I was tempted to go out on Saturday and get Storm Erik behind me. It feels a bit like cheating, but in fact a tailwind can provide useful training:
"Run With the Wind: Have fun with it. Harness the power of the wind and use it to train for speed. Although the energy lost in running against a headwind doesn't equally match the benefits of a tailwind, you will run slightly faster and can use it to focus on stride rate, stride length and turnover. Head out on a point to point run with the wind entirely at your back. You will feel like an Olympian and smile the entire time!"
But nowadays I go out in pretty much any weather. It's just as well really, since it's usually pretty windy where I live!
Anyway, for now we don't seem to have any storms around here - hooray! I hope you have a great week of speedy running, and don't forget to post your results here!
It was pretty windy in Glasgow today too, mostly just blasting right onto my face, so I shed several tears on my run at lunchtime. Well, I say lunchtime, I had lunch first and then had a big render I needed to do on my computer so I set it off and went for a run whilst it completed. Double lunch break! 👍
So this week's result was 5k in 25.05, with a pace of bang on 5.00min/km. I'm not quite where I want to be in terms of speed yet, but going in the right direction. I did try to give it some welly at the end to dip below 5 but then nearly came a cropper on a little dog so didn't quite make it! Next time..?
What I did find was that in kilometre 3/4 I was cruising along at about 4.50min/km at several points and felt pretty good, so I'm fairly certain I can make that my normal fast pace with some training effort.
Back round the 10km route tonight for week 3. GPS and Strava had a tiff at the start so I am pinching my accompanying runner's more accurate pace of 9:00 per mile which I believe converts to 5:36 per km or 336 s/km (please check my maths!)
I managed 4.37m/km for my 5k this week at a very windy parkrun 😀. Getting nearer to where I want to be but still a fair bit to go to get back to where I was in December. Hoping this week will be better weather wise.
Oh, you said you were going to go out on Saturday with the wind behind you so thought parkrun was ok. You can scrub that result if you like and I’ll submit another on Saturday.
Slower for me too today. Something is off in my left leg, been painful on landing since my PB run last week so I did not push too hard. I ran 10 today and the first 5 averaged 5.66min/km for a time of 30:30. The second set of 5 was quicker But still not as fast as last week. Hoping the leg will ease up a bit next week.
Woo hoo! Progress! The average pace for yesterday's morning run was ... (drum roll) ... 1 second per Km faster than the previous two weeks! So I did it at an average pace of 5:14. I finished the 1st 2K in bang on 10 minutes but then slowed down for the last three. Maybe a slightly slower starting pace would help? I'm planning on some slower runs for later in the week to build up my reserves. Looks like it could take some time to improve my pace.
Yessssssss off the mark!! Well done!!!! Yes, try it, if you use a running watch it would be an excellent thing to try (difficult to judge without a watch, I find)
Oh and by the way - officially welcome to the Challenge!!!! This is SkiMonday, folks 😊 misswobble , Whatsapp , C3PO , Decker , Macmac , Lordi , Langley-Loper , Sqkr
Sorry I may have to pull the plug on speed challenge at mo,did 1st week but with move plus general life I've missed 2 weeks. Hope to do it next time maybe? No internet supply here yet so forum presence intermittent 😕xxx
Yaaaaaay, a sub 5! I've not managed it yet this time, but you've thrown the gauntlet down now so... 😂
Arg not another migraine though! That's no good at all. Maybe you could get something prescribed as a preventative? (I'm still trying to wangle free botox out of my doctor, apparently that helps. For headaches, yes...but as an excellent side effect I expect it would also be good for my vanity!)
I'm kind of hoping that this will be my last migraine of the year, but I'll just have to see... at least this one was very mild!
Free botox? Good luck 😄 I read that ibuprofen can work as a preventive for some people, but I took some before my run today, so I guess maybe I'm not one of those people - although I did rather leave it til the last minute this time...
Hi Abi, I did my third Speed Challenge run yesterday. Started quite quickly and tried to push on all the way through. Breathing was ok, took a moment at the halfway point then back the same way, it all felt hard work as I was going faster than my comfort zone. With just 1k left I saw that my time would be good...so kept trying, but I was tired 😥.
Imagine how I felt then when I pressed finish and Save on my phone and the time read 36.52 mins pace 7.14! 😲
BUT... this couldn't be right..
I looked at the recording when I got home and it seems the GPS dropped for some of the final kilometre as its drawn a straight line and given me 5.11 mins for it. 😳...I wish that hadn't happened.
I wear a Garmin watch as back up and this has recorded the run as well so I will log these results as my wk 3 run, as per the watch.
5.0k in 38.18mins with pace 7.39
All the time I was running I was thinking..this is too hard, I won't try for it next week... 😯 but now its done, of course I will !😆😀😉
I just need to run fast enough not to need that tiny rest and to have something left for the end!
Without this challenge, I would not be pushing myself....
It's so annoying when that happens. For my last long slow run it looks as though I was running faster than I did for my "race pace" run, but I wasn't - my gps just had a "moment" 😄
I am three weeks down the road since ankle strain from 22/01/19.
Seen physio today for first time.2 weeks no running and followed by 4-6 week run 1 min, walk 1 min re introduction.
Couple of stretching exercises and ice treatment on the heel.
Carry on with gym cardio and strength.Have to progressively back off gym stuff until discomfort subsides, before being able to start going forward again.
Arrrgghhh! Parkrun cancelled again! Too much thaw/refreeze has made our paths into skating rinks! I think I'm going to leave trying for faster 5 and 10k times for a couple of months until I can run on ice-free paths!
This was a bit of a silly run after a long sedentary day at work. I probably wasn’t quite warmed up enough, so set off like the clappers then quickly ran out of puff. The pace chart is comical - a nice easy jog for a few km’s afterwards was way more civilised.
Haven't really been feeling it this week what with an asthmatic wheeze on one run and too much mud on another. However couldn't resist going out today in the sun (weirdly warm run actually) and clocked 6.35/km - which I think is my worse pace yet - but enjoyed it so an improvement on the rest of this week's running at least!
I had a couple of days in which I could not run this week as I went to Italy for my mum’s 60th birthday, so I did’t get To the speed work until Saturday...
I manage my usual course of 10 mile with the last 4 in 28... neither improvement nor decrease, you can keep me stable to the same as the last couple of weeks
I guess marathon training and speed do not go hand in hand....
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But still not as fast as last week. Hoping the leg will ease up a bit next week.
