5k or fartlek? 5k fartlek!

[MissUnderstanding]

I’m sort of back on the Nike Half Marathon plan ready for the Great North Run in September. I say sort of because I’m not sure if the long run increases will work for my knee. I’m focusing on doing the other runs and letting the distance evolve. Two runs left from week 1. 5k or fartlek? I thought it would be nice to try a shorter, speedier run without a stomach full of curry so I loaded that one up.

The weather here is warm but breezy. Perfect. Proper stretch. A lengthy internal debate about suncream (won’t be out for long, shade and vitamin d top up will be good so not today). What to wear? All my shorts need washing which is a tactical error. Luckily my new favourite pair of leggings are clean and are light enough to cope with heat. This is the first vest top run of the year!

Speed runs mean drum and bass is allowed so it’s the DNB60 today. After decent warm up and walk, I started the guided run. Disappointed to find it wasn’t Coach B but Coach Blue did an admirable job. This route is one I used a lot during couch to 5k and the familiarity was comforting. Somehow or other, I always forget it’s uphill for most of the first 2.5km so once the warm up run had finished and I was facing a minute running at 5k/strong and fast pace uphill, I was wondering why I hadn’t chosen something else! The first intervals are always tough, but I’d forgotten how much tougher it is to recover by running for a couple of minutes compared with walking which I did on the interval run the other day. It was really interesting comparing how much my pulse dropped today compared with walking the rests between harder parts of the run. Even though there was double the amount of time between intervals today, running even slowly didn’t allow my pulse to drop anywhere near as much as walking. It felt a lot tougher too. Hopefully as I get back into this sort of run, that will change.

The first four (!!!) of seven intervals all were on uphill sections and I was so glad to hit the turnaround point of this route and start heading back down. Some great encouragement from yen commentary to keep going. I really focussed on keeping my legs turning over quickly and it really began to feel good. Comfortably hard (mostly!). As the fartlek ended, I spotted my distance wasn’t far off 5k so I extended the final run to finish with a 5k. That was a great surprise. Distance has been up and down with the knee and it was wonderful to get that far without really thinking about it or worrying about my knee. An unexpectedly quick time too. Lots of smiles here.

This was a fun run that of definitely recommend. It’s called “One Hard. Two Easy.” Proud of myself today!

[SueAppleRun Graduate10 60minGraduate]

Wonderful that your knee held up! We did that run a couple years ago and I ended it laughing, I meant to do it Saturday but had tech problems so did my own version which was horrible, I'll have another go tomorrow and hope I enjoy it as much as you seem to have even though it was harder to recover running. Well done, so is that week 1 done? It seems to be taking me ages

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10 in reply to SueAppleRun]

Thanks so much! I can’t wait to not have to think about the knee. Tech is wonderful until it suddenly isn’t! I can’t imagine trying to do a solo version-it was tough enough as it was! It sounds like your first go at it was much nicer-ending laughing sounds perfect!!

I think I’ll call that week 1 done and not bother doing the official 5k run as well as today’s. I’ve started with extra time to allow for injury setbacks and a couple of weeks in the summer when running will be tricky. I won’t be going very quickly through the programme either!

[SueAppleRun Graduate10 60minGraduate in reply to MissUnderstanding]

That sounds really good plan. The first time we did it, Willow went flat out for the middle run, and as I passed him he said he'd thought it was the last one, he stopped as he'd given it all he'd got, I'd been more conservative with my pace and really enjoyed it, I will try and get out tomorrow, it's harder without someone shooing me out the door

[Sulley101 Graduate10]

You must have been flying up that hill to nearly hit 5k on that Fartleks run! 👍😁

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10 in reply to Sulley101]

Thank you! My run distance included the warm up five minutes run before the fartlek properly began, but it’s a nice feeling to suddenly feel quicker than before even though I’m running much less. It’s all down to the physio-he’s made me do about a million squats, deadlifts, glute bridges, clam shells, monster walks, planks, bear crawls etc, etc, etc all to build up my leg muscles and core strength to reduce the work my IT band is having to do (which is what’s causes my knee pain). I’ve cursed him and whinged a lot but I’ve really worked hard. It’s had the very lovely side effect of also making me faster as well as stopping the pain!

[Sulley101 Graduate10 in reply to MissUnderstanding]

It’s great that recovering from your injury has brought its own extra benefits 😁. I keep meaning to do some strength exercises on my rest days, but my gremlins keep telling me I’ve earned some uninterrupted downtime!

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10 in reply to Sulley101]

Oh it’s hard! We all want to just run really! Until this happened, I wasn’t really doing much strength stuff. It’s been a bit of a revelation really-I can really see the benefit when I’m running and if it keeps me off the injury couch, I’m sold!

[Sandraj39 Graduate10]

Well done - those intervals sound tough, but I’m sure will be worth it! 🙂💪

Funnily enough, I have just got back from a walk where I haven’t run for quite some time and part of the route includes a hill I used to use for hill reps! God, they used to be hard but definitely helped with my running, so I am thinking of getting back over there again on some of my weekday runs.

Hills - love them or hate them, they’re worth doing!😫🤣

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10 in reply to Sandraj39]

Thank you!! It was tough today! I like that the NRC app says it’s supposed to be a “hard pace and effort” so I’m mentally prepared! My favourite speed run is hill repeats. I absolutely love them (sometimes only when they’re over!)

[Sandraj39 Graduate10 in reply to MissUnderstanding]

🤣🤣

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate10]

Everything crossed for the continued progress... this sounds a very different sort of run! But it worked for you and that pesky knee kept quiet too. Thank goodness.

Your physio support has helped too, you are putting those exercises in and are reaping the benefits of the hard work... and I know it is a hard regime...

Huge well done to you...on you go! x

[MissUnderstanding Administrator Graduate10 in reply to Oldfloss]

It was a lot of fun! After couch to 5k (I was a slow learner and never nailed it during the programme!) I learned to embrace slow. At the moment, it feels like I’m having to learn to embrace “short”! I’m really missing the long, mindful runs with a podcast where you can actually get to the end of it!!! I know they’re not long away though. Saying that, I’m enjoying the variety that my runs have at the moment. I’ve definitely been placed firmly outside my comfort zone and that’s often when exciting things happen!

Thank you again for the support. This could easily have been an utterly miserable time but there are so many positives that will end up coming out of it ❤️❤️❤️