Keep Running, Running, Running...

I've been away, travelling round the UK, mainly for weddings but managed to squeeze in family as well as a Parkrun and a 10k in sunny Blackpool.


When I can wake up when I'm on holiday, I love me a little bit of Parkrun tourism and seeing as we were in the Lake District, the temptation of a picturesque 5k was more than enough to tempt me from a comfy bed and hit the trails.
Keswick Parkrun follows an old railway route and even starts from the old platform (James!), heads over a few bridges (a bit dodgy) as well as including a couple of hills. You meander, following the river and to be honest, it's a lovely 'there and back' Parkrun and one I wish I could do weekly.

Not knowing how trail the trail would be, I went with my actual trail running shoes and stuck to somewhere in the third quarter of the starting pack - also mindful that I had a 10k the next morning that I wanted to be fresh for.
Started off slow and found my rhythm whilst taking in the surroundings and making sure I didn't face plant onto the rough ground that threatened to trip you with big rocks strewn around.
After hitting 2.5k, I remembered reading that the second half of the route should be quick, so I picked up the pace a little. After I had tackled the last major incline, I realised what they meant - what seemed fairly flat at the beginning was actually now downhill - and so the pace was upped again, still a comfortable stride. With three people in front, a maintained pace and had a mental battle about whether to overtake or just settle "10k tomorrow, no need to push, just stick with it. Go hell for leather, sprint sprint sprint!". So yeah, I sprinted past the trio to the finish and managed to finish in 29:49.

The next day, we set off early to get to Blackpool in time for the 10k & made it in enough time to have a toilet break at my sister's, and then head up to the start with her and my niece without leaving excess time to stress myself!

Actually feeling pretty calm about heading into a race in the heat, we crossed the start at snail's pace for whatever reason and after half a minute we got up to a pace of around 9:30/mile. Not going for a PB, I stuck with my sister although truth be told, it felt like a faster pace than I would have set off at!
Sticking with her, weaving in and out of slower runners, we bombed down the prom from North Shore down towards the Pleasure Beach in what felt like an eternity before 5k appeared.
It was at this point I lost my sister in the crowd at the water station (I don't stop at stations unless it's crazy hot) as I continued the pace we set at the start.

What I had forgotten from last year was that just because you're at the seaside, doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be flat and at Blackpool, you don't realise there are any hills until the end where they then seem never ending.
Powering through each of the final hills, the finish was approaching and I had prepared myself to pick up the pace once I could see the finish, and then once again to sprint finish. Somehow, I found an extra gear on top of my usual sprint and made sure I overtook a couple of people at the line, including Fred Flinstone.
According to my Garmin, I finished in 58:31, but due to the autopause at the start, I was expecting the chip time to be slightly different. It was, but recorded 59:15 which my friends, is finally a sub 1 hour 10k for me!

Honourable mentions to my sister who, with a bad ankle after 5k still smashed it in 1:01:23 and my niece who ran her first ever 10k distance in 1:05:10. Amazing achievements!

Now I'm home, it's time to get back training for the final few weeks before London...sub 59...?

Here Comes The Fear

Part of the problem I have when running a race¹, is that I struggle to transfer what I've managed in training into the race.

According to my Garmin, my PB for a 10k training run is now 1:00:07 (previously 1:00:54), however from an actual race it is 1:03:24.

Maybe I don't fuel enough for a race, maybe it's the pre-race nerves that eat into that stored energy or maybe it's simply the people traffic you encounter. I don't know, I'm inclined to agree with the nerves as I suffer a lot. Not sure why, I know I can do the distance, maybe I put too much pressure on myself whereas on a training run, I'm not trying and it just happens?

An unsolved enigma that I feel like I might be closer to beating this year, unwittingly deriving from beginning full training with 6-7 weeks to go (less time to get injured/bored).

And so to the prep; training has still been going, which is good, and it's weird to think that in my threshold sessions that my easy pace seems to be comfortable at what I used to think was fast for me! I can cruise along at a pace a whole 45 secs/1 minute faster than a couple of years ago, madness. I've not been able to tell what pace I could sustain during 5k/10k as I've not really partaken in a straight distance run (apart from one 5k, which felt hard but sub 30) until Monday where I tackled my first 10k distance of the year in a training run.

It was scheduled as an easy run, nothing fancy, just 60 minutes running around at a comfortable pace and not exerting too much effort. Using the programmed activity on my watch, I knew it wouldn't alert me each kilometre, which was fine as it meant that I wouldn't be thinking about how far there was to go and left me to concentrate on how I was feeling during the run.
The route I used was my 10k route as it's the only one that would take me to at least an hour. So here we go, no stress!
Tackling some big ol' Stevo hills, I felt comfortable all the way round, even after a couple of beastly inclines. There were no sneak peaks at the watch to see how I was pacing, as I knew I'd spot how much time was left & then I'd try to speed up or slow down 'let's see how we pace ourselves, let's see what you can do'.
Surprisingly, coming towards the end, I still hadn't been alerted to a hour, what?! Had my watch paused itself again? No, no it hadn't - I added an extra bit to my route to use up the remaining time and once the clock ran down & buzzed to signal the end of the activity, I looked down and somehow I'd managed 10k in 1:00:07 (or bang on 1 hour if you ask Endomondo). Without a sprint finish, or knowingly pushing towards the end, I'd almost hit sub 1 hour for the first time by accident.

And so, because of that, I've signed up for a 10k at the weekend in Blackpool, the same one that I did last year. I'm not going for a PB, just going to try and chill round with my sister and see what happens. Maybe I can get close (by accident) and settle some of those nerves for London at the end of the month.


¹by race, I just mean an organised event with proper timing.