I have a plan ...

[lourunrun]

Since graduating 3 weeks ago I have tried a few new things. Last week I did one of my runs along a hilly country lane. It was quite a challenge as, although I have had to do some hills this was a big step up, but I managed 30 minutes without stopping. (Although I was a little miffed when a young(er) man cruised past me going up my final hill). Today I did my first speed/interval run.

So, now I have a plan ... I will do a speed run on my first run of the week, my hilly endurance run for the second run and a longer run for the third run to gradually increase my overall distance.

We'll see how that works out.

[UnfitNoMore Graduate]

Always good to have a plan... see how it goes. My concern would be you have a tough run going for pace, followed by a tough hilly one, and then one that’s gonna be tough as you’re pushing your endurance... personally I’d separate them with a nice easy paced run of regular length, maybe go short on the hilly and quick ones too.

Don’t worry about that bloke... I got passed by two women once... chatting away... pushing buggies 🤣🤣

[lourunrun Graduate in reply to UnfitNoMore]

Hmm, thanks for the advice - you may be right. Perhaps it is a little ambitious. I did allow myself to drop back from 33 minutes to 30 minutes when I did the hills last week, so maybe I'll keep that one shorter. I'll keep it all flexible and just see what I feel like doing based on the general mix of runs to work on different aspects.

[IannodaTruffe Mentor]

Sounds like a plan!

Find some targets to achieve on a weekly basis to maintain the feeling of progress. They don't have to be performance based.

It is a shame that parkrun is not happening at present because then you can experience being overtaken by 8 and 80 year olds and it makes you realise that you are only just a beginner.

[lourunrun Graduate in reply to IannodaTruffe]

I think that having different things to think about on the different runs - speed, hills and just keeping going longer will help to keep me interested. I'm not sure what weekly targets to aim for - any suggestions? I'm not sure what you mean when you say they don't have to be performance based.

I had planned to aim for a Park Run around my birthday in 3 weeks' time. I'm thinking I might go for a solo birthday 'Park Run' of my local course to see how I manage. My birthday is midweek so hopefully there won't be too many others doing it on the same day and so will allow the required social distancing.

I'm not really worried by being overtaken, by anyone! I was really pleased to be able to keep running, albeit pretty slowly, to the top of the hill.

[Roxdog Graduate]

Sounds like a good plan!