Hoping that you wonderful forum peeps might be able to help me to find a way forward!
Yesterday I decided to actually try at parkrun after 6 months of coasting round. I have mentioned on here before that one of the reasons I don't try is because I'm scared of failing so I thought it was about time I manned up. I took the prep really seriously making sure I was well hydrated all through Friday and eating a massive pasta dinner (not sure if that's useful for 5k but thought I wouldn't hurt 😂). I jogged the mile from home then did a further 1km running warm up before the off. Felt fantastic on the start line and was really excited to get going. Completed the first km right on target and felt really strong, through km 2 still feeling pretty good and knew the wind would be behind me at the turn. Turned and it all went wrong ☹️ My breathing was all over the place, my legs were getting tired and it was all getting away from me. I just gave up, stopped and walked, ran a bit stopped again, jogged a bit, stopped again told myself I'd run a quick last 500m, got there couldn't be bothered - you get the idea!!
I know I'm a better runner than I was 6 months ago so why am I slower?? I'm honestly not sure if I have the psychological strength for 5k running. Is it my mind telling me I can't do it or my body just not being capable of it?
Lots of lovely positivity on Strava yesterday which did help but I feel at my age, with my fitness levels I should be capable of so much more.
Has anyone else experienced this feeling of getting worse rather than better? xx
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pianoteacher
Marathon
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Possibly too much of a warm up? You warmed up half the race distance. Some people are happier going out steady and leaving some in the tank at the end (me). Others prefer a fast start. Did you perhaps pick the wrong one? Too much pasta? I find it sits heavy on me. Or maybe it was just a bad run day. Try again next week ☺️
Thanks Claire I did wonder if it might have been the warm up. A very good runner from my club had suggested a 3 mile warm up but thinking about it he's a 50 something 18:30 min superhuman so maybe it's not right for me 😂 The km in the gardens was pretty much race pace as a friend joined me and I didn't realise she was just belting round one lap where as I was always going to do at least two! She PBd and I most definitely didn't xx
I did this at PR once......... it was a real struggle to finish , yet I had done loads of 5k plus runs. When I looked at the stats it turned out I had set off far too fast for me......I then could not get back into the run. A week later I went back, took a steady start and had no problems finishing, still a Pb but a much better overall pace for me.
I think that's probably part of it. I've been working on endurance all winter so 5k has come to seem like a very short distance. What I've forgotten is that in my longer training runs I'm running 1-1.5 mins slower per km! Looking at my stats I was running 30 secs inside my intended 1st km pace as our parkrun has a bit of a bottleneck about 200m in and I'd started too far back. As soon as I could I was trying to get past the slower runners and, although it felt absolutely fine at the time, I think maybe I overcooked it! x
"F**k It Bucket" just made me spit my tea out 🤣😂🤣 It's definitely going in there!
I'd did walk about 200m from my house and across the road but normally I would walk all the way which is what I think I'll stick to next time.
You're also right about the massive weight of expectation. I've been told more than once that I have potential to run quite a bit faster. I always used to joke on the couch25k forum that I'm the one who looks like she should be able to do it 😂 Part of my doubt that I can comes from the fact that I think maybe how I "look" is what people are basing their judgement on and actually I'm still the girl at school who was last in every sporting thing she ever took part in however hard she tried but that's something I need to square in my own head x
Next time will be a whole different story. Do you know if your starting pace was too fast? It is the easiest way to needing to walk I find. Starting slower than avg pace and then speeding up in the final km or two might just make the difference?
