September adventures

Sat 3rd:  This was a parkrun like no other I have done and I have now done 84 including this one!  I was down in Lowestoft for my Aunties wedding which was the previous day and luckily enough the B & B we were staying at had the parkrun start pretty much right at the front door. Also my cousins were keen on doing it too as they usually do the Harlow one.  Unfortunately my cousin Karen picked up an injury so she came along to watch. Along with a lot of the family who were scattered along the route as the hotel where the wedding was, was on the route too.  So it was myself cousin Rachael and her son Jack doing the parkrun today.  The route basically goes along the promenade for half a mile, then you reach the split point.  You start off going onto the lower promenade probably for about 3 quarters of a mile. Then at the end of it you turn off onto a path up to the upper promenade then back along the upper promenade, round the gardens and you start on the lower promenade again for the second lap.  Jack absolutely bombed off, at least I thought it was him. But as we went back along the upper promenade for the first time he overtook me so I'm not sure if I overtook him at some point before or not.   I then managed to get back in front as he was starting to struggle. It is a pretty flat course with only the path up to the upper promenade being the only hill.  It is a stingy one especially the second lap. The promenade is so wide and with 160 people running today there is plenty of room for this run to expand. The path to the upper promenade is the only narrow bit and lasts for about 50 meters.  Overall I had a great run and finished in 25.59.  Jack finished in just over 30 minutes and said he struggled a bit with the heat later in the run as normally he is about 26-27 minutes too. Then Rachel was just over 32 minutes and was pleased with her efforts. Delighted with my own effort and topped off an excellent weekend.

Sun 10th - No parkrun this weekend as I was feeling a bit rough on the Saturday.  On Sunday though I did a run which I was looking to do all week. Well in my head I wanted to do it but actually getting out to do it was a different story. I wanted to do an 8 1/2 mile long run. I haven't run that distance in many a year so while wanting to do it, the thought of it was quite daunting. But today I managed to get out and at least give it ago. The first 3 miles is mainly flat. Then the 4th mile up through Thornlibank begins to climb. At the end of this mile I was done in and had to start walking. For the rest of the run it was a battle and I pretty much walked the uphills and ran the flats and downs.  You may look at this run and think it was a failure but I see it as a success and a stepping stone. I got out there and went further than I have in over 5 years. I still completed the run in an hour and half.  I know I can run 10k non stop so maybe it was physiological that I had to walk after 4 miles or that I have had a bit of lazy week compared to the 100 days before.  But this is definitely something I can build on.

Sat 16th - No parkrun again. But this time it was because my brother was free for the day so we decided to climb Goatfell in Arran.  It was such a nice day.  The walk itself was fairly easy until you got to the ridge. Then it got tough!  Very rocky and steep.  Unfortunately when we got to the top it was cloudy so didn't get much of a view but we got great views going up and down so can't complain.  One of the reasons I chose to do Goatfell was because I quite fancied doing the hill race one year but after this I think I'll give it a miss. I struggled walking down the steep bits never mind running down it lol.

Sat 24th - I quite fancied doing a flat parkrun this week but then got a message from my brother on Friday night saying he quite fancied doing Pollok and since he had not done a parkrun since last July I went with it. It was a nice and wet parkrun.  I started off at a good pace but running well within myself. I did feel stronger today than previous parkruns and managed to get round in 26.41 which is only 3 seconds short of last months time at Pollok.  5 of my last 10 parkruns have been in the 26 minute bracket and one in the 25 minute bracket which is pretty pleasing.  But I know to get in that 25 minute bracket more speedwork is required.

I have been doing more in September than these adventures but they have all been been training runs or in todays case a nice cycle.

Day 99........Day 100!!! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Day 99: Working from home today so went for a run after work. I started off running easy but the more I got into the run the better I felt and in the end I'm even calling it a tempo run as my average page for the 4 1/2 mile loop was 8:50 minute miles.  Some runs everything just clicks and today was one of those runs. 10,487 steps.

Day 100!!  Didn't do anything special today as had to cram the steps in, in the morning because I was heading south with the family for a family wedding.  So just made the steps up by walking to my parents and then hitting the road from there. 11,921 steps.

Final stats

My average: 13,137 steps
My total steps: 1,313,675 steps
My total miles covered: 522 miles

Team average: 13,520 steps
Leaderboard for teams: 9,269 out of 48,000
Leaderboard for mini league - 4th out of 8 teams

Summary

Overall I think I have well and truely surpassed my expectations on how much my fitness has improved and how I have managed to keep this going for the last 100 days.  To give you an idea, here are some before and after park run times:

21/05/16 Tollcross parkrun: 29.01
27/08/16 Tollcross parkrun: 27.08

28/05/16: Pollok parkrun: 28.29
20/08/16: Pollok parkrun: 26.38

So it  shows I have improved my 5k times by 2 minutes!  I know at the start of this I said I didn't want to turn this into a walking blog and I think it has to an extent. But at the same time I think the walking has played a big part in my improvement.

Going forward

I am going to have to try and find a balance between walking and running. When I was working in the office all the time I was pretty much running once a week as I was more concerned about getting the steps in.  So I think now that steps are irrelevant I can change my routine so I'm getting up later and I don't have to walk from the station to the office and back. I should be fresher to run at nights.  When I was working from home this wasn't a problem as I was getting out for 3 sometimes 4 runs a week.  I think the biggest thing I have learned though is that it is important to do something each day in terms of exercise and that you will improve you just have to be patient and keep plugging away.

For this blog going forward I won't be posting any more about walking unless its hillwalking. I think I'll go back to the monthly blog summarising parkruns and other races.

In terms of where my running is going and my goals. To be honest I wish I could go in quite a lot of directions.  Stick with parkruns and 10ks, go for half marathons, marathons - ultras again?! I even have a hankering to try out uphill races. I'm not sure which one to take right now. So for now I have decided to try and extend my long runs and hopefully be in a position by new year where I think I am fit enough to attack some different races. Then I'll decide what races to apply for based on my fitness then.