5 weeks since my last Park Run. I scanned the crowd carefully in case the sneakyTasha99 had made a surprise appearance. All seemed safe!! Time to bite the bullet! I haven't done any pace work at all so I was expecting the end of my Park Run/ 5k PB streak this morning. I was well wrapped up, it felt a bit like running in a duffle coat until I shed my waterproof jacket. I knew that each lap time started with a 5, so things were going ok, but I was pleasantly surprised when Mr Garmin gave me a new 5k PB of 28:17. Only a 20 second improvement, so the warning signs are there. I will need to do some intervals and move a bit quicker if I want to keep improving 5k times. Hills are more I important for now I feel (my way of setting myself up for the end of the PB streak 😊).
One cross over from the hill stuff took me by surprise. My average cadence was higher than my last Park Run (160 v 154) but average stride length was down from 1.13 to 1.1. A whole 12 cms lost every stride! That must be a reflection of the short stride length needed to get up the hills and the shortish quick cadence needed for the down hill sections. I just forgot to change gear today. Still, VO2 Max decided to go up by another point too 🤷♂️. Two whole points in three days...for what that's worth. Hope everyone has a good weekend....I am going to find some chocolate and a cup of coffee 😋😋
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Beachcomber66
Graduate10
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Near disaster... all the chocolate tiffin in the kitchen cupboard had disappeared ( full inquiry to follow!!). Managed to find a stray toblerone in another stash !! 😅
Oh yum toblerone is a favourite of mine, I lived on my own for a while and don’t recommend it but what i put in the cupboard stayed in the cupboard until i ate it 😀
Yup we are good at sharing, shopping isn’t an issue, but i like home made fudge and butterscotch and Willow can’t make it so i have to wait til i can find the time and be bothered ness
One prime suspect....pleaded guilty and wishes to have numerous previous convictions taken into account! Toblerone bar represented a very articulate plea in mitigation! 😊
Well done BC! Your PBs are turning into a habit! Interesting about the stride length. Because I do lots of runs with hills, that probably accounts for my tiny trot and my high cadence. I thought that was just me. 🙄
Sorry you had rain again today. Are you growing flippers? 🏃♂️ 🏃♂️
Webbed feet maybe! I can definitely run quicker and more safely downhill using a short quick stride. I just need to remember to flip back to the longer stride for flat Park Runs. Have been looking at spikes for trail shoes this afternoon. My la sportivas have marked areas where you can screw in the maker’s studs. May be an idea when it starts to freeze 🥶.
Wowsers, those sound like super high tech runners! You’ll soon be a winter mountain 🐐!
I’m going to bear my stride length and cadence in mind when I’m doing flatter runs. One stride clearly doesn’t fit all - in fact I probably subconsciously lengthened mine at Stratford last week when I got my very unexpected PB out of nowhere. Thanks for the tip! 😀
Congratulations and very well done on your new PB. I still don’t know anything about VO2 Max or Cadence. Interval training is amazing for your pace improvement.
Cadence as in number of steps you take per minute? It’s just part of the data I get from my running watch and related app. My spm is usually low relative to my pace because I take long strides, on the flat at least. I have to shorten stride to cope with hills (up and down) so my legs need to move faster (more steps per minute) to maintain my pace. I pass on VO2 max... it is a fitness measure but how the watch calculates it I don’t know. With me it seems to go up or down at random. I tend to mention it if it goes up😊
It all sounds a bit too technical for me! PB I understand 👏👏👏 and chocolate 😂. Obviously the hill work is doing good things for your fitness. Great pace 💥💥
Thanks Sandie. I am thinking Park Run PBs are becoming a bit obsessive and maybe I should run a relaxed one to break the sequence. 8 Park Runs completed, each one faster than the preceding one can't be sustained; not by me anyway! It would be daft to push too hard. Perhaps I will try another more challenging. venue for the next one. I will have an excuse to back off a bit then. It has been fun though! 😊
Thanks Dexy5. Stewart Park is about 15 minutes from here by car. It is a bit closer to me than the park where I run. I have been thinking about giving it a try and I may do so in the future. I think that the running community there will need a bit of space for a while. The identity of the person concerned hadn't been released up to bedtime last night.
You breakfast sounds very Canadian, although bacon isn't a strong suit in Ontario at least. These post run rituals are really important....and delicious! Will check the posts to see how you and UTS fared yesterday! 😊
No parkrun post from us this week BC. UTS was volunteering and shaking his tambourine. I ran with (behind) my niece and her boyfriend. At 17:52, he was 2 seconds faster than last time he visited but he was 1st then and 3rd yesterday. I came in at 32:13 parkrun time ,31:52 garmin. Seeing the stats It looks like I forgot to be competitive in km2 but I remember my eyes were streaming in the cold north easterly.
It was nice to be back again because I hadn’t run there since 5 October.
Another nice occasion for you 😊, and a good time too. Good run and time spent with family is priceless. I ran into the old school mates yesterday. one encouraged me to ring the Pb bell at the end of the run (I gave it one self conscious clang!!). I don’t know whether every Park Run has one. Worse, I was caught on a local radio station video looking like a tramp with my jacket tied less than tidily around my waist.. trust Tasha to find that! Back to the woods and hills tomorrow. Much safer!! 😊
Thanks JP. As you will see from my posts this morning, I just have a gut feel that I am pushing the boundaries on too many fronts at the moment, and boring though it sounds, a bit of consolidation may be called for. Whether I can translate that into action when I am running is another thing of course! Both achillies felt a bit tight after my post run coffee yesterday. Probably a combined effect of the hills generally and the pace yesterday. It all feels well this morning, but maybe there is an amber light there. Pursuit of successive Park Run PBs in particular is becoming a bit mad. Hope the rehab is doing well. 😊👍👍
If I approached this logically, I would go to the physio now and ask for an exercise regime to cope with the increasing work load, rather than wait for something to go wrong. When something does go wrong, I will need treatment and then they will give me the exercise regime I should have been following in the first place! I might give them a call. Nothing you could have done about your out of the blue hamstring problem, short of carrying a vapouriser to remove people who get in the way!! 😊
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Park Run Comedy of Errors
Park run by the skin of my teeth 😁
Saturday Park Run #25 
B210KW5R1 - Bedford Park Run