With hindsight it probably was too fast Linda although it felt easy at the time - I do tend to get a bit overexcited! When I ran my PB I started way too fast and had to hold on for grim death for the next 4k. Ran a slower first km the next week and was only 4secs off the PB but it was a much better run - still hard though! x
I was amazed with my weekend run. I deliberately started much slower than my target avg pace, ran the bulk a bit slower than avg pace, and then picked it up for the last quarter. In my head, it was going to be slower than my avg pace. But it wasn't! And it was much easier to keep running. During the previous attempt I knew I was a bit fast but it felt OK so I carried on
... til the final quarter when all I wanted to do was walk! The difference in those two runs is something I need to hold in my head for all time 😀
This happened to me on my last 10 mile run. I ran 20secs a km quicker than my previous attempt. I was fine (still felt like easy pace) until the final 3k when my legs absolutely died. The first time I felt I could easily run on to HM distance the second time it was all I could do to finish the 10 miles. If I'd been running HM distance I would have lost so much time in the final 5k I would have gained absolutely nothing from the faster beginning! x
Awe Marie don’t let it get you down! You’re such a great runner. I agree the warm up may have been slightly excessive but it might just have been one if those bad run days. We all get them and they can be for absolutely no reason at all! I think it’s hard to plan to run a PB as until you’re out there racing, you don’t know how your body is going to cope that day. Some days you feel like poop and run fab; others you think that this is the day and it falls apart. Your time was fab by the way - especially since you walked in parts!
Thanks Tasha! When I look back at what I've written I think I took planning it to a bit of an obsessive level! I'd even watched the Breaking2 documentary because I thought Kipchoge's determination might be a good inspiration for when it got tough - it wasn't 😂🤣
This has happened to me so many times and now I definitely just put it down to a bad run day. I can go out feeling great sometimes and within minutes feel exhausted or my legs get tired really quickly and it doesn’t seem to matter whether I set off too fast or a nice steady pace. I don’t think we’ll ever explain why we have them and we all know we’re better than those bad runs so we just have to accept them and then forget them. Chin up you’ll be back on here in a day or two saying you’ve had a great run👍x
Thanks Molly! I'm feeling better about it already. Writing down what happened and reading everyone's replies has allowed me to look at it a bit more objectively xx
5k is a tough mental battle if you are aiming for a pb. I have to battle my thoughts every time. It can be very tough but if you want to do it then you can! Make sure you pace yourself and run at a pace you know you can maintain. Then if you wish, notch it up a few seconds per km each week or whenever you feel like it. It takes time and perseverance but you will see the results if you believe in yourself xx
It's a really tough distance isn't it? And I've been told that it never gets any easier so that's something to look forward to 🤣 I think part of the problem is that I do possess speed but not enough to concentrate on sprinting or middle distance running and I don't know that I'll ever build the endurance to run a "fast" 5k. I'll keep trying though x
Possibly a combination of "just one of those days" and the long warm up run.
I am just realising - but only my experience - that the three events I've run so far, a 5k, 10k and 10 miler, things were so chaotic I never got to warm up at all apart from a few minutes nervous pacing.
I got PBs too for all the distances which surprised me.
Now I'm wondering - MAYBE the "warm up" actually happened during the first bits of the events and I didn't even realise it? I was absolutely gob-smacked that the ten miler, an out and back event, saw me running the five miles home faster than the outward.
But again - they were three runs out of hundreds so in no way am I suggesting anyone skip their usual five minutes warm up 😬
Yes, possibly - the theory is the longer the event the shorter the warmup. So for a marathon for example you don’t want to burn up your glycogen stores warming up and just go easy the first mile or so whereas for a 5k you probably need 2-3k to be properly warmed up but it all depends on your normal distance in training and your endurance. I.e if you have not gone much beyond 5k then warming up too far will mean you are tired in the 5k. So all depends... 😀
I think it was a case of overthinking, taking what others say as gospel - and following it, over preparation/eating, just how much pasta 😀? and putting too much pressure on yourself. On the other hand it was just one of “those” runs. Whatevs☺️. F**k it Bucket is the best place for it. Just go out there and get round without allowing yourself to coast to get some confidence back and build on that. And on the hydration front - try to build it into your daily life so you don’t need to guzzle the previous day. Here endeth the lesson 😂.
