Ross Running...

The plan is to blog every parkrun PB, and today was a parkrun PB 😁.  Yay!!!  My last blog was a 5k PB on the gym treadmill, but this is a parkrun PB, so much more valid!!  It was odd, as the day was quite hot, I felt very slow first thing in the morning, and I thought I had no chance of beating my 23:33 PB.  When I jogged the 3km to Frenchfield, where the parkrun is held, I felt sluggish.  That jog usually takes about 16 minutes, but today was 18 minutes, and I couldn't go faster.  I was definitely below par, but wanted to do another parkrun, even if slowly.  Because I knew I would be slow getting to Frenchfield, I had left the house a little earlier, so even with an 18m jog, I had a bit longer before the race.  Maybe the extra rest, or the slower jog to the start made the difference.  Or maybe it was because the sun went behind a big cloud just before the race, so conditions were, in fact, perfect!  Whatever the reason, I managed a par...

I mentioned that I would ping whenever I beat my parkrun PB, and today was parkrun day and lovely weather!!  But I have done the training plan on the gym treadmills all week, and today's plan included 5k!!  So I decided to do this instead of parkrun, as doing a bit of a longer run makes sense for half marathon training, and I would also be doing a 5k!!  One thing though, when I'm going fast on the treadmill I cheat by holding on 😁.  So the PB today is unrealistic.  It's on a motorised treadmill, and holding on, so not real!!  But for me, it was fast!!  The plan was 7 minutes of walking and an hour of running.  20 minutes gentle running with 4 very short fartlek sprints, and 20 minutes gentle running at the end.  But, in between this, it was a 5k run at max pace, with 2m walking before and 5m walking after.  An excellent session!!  I found it very, very hard, but I loved it!!!  And the 5k was done in 20:17 which is very quick f...

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I did a new parkrun PB on my first parkrun of the year.  It was 24:05 on the flat Penrith course,  I am certainly going to concentrate on getting my distance up for the forthcoming half marathon, but when the weather is good I will try and do the Penrith parkrun.  5k on the flat is a nice distance.  It's an easy 3k jog from the rental place to the start, and I like having done an 'official' race.  Your time is, I guess, recorded for ever after a parkrun, so that's kinda good.  And it gives an easy way of measuring speed over a short distance over the weeks/months/years.  So a cool thing to try and do most weeks.  Today was another Penrith parkrun and another PB, so I figured I will blog every time I set a PB!!  Ok, that is every week right now, but I somehow don't think that will last 😁.  Good to get a PB today, and I hope to get a couple more PBs in the next few weeks!  But if I can get my PB ...

The marathon was two and a half week ago, and I have been concentrating on doing some running but no long distances.  My knee, since the marathon, has clearly been a worry, and I am always, these days, a little worried about my calf.  I have had some knee pain, but I have taken it easy, and slowly built up my running to something decent.  I wasn't doing any long runs, so I have been mainly concentrating on getting a decent 5k and then, when knee ok, upping the distance to 10k and then, of course, hopefully beyond that.  Over the last week or ten days it's all started to feel a bit better, so on Saturday, I did my first parkrun since before the start of marathon training in early December.  I wasn't very quick, 24:05 on the very flat Penrith parkrun course.  But it's my new parkrun PB, so I am very happy!  I finished 91st, so I should clearly be looking to improve!!!  Great fun though!!  Aside from that I have also started doing the Eden Runne...