Probably more than five hours sleep would have been a good idea, but having woken up ridiculously early and failed to drop off again , I decided to give up and get up. Had more to eat than usual before a run, and with the necessary preparations successfully concluded I was at the start line for 8 o’clock. Just as well as things turned out, as the racetrack (Southsea Prom, of course) was a pedestrian and cycle jam within 30 minutes of me finishing.
I had half an eye on a sub-50 time, having been trying to go a little further each month at the necessary 5’00”/k pace and managing 8k sub-40 a couple of weeks ago. Couldn’t have asked for better conditions, pleasantly warm and as close to a flat calm as we ever see here , so had to give it a go.
Got the start I needed with the first 5 ks all between 4’52” and 5’00”, so got to half way with 18 secs in hand . But then it started getting harder and the cushion had all but evaporated by the 7k mark, reached in 34’57”. And two 5’20”s for ks 8 and 9 blew sub-50 away and far out to sea . I still had thoughts of a PB in mind though, thinking anything sub-51 would do that, and mustered a 5’07” k10 to finish in 50’45” – and discover that Mr Garmin had recorded 50’20” for 10k against me during the New Forest 10k last autumn (he reckoned the race was about 250m too long – my chip time was 51’43”, which is presumably what had stuck in my mind as my PB). Oh poo ………
My finishing “sprint” was enlivened by seeing Dexy5 coming the other way in the course of her latest rehab run (5 x 4 mins with 1 min intervals this time), and she returned shortly afterwards to find me collapsed on a bench by the finish. At which point she awarded me my virtual medal (pictured along with hers for an hour’s walk-running today) – what a star! A bit later we were joined by Mr and Mrs Coddfish wearing their Vitality 10000 finisher vests from last year’s event, making us all the more determined to complete the real thing next year. When hopefully we will meet everybody else who ran virtually this morning – hope everyone had a good one, I’m looking forward to reading the reports.
Onwards and upwards, and out of lockdown one day ….
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UpTheStanley
Graduate10
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Well done UTS and Dexy! I fell short of my target too ☹️ but it was good to get out there. Can you imagine how hot it would have been if we’d been running it for real? 🥵🥵 Lovely to have the Coddfishes to cheer you on as well. Have a fab rest of the day 😃😃
Due to UTS’s unusual early leap out of bed this morning, the Coddfish s missed us actually running, in fact I was 20 mins behind him so was still doing my walk part. But it was lovely to catch up with them in the flesh, from a distance of course.
What a great run and although not the time you were looking for still incredibly impressive. Lovely to meet up with all your running friends at the end too. Oh for the lifting of restrictions just a little in Scotland 🤞🏽 Happy running 🤗
Lovely report there UTS! Sounds as if you had a good run despite note quite getting your PB - put it down to the heat this morning! Sorry I wasn’t able to stir myself in time to get down to see you finish? Enjoy your seafront coffee!
Good run for you today UTS, I at the suggestion of Dexy5 also this morning ran "The Virtual Vitality London 10 000 " Scottish style around the Scottish Loch near to where I live, of course not nearly as fast as you, I hoped to run my 6th 10K sub 75 minutes, my time today was 73.21, I was passed by a runner running sub 60 minutes 10K who passed me and said 'you are running great', it just shows that runners are so friendly to each other.
Well done AlMorr, and thank you for running with us. My 10k PB is 72:57 so in normal circumstances we are a similar Pace. Give yourself a pat on the back, and enjoy the rest of your day.
It was a pleasure "running with us" as you put it, normally I run on a Saturday (virtual parkrun) and a longer run on a Wednesday but when I saw your invitation to run that London 10,000 virtually anywhere I brought forward by 48 hours what was going to be my 6th 10K to Monday, one thing that I did notice was if I wanted to run a longer distance, say at the moment 12K I would have a choice of having a short two-minute walk at 10K and continuing on to 12K or whatever distance it was, but I did notice this morning after I had completed the 10K after walking two minutes my knees and legs got a little sore and I thought to myself that it would have been difficult to start running again, the soreness was completely gone by a hour after the end of the run unlike last week when I went a 21K bike ride and it took to the evening for the soreness on my legs to go, so it might be better to continue running without a walking break until whatever distance I would want to run, it is well known that runners don't like to stop during a run, I now understand why.
Yes, good to have you on board Al. I'm surprised someone running sub-60 could speak to you - the best I can usually come up with is a feeble wave and some sort of grunt
Well that man didn't say very much, it was like "you are running well, keep going" that was all he said, not much, yes I would say that he was running at 58 minutes 10K pace, you will notice on my post to Dexy5 regarding stopping at 10K that for me to run more it would probably be better just to keep running and not stop for a short walking break as I might not be able to start running again, I 'll do a little experimenting regarding stops, today I could have RAN longer without stopping at 10K but I think it would have been difficult to start running again after a two-minute walking break.
I'm trying to squeeze my "Best 10k pace this century" line up on the graph while the "Absolutely best pace possible for 10k at your age" line moves relentlessly downwards. I suspect there's not much between them now, but am still hoping the latter hasn't reached 5'00"/k yet
Great run UTS, your times are amazing. No doubt we will hear about Dexy's rehab run later. We might have to find a race which is late enough in the year to allow skiing injuries to clear up and have a ban on PB attempts within 5 weeks of the day, just so that we can have everyone fit at the same time.
I didn’t think I’d post mine Beachcomber66 as I didn’t do 10k, but I achieved my goal of doing the Southsea 1 hour which included 5 x 4 minute runs with 1 minute Walks between. The reverse of my medal said “running with friends from HealthUnlocked “.
It will be great to do the real Vitality 10000 with you all when rescheduled or next year, and we shall make sure we are all fit.
I think my post on Friday announcing the run was enough before the rest of the forum get bored with me, and this one covers us both. But I will search for your post Now.
Thanks BC66. Dexy5 and I are signed up for the New Forest 10k, which is in September and hasn't been cancelled yet - but we suspect it will be, and it would be a hell of schlep for you (not as far as London to Durham though )
Well done UTS and everyone else who got out there today! 🏃♂️🏃♀️ I’m looking forward to the day when lockdown ends and we can all run together again!😊🤞🍀
Yes Dexy5 it’s very quiet down here. I tend to start my run before 7:00am, whether I’m working or not. It’s much more sensible and everyone keeps their distance at that time.
The only people I come across are either dog walkers or runners and they all stay at least 2 meters away😊👍
Well done on your just over 50 minutes. It’s a pity we didn’t see the message you had gone an hour early until it was too late but glad we caught up with you in the end after the confusion of which way we were going into the rose garden. After you went home, we resorted to shuttling up and down the closed section of road, which seems to be the best bet for running at the seafront on warm days. I think I will miss the nice forgiving tarmac when it’s back to the concrete of the prom.
Well done Coddfish , yes my run was contained within the closed area too. We returned after a shower and change to say hello to the Southsea Beach Cafe and the prom looks like any other bank holiday weekend now - so many people! We retreated to the back garden. Early morning is the way to go.
Thanks JonathanP, yes I’d rather take it slowly now than over do it and have go backwards. I wa thinking I’d do 4x5 mins but decided 5 x 4 made more sense. Have you posted?
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, I decided to give up and get up. Had more to eat than usual before a run, and with the necessary preparations successfully concluded I was at the start line for 8 o’clock. Just as well as things turned out, as the racetrack (Southsea Prom, of course) was a pedestrian and cycle jam within 30 minutes of me finishing. 
, so had to give it a go. 
week3run1 ✅. 3 x 17 mins with 1 min walks. 
How did your parkrun or (not)parkrun go?