Yep - all of the above! Also I've neglected to mention the target time I had in mind was 30secs faster than my 6 month old PB - maybe a tad ambitious 🤣
I think the idea of the warm up in 5k is to get the toxic10 out of the way because as the "sprint" event in distance running it requires you to run pretty much flat out the whole way. l've never done a 10k race so I'm not sure about that? I definitely will not be doing any running warm up for HM - the first 3 miles are my warm up! x
I, despite my best efforts, run like bloody metronome except for those three events Even on the TM - which I only started last week - I was flabbergasted to see my ten miler was within minutes of my usual "road" ones
But, that's the fun for me I only compete against myself and even if I don't"win" it's still a hell of a lark
Hi pianoteacher, It was good to see a post from you after a gap even if you had a run for the bucket. I am glad that you are feeling better already and hope that your HM training is going well. All the very best for your onward running journey. I look forward to happy, 5k, 10k and HM posts in due course.
HM training going well thanks and I'm really enjoying the longer slower training runs. Somewhere along the line my brain got confused into thinking that because I can run further I would somehow magically be able to run 5k faster even though I've done no speed work at all in the last 6 months - other than my parkrun grandstand 200m sprint finish that I pull out every week 🤣
Glad people have cheered you up a bit Marie, I’ve not been on Strava for a couple of days so missed your post. Hopefully your next run will be better. I too struggle with faster 5k pace now I’m enjoying slower longer runs, though, and no longer feel as enthusiastic about Parkrun for that reason.
I’m planning to try more hill work and intervals to see if that helps. If it doesn’t then I’ll just try not to worry much about speed and remind myself I never thought I’d run such distances at any pace. 😊❤️❤️
Thank you mountaindreamer! This forum is so fantastic at picking up people when they falter. I adore parkrun and junior parkrun but I think maybe not so much the competitive aspect of it?!? With hindsight it was stupid to try and run so fast when all I've been doing all winter is endurance training but it's been a hugely valuable learning experience xx
Well, rubbish experience for you, but great post, so instructive for the rest of us who are way behind you on the journey. And I've learnt a cracking new phrase 😂😂😂 The only helpful thought I've had is that I couldn't eat a plateful of pasta and do a decent run the next day - wheat slows me right down.🛌
Maybe it was just a bad run day, sometimes you can't pin down a reason. You are doing so well building up your long distances, it might be better just to focus on the HM for now and do Parkrun just for fun! I am thinking of doing the next Parkrun with my dog, he is old and slow so it will be more of a walk/jog/walk, that way I can't get carried away and risk injuring myself! Hope you are feeling more positive about your running now 😊 x
Thank you Helen! Someone suggested to me that I needed to run an eyeballs out, retching at the finish line parkrun as part of my HM training when actually now I don't think I needed to at all. I'm not aiming to break any records at Hastings - I just want to get round the course without stopping in an ideal world!
Feeling much better now. Ran my first HM this morning over to Cooden and back from the parkrun start then up to the pier and back so none of the hellish hills of Hastings Half but very pleased to have run the distance non stop 😁
I'm coming to this post late and most ideas have been suggested, but I would like to add a couple of things:
1. Overall pace. When I started working on my speed I looked back over my 5k runs on strava and found, without exception, that my fastest runs = slower starts. Fast starts meant I wilted during the last 2km, and the best runs were where I maintained similar pace, or got faster (negative splits) as the run went on.
2. If I want to run a fast 5k, I prepare for it. 4-6 weeks of running intervals, fartlek, tempo runs as part of my running programme, taper the week before and give it my best shot. Like you I find I get used to running slowly after a period of distance training.
I've looked at some stats and apart from my PB (which was a dreadful run 🤣) I'm faster with a slower start. As I said to MutleyShuffle I think it was a mistake to try to run so much faster than I have done in a long time with no prep. When I was running at my fastest I was training on the track and doing an efforts session each week. I can't make these sessions during term time but after the HM I'm going to ask the track coach to give me equivalents to the track plan which hopefully I'll be able to do on the seafront x
Ach don't worry about it for one minute longer, bad runs are bad runs. They happen to everyone. That's the beauty of parkrun though isn't it, you can try again and tweak your run to make it just right! A Goldilocks run, if you will. Maybe you went overboard with the pasta, your warmup was a good length but maybe you did it a bit fast, maybe you set off on the parkrun too quickly, maybe your legs just didn't fancy it that day.
