. It’s motivated me to get back to doing speed work and strength work. Although it gave me the NTC fleet of foot workout this week. Omg I thought I was going to expire!
You can of course cap it yourself, but it would be great if the plan knew upfront and adapted to it before you run it. Nothing to stop you going on a 10k run and applying it to the 12.5 plan run, nor indeed hitting up the plan run and stopping at the 10k.
Well done on your Parkrun, it’s great when it feels comfortable. I did 30 minute pacer at my local park run at the weekend and I absolutely loved it. It felt great pulling the pace back a little bit and just having a nice comfortable run.
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