Steps Challenge Week 8

Day 50!  Yeah half way. Working from home today so went for a run after work.  Added another couple of more hills to my old 4 1/2 mile route.  So ended up doing 5 1/2 miles. It was one of those runs where I actually felt better and better as the run went on.  Not sure what the legs are going to be like tomorrow but I was pleased with the way this one went.  Unfortunately my pedometer fell off at some point during the run so I would guess I did 12000 - 13000. I just entered it as 12,000 into the website.

Day 51:  A new day another new pedometer!  Working from home and decided that my legs needed a break after yesterday. So after work I did a 4 1/2 mile walk.  Ended up with 12,635 steps altogether.

Day 52: Easy day today as I rest up for the weekend but had a walking meeting so that boosted the steps a bit. 14,713 steps.

Day 53: Today I went to Linwood parkrun for its second ever event.  The course is 2 laps of paved/gravel paths. I positioned myself probably about 3/4 of the way back.  When we got started although the path is narrow, there is plenty of room to run on the grass. So by the time we enter the woodland bit where the grass is replaced by bushes either side. I would say most people sorted out where they should be in the pack.  As we turned to go along the back straight it turns into a very narrow trail where there is really only enough room for one at a time and at a stretch 2. But it soon increases to 2 a breast. As I found when the next 2 guys in front started chatting side by side. For a while I thought just to stick to their pace and save myself for the next lap. But then I realised I had plenty left and I was feeling strong. So said "excuse me please" and I was on my way.

As we got to the 1 lap, 2 lap split, I looked ahead and noticed the next runners ahead of me were way in front.  So when I got round to the narrow bit again there was absolutely no problems of having to get past people.  After that bit I caught quite a few people and I was thinking to myself whether I should start going for it more and if so when.  In the end I felt like I could of gone for it more but I was more than pleased with my time of 26.34 which is my second fastest 5k this year.  I did like Linwood parkrun. It's fast, flat and it is a nice course too.

In the afternoon I went for a 6 mile walk. So a pretty monster day with the step count.  21,491 steps which is my second highest step count for a day since I started doing this.

Day 54: Just a nice leisurely 4 and half mile walk today. 11,266 steps.

Day 55: Very tiring day today due to a dodgy night sleep so no running today. 13,268 steps.

Day 56: annnnnnnnd all walking today but I had a good sleep! 13,234 steps.

Here are the stats for the week:

My average steps for week 8: 14,087
My overall average: 13,132

My team's average steps overall: 13,960
My team's ranking in our department mini league after week 8: 4th out of 8 - down 1 place on last week
My team's ranking across all companies competing in GCC after week 8: 8,184 out of 48,444 -  Down 1,509  places on last week.

Quite a few of the team haven't updated there steps for this week hence the big drop in places. But overall I had a good week with my second highest step average for one week.  Day 53 with the parkrun and 10k walk certainly boosted it.

But at the same time I am slightly disappointed as I wanted to do more running.  Thursday I was still recovering from Wednesday, then Monday I was just too tired full stop. So I'm planning on making sure my easy runs are easy so will be stripping back out the hills for now.  Then hopefully build up to doing easy/hard days alternately.