My twopenniesworth, if you've been focussing on the slower HM runs you may find there's a bit of intertia when you ask your body to do a shorter faster run--I definitely find that. You can see it every time I do the speed challenge! My first run is always way slower than I know I can run--I can easily lose a minute off my best pace, and yet I honestly give it my all! I finish those runs near death, thinking there's absolutely no way I will ever go faster. But I do the following week, because it only takes a run or two to remind your muscles what they need to do.
Will you try parkrun again next week? I bet you a million pounds* if you do you'll have a much better one
*special internet forum pounds, sadly I don't have a million of the real ones to play with!
Going to do parkrun Saturday but aim for a more conservative pace (about 20 secs a km outside of what I was trying to do Saturday). I did that at the New Year's Day parkrun and really enjoyed it so fingers crossed I'll be back here to collect my "special Internet forum pounds" next week 🤣
Coming late to this thread but just to say that I ran my PB half marathon time last week, then took a week off apart from a few jogs (Parkrun cancelled) then today I ran the most uncomfortable 5k 6:30 pace "jog" ever! Heart rate 140+ instead of the usual 125-130 bpm at same pace, sweating like a mule, odd breathing considering slow jog pace. I think we all just have off days? Tired, stressed, upset, a lurgy on the way, too much tv, pasta?
I usually treat Parkrun as a social run, but the times I've thought "Right! Let's have a blast! " and tried to run a faster PB I have been held up by
traffic, resulting in running far too quickly once through the traffic, resulting in positive splits/slowing after the turn and having a minor blowout and trundle to the line in limp-home-mode for the the last 1km. I personally would not use them as "races" or for getting a PB because of the traffic issues and their being no "chip" time. As an example of how traffic/speeding up and down to overtake and squeeze through gaps in runners is wearing - I've run 27:30 ish 5k Parkruns and been out of breath at the end with my heart pumping away and feeling a bit sicky. I run the HM at 4x28:25 10k pace and am not out of breath and my heart rate is in Tempo zone not Threshold zone.
Like lots of others have said above, the short runs are different to the long endurance runs (where we find an equilibrium pace that matches our fitness). We are getting into serious heartrate/breathing zones during a 5k because of sprinting spurts/traffic and generally pushing the pace - that can't be maintained past 5k (if we are running perfectly hard enough) or that won't get you to the finish without pain/puking up (if we try too hard. )
Thanks Lordi - "traffic" is definitely a problem during the first km of our parkrun and it's only going to get worse as the warmer weather comes. Definitely going to go back to using it either for tempo or recovery runs rather than PB attempts for the time being x
Hello pianoteacher, long time no see. Everyone has given you so much advice already, you hardly need mine . But what I’ve found is that my pace improved with using the JogRunSprint app occasionally. I laugh as I run along the prom and people must think I’m mad but I do find it fun. On parkrun day I just brisk walk I.5 k from home , throwing in a few dynamic exercises along the way and a couple of short jogs. Then I start the run off slowly otherwise I’m puffing and panting from the start. I also have a few people I know I need to catch up with so I use them as targets.
You haven’t done Parkrun for ages so just work your way back in again and enjoy the moment, chatting to a few people along the way.
I’m hoping I’ll be able to do ok when I get back after having had a 4 week break for family visit, illness and skiing.
Hi Dexy I'm going to make a concerted effort to work on my speed once the half marathon is out of the way at the end of the month. I'll have a look at that app - thank you xx
@Thundersloth recommended it on the Apple App Store.
I think it’s absolutely brilliant that you have done a half marathon. I think I’ll be sticking around 5k and 10k, although doing the Great South Run (10 mile) just the once is tempting. I’ll see how I get on once I get back to 10k again.
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Even on the TM - which I only started last week - I was flabbergasted to see my ten miler was within minutes of my usual "road" ones 
10K PR in storm Francis 
Virtual Winter 10k Run. Thrill of the hill and jog in the bog all for a good cause.
