After a couple of helpful VRB’s enlightened on a Garmin query I thought I should really be using its functions more than I am .
So as I’m embarking on a wee 8 week training plan I thought I should maybe programme these , starting just with a simple warm up / runtime/cool down in the work out menu instead of just manually timing my 5 mins etc and just hitting run when I was ready to run .⌚️⌚️
When I think these things I really shouldn’t 😂🤦♀️🙄
So wk 1 Run1
30 mins ‘easy’ pace run followed by one 1x 10 sec hill sprint ( hill with a gradient of 4-6%which I have no idea if it was /wasn’t 🤷🏼♀️ Hill?, slope?, incline?
It felt hard 🥵 good enough for me .
I’m really putting energy into finding ‘easy’ and this was a nice run , up round the village early in the morning. Blue sky morning but Baltic🥶🥶
All good , Garmin bleeped at 30mins and I had manoeuvred myself to land at a hill.
Hadn’t ‘programmed’ a 10sec run so used the timer and off I went , didn’t hear it bleep so turned out to be a 15 sec sprint. Then I decided I should do another one as I felt quite good but used stopwatch this time .
This wasn’t a good idea as without my glasses I couldn’t really see the number whizzing by .
So another 15 second sprint 🙄 I did another one and counted to 10 in my head 🤦♀️😂😂
Also I quite enjoyed it 🥵🏃🏻♀️😃
I was just about to start hills, sprints and intervals in January before the calf strain so this is me just getting back to it .
Still no firm thoughts of working back to the 10 K plan but its crossing the mind occasionally 🏃🏻♀️🏃🏻♀️
Got home and found I had only run 25 mins as the 5 min warm up had been included in the 30 min I saw ( 🤓🤦♀️On the watch face )
Hence back to hit the button and run 😂😂⌚️⌚️ I will however need to programme ( learn to 🙄) the intervals that are coming up as there more speed intervals to do.
Ave pace 8.20 which was much better in terms of finding ‘easy’ than my last 4 K run of Ave pace 7.50
Run 2
‘Easy’ 35min Run
Another cold morning and by the time I did my stretches and ‘another’ trip to the loo it had started to snow lightly . Went out anyway as it takes such time and energy to actually get myself to door 😂🕰🕰
Really good meander round the village and then down the lighthouse road , started to speed up around 3K at 8.13 but pulled it back to 8.30 so I’m learning 😂😂
Ended up 8.13 ave for the run , however really pleased with HR , I’m learning to keep that down too and have changed the fields on the Garmin to track this .
I’m really enjoying the new 🐌🐌 me ( although I realise my fast isn’t fast per se 😂🤷🏼♀️)
Final run was today
‘Easy’ 35 min run and 5 min at my 10K pace . I dont know what my 10K pace is as the plan is to build to 10k , however in the plan it alludes to being 12-18 secs slower than my 5 K . I’ve still got work to do on this pace I think 😂🙄
Anyway it was a glorious day and although I lingered A little longer in bed I gave myself a good talking to and got myself out .
Blue sky, a little warmth in the sun , snow on the hills and a glittering sea , felt good ☀️😁
Took it very easy and didn’t even think about a route just went up the village , back down towards the sea and turned left of right on a whim really .
Took it really slow for around 30/35 mins and then put the foot down a bit to do this 5min tempo bit . I knew in my mind that as my 5 K timings are anything between 37 and 40 mins that I was in the vicinity . I wanted to log a Not a Parkrun but knew as I’d been going so slow at the beginning that I might be shy of it so I continued on to 42 mins hoping I’d covered enough distance .
Chuffed to find I’d done 5.4K even though id focused on just running 40 mins slowly.
Since the calf injury put me on the couch I really have been putting a lot of work into strength workouts for Glutes, core and legs and I have to say I did find I was much stronger in the last ten minutes when I upped my pace .
After my cool down walk on all of these runs I’ve done a 200/300metres sprint just to get me nearer home and I’ve done them all around 6.27 , felt strong and not puffed .
So I think I’m finally ( !!🙄) improving my stamina and strength .
Next week there’s a lot more hill sprints but I seem to be enjoying the variety.
I’m also getting used to being really chuffed at running slower but then finishing the run thinking ‘oh that was slow’ and logging notaparkrun results that are all getting worse each week 😂🏃🏻♀️
It’s just perspective really and after all this slower running the deal is hopefully that I will be stronger and faster . 💪🏃🏻♀️
Nice run, naughty finish ;) 
I'm running in the rain, just running in the rain...
