Return To Parkrun

Today I returned to Cambridge parkrun for my first 5k run since last October.  I knew I wouldn't be close to my PB from last May (17 mins 27 Secs), but I still expected to do a little better than 18 minutes 33 seconds.  I know lots of people would be more than happy to clock up this time, but it left me feeling old and sluggish.  

Now what's that thing that top athletes do to keep themselves competitive?  I believe it's called "training".  That's what I've been lacking over the last few months.  Sure, I've been getting out and doing several runs each week and putting in the long miles ready for London marathon.  I've also devised plenty of training plans for other people, but my own training has been a little unfocused, and I haven't done enough of the hard interval training.  Hopefully, my parkrun result from today will be enough to get me to pull my finger out and do more speedwork.

After parkrun I hung around in Milton Country Park for an hour of kettlebell training with the female Channel row crew.  Six out of eight of the ladies made it to parkrun and kettlebells today.  I'm also using this training slot as an opportunity for me to do some kettlebell training myself, so I've been pulling out an 18kg kettlebell, rather than using a 16kg bell which I tend to use when teaching classes.  Last October I was using a 20kg bell when I was training myself and the male crew for a Channel row.  My aim is to get back to using a 20kg kettlebell on a regular basis.

On Friday I went out for an 8 mile run.  My goal was to just run at a sustainable pace and see what my mile splits would turn out like.  When I completed the run I was really happy with the results:

Split	Time
1	07:18.9
2	06:45.6
3	06:45.6
4	06:52.7
5	06:27.7
6	06:30.8
7	06:58.9
8	08:02.1
9	00:25.6
Summary	56:07.7

The first mile was my warm-up mile.  I'm still having some problems with my knee.  I run with a limp whenever I start my runs at the moment, which can't look good to any onlookers, but it tends to ease off after a mile and I start running normally.  So I was really happy with the above splits, especially miles 5 and 6.  I was deliberately tying to slow down over the last two miles.

Unfortunately, I had intended doing some interval training on Thursday, but I ran out of time.  I contemplated going out at about 8:30pm after teaching two kettlebell classes, but I just couldn't motivate myself to go for a run when I was feeling hungry.  I need to improve my time management so that I can get out for more regular runs on Thursdays.

Tomorrow is the highlight of the running week as it is long run day.  I am taking a group of the Sweaty Betties of to Grafham Water to run 16 miles around the reservoir, which is two laps of the lake.  At the moment, though, we seem to have a transport issue.  Too many people and not enough cars.  Hopefully this will be resolved by the morning, and I'm also hoping the weather won't be too horrid.