Yesterday saw me, Dave and Pickle heading to the Green Park Royal Berkshire 10K and Mini Mile. Poor Dave had a gig on Saturday night, but still dragged himself out of bed after not enough sleep to be chauffeur and to run the Mini Mile (1 mile) with Pickle. Pickle had done his first ever ParkRun with me on Saturday morning (a respectable 38:44) - apparently his legs hated him (during and afterwards). We arrived bright and early at Green Park (before the crowds), but unfortunately the start of the Mini Mile (the first event of the morning) was delayed by about 20 minutes, which was quite frustrating. Nonetheless, Dave and Pickle eventually got underway and ran the course in 12 minutes (probably less as it took them a fair while to reach the start line). Pickle got his first ever running medal which is a weighty beast and should be approached with caution! Due to the delay in starting the first event, the 3k was also delayed, pushing back the start of the 10k run. Eventually at 10.45 we were off. I'd managed to squeeze in just in front of the 55 minute pacer and had a fairly fast start (for me) - my first 3 miles were sub-9 minutes. My aim was to beat my previous PB of 57:28, and I'd decided to aim for an average pace of 9 minute miles, which would have given me a time of 55:54 (I know it's a 10k, but I work better in miles). Just before the 6k mark, I was passed by the 55 minute pacer, and then slowed down by his "entourage" jostling to keep up with him - this was unfortunately at a narrow point in the course, and as much as anything I was aiming not to end up flat on my face! I'll admit that at this point I was pretty demoralised as I was quite hot and tired, and ended up taking my first walk break.
I watched him gradually move into the distance and annoyingly felt like I'd failed myself, which of course I hadn't - I was still averaging under 9 minutes per mile and was well on course to meet my goal. The last 3k were pretty tough and in retrospect I could have done with starting out a tad slower as my legs were heavy by now and I was feeling shivery. Finally just before the final 1km, we turned back into Green Park - the end was (metaphorically) in sight, although the downside of Green Park is that there is no shade. I will admit to several more short walk "breaks" in the final km, but finally the end was in sight and I caught a glimpse of Dave (the Pickle) waiting to cheer me around the final bend. I found a final burst of speed from somewhere and passed under the gantry with a gun time of 56:11. My chip time was later confirmed as 55:22, so extremely close to my 55 minute target time. Extremely proud of myself, but exhausted, we ambled back to the car, popped home for a quick shower then out for a well-deserved meal.
0 Comments
Over the weekend I managed both ParkRun and a 10k short long run!
ParkRun was great - I hadn't managed it for the previous 3 weeks (felt like a lifetime) and I was well motivated by my friend and part-time training partner Andrew. We took it gently (he is nursing an ankle injury worse than mine, unfortunately) and got round in 31:55. My ankle is holding up very well, with only a slight ache after the 10k that was gone by the end of the day. So, that's almost it. This week I've run a 5k (Tuesday, 29:50) and I'm planning a gentle ParkRun on Saturday, plus plenty of yoga (today will be day 22 of "30 days of yoga with Adriene") and maybe some meditation, possibly a bike ride and/or swim. Not to mention a spot of carb-loading on Friday and Saturday! We also had lots of fun trampolining at Rush on Monday (where we were lucky enough to have the place to ourselves for half an hour - the joys of home educating). Bring it on... |
AuthorSophie Archives
May 2018
Categories
All
|