![]() |
Finishing the 5km off at Sandon Point Parkrun. |
The Tuesday training run was an interesting one. It was a warm up run, followed by a timed fast mile and 10 minutes easy to finish. I managed to shave quite a bit off my best mile by running 8:37. It was a nice little pipe opener before a 5km two days later.
Given the fact that I do most of my running in the afternoon or evening, I was up early on Christmas Day to warm up before a run. I walked two kilometres followed by a 10 minute jog and some dynamic stretching.
Having run the course before I had estimated that I would be happy with a run somewhere around the 31-minute mark.
I was determined not to get “dragged along” by the pace of other runners early on.
After starting, I slipped back towards the rear and was running by feel at a comfortable pace. It was a little scary to know that at the end of that first kilometre, I had gone 5:37, way faster than expected given I was normally closer to six minutes, but I felt fine.
![]() |
Recovering in the local pool after Parkrun. |
Somehow, I managed to maintain the pace and surprise myself. My official time for the run was 28:27, a minute and a half faster than I had ever gone before. Perhaps all the work was paying off.
I headed back two days later on the back of much festive eating and certainly did not feel like I could replicate the run.
To avoid worrying about it, I made an effort to not look at my watch and just run to how my body felt. I never really felt like I was running well during the race but found enough energy to put in a nice last kilometre.
![]() |
My best 5km run to date. |
I was in shock when I saw that I had again bettered my best. The time for the 5km was 27:45. I was certainly feeling the effects immediately after the race but was very proud of my achievements in such a short time.
My partner was also improving all the time so we both had plenty to be happy about.
We finished off with a solid 40 minute easy run on the Sunday which includes a short but steep grade at around the 4km mark known in the Strava Segment world as "Hamilton Pinch". I managed 6.3km in my 40 minutes at an average pace of 6.23 mins per kilometre.
That bought the week to a total of 24.6km in 2 hours and 34 minutes with an elevation of 110 metres.
The next Parkrun I will run in is on New Year's Day, it will be interesting to see where I am at in that run.
Follow me on Twitter - @robsrunblog
No comments:
Post a comment