One of the commonest queries on this forum, after “Do I have to take rest days?” YES!! and “Am I too old to do this?” NO, NO, NO!!, is “Am I running too slowly?” The answer we always give is another resounding no, saying that speed will follow later on. With this in mind here is the summary of my last three years running, relating in particular to pace.
Starting to run at 57 was my way of trying to stave off the seemingly inevitable physical decline associated with ageing. I was tough on myself and rather than heed the call to run slowly, I ran as fast as I could, once I had learned what was a sustainable breathing technique. If I am gasping it is unsustainable, so reduce pace a bit until the gasping ceases and there is my maximum pace. The same regime in Week 9 as it is now. My logic was that if I pushed hard, my body would get used to that level of effort and slowly my pace would improve further. It seemed to work.
In Week 9 I ran my first triumphant sub 30 minute 5k. W9R1, run with my 32 year old son came up twice on my activity list on Endomondo, so I deleted one, only to find the other had gone too, before it was transmitted to the website and fixed in my brain.....my first sub 30min 5k, gone for ever. So for W9R2, I was determined to repeat the feat and according to Endomondo I did, recording 28:09 for 5k, but it also gave some erratic variation in kilometre splits, varying from 6:28 to an unlikely 4:07, meaning that I didn't really trust the results. My graduation run was, due to my impatience, on a Friday evening after a hard week at work and an evening meal, the same route returned a hard slog at 33:44 for the 5k. A run remembered for all the wrong reasons and a warning to all to set up their graduation run sensibly.
Because of Endomondo's seeming inaccuracy (my phone is probably to blame) I started my longstanding relationship with Annabel Runkeeper-Smythe, the ups and downs of which I have related in the past. For some reason I reinstalled the same app six months later and I now have a gap in my running record because I lost six months of data. Doh!!
That period does include my first parkrun at Killerton at the end of August 2013, which delighted me with an official timing of 27:24. Parkrun timings are what I use as my “official” 5k timings and that is where all my 5k PBs have come over the years. Two more PBs were set at Killerton parkrun....26:18 in December 2013, followed by the ridiculously big jump to 25:41in June 2014. I knew at the time that record would stand for quite a period. I have managed to get within a few seconds of it on a couple of occasions in 2015 and then at the end of the year the course was altered, meaning I am unlikely to beat it again. The old course measured very slightly under 5k on my GPS, while the new one is spot on.
To try to beat this 5k PB I ran Exeter Riverside parkrun course...as flat as a pancake and mainly on tarmac, unlike Killerton which is cross country. So in August 2015, almost two years since C25k, I got my all time best 5k timing of 25:32.
Having tried one local 10k organised run, I decided that I prefer to run for the most part on my own, with just 15 parkruns over three years, thrown in to keep me on my toes. My first solo 10k in 2013 was about 1:05:00 and while I now frequently run sub 1hr 10ks, in November 2015 I managed to get my 10k PB down to 55:49.
So it is clear to see that I have got faster since graduation........well, that is until my sixtieth birthday, just before Christmas 2015, when I headed out on a 10k feeling fine, returned feeling horrible. I was gripped by a virus right through Christmas and then just as I was recovering in January, I got a non running related back injury, which kept me from running at all for a month and then necessitated very careful build up over the next few months. Last month I ran my fastest 5k and10k of 2016, with a 27:55 and 58:03, both on the same run, but most of the time my pace is much slower and not near the heights I managed in 2015.
Maybe the post 60 decline has set in, despite my best efforts. Maybe I will never set any new PBs and does it really matter at all? No, is the answer if you look at this report which my wife showed me womensrunning.competitor.co...
This clearly suggests that not pushing too hard is the best possible way to run, as far as life expectancy is concerned. Mind you, they don't say what the runners died of. Maybe all they all got knocked down by buses. Take from it what you will. Try to speed up over time, or maybe try to slow down.....that is my problem.
Whatever, running is so ingrained in my life now that I am happy just to run and the PBs......well, who needs those? (who do I think I am kidding?).
Keep running, keep smiling.
So, I clearly need to see progress in order to progress (and doing the programme for a second time)
Parkrun #10 and the wife's 1st parkrun 
Never underestimate your potential! My story... C25K and beyond! 
